Erica

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"I'm Louis."

Erica's attention was drawn away from the beautiful man and onto Louis. As per Georgie's exact words and instructions, the man she was to give the letter to would be waiting at this location. The person who stood before her matched Georgie's description perfectly.

Erica gently held out the letter for him to take.

Louis opened the letter at lightning speed, diving his nose into it, eyes racing over every word and absorbing every bit of information. While he did this Erica tried her hardest to avoid looking at Aleric.

She could feel his strong piercing gaze on her face, and it took everything in her not to let her cheeks turn pink.

Aleric noticed this and without knowingly smiled at her shyness. He could see the blush on the tips of her ears. His heart felt warmed at the sight. She clearly remembered him and was just pretending not to.

"So, we meet again." Aleric smiled causing Erica to look up at him.

"You know some strange people." Louis gave a half glance momentarily looking up from the page.

Erica blushed in embarrassment, of course Louis saw her as strange, she was once again disguised as a boy but with her feminine features, it looked a little weird.

"This is the person I told you about Louis." Aleric rolled his eyes still smiling.

Upon hearing that the beautiful stranger had been talking about her to other people, Erica blushed even harder if possible.

Louis paused, looked at Erica and then back at the prince, eyes wide.

"Oh my, cousin! Suddenly everything makes perfect sense now. How could I have not noticed this sooner? After all those beautiful women you either reject or purposefully avoid! I feel so stupid." Louis gushed.

"No-" Aleric knew exactly what he was thinking and tried as quickly as he could to stop his cousin from saying the next words but was completely interrupted.

"You like men!" He yelled out.

This caused a few people passing by to look up. Some giggled at this, others were wide eyed at the preposterous statement. Aleric faced palmed. He promised himself that he would help Walter murder Louis when they got back.

"No. Louis," he looked at his cousin pinching the skin between his brows, "she is no man you idiot."

Louis stared at his cousin bewildered, surely Aleric was blind. The person in front of them was clearly a boy. Louis glanced back at Erica.

Erica was wearing a very amused smile. She had missed the prince's indirect confession and was still inwardly laughing at his reaction to Louis's assumption.

"Nope, don't see it. Clearly a boy in my eyes." Louis stated, he did not actually look at Erica properly to begin with.

The Prince just let out a defeated sigh.

"I know you are in disguise right now so I'm sorry to ask this of you, but can you please help me out and correct this misunderstanding he seems to have." Aleric politely asked Erica.

Erica gave a quick survey of her surroundings. She was a little nervous but gave a nod and pulled off her hat. Her long silky locks fell out and down to her shoulders.

Louis gasped, "You are a girl!"

"Keep your voice down." Aleric scolded him whacking him gently on the back of the back of the head.

Erica carefully tucked her hair back under the hat making sure that she got every lock neatly back in.

"Any reason as to why you are disguised as a boy?" Louis bluntly asked, his voice softer this time.