He waited in silence for her slicing retort. But she didn’t say anything.

If he had any true say in the matter, he would have dragged her kicking and screaming back to the castle.

But now, she wanted them to become two civil strangers.

It looked as if she had already put whatever that was between them behind her faster than someone could saddle a horse.

All for what?

Because she wanted to marry one of her desperate suitors? The Zach peasant boy? Or Lord Bronan?

Or was there someone else he didn’t know about?

"If you weren’t the King, I would have slapped you across the face this moment." She said, her voice sounding strained with anger.

Even then, he kept his eyes sealed shut. Every glance at her made him relive the moment when the doctor had told him that she had taken something to harm the child. Never in his life had he been so hurt and angry and betrayed.

Such feelings were what he had been avoiding - and he had been very successful until he had met her.

And she didn’t have the slightest thread if remorse for what she did. That was the worst part.

"Go ahead. You never have respected me very much from the beginning, King or not."

He heard her feet pound on the floor before he heard the creaking of the cushion directly across him.

"I loathed you for what I thought you did, it was hardly expected of me to respect you."

His eyes finally snapped open. Instead of finding the defiant look he had expected, she looked just as hurt as he felt.

But he was not buying it this time.

"What about now? Now that you know the truth? Has anything changed?"

She threw out her hands in a wild gesture as she said, "What do you expect me to do? Kiss the floor that you walk on?"

Her words sank into him like searing daggers.

"Maybe you could apologize. Have a little remorse for the terrible thing that you did. You couldn’t have disrespected me more..." He trailed off.

She started to speak but fell silent.

"See? Even now, you’re still being stubborn."

She bolted out of her chair.

"We are supposed to have tea and talk about how I was poisoned and left to die, not bring up your insinuations about harming my own child, Your Grace. I was going to leave, yes, I packed my bag. But... I was going to leave regardless of what the doctor pronounced. I have no intention of marrying anyone else. Because when I look around, all I see is those cold eyes of yours staring at me from the four corners of every room. Stop saying what you don’t know. I don’t even know what you’re still doing here."

He stood up abruptly and smoothed his garments.

"Perhaps you’re right for once. I don’t know what I’m doing here either."

Then he turned and left the room just as the tea and cakes she had ordered arrived.

His appetite had long since fled him anyway.

’Stop saying what you don’t know,’ she had said. What didn’t he know? She was the same person that he had caught kissing her beloved peasant boy.

Since he met her, he had been very loyal to her in a sense.

But she was much too blind to see her faults.

He finally decided he would have nothing to do with her. She could continue living in her world of fabricated truths and force anyone who was willing to believe her. He completely forgot about her claims of being poisoned in his anger.

He had more important things to worry about.

He pounded down the stone steps and walked right into the carriage that was held opened for him without so much as a backward glance.

However, when he was seated inside, he glanced towards the entrance to see if she had come out.

But, as part of him had expected, she hadn’t.

She was probably bidding him good riddance, proud of how much of a fool she had made out of him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Make haste." He said to the carriage driver as he closed the door after him.

Nodding to his guards to look after her, he tore his gaze away from the house and glanced out at the gloomy forest as they rolled by.

The eeriness of the place still baffled him but he told himself that it was none of his business.

She didn’t want him to worry, so he wouldn’t bother anymore.

The conceited woman was too buried in her own problems to realize that he had delayed his very important journey to see to her safe arrival. He normally wasn’t very generous, especially when his steward needed to be laid to rest as soon as possible.

The carriage bounded down the path, taking him farther and farther away from the house.

And as he grew farther apart from her, he felt colder.

And more alone than he had ever been.

Yet he couldn’t find a place in his heart to hate her, to wish her bad.

Why was that?

Because he had come to care more deeply than he cared to admit?

But what if he was the one who was accusing her wrongly? He did notice the way she loved her sister... and the Straught boy - she obviously liked children.

Maybe he would have to look closer into the matter and know for himself if she was telling the truth or she was just trying to toss the blame on someone else.

And if she was lying, he wouldn’t think twice about cutting all ties with her.

But if she wasn’t, what would he do then?

Apologize to her?

It would be clear that he had put her through a lot of emotional turmoil if she turned out to be telling the truth.

But was he ready for that?

As far as he was concerned, he was always right.

Until she came along.

And would she forgive him if he apologized?

After all, he had been very arrogant about the whole situation.