Love & Duty

Chapter 7

Rowen headed towards Ren's office after returning his horse to the stables. When he got permission to enter, he saw the person he wanted to speak to.

"Rowen, where have you been?" Ren asks; he always knows where Rowen is. He would make sure to tell him his plans before doing anything. This time he didn't know anything.

"I'm sorry, Ren." he apologizes for not explaining and turns to the other person in the room. "Nikki. Why didn't you inform Tyler or Valerie where the Princess was?" he was serious.

Tyler was right when he scolded him about informing anyone before taking a Princess somewhere. He thought since Nikki knew, it was fine.

Ren was surprised by this. "Nikki, you knew?" Sophia has told Ren all about how easy-going Tyler is; he has even seen it himself. When he burst into his office in the afternoon looking for the Princess, he was taken back by his serious and angry expression.

"They would have just bothered you two, so I kept the location to myself." Rowen and Ren were speechless. That was her excuse?

"Bothered us? What are you talking about?"

"I just thought I would give you two some time alone." even though it was small, and maybe it was supposed to go unnoticed, Rowen saw it. He saw that little smirk; he knew something was brewing in that head of hers.

"W-We didn't ask for time alone."

"You don't need to ask. I got you." Nikki wiggles her eyebrows slightly and discreetly.

"S-Stop that!" Rowen started feeling the heat rising to his cheeks. He didn't even know why.

He enjoyed his time with Sophia immensely; he learned more about her and how different she really is. A part of him wanted to thank Nikki for not letting Tyler and Valerie interrupt their time. Still, the other part is refusing and denying all these feelings.

"What's going on here?" Ren interrupts the conversation with a skeptical look.

"N-Nothing! Nikki is just being weird." he gives her a warning look to keep her mouth shut about her absurd ideas!

"Wait, you were with Soph?" Ren finally catches on. "The entire day?"

Rowen didn't know why, but he held his breath when the question was asked. After Nikki made the day sound different, he felt he had done something wrong.

"Y-Yes... but Nikki knew! So Princess Sophia's whereabouts were informed to someone."

Ren can see how nervous Rowen is; he just assumes it's because it's unusual for him to do something like this. "It's fine. Did something happen?"

Rowen looked to the ground, remembering how furious Tyler was. He has known Tyler for what? A week and a couple of days now? He has never seen him anything more than just annoyed, never angry, or this furious. Although what really pulled on his heartstrings was the sad look on the Princess, she knew she had disappointed him.

"Tyler scolded Princess Sophia. He was furious. I got a bit of it, but the Princess stopped him, which I don't know why. She should have just let him take his anger out on me. It was my fault after all." he explained.

Ren chuckled before replying. "Soph would never let anyone get yelled at or punished if innocent. If she defended you against Tyler, that means you are innocent to her. And maybe a bit special." he put his hand on his chin, thinking.

"S-Special?" Rowen felt that fluttery feeling in his chest. "Ren thinks I'm special to the Princess? Why? How?" the thought of that confused him. There is no way he is special; there's no reason for it. Sure he called her special, but that's because she is. It's different for her; there's nothing special about him.