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Last chapter:

"Anne" he said, "Tell me a little about yourself"

Evelyn's POV

I wasn't expecting it at all, but it struck me as a nice thing that he wanted to get to know me… that he cared…

'Well,' I started hesitantly… It was unfortunate that I actually liked Derek seeing as I regretfully wouldn't be able to answer truthfully to his question. I hated to start a friendship, or whatever this relationship would be based on lies, but it was time to start making things up. I tried to keep as close to the real story as possible, in my garbled version of the events… 'I've lived in the town of Coneira for all most all my life, with my Uncle, Aunt and cousin… My Uncle's friend recently requested for a partner with his small business so we moved…'

'You must miss it there' he said softly 'Truthfully I've never been to Coneira, but I've heard that it is a wonderful area… well go on…' he encouraged.

'My mother… she passed on when I was only young, I hardly remember her… but my father…' I choked. I could feel the tears getting to me… I had never talked about this with anyone… not even Sarah… but somehow this kind stranger seemed the right person to trust… I felt as if I had to tell him, tell him everything… even though I couldn't…

'It's alright; you needn't talk about this…' Derek said soothingly.

'No, I can keep going … I have to keep going' I steeled myself, as Derek only seemed to grow increasingly concerned – (possibly for my sanity, due to my seemingly strange needed to tell him as a stranger my life story) – 'My father was very close to my uncle, he was also a soldier and my Uncle the head of his battalion… During the war, during one particular battle, he warned my uncle that it would be too hard to fight – too many men would be lost… But he went anyway – on my Uncle's orders… He was killed…' Now the wall of anger hit me 'I can never forgive him!' The tears flowed freely now.

'Now, now… you must learn to forgive your uncle. Imagine the pain he must be going through as well… Your father must have been a good friend to him…' he soothed.

'I don't know if I can… For him, life goes on… He has his wife, and his son. But I'm alone…'

'You'll never know without trying… and know, you're never alone…' he smiled at me softly.

'I… I'll try…'

'That a girl… you'll be fine, and perhaps it will ease his conscience to know that you've forgiven him…'

'Thank you,' I murmured 'You must think if terribly horrible for me to burst into tears over a complete stranger. I must be going; it will get dark soon… But thank you for everything. You've helped, and I did enjoy the rest of the day immensely…' I fingered the row of beads on my neck, but got up to leave nevertheless…

'Anne, when can I see you again? I don't want to be a complete stranger' He seemed taken aback by his own forwardness, which made me laugh a little.

'I… I don't know…' I said blushing again. 'I'd love to see you again, but I…'

'Anne, there is a festival two days from now… surely you must know of it… meet me then… I'll be waiting.'

I nodded shyly.

He stood up as well and sighed. 'I suppose I must leave now as well.'

'Today has been wonderful, thank you again… I hope to see you again' looking up from my shoes, I looked into his eyes… there was the same looked again, something soulful in his beautiful eyes… wait did I actually think that? Something is definitely happening to me – I've never had a thought like that before… true, I may be a romantic – but really?

'It's been my pleasure; would you like me to escort you home?' he said warmly.

'No, no' I said, desperately trying to keep my cool, though I thought it was hopelessly romantic to be walked home – but what could I ask him to do? Escort me to the palace? Not going to happen. 'I'll be fine, thank you for the offer though.'

He laughed a warm, deep laugh 'It seems you've been saying thank you a lot to me, since we've met'

'Sorry' I mumbled, looking back down at my shoes.

'No' he laughed loudly this time 'there's nothing to apologise for, I just love how innocent you are.' he brushed a piece of my dark brunette hair behind my ear as my blush continued to deepen. 'I hope to see you soon too… Goodbye Anne…'

'Goodbye Derek' I said softly and started to walk back to the entrance of the secret passage. As I walked, I felt the gaze of his eyes on my figure and turned around… and there he was, still looking after me as I went. When I was sure he could no longer see me, I turned into the passage and began my journey home…

As I lay in bed that night, I couldn't help but thing about a pair of sparkling blue-green eyes, those hard defined features, and that mop of sandy blonde hair… Derek was undoubtedly the most kind hearted (and handsome – if I may say) man I had ever met. I couldn't help but feel attracted to him… though I doubted that he felt the same way, he had probably thought it his duty to help a poor selfless girl when she crashed into him… No doubt he probably already had a fiancé at home, or another pretty woman in his life… but then why had he asked her to meet him in three days time?... I couldn't help but hope.

These troubling thoughts swirled around in my head as I fell into a restless sleep…

Author's POV

Evelyn woke in the morning to find Celia fluttering over her anxiously.

'What's the problem Celia? What's happened?' Evelyn asked her uneasily.

'You've had nothing to eat since breakfast yesterday – you must be starving! Oh, I'm so sorry! I completely lost track of the time yesterday. I was with the other girls and… I simply… Oh I'm so sorry… I promise it won't happen again.'

Evelyn threw an amused smile at her maid, 'It's fine Celia, I managed to have my meals yesterday – it's alright'.

'Oh, thank god. I was so worried about you. You poor lamb!'

'I'm fine, besides I could go without a meal once in a while'.

Celia twittered nervously before going to prepare the princess's bath; while another maid brought in Evelyn's morning meal… She sat at the small table near the window and gazed to the horizon. She could just see glimpses of the town square. Could she tell anyone about her outing? Could she even meet Derek again? She knew it was wrong… but who could resist the chance of love, a shot at love? If it didn't work out, she would leave and Derek would never hear from her again, she decided… but what if it did work out? What would she do? Well, there wasn't time to think about that improbably future right now. In half an hour, she had an audience with the Queen which would be followed her participation in a council meeting. After that she had dancing lessons followed by the study of Finwele's laws…

She dressed quickly with the help of her maids and rushed off to her appointment with the Queen...

Meanwhile in a different part of Esterworth, a young man was thinking about the dark haired beauty he had only met yesterday...

Evelyn's POV

'Evelyn' the Queen bowed her head in acknowledgement from her place where she sat on her magnificent throne.

'Your Highness' I said, curtseying lowly.

'May I ask how your day was yesterday? I'm terribly sorry we had to cancel our other appointments as such late notice.'

'My day was highly enjoyable, Your Highness' I said politely.

'Highly enjoyable?' she raised an eyebrow curiously 'So what exactly did you do?'

'Well, I went strolling about the castle for a bit… I found the royal library which was quite extraordinary…'

'I see, we must go now – the council meeting will start soon – the King is already present in the council chambers, but you will need an escort – Prince Andrew of Fingryre has agreed to.'

I groaned internally – did it really have to be that smug man? Still, I resigned myself to the fact that he wasn't at all as bad as Prince Pedro of Alutheria.

Just as she spoke, the tall mahogany doors of the room opened and Prince Andrew arrived.

'It's good to see you, You Highness' he bowed low, then turned to me and said 'Princess' with an inclination of his head.

I see you two have already met, so there is no need for introductions then' the Queen smiled serenely.

'I'm sorry Your Highness, but I didn't quite catch your daughter's name…'

The Queen looked at me expectantly. 'Sorry Sir, I am Princess Evelyn of Finwele' I said with a small curtsey.

'The time is now over for introductions. The council meeting is starting shortly, we must leave' The Queen led us to another the door leading to the chambers in which the meeting was to be held, and we walked in. The Queen gracefully gliding as I hesitantly held the Prince's arm from behind her.

There was a large, intricately carved table in the middle of the room and the King and several officials were sitting around it. The King (sitting at the head of the table) indicated a spare spot to his right and gestured for me to sit there and a spare spot to his left for Prince Andrew. The Queen sat opposite the King on the other side of the table.

'Hem, hem' the King cleared his through. 'Well as you all must know, we are here to discuss an issue of utmost importance, and that which must be counteracted immediately' he looked around the table at each of our faces. 'This is the problem concerning the trade route to Alutheria'.

'Alutheria is demanding more trade with them, otherwise an uprising has been threatened.' the King sighed, 'we need to grant them this, otherwise there may never be peace among our countries – but, we do not have enough money in the treasury, nor enough produce to accomplish this.'

One of the officials piped up at that moment 'We should increase taxes, that way we can build a grant of enough money to support this proposition'

'No' said another 'we should borrow money from another country'.

'But we are already in debt' said the first 'my ideas is better'

'But - '

I had been listening attentively for the time being, yet I had ideas of my own. 'Good Sirs, I am sure you have the best interests of our nation at heart, but I feel that there are some major disadvantages in your ideas. I hope you will think enough of me, to hear me out.'

'Of course, Princess' they murmured.

'Your Highness,' I said turning to the King 'the first idea is initially a good one, but in the long term it causes a few major disadvantages. The taxes the citizens of Finwele already ay are of a substantially low degree compared to that of other countries. If we were indeed to gather an amount of money that would help us succeed in increasing trade to Alutheria, we would need to increase taxes by a large percentage, which may cause uprising among the currently peaceful people of Finwele.' Now I turned to the official that had made the second statement. 'Your idea Sir, is also a good one, but as has been pointed out, we are already in debt – though it is not a large amount, that debt would substantially increase meaning, that on possible failure to return the money, countries will have the right to declare war on us, leaving us in an extremely vulnerable position.'

The first official turned to me 'But Princess, these are the only ideas that we have'.

'No' I said 'there is another option, if you will allow me to suggest, Your Highness.'

'Go on,' encouraged the King, looking at me with more interest.

'The trade route we currently have with Xandria is significantly large, but we not get many returns because their country is comparatively small and their produce is plenty as well. If we directed less trade to Xandria and rerouted some of that to Alutheria, the amount should be just about right – even if it became necessary to increase taxes or to borrow from another country, it wouldn't be of a large amount' I explained.

The King looked at me in surprise 'Evelyn, that is an extremely well thought proposition. Officials, I believe this is a strategic opportunity for us to grant Alutheria their wish, without the vulnerability of bankruptcy. We shall go ahead with this plan!'

The rest of the officials looked quite a bit disgruntled, but they dare not disobey their King. 'Yes, Your Highness'.

'Good, good' said the King, this was one of the few times that I seen him remotely happy after my father's death. 'I will figure out the details of it all with the Queen, the rest of you are dismissed. Evelyn if need be, we will call upon you for consultation. Thank you all for your contributions.'

I got u slowly, and as I made my way out, I softly kissed the forehead of the King. He looked surprised and pleased at the same time, but I believe he seemed to understand that he was forgiven and that if I could help it, I wasn't going to cause him any more trouble. The Queen smiled at me appreciatively as I left the chamber.

Andrew's POV

Well, it's true she's crazy, but I'll give it to her – she does have a brain in her fancifully thinking head – and one that works pretty well too. I had to escort the insufferable romantic to a council meeting – don't get me wrong, I didn't volunteer for the job, the Queen herself personally saw to it that I came… How wonderful! - As if!

After the meeting had been concluded, I followed her out of the chamber and caught up with her as she strode confidently down the hall way.

'Lady Romance, I do have to admit, you did a pretty good job back there in the meeting.'

'Well, Sir Ego,' she replied smirking 'Thank you, I think I could tell by myself that I did an impressive job with the council.'

'Fine Princess, I give up – I don't even know why we act like this every time we meet… But there is something I'd like to show you. Something I think you'd appreciate.' I said, emphasising the last word.

Her demeanour changed immediately. 'I can't… I've got to be places.' she said nervously.

Wondering why she was so nervous I said, 'Not in the afternoon, I have something I have to do as well… But in the morning –early in the morning. I figured that you were used to walking around in the dark. Meet me in the garden.'

'Fine,' she said cautiously 'it better be good'.

It was true. Yesterday afternoon I was taking a walk in the garden and stumbled across something that I was certain that Evelyn would be interested in, to say the least.

Evelyn's POV

I walked back to my quarters, wondering what Prince Andrew wanted to show me. Seeing as there seemed to be some type of unspoken truce between the two of us, I hoped sincerely it wasn't a trick – I didn't want to be late to meet with Derek. I knew the whole situation was the wrong thing to do – but I couldn't keep myself away. I was never going to be able to stay with him; I knew that I was merely toying around, desperate for a chance of love. But I would have to leave one day… leave him, but that didn't seem to stop me.

'Celia,' I called to my maid 'please prepare my bath for me, and ask for someone to bring my dinner in – I am going to sleep early. If anyone asks for me, tell them I have retired to bed with a headache. Thank you'.

'Yes, Your Highness' she bowed and left the room.

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