Chapter 5
"Let's race each other back. The one who gets back first is allowed to redeem a favour. "All right. Let`s go!" With that she gallops away closely followed by me, leaving behind a very confused Peter and a grinning Lucy. Close to the palace I am able outpace her. When she arrives, I'm already standing there with a smug look on my face. I won which means she has to do me a favour. She looks at me with a played angry look. "Ok, what is it that you want me to do?"
(Pov: Emilia)
He is looking at me with a thoughtful expression, probably deciding what favour he wanted from me. Finally he starts to grin and wiggles his eyebrows. "You know, right now I can't think of anything that I would want you to do. Just don't forget that little favour you owe me when I come to redeem it." Truthfully I don't know if this is a bad thing or not. Why is he looking at me like that? Weird. "Fine. But don't take it too far with this favour." He smirks at me and winks."Why? Afraid that I will make you do something absolutely atrociously?" "Well when it comes to you, someone never knows. I can't be too careful, can I?" Two can play this game. "Milady, your words truly hurt me. How can you say something like that. I'm an honorable man." I must admit that he's really good at acting but so am I. "Well then milord I won't have anything to worry about." I take a step towards him and look at him with the most innocent look I could achieve. Edmund gulps and looks at me with big brown eyes. Oh these eyes, so brown, so hypnotizing….No! I need to stay focused. "You would not want to break my confidence in you, would you milord? That would be truly a pity." I take another step towards him, realizing that he's starting to get nervous. We stand so close to each other right now that I'm able to see the light freckles across the bridge of his nose. He clears his throat in an effort to get his voice back but clearly fails to do so. I win! "It's really getting late Edmund. We should go inside, if we want to be on time for dinner." I step back from him and look at him with a triumphant smirk. Getting out of his trance Edmund looks at me with a competitive look in his eyes. "Believe me when I say that I will get back at you for this. I did not win this race without a reason. My victory shows that I am way more awesome than you." When he says this, I can clearly see him trying to smother a laugh. "Pf…As if! You only won because you cheated." "I did not! I won because of my perfect skills in horseback riding, skills that you lack of." He looks at me with a played scowl. Pretending to be offended, I just shake my head at his antics and walk away from him. "Okay fine. I am really sorry. I know how awesome you are. But you have to realize that I'm the awesomest person that exists. No one can beat me." "Awesomest is not even a word Edmund. I'm really starting to doubt your awesomeness." He looks at me insulted but before he can say something Peter and Lucy finally arrive. "Why is Edmund looking like someone stole his sweets?" "Oh don't worry Peter. He just realized that I'm way more awesome than him. You know, hurt ego and all." Edmund again turns to me and wants to say something but is interrupted by Peter's and Lucy's loud laughing. "Fine you guys, why don't you just gang up on me?" I look at him and reply: "I thought we already did." Edmund pouted and started to fake cry. Peter, Lucy and me fall into hysterics upon seeing Edmund pout. "Come on, let's bring the horses back and then go to dinner. It's already really late." They nod and follow me to the stables. After bringing the horses back we all walk into the dining room in which my brothers already stand. "I see you guys had fun." "Oh yes we did. I beat Emilia in our race back to the castle and now she owes me. Let me tell you she took her lost not very well." "That is so not true! He won because he cheated and I'm not a sore loser!" Antonio chuckles at us and just shakes his head. "Believe me Edmund. I know how Mia can be. We once played in the garden when we were younger. We made a bet on who's going to have the nicest and biggest sand castle. Of course I won. She was so angry that she threw sand at me and called me a stupid cheater. You should have seen her face." Everyone is in hysterics by now and I just glare at them. Fine, if Antonio wants to have story time then he will get story time. "Oh yeah and do you remember that one summer. When was it again? Oh right, last year. Antonio wanted to impress one of the duke's daughters and thought the best way to do so, was with showing of. He took every chance he could to encounter them. And on one afternoon Tony, Sandro and I decided to go to the beach and just relax for a bit. What we didn't know was that Tony only wanted to go there because of this one girl. We spent our time laying in the sun and after some time we all drifted off into a light slumber. I awoke to find my two brothers still sleeping and an idea struck me. I put make-up on Tony's face and waited for him to wake up. After he awoke I proposed a walk along the beach. On our little walk, we passed the duke's daughters who already stood there laughing their heads off at the sight of my brother. Tony, not realizing what was going on, walked up to them and asked: "Hey ladies, care to explain what you are laughing about?" They just stood there and pointed at his face unable to speak. Tony did not get why they were laughing until we were at home. There he saw what everyone was laughing about and almost started crying from embarrassment and anger. He did not leave the house for two weeks." While the others laugh at Tony, he just glares at me. I wink at him and smirk. Before anyone could say something else my father enters the room and we all start eating in silent laughter.
The adolescents sitting at the table are so engrossed in eating that they fail to notice the knowing look on the king's face and the twinkle in his eyes. His family is starting to heal. He can already see the small change in Emilia. Her eyes are starting to shine again…