Emilie of the Royal Heart

Chapter 32: The Prince Gives Crown

 Evidently, whistling while picking the wildflowers was expressly discouraged. Emilie protested this supposed new rule, on the grounds that nobody in Fellen had even heard of melodic whistling before she arrived and thereby, it couldn't be banned within the parameters of the tradition. Lady Rebecca was inclined to let her whistle while at her activity, but there were a few members of the Keepers of Tradition and they were very insistent that whistling was banned.

After that debacle, Emilie was compelled to take tea with Lady Rebecca and few other courtiers that she was still remembering the names of. It was a pleasant gathering, everyone plying her with questions about her relationship with the Prince and what she would do as the Princess of Fellen. Thankfully, Emilie had read enough law to know what kind of society Fellen had in a general sense and she could spin a tale of reforms she would like to make to certain institutions, using language she knew the courtiers couldn't follow.

It was about six in the evening when Emilie returned to the palace and she begged Agatha to let her eat dinner in her room. She needed a bit of convincing, but once Emilie said she was feeling very homesick, it softened her attendant up enough to comply with her request. Emilie ate at her desk.

Once she was done with her plate, she snuck out from under her attendants to visit the library. For the past few weeks, she had been nervously waiting for the other shoe to drop on the information Tiago had gathered from her fever confession. She was still the midst of amounting evidence against the case she knew Tiago would be attempting to use against her. So even though she was a little tired, she made sure to visit the library with her stack of notes and a pen in hand.

While she was working, she heard the door opening. Only the lights where she was working were lit and she expected whoever entered to light the ones at the front, but they didn't. Her table was situated next to one of the tall windows and a lower segment was opened up to the evening air. The occasional strong breeze would chase her papers, but Emilie liked the feeling of the air blowing in.

As time passed, she figured the other person in the library was probably an advisor hard at work, so she continued at her studies until the hairs stood up on the back of her neck and her heartbeat jumped at the sensation that someone was watching her.

Emilie looked up from her work and she saw Aurora standing across the way, leaning back against one of the towering shelves.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked with a confused grin.

"Maybe a minute," he supplied, rolling onto the front of his feet and walking toward her, "you weren't at dinner."

"No, I ate in my room."

"Yes, I know," he reached her table and let his hand trail along the side of it. His brow was furrowed and his eyes were trained down at the table. Not at her notes. At the table. He cleared his throat and looked over at her, "is everything alright?"

Emilie raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her chair, "did you come all the way here to ask me that?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'all the way'. This is in the same building where I sleep. Anyway, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm a little stressed, I guess," she admitted, setting her pen down.

"Anything I can help with?"

Emilie shook her head.

"I'm sorry if I haven't been very accessible," he told her, "sometimes when I come back from the Southern Tour, things pile up like that."

"That's... that's fine, Rory," Emilie said honestly, "I've been alright on my own."

Aurora cracked a tiny smile and he said, "yes, that may be. Perhaps what I mean to say is that I wanted to be much more attentive to you than I have been."