Juvenal

Chapter I

--1820--

Juvenal turned to his right and stared at his beautiful bride. It had not been even a day since they had been betrothed, but at that moment as he stared at her, he knew that he had the best girl with him, who was also the love of his life. He did not know how, but he just knew that Esme was the girl whom he would like to walk forever with by his side.

He sighed and stared ahead of him. She was walking in silence, and he was able to wonder what might be going through her mind. It was not long since they had met, but as though their fate was written in the stars above, he was not able to keep his mind straight ever since his eyes had fallen on her.

"Do you think that everything would be alright?"

Esme wondered aloud. He did not answer her straight away. He stared down at his feet and scratched the side of his face. The path was deserted, as they were the only late evening strollers. He bit the corners of his lips as he hung his head low, lost in thought.

"A prince should never hang his head low."

A small smile crept up his lips, as he felt her small soft fingers gently lift his chin up. He closed his eyes for a moment, reliving in the feeling of her fingers on his face and turned towards her.

"I don't know."

He replied finally, letting out a deep breath through his lips, and his bride nodded slowly. They smiled at each other and walked in silence once more.

He did not know why, but ever since they had started their slow walk towards the palace again, he had been feeling uneasy. However strong he wished and tried to be he could not help the fear which had started to creep up inside him. He had been strong in his decision when he had decided to fall in love with the girl, a girl who would never be allowed to be married to a prince.

One fine summer evening, as soon as his eyes had lazily sauntered through the view of his royal garden, with a hot cup of tea in his hand, they had skimmed over a young figure, on whom, his eyebrows had furrowed in confusion as though there had been a magnetic field forming around the girl, pulling his eyes towards her by an unknown external force, his eyes had fatefully gone towards the beautiful maid once more, who had been watering the plants below his palace walls. Even though he had not known why, he had been overwhelmed with too many emotions in that split second, where his heart had started to beat louder in his ears and sweat had started to form on his forehead. He had not been able to maintain a straight face for several days after that, and he had been too absorbed in his thoughts for him to think straight.

Not long after the fateful day when his eyes had fallen on Esme, he had found a reason to summon the young girl to him. At that moment, when there had been a small knock on his study and it had been pushed open in a fatefully painful slowness, and he had heard the footsteps of a girl as light as a feather, while his heart was drumming loud in his ears, and his eyes had finally fallen on the girl's as she had come to a stop in front of him and she had straightened up after a very low bow, he had decided that she would be the person with whom he will get married in that split second of time where his eyes had met hers. Even though he did not understand why, it made him feel as though he had known her forever when he had just met her eyes not even a minute ago. For him, he knew that she was the one. He knew that their love story was written in the stars. Even as the fateful decision of making her his forever, was forming in his head, he knew that their marriage would not be approved by his evil stepmother, the Queen.

Juvenal had lost his mother at a very young age, and his father had remarried once more. But that marriage too had not lasted long, and his father had died a decade ago, leaving his son and two new daughters to be fend for by the mother. He had been just a little boy of thirteen at the time, and the royalty had gone to his step mother. Ever since then, it had been a well known fact that his step mother wanted him out of the picture.