<h4>Chapter 13</h4>


    ude spoke from the shadows, “You showered me with candy, and this was the best hiding space you could find?” His footsteps were silent on the thick carpet, and Lia could only see his face when he came close to her.


    She stood up quickly holding the trousers in her hand. “It was a mistake. I apologize.” She was lucky it was dark, and she stepped back to put the trousers on and button her shirt up. However, she didn’t have time to put on the underwear she had ced on the back of the sofa.


    “I heard you were unwell.” ude stared at her with narrowed eyes, then sat on the teal sofa, and loosened his tie before unbuttoning the top button on his cotton shirt. He leaned back wearily and closed his eyes. Lia carefully walked to face him.


    “I was resting because of indigestion.”


    “But you can eat candy?” He said as he raised an eyebrow.


    Lia’s lips pouted at ude’s sarcastic tone, and the moonlight fell on his unfortunately handsome face. “The medicine was bitter, so I just grabbed a few.”


    “You needed medicine?” ude sat up and saw Lia grab something from the sofa and now she looked like she was searching for a ce to escape to. “Canillian.”


    Lia gulped at ude calling her name. “Yes?”


    He tapped the space next to him as he continued staring at her face. “Come here.”


    Lia managed to refuse his offer when she saw where he was pointing, “I’ll listen from here.”


    “I need to confirm something. Soe here,” ude almost demanded.


    “What?”


    He motioned to her to sit by him, but Lia didn’t want to hear what ude had to say. He then ced his legs on the table when she didn’t budge and asked, “You see me as a viin?”


    “That’s not...”


    “Be careful of the crown prince,” he interrupted.


    “Why?” Lia saw ude’s frown as she looked up at him.


    “He likes pretty things regardless of gender and ss. So, just stay a good distance away from him.” Lia’s eyes fluttered in confusion, and ude folded his arms and leaned back on the sofa. He took off his jacket andid down as if he was going to take a nap. “Your voice still hasn’t gone through puberty.”


    She cleared her throat as she rubbed it. ude smirked, and when heid down, Lia noticed for the first time how tall he was. He was at least two heads bigger than her. She remembered him saying that students had to get at least three uniforms a year because they got too small for them too quickly. Did boys grow up so fast? Unlike ude, Wade had been pleasant without needing to do so, while ude had been the one to annoy her.


    “If the crown prince likes beautiful things, won’t you have to be careful too?” Lia asked.


    “Why do you say that?”


    “I have never seen a more beautiful person than you,” she said as she walked to the bathroom.


    ude’s eyes opened at those quiet words and stared at her as she walked away, but she turned around when she realized that she had forgotten the candles and had toe back. ude could see by her movements that she felt embarrassed about forgetting what she’d wanted to take with her to the bathroom and he couldn’t contain hisughter.


    Lia frowned as ude covered his mouth as heughed, and she saw that his face had mellowed out. “You know how to y me. Do you want me to follow you? You seem scared.” ude looked her in the eyes and teased her.


    Lia grabbed the candlestick and red at him before going into the bathroom and locking the door. He hade just to tease her. She removed her shirt in front of a gold-edged mirror, and she saw how her skin had turned red from being tense and feeling embarrassed. Her eyes trembled as she thought her body was embarrassing, for reasons she couldn’t understand.


    It was pitch dark now and ude looked out of the window after turning his head from the bathroom door. The room smelled of candy and herbs. Once his eyes properly adjusted to the dark, he stood up and walked over to where Canillian’s jackety. Marilyn Shelby would barely fit in it, and it smelled ofvender, which he’d discovered was Canillian’s usual scent. The boy’s voice, face, and the scent made him feel ufortable, like seeing a puzzle put together with the wrong pieces. He let go of the jacket and left the room when he heard the water flowing in the bathroom.


    “Fix themp in Sir Vale’s room and be careful,” ude instructed the servant.


    “Yes, Your Highness.” The servant bowed and went in to light all themps in the room, and ude stood in the corridor to watch over the progress. Canillian walked out of the bathroom with a surprised look on her face when she saw the brightly lit room, and ude could see water drops fall from his honey-blond hair.


    Canillian wiped a drop on his nose and spoke to ude expectantly, “Are you leaving then, Your Highness?”


    “Yes,” he replied bluntly, but he couldn’t hide a smirk as Canillian looked happy with his answer.


    “Then, I hope you enjoy your evening.”


    “Eat less candy.”


    ude walked casually away from her room to the gallery which was adorned with historical artifacts. He shook his head at Canillian’sst words. The boy did know how to y him.


    ***


    Youngdies tilted their parasols and smiled broadly as they rode by in an open-top carriage. They wore ribboned hats and inted dresses, and their gazes lingered on the Vale carriage as they chattered away. Canillia felt their eyes prate through the door of their carriage.


    The academy was a mile north of Etear Street in Lona Park. When the horseman pulled up to the entrance of the academy, Lia felt overwhelmed for a moment as she looked up at the massive high walls.


    “Looks can be deceiving, Lian. Sir Theodore is the best teacher there and has taught you only for thest four years and you’re already at the top, so don’t look up like that.”


    The Marquis sounded happy, but Lia breathed in deeply with a bitter smile. She didn’t care what happened there, as she’d onlye to the academy so that she could stay in the capital. She’d already drawn Louvre’s map and had made the carriage take a long way around so that she could see where Etear Street was and look for entrances that she didn’t know of.


    “We passed where you will live a bit earlier. Do you want to go there now?”


    “Yes, please.”


    The carriage moved at the Marquis’s wave, and the horses trotted down the well-paved road which was about ten minutes to the mansion that Lia would live in. It was close to the Marquis’s townhouse and could be managed by a small group of servants. The three-story cream building made Lia’s eyes light up brightly in delight.


    “You seem to like it,” the Marquis smiled, and she looked at the hydrangeas the previous owner had nted, picking a petal off one of the beautiful flowers before going into the house.


    “Is it all right for me to live in this house?”


    “What do you mean? I wanted you to live in my townhouse, butpromised due to your school route.”


    “Thank you, father.”


    The reception room was very weing and the central staircase was a pleasant coral color. The old dull carpet had to be reced though, but all in all, it was an elegant ce. Lia put her hand on the banister at the bottom of the staircase, realizing that after four years, she was finally in the capital.


    “You will have to ride a horse since the academy doesn’t allow carriages, and you have to learn to protect yourself in the academy.”


    Lia stopped walking up the stairs, and she looked down at the Marquis as he took off his hat, “I have a question.”


    “Speak.”


    “If my brother recovers, do I go back to Louvre?”


    The Marquis shook his head at the bleak question and took out a cigar from an engraved gold cigar box. “I will not tell you to leave. You can make your own decision. However, stay somewhere near.” His answer implied many things, and she smiled as she watched the cigar smoke rise.


    Lia thought back to the day when a maid had thrown Master Kieran in theke in the middle of the winter. He had been like a corpse, and while he’d survived, he had been weak since then. She recalled the conversation she’d had with the maid thereafter.


    ‘Pepe, do you know who she is?’


    ‘She was gone when I came, but I heard that she had been close to Betty.’


    ‘Is that so.’


    ‘Yes, do you want me to ask?’


    ‘No, I don’t have a reason to ask.’


    Lia had cried under the nkets that night when she’d thought of Kieran coughing up blood in front of her. She had felt so sorry and afraid for him. Now, she just wanted to see her mother. Even if she had been a viin to others, Laura had been her only family.


    Lia opened all the doors to the many rooms in the mansion and eventually chose the corner room that looked out over the urban district. The Marquis came in and looked dissatisfied at the small room.


    “Isn’t this room too small?”


    “No, it’s perfect, and the view is lovely.”


    “If you say so.”


    Lia smiled, and her eyes sparkled as she looked out of the window. She could finally do this.