May Death Do Us Part

32 Chapter 32 : Arrival in Meria

The wagon came to a sudden halt, jolting its occupants awake. Roland and Odran rashly opened the wagon door and peeked in, their faces indicating a sense of urgency and worry.

“We’re here your grace,” Roland spoke in a whisper, “We’re in Dale, the shire on the boarder of Meria.”

Roland was an average height man with pricing blue eyes, long jet black hair and soft and delicate facial features. It was actually almost odd to call Roland handsome because the man had such a beautiful face. So beautiful that one could almost mistake him for a woman, and that’s why he kept a scruffy beard and worked out constantly to maintain his buff physique. One time when he was younger, a young man had actually confessed his love to him because he thought Roland was a beautiful female, the whole ordeal was so disturbing that Ronald vowed to keep himself looking as masculine as possible. He even used to intentionally skip bathing once in a while so he could maintain his ‘man stench’.

Adam sat up and pulled his hood over his head, scanning the terrain through the crack of the open wagon door “then why did we stop?” He questioned the two men, “is there a problem?”

“Well, it seems there is tight security at the boarder your grace,” Odran responded, “we hear that there is some gathering of some sort happening at the capital, many nobles from all over the continent are to gather at the royal palace, so they’re taking extra precautions.”

“A gathering huh?” Adam was thoughtful for a minute, he had not received any notice of a gathering in Meria. Had he not been invited or had the invite reached Gavaria after he had already left?

The handsome prince reached into his pocket and took out an improvised fake mustache and beard, made from some of his hair and sticky wax. He neatly put them over his face and jumped out of the wagon.

“Let me handle this,” he spoke, “you stay here and keep your eyes and ears peeled in case of anything. It’s adamant that no one knows who I am till we reach the capital.”

“Yes your grace,” the men whispered in unison.

.....

Adam slowly walked towards the guards who where blocking the road and inspecting the different wagons that were entering and leaving the kingdom. The gathering must have been very important for them to be so thorough with their security. The place was so packed with guards and knights that even though Meria and Gavaria had an alliance, Adam felt like he was about to enter enemy territory.

“Oi, and what be your business here?!”

A guard stepped up to Adam and blocked his path, “Where are you from?”

“I’m a lord from Merine sir, here with some of my men and merchants,” Adam responded. He made sure to keep his hood down just in case someone would recognize him.

“What are ye hiding under that cloak?”

Adam’s heart started racing when the guard started reaching for the hood of his cloak, but luckily, just before the man could rip the hood off, a commotion broke out behind them between a merchant who was trying to smuggle illegal ale and a knight.

“Stay right here, I’ll be back for ye.”

Immediately the guard turned away, Adam gestured his men to move the wagon past the check point while the guards were distracted. They would take the opportunity to act like their wagon had already been inspected and allowed to proceed into Dale.

By the time the guard came back to interrogate Adam, he explained to him that his wagon had already been inspected and allowed to go ahead.

“Very well,” the guard responded, “go on get outta here.”

The prince nodded gratefully and walked on ahead towards his wagon.

“Oi!”

~damn it~

Adam turned around and gave the guard a forced smile

“Are ye hauling supplies for the grand wedding?”

Grand wedding? Is that what the gathering was about? Who was getting married and why hadn’t he heard anything about it?

“The crowned prince is wedding such a beauty, it be why all these wagons are off to the capital.”

The guard snorted and spit out some saliva near Adam’s feet. “These royals act like their money throws cuss words at them, they throw it around like it’s nothing.”

Adam tried his best to keep himself from smacking the guard in the face, what a foul man, pity the soul who was married to this big oaf.

“Yes sir, we haul the finest wine in all the continent,” Adam responded calmly, “I best be going, I wouldn’t want to be late and miss the event.”

“Alright be on way then.”

Adam turned and walked away, his mind trying to piece together the information that he had received. The crowned prince was getting married? But didn’t he say he was already married to Guinevere? Unless he lied. But why would Nathan lie about the relationship between him and-

Adam halted in his steps.

~that bastard!~

When the prince got back into the wagon, his men could see that his mood had soured up. Had he had an unfriendly encounter with the guard?

“How far to the capital?” Adam asked

“A day and a half your grace,” Beric responded, “did something happen?”

“I just realized that we’re dealing with a devil,” Adam responded coldly, “We have no time to waste, we must reach the capital quick.”

Adam was so furious, the only reason he’d relented from speaking with Guinevere was because Nathan had said they were married. If he lied about that, it meant he was doing one of two things; either he was buying himself time to propose to Guinevere because he felt threatened by Adam, or he knew about the relationship between Adam and Guinevere and purposely lied so he could keep her for himself.

For the sake of Nathan’s head Adam prayed it was the former.

*

Meanwhile in the Merian royal capital, Ella’s mother was giving instructions to the maids on how to place the items of Ella’s new chambers in the royal palace. After Ella’s engagement to the prince, as per the tradition, she was moved to the royal palace where she would be given a private room until the wedding day. After which, her husband would join her in the new chambers to consummate their marriage before moving her to his own chambers.

“No no take it out, it looks absolutely dreadful there,” Ella’s mother instructed the maids who had placed a glass coffee table in the center of the room. “Take it out to the balcony and add some chairs there too.”

The two maids curtsied and took the table out to the balcony.

Meanwhile Ella was busy finishing up her letters to William, Alexander, Jonathan and Bahram, inviting them to the wedding. As she scribbled out her letters, she was constantly scratching the skin on her neck where the neck lace laid, and this did not escape her mother’s watchful eyes.

Emma walked over to her daughter and pulled the woman’s red hair to the side, “honey your skin is getting all red, I think you should take the necklace off.”

Ella cocked her neck to the side and put her hair back in it’s original position. “I’m fine mother,” she responded, “my neck isn’t used to being adorned with jewelry, I just need some time to adjust.”

Ella signed the last letter, careful rolled it and secured it with a red ribbon. “Besides, Nathan went through a lot of trouble to have this specially made for me, imagine how offended he’ll be if I take it off.”

Before lady Morrell could respond there was a faint knock at the door, a maid walked in and curtsied respectfully before informing the two women that King Aldos and his wife had returned, and were asking the Morrells to join them for a small celebratory dinner to congratulate Ella and Nathan on their engagement.

“Thank you for letting us know dear, tell them we will be there.” Emma responded.

The maid curtsied again and exited the room.

Moments later, there was another knock at the door and this time it was Nathan who walked in.

Ella rose from her seat and joined her mother in a curtsy.

“Let me head home and fetch your father,” lady Morrell spoke sheepishly, “we’ll see you two at the dinner.”

When Ella’s mother left, Nathan cleared his throat, the little gesture was enough to let the maids who were straightening out the room know that the prince required some privacy with his lady. They all gathered their brooms and mops and hurried out of the room, closing the door tightly shut behind them.

“What do you have behind your back?” Ella questioned the silver haired prince who was holding something away from Ella’s line of view.

“I’ll show what it is if you give me something in return.” Nathan responded. There was a certain naughtiness in his voice that made Ella bite down on her lip

She inched closer to him and tried to peek behind him but Nathaniel was too quick, he moved back and gave her a sly smile, “uh uh uh, no cheating.”

Ella rolled her eyes at the man, why was he being such a tease? “Okay fine,” she responded, her hands crossed over her chest, “what is it that you want Nathan? I don’t have much on me.”

“Oh but you do,” Nathan responded, his deep voice low and subtle, “you just have to learn to share.”

Ella creased her brows as she looked at his face, he had that look again, that look that turned decent women into degenerate thirsty and shameless puppets, bending to his every whim.

Nathan moved towards the girl and stopped only inches away from her face, “are you going to share?”

Ella nodded and leaned in to Nathan, making him instinctively close his eyes. The redhead brushed her lips past his and planted a kiss on his nose, right before snatching the box he was holding away from him.

Nathan opened his eyes and watched Ella stride to the bed to put the box down. He couldn’t help but chuckle at her playfulness, how could a sane man not fall for someone like her.

Ella opened the box and took out a beautiful shimmering velvet blue dress. “Oh my lord Nathan...”

“Do you like it?”

Ella put the dress on the bed and ran into Nathan’s arms, embracing him in a tight hug. “I love it!”

The prince cupped her face in his palms and smiled gently, “put it on, we have dinner in an hour.”

“But the maids have all-”

Nathan placed his index finger on her lips and flushed an incredibly seductive smile, “I’ll help you get ready.”