A/N: Wow people actually read my story! Thanks so much for the positive feedback, it was deeply appreciated. Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much!

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Chapter Two

"Your Highness? Sir, are you listening? Prince Darcy, your attention please!" yelled an annoyed voice. Darcy jumped a bit from his seat, feeling disappointed about leaving his wonderful day dream about the mysterious woman from the marketplace. The owner of the voice, Royal Advisor Wickham, continued to glare at him but Richard just laughed.

"Poor Darcy! Didn't you get any sleep in the carriage?" He said. This time, it was Darcy who glared at his cousin until the advisor coughed loudly to regain the attention of the young men.

"So sorry Wickham, what were we discussing?" the prince asked hesitantly, and the advisor just sighed.

"We were trying to find a solution for the kingdom's ruler, or more accurately lack of one." He said. If Darcy hadn't known Wickham for his entire life, he would have thought that Wickham was trying to accuse him of something. But Wickham would never do something to harm the Darcy family, not after he saved young princess Georgiana from those horrible men years ago. The prince just shuddered at recalling the trauma that changed the siblings forever and-

"Your highness!" Wickham yelled while snapping his fingers in front of Darcy's face. Richard tried, poorly, to not laugh again.

"I'm sorry, again. Maybe we should table this discussion for a later date. I'm a little distracted by, um," Darcy tried to think of something that sounded less strange than a random woman's laugh, but Wickham sighed loudly before he could.

"I would say so," The advisor left the room, leaving Darcy alone with his cousin.

"Now Wickham may not have been as curious as I, but dear cousin, I will not leave you alone until you tell me what is actually distracting you so much." Richard demanded. "Are you still upset that you haven't met the right woman yet?"

"It's not that, well, maybe it is. But that's not what is clouding my thoughts. Yesterday, in the marketplace, you were sleeping but I heard the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. It was-"

"Ah! So it was about a woman!" Richard said victoriously, as if he had solved a complex riddle.

"Yes, it's about a woman, but a beautiful one."

"Well did you get a good look at her? How did she look from the rear or-" Darcy jumped and held his fist close to Richard's face.

"Don't you dare talk of her like that! She's not some random bar wench you saw with your troops!" The prince yelled, defending the honor and dignity of the mystery woman.

"Darcy, calm down man!" Richard yelled. Darcy softly apologized to his cousin and stepped away from him to stare out the window. "I just wanted to know how a woman laughing in the marketplace was able to capture all your attention."

"It's just that, the laugh enchanted me so much that I could focus on nothing else. The sound of it, words do it no justice, but it's as if that laugh made any worries I had faded away. It was the beautiful whisper of her soul and I felt as if she could save me from these pressures of being a prince, being Georgie's guardian, being anything that wasn't the true nature of my spirit. It touched my heart and I cannot bear to let that feeling she gave me leave me." Darcy confessed. Richard stood silent for a moment, half in shock at his cousin's story and half in thinking of a plan to help the lovesick prince.

"Well, she's sounds amazing." The Colonel says. "She'd have to be in order to turn you into such a poet." He said to lighten the mood of the room. Darcy chuckled at this, but his sight never left the window.

"Somewhere, she's out there. So far, yet it feels as if she's right here." Darcy said, wondering if she knew the impact she had on him from just one sighting.

"But, alas, she is not." Richard says.

"Don't remind me. What's your point, anyways?" Darcy asked, with a hint of curiosity.

"I'm just wondering why we don't bring her here? Why don't you seek out this woman and, I don't know, court her?" Darcy stared at his cousin with shock at the ridiculous plan just proposed.

"I can't go find a woman in the marketplace and drag her to the palace. What if she doesn't reciprocate my feelings? Or even worse, what if she sees the prince coming to court her and she decides to play with my emotions in order to gain power? She wouldn't be the first woman to attempt to do so," Darcy recalled, thinking of the past journey he just returned from.

"Your fears are valid, but what if she didn't know that she was meeting the prince?" Richard quickly explained his idea, and the two cousins plotted in the study, unaware that their entire conversation had been overheard by someone with less than noble intentions.

A/N: What?! A villain?! Of course, no good story is without conflict! Stay tuned for the rest of the adventure and don't forget to review! Please! I love feedback, questions, or predictions!