The Florist And The Prince (ON HOLD)

~ 12 ~

Prince Alexander's POV

Three weeks had passed and now majority of the eligibles were already in the palace, seventeen of them in total and the last three were going to arrive next week from the town. Alex was glad that his parents didn't leave out their town's women and although he didn't like this plan, he couldn't help but wander back to Avery. Was she going to accept the offer or not. A small part of him wanted her to accept it if she got chosen. She was different from all the girls that he had met. He could see that she wasn't putting on a show like others did, whenever he was around.

While the rest of the palace slept, he woke up early and changed into his exercise clothes before jogging downstairs to go for a run but ended up running into Terence.

"Good morning you're highness, are you going somewhere?" The butler greeted him, in his robe.

"Good morning Terence and yes. I'm going to go for a run?" Alex answered him.

"Are your guards-"

"Terence, I'll be fine. I don't need any body guards."

"Your highness." Terence gave him a disapproving look.

"I have a GPS tracker installed in my phone and watch should anything happen to me, so that you guys can find me easily. But there is hardly any sort of serious crime committed here." Alex intercepted.

"But your parents-"

"Don't need to find out." Alex interrupted. "I just need some time alone to think, with all these things happening around me, Terence...please."

Terence gave him a smile and nodded his head in understanding. "Okay, I'll distract the guards at the back."

"Thank you." Alex gave him a grateful smile.

Terence made an oath to the royal family when he became their butler that he will always follow their rules and orders, no matter what they were but he always had a soft spot for Alex and Brianna, even the King Stefan when he was younger. Terence use to secretly let them sneak into the kitchen at night to have some midnight snacks.

Alex hid nearby and watched as Terence distracted the guards by the doors and while they were busy with the old butler, he snuck around them and quickly ran over to a bush outside and crouched behind it to avoid being seen by the other guards who were doing their walk-around routine of the grounds. There he waited for them to pass by before he sprinted over to the large flower garden where, he easily but cautiously ran through the it, avoiding where the cameras were located and looking then over to the wooded area, and to the fence where he knew there was a large gap between two of the bars because they were hidden behind a large white oak tree that he and one of his cousin brother discovered when they were younger, but never told anyone.

He was tired of running around the estate, so today he decided to actually run all the way down to the town then back up. Climbing through the gap, it happened to be a little difficult now because he wasn't that scrawny teenage boy anymore, but he managed to get through then he hiked his way up to the road, a few meters away from the gates and cameras and began jogging down the road.

Roughly thirty minutes later, Alex reached the town just as the sun had peaked above the mountain ranges in the distance. Coming to a stop in front of a park bench, he wiped the beads of sweat of his forehead and went over to the bench and sat down on it to catch his breath as the other early risers woke up, and began going about with their business.

"That cafè should be open, if you want a bottle of water."

Alex pivoted around on the bench to see a old man standing beside the bench, with a red beanie on and a large grey coat with a pair of dirty jeans and sandals.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startled you, young man." The old man apologised sincerely.

"No, it's okay." Alex breathed, from still being a little out of air and from being startled too. "Umm, which shop did you say it was, again?"

"That one and the water are free until lunchtime. You look like you could use one." The old man pointed across the road to a small, cafe.

Alex chuckled, standing up. "Yes, I do need one. Thank you."

Jogging over to the cafè, it was still pretty early so there was hardly anyone inside, therefore he didn't have to wait and went straight over to the counter to order.

"Good morning, what can I get you?" The barista asked.

"Good morning, I would like a bottle of water..." Then he paused and looked out the window to see the old man slowly walking away from the bench, and he turned back to the barista. "And a hot chocolate and a breakfast burrito, please."

"Take away or dinning?"

"Take away."

Three minutes later, his order was ready and he paid and took them before walking out of the cafè to find the old man. He couldn't see him anywhere, so he began walking down the way that he saw him go and spotted the old man sitting on another bench further down the road.

"Sir?"

"Hmm, oh please. You don't have to call me sir, my name is Rudolph."

Alex grinned and nodded his head. "Okay, well these are for you."

"Thank you so much, your highness.

"Your welco-" Alex froze mid sentence and his eyebrows dipped. "How did you know?"

Rudolph smiled politely. "You look a lot like your mother, the Queen."

Alex let out a chuckle and shook his head lightly. "Most of the people don't know that it's me, but I can't really blame them for it."

"Do not worry. Everything will be fine."

"I hope so." Alex gave the Rudolph a closed lip smile then walked away, heading towards Mr. Greene's stable, while the homeless man watched him.

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