...7...
VILLIAN
Two weeks passed by with her acting just fine, not trying to escape or to even do something remotely mischievous.
She was lax, just enjoying her freedom to the fullest.
She bounced around the house with delight.
She liked the left wing where he resided due to the library, for she loved books.
She especially loved the ones that he owned.
She also frequented the flower garden and the kitchen.
She loved watching food being made for she was not good at doing so.
She was a disaster at cooking meals.
She also liked the small stream close to the garden, the one running through his manor.
She never thought of escaping via the stream for it wouldn't get her far away from his manor.
She liked swimming in the shallow watercourse and playing at the very edge.
This was because she could not swim and preferred lying in the sun, basking in its warmth.
He knew all of these because he watched her from a distance, wanting to be half sure that she will do just as she had promised him and not try anything funny.
And his suspicion was refluent with each passing day.
It ebbed away, little by little until he could no longer distrust her anymore.
She would keep to her word for a while.
He was sure of it.
She had been giving him the cold shoulder ever since then.
Now, that was the only thing that bothered him, her blatant silence at his appearance.
She would completely ignore him if he spoke to her, no matter what he did to provoke her speech.
She would be stubbornly mute if he cornered her, even when he would kiss her.
She would leave the room instantly if he entered into it.
It was quite frustrating yet rather challengingly fun to him -trying to conquer her resolve.
'What are you thinking about?' the third prince's voice broke into his reverie.
He turned away from the window of his study to his brother, the little prince.
'Her,' was his tired reply to his brother.
'Well, that should not bother you too much for I can see that she is quite promising. She is finally settling in and accepting her fate from what I have observed.'
'Little, I see that too. But, she is not settling well with me. She is putting me out of the picture and that is what bothers me,' he confided in him, going to take a seat.
'I do not blame her for doing so you know.'
'What did you say?' he asked although he had heard him.
'First, you are crass and rough. You are absolutely no woman's dream. I support you being out of the picture. You will utterly demean its value,' he said taking a seat with an evil smirk on his face.
'Why you little imp,' he cussed out at him, angry and quite hurt. 'I'm your brother.'
'Well I'm just saying,' he said to him with a nonchalant shrug.
'Oh keep your stupid thoughts to yourself Maximilian!' he scowled.
Maximilian chuckled, enjoying teasing his brother who was struggling to collect himself.
His brother was only ever not composed in matters concerning his woman, the one he kept.
'Why are you even here?' he demanded.
They got serious.
'The bimonthly council meeting is around the corner First. It is just four days away.'
'I am aware of that. You tell me that every day now you know?'
'You shall be housing only three of the clan leaders this month. The centre prince normally does but that itinerant bastard Jasper is nowhere to be found and I doubt he will show up in time for the meeting or even show up at all,' the little prince lamented.
The emperor stared at his brother long and hard.
'What is the matter?' the little prince asked when he wouldn't stop.
'Jasper is my brother.'
'Well, he is also mine if you must know,' he told him with ease.
'I guess that makes both of us bastards because that is what I am trying to point out,' he snapped at him.
'He's a dildo in the ass and you know it. So, stop trying to guilt trip me. It won't work.'
'Who and who shall I house in my manor?' he asked him, dying the previous matter.
'You shall be housing Princess Zoë Xing of the Xing clan, Princess Fairy Rion of the Rion clan and King Thor Oswald of the iron clan,' he stated.
'Tell me Little, why do I have the brunt of the litter?' he asked him.
'I already informed your butler Peter of this,' he continued, ignoring his irrelevant question.
'Is there any other thing?'
'Unfortunately, no,' he said.
'Then, leave me be Max, I have had about enough of you for today,' he said with a scowl.
'I shall head to my manor then,' he stated, getting to his feet and turning away.
He halted after only but three short steps.
'Lord Linamine,' he addressed the emperor with his noble man title.
He looked at him, the scowl still on his pissed and sour face.
'What is it?'
'Seduce her,' he advised him.
Then, he turned and walked away with that his loop sided smile.
The first prince grunted.
The little imp!
But would seducing work?
Would it really break her resolve?
He would have to try it and see.
After all, it had once worked, perfectly, before she had become an irony.
Anyways, he would have to try it now, at that very moment for his patience was badly lacking.
It was fast dwindling to the last.
He stood and suddenly wondered where exactly she would be at that given time.
He strode out of his study and above the stairs to his quarters.
He turned into the corridors and into his personal living room.
There he found Peter addressing two maids who were receiving his sharp but quick orders with lowered heads.
'My lord,' Peter greeted him with a bow the moment he noticed his presence.
The maids turned to him and did same, chorusing 'My Sovereign Liege' simultaneously.
'Where is the lady?' he asked the man with wandering eyes.
'She's in your wing my lord, the library to be precise,' Peter answered him.
" I see."
'If she isn't there, then she must be in your bedroom for she asked me moments ago where she could find the third volume of your father's biography,' he informed him.
The emperor hummed.
'I told her that a copy must be in one of your bedroom shelves for it is the volume you love the most,' he ended.
The emperor nodded, assimilating the information.
'Thank you Peter,' he said. He turned to leave after the three subjects bowed again.
'My lord,' Peter said halting him.
He turned to him and lifted a brow in answer.
'We have been asked to host three of the clan leaders in our manor due to the centre prince's absence,' he informed him.
That was true.
'I was only informed of it about thirty minutes ago by the little prince,' he explained. 'He must have informed you of it my lord, I suppose?'
'Yes Peter, I have been informed. I trust your capabilities so see to it that all goes well,' he appraised his butler.
The man smiled at the compliment.
'You flatter me too much my lord.'
'I have no time for flattery good old Peter,' he assured the man, amused.
'Then I thank you for the compliment my lord,' he said with a bow.
'What has the lady done today apart from being in the library?' he inquired of Peter.
'She tried to bake in the kitchen. She ended up experimenting with the flour instead; making beautiful explosives I must say. I was just assigning maids to clean up the kitchen catastrophe my lord,' he said.
The emperor chuckled greatly at the hilarious information.
'Her place is not in the kitchen,' he said, amusement still twinkling in his melanous eyes.
Peter smiled broadly.
'I do agree with you my lord.'
'I shall be above stairs with her in the case that someone seeks me,' he informed him.
'Yes my lord,' he said with a bow.
The emperor turned and went up the stairs.
He found Cora lurking in the corridors, playing with her sword.
The warrior was always war minded, like her sister.
'My lord,' she greeted with a bow the moment she saw him.
He nodded in acknowledgement, walking past her to the bedroom.
If the lady wasn't there, he might as well change his clothes.
He needed to look good to seduce her, didn't he?
Well, she was not in the bedroom, which meant that she was either yet to find the third volume or she had already taken it.
He changed into another of his white shirt and immaculate white trousers after a small cold soak.
He had always enjoyed basking with in a good cold bath due to having so much internal heat because of what he was.
He dabbed some scent before he went in search of her.
He did not find her in the library as Peter had predicted.
He instead found her in his above stairs study, the one in his quarters, the left wing.
She was standing at his desk, backing the door, backing him.
She was holding onto a framed photograph, studying it.
She was so engrossed in staring that she didn't hear him come into the room for she had left the door ajar.
He knew that photograph.
It was one of her.
He crept up on her noiselessly.
'It is beautiful right?' he asked her, leaning in and speaking directly into her ears.
She looked up, quite startled.
She gasped as the photo left her hands, falling to the floor.
Gideon caught it and she whirled around, not quite noticing the speed he had used to do so.
'You sneak!' she snapped, 'must you always frighten me?' she asked angry at him.
'I didn't mean to,' he said to her setting the photo on the table behind him.
He did so with his two hands at her side, trapping her between his body and the table, entering into her personal space.
'Besides, you were lost in the photo,' he pointed out to her.
She sneered as she tried to look at anywhere else but at him.
'You could have announced your presence more loudly,' she scolded.
He lifted a brow at her words.
She came out of his entrapment.
He let her do so; amused at the effect he had on her.
Her cheeks were coloring faintly and it amused him.
He stared down at the photo he had set on the table.
It was a painted picture of her at a cliff, spear in hand.
The soft wind coming in from the windows was whipping her buttocks long oxblood hair in varying directions.
Her shoulders were set with defiance and there was a look of confidence on her face.
She studied him.
'Who painted that?' she asked him, curious.
'Your grandfather did mine,' he told her. She was very surprised at his words.
'You know my grandfather?' she asked him in puzzlement.
So she had a grandfather?
Well, she could not remember him just as she could not remember much of anything.
'Is there any reason why I shouldn't mine?' he asked her with a smirk.
'Anyways, he gave the photograph to me,' he informed her.
She scowled at the statement.
'He gave it to you or did you steal it, along with me?' she asked him snidely.
He shook his head.
'He gave it to me,' he stressed, 'and told me to protect you.'
'Protect me my foot,' she said with a sneer.
He sighed exasperatedly.
He turned away from the photograph to her and walked to her. 'What is it?' she asked as he came up to her.
'Must you always think the worse of me?' he asked her taking a fist full of her hair, caressing it.
She watched as his hands move over her hair.
'You are a villain,' she stated in a matter of fact way. 'And villains do not do good things. You will only know that if you are educated.'
That was obviously an insult.
She had just implied that he was not learned.
'Well well, you are quite certain that I am a villain?' he asked her.
She nodded certes sure.
...OmaPhinaPhire