Distance Between Us | Peterick AU

7

The carriage pulled up to the castle and Patrick walked into his home happily with Simon trailing not too far behind him. He heard a bit of commotion from the formal dining room and his feet carried him there to investigate.

His mother sat at the long table, and across from her, sat another woman that looked strangely familiar to Patrick.

"Mother!" He exclaimed, despite the unknown company. "You will never believe what happened today."

She set down her tea cup on the saucer and smiled.

"What, Patrick?"

"Well first, Simon and I went out and bought some new gloves for my practice. And then he surprised me by taking me out to get a new sword. Custom might I add!" Patrick's smile lit up basically lit up the entire room as he spoke. His mother smiled over at the other woman.

"That sounds wonderful. You should go clean up a little bit from being out all morning."

Ryia suddenly appeared from behind them, as if she was already on her way. "I will go fetch some water," she spoke. Patrick made his way to the bathroom.

-

"Mr. Stumph," Earl called when he entered the room. "You need to begin getting ready for supper."

Patrick groaned and sunk is head into his schoolbooks at his desk. His day was going perfect until that moment.

"You want to look very nice for this, so out of those old rags immediately."

He groaned again as Earl opened his closet and pushed around the clothes hanging there until he found what he was looking for.

"Do I really have to do this?" Patrick complained. "I don't- I do not want to look for a wife."

Earl turned around with a hanger in his hand and looked at Patrick with an unreadable expression.

". . .Is everything okay, Earl?" Patrick asked suspiciously. He knew what he had done.

"Yes. . ." the older servant replied. "I was just, surprised that you were familiar with those types of words. Since when have you started using them?"

Patrick tried to play it off. "What words?"

Earl glared at him.

"Okay, okay," the prince surrendered. "I had just. . .seen them in a few of my books. I know Mother does not like me using them, but they are incredibly easier to use." Patrick began to pray in his head that his lie wouldn't put up any red flags. Luckily, it seemed to work out just fine.

"Well alright then," Earl complied. "Just be careful when you are speaking tonight and other times. Speaking of which, you need to get ready. Chop chop."

Earl left the room and Patrick let out a huge sigh of relief. He hadn't realized that speaking with Pete so much had began to rub off on him in the simplest ways. He had to be more careful.

After putting on what outfit Earl had so kindly laid out for him, Patrick waited in his room for one of the other servants to come and get him to come downstairs.

On the way down, he could hear voices coming from the front end of the castle, what must have been the Stuart family. His stomach began to do somersaults.

Patrick reluctantly walked towards the group of well-dressed people in the front lounging room of his home and all of the eyes turned towards him once he had gotten close. His parents looked at him and smiled slightly, while the Stuart adults grinned widely. They greeted him politely and turned back to his own parents.