Modern Princess

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Beckham's POV

As I began my trek up to the palace infirmary after getting out of car Nate arranged for us, I started to think about the girl laying in my arms. The serenity of her face almost made it seem as if she had chosen to fall asleep. It was almost as if we had stayed up late, just being ourselves and talking until the wee hours of the morning about nothing and everything all at once. It was almost as if I was carrying her back to her room after she was fallen asleep in my lap from all of the talking. Almost.

Instead, she had passed out from being thrown against a old tractor by a terrible man who was looking for us because we were spying on a meeting that was not meant for our ears and it was all my fault. In not so many words, I was reason she was hurt.

I shouldn't have gone to her, requesting that she come with me on a task that I knew was potentially dangerous. I should have let her stay in the comfort of her room and her friend. It was so selfish of me. I wanted to spend more time with her and stupidly thought going on a task as spies was the perfect place to woo a girl. Way to go Beckham.

This was the exact reason way I should have stayed away from her. I was here to stop a group of rebels and I should have stopped myself from pursuing something I knew could never work. The responsibility of all of this mess rested upon my shoulders and I had to make sure Ren knew that.

Olive came to my mind as I thought of Ren. Olive was staying at the palace until after the charity ball in a couple of days and she was the cause of much of my thinking about Remy. For some unknown reason, Olive was convinced Remy was the best princess she had ever met. And for another reason (not so unknown), she kept probing me on my thoughts of her. Olive was pretty persistent in this and I was pretty insistent in telling her that I would not be marrying Remy. We both had kingdoms to run and different directions that our lives were headed so we couldn't afford to be anything more than rebel hunting friends.

Unfortunately, Olive has always been the better debater than me and seems to be able to find fault in all of my arguments. That and I want so badly to believe that things could work. That Remy and I could get married and rule our kingdoms and be successful in both marriage and politics. But that's not how the real world works and if Remy and I were to ever get married while we were both still heirs, it would put such a strain on the marriage that it wouldn't last. No matter how much I loved her, it wouldn't last.

As I rounded the corner and found myself standing in front of the infirmary doors, I realized my biggest nightmare had come true. I looked down once again at the sleeping princess in my arms and whispered the words I could never tell her in consciousness.

"I love you Remy. I love you more than I ever thought possible which is why we can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this. Please don't hate me for ignoring you and pushing you away, but I hope you'll see that it's for the best."

I leaned down and pressed a light kiss against her forehead. It would be the last kiss that I ever had true feeling behind it.

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Ren's POV

I couldn't believe the nerve of Isaac. He had been ignoring me for the past few days and it was really annoying me. At first, I thought I wasn't seeing him around very much because of how busy my schedule had been keeping me. I mean, I had meeting after meeting after appearance after meeting. It was exhausting, but even when I tried to find Isaac, he "didn't have time" or was "under previous obligations". In other words, he was ignoring me. It seemed like this only started happening after our time spent spying on those people. Maybe he thought my injury was his fault...Or maybe he thought I was too much to handle. Whatever it was, I was not going to be the one to apologize.

I had Jerrold work in two hours of time in my schedule where I could have a date with Griffin. I felt like I barely ever saw him around and when I did, we hardly had time to exchange pleasantries before I was being whisked away to some other meeting or appointment. 

I was bringing him to one of my favorite Lyddian restaurants in the capital and then to a place where the art...ahh, came to life. We both really liked art so I thought why not start with that!

The ride to the Lyddian restaurant was more pleasant than I thought any ride with a guy I barely knew could be. He talked a lot about his love for painting and sculpting while I chimed in every once in a while. For the first time in my entire life, I let him do most of the talking. Normally, I'm quite partial to my own voice, but something about Griffin made me want to just sit and listen. He was captivating and interesting in a way I hadn't seen before. Probably because I was so focused on a stupid commoner to notice this amazing prince in front of me.

"So what about you? What drives you to paint the amazing images that you do?" Griffin asked after my laughter subsided from a joke he had just made.

"I think...I think the idea of being in control of something, even if that something is my paintbrush, soothes me. I mean, I'm sure you know, but my entire life is controlled and dictated by my dad and Parliament and Jerrold and sometimes it's just nice to be control of one little aspect of my life. That's probably why it's taken me so long to get to know you," I guiltily admitted as I soothed out my dress.

"I think I can relate to that. My schedule hasn't always been so busy as yours, but I definitely didn't have control of my life for a while. My childhood was rocky to say the least and so it's nice to know that I can do something myself," he smiled, causing me to smile back.

That was one of those moments where if I could have bottled it up of safe keeping I would have. It was a moment where the chemistry between Griffin and I became undeniable in my eyes and where I could finally see that he was more than what I initially saw.

"Your Highness, we have arrived," my driver commented as he opened my door for me.

I hadn't even noticed that the car had stopped moving, much less that we were here!

"Thank you," I sighed as I stepped out of the car followed by Griffin.

"A Lyddian restaurant?" Griffin questioned as we started to walk to the back entrance. I had reserved a private room so that way the entire restaurant didn't have to close down for us.

"Absolutely! It's my favorite and luckily the owner is a good friend so he got us pretty quick. Well, that and we're royalty so..."

"Lyddian food would be great except my taste buds have a slight hatred for pasta," he nervously laughed, while I stopped walking.

"Wow. Okay. Probably should have checked with you before I brought you to a restaurant that only has pasta...Okay, give me a second and I'll think of a new place."

"How about that taco truck?" Griffin asked pointing a little ways down the road. A saw a very decorated truck with a decent line of people waiting to order from it along with benches strewn across the grass it was parked next to.

"A sketchy taco truck? Umm, I've never actually been to one, but I'm sure an actual restaurant would be more-"

"Oh they're great! There's one back home, that is not sketchy by the way, that always stops by the palace before closing up for the night and it's delicious. A bit greasy, but delicious," he smiled, glancing between the truck and me.

When I thought of taco truck, I thought of grease and germs and gross things. Plus, there was no telling what kind of people even ate at trucks like these.

"I can see the skepticism on your face, but I'm telling you, they're great," he reassured as he started edging to where the truck was parked.

I really wanted to say no way am I going to a place like that. No way am I eating food so greasy it could seep through a brick. And no way am I going to a place that doesn't even have a proper place to sit!

But instead, I hesitantly nodded my head and followed a cheerful Griffin to my doom.

****

xx