"I don't know what the future will bring. It became unpredictable the moment you stepped into my life. The past we lived wasn't ours, the future ahead is not existing - all we have left is the present. And you, you are my present"
In the 23rd centu...
•••• "Would you believe that..He is writing the woman our son is in love with is the former princess Lilliana. Ha! That man would do anything save his own ass! What a greedy bastard...." ••••
He was sitting on the couch, still wearing the clothes he had at tea, minus his jacket, leaving him in a white button up shirt, which was fitting loosely as he had opened some buttons from the top. The prince was drinking red wine as he waited for my arrival.
His eyes lit up as I strode into the room looking like the femme fatale I had to be today. Silence hung between us as his eyes roamed all over me.
I knew this would work.
"Wow." He said his eyes sparkling in delight.
"How do I deserve such a beauty to join me." I feigned a smile at his compliment. "Well this is an important occasion is it not? Just the two of us. Why not dress up a bit." I say in a flirty manner with a wink towards him, to which he blushed.
I had to remember my life depended on this dinner. A dinner with the enemy. Mentally I had prepared myself. I had to say whatever he wanted to hear.
We sat down and he revealed Spanish delicacies and traditional Spanish dishes which had been prepared for us.
"Why Spanish? Are we not in America?" I ask with a playful tone.
"I thought you might have missed them." He answered, making my smile falter momentarily.
"So thoughtful of you." I say with an even brighter smile.
He regarded me with an even more calculating gaze but remained silent, not sharing this thoughts and instead gesturing for us to enjoy the food.
Prince Stefán laughed at how much I enjoyed the food and told me how glad he was that he got the chefs to make this dinner course for us. We joked about various topics and he was actually a good conversationalist. During our dessert we talked about life in poverty as we both experienced it. He painted a sad picture of the boy who hopelessly defended his siblings for bread as well as candy and how he got caught once trying to steal apples at the market. I laughed when he told me of his smaller self running away from a grown man, dropping all he wanted to steal and his friends cheering him on from the sidelines.
"We would always get up to stupid stuff" he had said.
After our dinner we sat on the couches and drank wine. He sat on the opposite site of me a chessboard between us. "You wanna play?" He begins to speak in Spanish after the staff had cleared the room. We were once again completely alone.
"It has been a long time since I played" I tell him, taking the white queen in my hand, looking at the intricate designs. The metallic statue was so delicate, yet so imposing.
"Well I just learned it, when we moved to the palace." Stefán says.
"It is worth a try" I say, placing the queen on her right spot and moving a pawn, indicating the start of the game. He mirrored me.
"Where did you learn to play?"
I shrug. "Not too important."
Another white pawn drawn to the front. Another black pawn drawn towards it.
"Tell me, how is that palace of yours?" I ask pryingly while taking one of his pawns. He responded by taking with his knight. My pawn gone.
"It was definitely different than our living situation before. When we won, there was a lot of celebration within the castle, still is. Probably the most imposing part of it is the gold. Everything in Spain is gold. It's our symbol, our pride." He answered me mocking his new home.
Golden as the sun setting and rising above spain at the same time. I think to myself while Prince Stefán continued.
"They always say, Golden as the sun setting and rising above spain at the same time. It's amazing how much more grand the Madrid palace feels compared to this one. It's for sure more flashy, with all the portraits and grand halls and different small parlours. But it doesn't feel like home, does it?" Stefán looks up at me, after moving his bishop so I had to decide between my queen or my horse.
"Good move." I mumble. "It sure feels more like home then what America had in store for me before this palace." Choosing to take the imposing bishop with mine instead of giving up my other position.
"Must have been hard, living so differently." The prince moved a pawn, protecting his knight.
"Maybe, but you have been there as well." I state, trying to create an opening for my tower.
"Check." He states after taking one of my remaining pawns with his knight.
"I feel like our roles have switched. Don't you?"
I look up from the board, staring at him in disbelieve.
Did the King already talk to him?
Dread crept into my mind as I masked it with confusion.
"I do not know what you are talking about."
I try to avert the question and taking his knight with my Queen.
"I want to tell you a story." He begins, responding on the chessboard by placing his queen in the center of the board.
"When the rebellion was going on, I was just 18. And my job was it to stop anyone from leaving the palace - at least not alive. But then I saw a girl being ushered out into a car, which wasn't ours. A small girl looking so frightened, yet so strong. Her head high like a queen, smiling sadly at her two siblings. Her name was Lilliana. The crown princess."
We began moving pieces one by one on the board, I remained silent while my hands started to feel sweaty.
This was not how it's supposed to go!
He began taking my pieces one by one as I lost my focus listening to him.
"Poor girl. So bright, so young, so talented, so damned with the rest of her family." Stefán states in a indifferent tone. "But the moment I saw her I couldn't give the order to strike. She was just a kid. I got in so much trouble as my uncle got wind of my action and ordered them to be followed and me to be punished for letting her go. They were just children. Just like I once was. Weeks later we got the message that they were dead, killed on a boat passing towards Canada. But it seems that information had been false. They died all. All, but one."
He places his queen directly in front of my king. "Checkmate, Lilliana."
