I turned around slowly, a slightly forced smile on my face.

  “Hello… Damian,” I greeted him, bowing my head.

  I hadn't expected to see him again so soon, and I hadn’t wanted to. I didn’t want to be te to see Asher’s parents. The rulers of the kingdom. If I were to be te, that would make a sting bad impression. I was already a commoner, someone I assumed his parents wouldn’t be happy that Asher was socialising with. If I wasn’t punctual, I would be seen as rude and not fit for Asher to associate with.

  “You seem tense,” Damian commented bluntly. His eyes were locked on mine, even if I wasn’t making direct eye contact with him.

  “Ah maybe, I just have to be somewhere now, so if you’ll excuse me-”

  Damian interrupted me, cutting my sentence short.

  “Yes yes. I won’t keep you longer. Come visit my shop another day when you aren’t busy to get that painting I promised you. I’m always here, even when I’m not,” he fshed me a smile, before turning and going back into his shop, not letting me say anything more.

  I was slightly confused by what he meant, but shook it off, going back on the path to the castle. I wasn’t used to wearing high heels and it did slow me down, especially since I took a shortcut on a dirt path. I held my dress up off the ground so it wouldn’t collect dust and dirt on the bottom. My heels crunched on the hard sand and dirt, leaving small prints as I sped walked along. It popped into my mind that I had forgotten to buy some makeup, but it was too te to turn back. Hopefully my natural face would be good enough for royalty. Probably not but I could only hope.

  After about an hour of walking, I could see the castle in the distance. I was relieved, as I could feel blisters on my heels from my snted shoes. My eyes wandered to a figure standing in front of a gate, the entrance to the castle grounds. It was clearly Asher, his tallness making him easily recognisable. He stood in his high quality clothing, hands behind his back. He also immediately noticed me as I came into view.

  My legs staggered from left to right. He chuckled, most likely ughing at my expense. He walked up to me before I could walk any further.

  “I see you aren’t very comfortable in your attire,” he let his arms fall down to his sides, observing my clothing. I sighed and shook my head.

  “The dress is so long. I don’t understand how royal and noble women wear this everyday and don’t collect dust all around the bottom of it. And the high heels are even worse! They are so hard to walk on and they hurt my feet! Unfortunately I didn’t get time to buy a corset as I was running te,” I was partially telling the truth. I was running te, but it’s not that I didn’t have time to buy the corset, I just didn’t have money for it. There goes more lies spewing from my mouth to the people I love. It’s not that big of a deal anyway. It’s not like I was lying about having killed someone or something.

  “Well if you walked all the way here I don’t see that being a problem. You shouldn’t have anyway. I could have sent you a carriage, but you insist on not asking for help,” he joked, being half serious. He looked at me as if he didn’t understand how I couldn’t be sweating from every part of my body when I walked so far on a sunny day like that. The sun was beating down on the earth, and no clouds were in sight.

  ‘What a mystery this woman is.’

  That’s probably what he was thinking. It’s not like I shared that much personal stuff with him, so it’s likely he wondered a lot about me. Maybe not, but I had hoped he was interested enough in me that he thought about me and what the rest of my life was like.

  He held out his arm for me.

  “I’ll take you inside. First I’ll wrap a bandage around your heels, so it doesn’t hurt while you are meeting my parents. Then we shall meet them and have lunch together. Does that sound appropriate, my dy,” his voice mocked in a formal manner, one side of his mouth lifting up as I took his arm.

  “Why of course, your highness,” I said in an unnaturally high voice, also mocking formal speech. We ughed together, walking towards the gates. There were knights standing on either side. One signaled to a person that stood in a small watch tower on top of the wall. Then the gates slowly opened, letting me and Asher enter the enormous pace grounds. A long gravel driveway led up to the daunting castle. The walk looked like it would take me another hour.

  I admired the perfectly cut, green gardens and bushes. Pink and red flowers adorned half of the bushes, the colours that represented the kingdom. Pink was said to symbolise love, healing and tranquility while red symbolised authority, danger and power. They were both a contrast to each other, that created a perfect inbetween. A perfect kingdom. That’s what the royals were trying to say Camelias was like. I thought it kind of sounded like me and Asher. We were both calm and happy around each other, but also loved sparring together, verbally and physically. Though the tter was a rare occasion, as we both always met up in the forest, and there wasn’t enough space to spar.

  I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t realised that we had reached the castle entrance. A butler started opening the door but Asher shooed him away and held the door open himself.

  “After you, Miss Lily.”