II. The Impact of Her

~ Twelve ~

It had been a couple of hours after lunch and all I did was look out the window and admire the view of the garden.

Although there's nothing new about the view, the undying beauty of nature was refreshing and relaxing. I should be doing other princely duties but my mother did say she preferred that I do nothing today. I decided that having some peace all to myself would be the best way to pass the time. My peace, however, was disrupted by a sudden knock on my door.

"Enter," I slowly faced the door, crossing my legs.

As the door opened, my page entered and quickly bowed. "My deepest apologies, Your Highness, for disturbing you. Mallory is here, she wants to have a word with you."

I groaned as my face landed on my hand. The only time of the day where I didn't want to be bothered by anything but Mallory managed to make it worse. I wasn't surprised at this point because she had been doing this consistently ever since we had our agreement.

"Please don't be angry at me, Your Highness," my page knelt, humbling himself in a panic. "I tried telling her that you don't want to be disturbed but she insisted."

"Let her in, please," I said along with a sigh.

He stood up in haste and left the room. Mallory quickly entered and closed the door, doing a curtsey after.

"Mallory, I have the utmost confidence that my page told you that I didn't want to be disturbed right now," I began the conversation with an agitated tone.

"Yes, he did," she quickly replied.

"Why would you still insist on bothering me?" I continued. "I still need time to rest and instead of being an understanding person, you insisted on disturbing my only time of peace for today. Are you that inconsiderate?" my teeth gritted as I grew even more frustrated.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you but I have to talk to you about something," she began walking towards me, her hands in front of her.

"Can't this conversation wait for another day?" I complained.

"This is very important. It's about something you agreed to," she quickly answered.

"What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow, tilting my head to the right.

She stood in front of me, quiet with her eyes looking in every direction. She was thinking of something, in a bit of a panic.

"Mallory, please stop with the theatrics and tell me the reason why you're here," I groaned, patience growing thinner and thinner by the minute.

"Do you remember the promise you made before leaving for Middle Earth?" she stuttered, cautious with her words. She wasn't showing her usual confident side which was odd.

"I don't recall any promises made before my voyage," I bluntly replied, my brows creased out of confusion.

She looked at me with shock which turned to disappointment in a matter of seconds. "Robert, are you deliberately doing this to make me angry?"

"Mallory, if I want to make you angry, I would do more than just tease you about a small matter," I chuckled. "But in all honesty, I don't remember making any promises with you before I left."

She sighed. "Do you remember that conversation we had in the garden?"

Oh, how could I forget, Mallory? Playing the whole conversation in my head made me even more irritated with her. She didn't respect my boundaries and the conditions I made for the relationship that we had. My blood continued to boil to the point that I couldn't control it anymore.

"What about that conversation?" I asked, doing my best to keep myself calm.

"You agreed that I can introduce my friend after your voyage," she answered without letting me finish the last word of my question.