Erica

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Erica gave him a side glance and shrugged her shoulders before facing forward again. She was not surprised that he had seen through her badly put together disguise, she just hoped that her brother had not done the same.

"Nope. That is not an acceptable answer." Aleric was not going to let her get out of answering this like he had done with the previous question.

Erica shrugged again, a part of her purposefully intending to irritate the man.

"Well, you have to tell me now. It's not every day I come across a beautiful maiden dressed as a boy." He playfully complained.

At the compliment she blushed and looked down at her feet. No one had ever complimented her on her appearance before, she did not know how to receive it. Erica had always seen herself as plain and nothing in comparison to her sister Sibyl.

Without realising it the prince smiled at her reaction. He could tell she was affected by him. Her expressions were genuine and not fuelled by the intent of gaining the favour of his crown, she had no idea what his position in society was and vice-versa. No formalities were needed, no societal norms dividing them and no falsified and forced reactions. He felt like a normal person around her, it was nice.

"Hmm... Being disguised like this means you are not supposed to be here and are hiding from someone. Perhaps your spirit was lonely and troubled from the confinements of your accommodations under the strict watch of grandparents, and you just so desperately needed to escape. Your grandmother has a taste for expensive things and loves going to markets so you needed a disguise in case she would notice you. When you arrived you then searched for the first dashingly charming young man you could find to fill the empty void in your heart with the innocent excuse of avoiding another who just so happened to be your promised fiancé." Aleric made up the story as he went along, his eyebrows narrowed dramatically for the playful effect.

"Wrong." Erica knew what he was doing and smiled while rolling her eyes a she inwardly laughed at his words.

"Well, that will be what I believe until you tell me otherwise." He lifted his nose and proudly stated.

Erica gave him a fake unimpressed look before she too matched his movements and lifted her nose. They were both being playfully stubborn. Aleric noticed this and exaggeratedly took in a deep breathe drawing air in through his nose to imply that he would not give in.

Fortunately, he was quickly distracted as he was greeted with the mouth-watering smell of freshly baked treats. There was a wondering baker carting around his delicious goods looking for potential buyers while on his way to market. Just as he was making his way past the two of them, Aleric stopped him.

He was glad he was carrying small coin on him, unfortunately it was only enough for one muffin. Erica waited patiently as the exchange took place. She too craved a savoury fluffy treat but did not want to spend any of the money Georgie had given her. She would feel to much guilt.

A hand stretched out in front of her holding half a roughly broken muffin for her to take.

"For you, my Lady." He dramatically spoke while smiling.

Erica held up her hands in attempt to decline his generous offer.

"I only want half so if you do not want this, I guess it will just have to waste, I think the pigeons will enjoy it." He looked up in mock thought.

Erica fell for his ploy and reluctantly took it from him mouthing words of gratitude. Aleric smiled; she was just so innocent. He took a bite out of his own half.

They were not walking in some mindless direction with no destination in place, Aleric had been making his way to the bridge where he knew Louis would be although he was purposefully taking his time as he was enjoying Erica's company. Erica too was enjoying his, the atmosphere between the two of them was pleasant. Erica felt the disappearance of her worries around him, something that she could not understand the reasoning as to why.

"There you are!" A voice shrieked as an all too familiar figure bounced up to Erica grabbing her hands. It was Georgie with an appearance which seems to be becoming quite a common occurrence, her hair was messy, and her lips were swollen.

Georgie gave a half glance at the handsome man beside Erica finding something oddly familiar about him but being too unconcerned to pay it any mind. Aleric however immediately recognised her but chose to remain silent as he retained this new information.

"We have to go." Georgie ushered Erica to follow her.

Erica glanced back at the handsome gentleman she was with and pulled out the sweet pouch she had in her pocket, shoving it into his hands before giving a wave and running off after Georgie. She had done that as her form of payment and gratitude for the muffin he had given her, Aleric looked down at it and chuckled at her antics. What a strange girl indeed and he did not even know her name.

"Cousin, my one true love came today. You just missed her." An overly love-struck Louis came up from behind. His eyes were star-struck, and his head was in the clouds as he reminisced about the moments that he had just shared with his beloved Georgie minutes earlier.

"She was so beautiful, and she promised to meet me again in two days. Isn't that wonderful?" Louis continued to gush.

Before Aleric could say anything in response to love-struck cousin, a pair of thundering footsteps caught up to both of them. They both immediately knew who it was without even looking. They were in trouble now.

"Hey Walty. Where on earth have you been, you missed all the fun?" Louis innocently smiled.

Walter was unimpressed and glared at them both, his arms angrily crossed over his chest. He did not say anything, but his silence was even scarier than words.

"Congratulations, you found us?" Aleric's words came off as more of a question than a statement, he held up his half a muffin which he had only taken one bite out of as a peace offering.

Walter glared at him but kept glancing at the muffin.

"This doesn't change anything, I'm still angry with the both of you." Walter muttered as he accepted the muffin and devoured it in three bites.

Both Aleric and Louis secretly smiled as they knew they had successfully calmed the angry Commander and indirectly gotten away with their evil deeds.

The three of them then made their way back to the palace, each lost in their thoughts. Louis with Georgie, Aleric with the mute girl dressed as a boy whose name he did not catch and Walter with the irritatingly familiar face of the boy he had seen today.