How you fell in Love - Edmund x OC

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Ed? Where are you going?" You ask as you see him by the stable.
-
Ed froze when he heard her voice. He turned around and looked.

"Me?" He looked down at the disguise in his hands, "Peter's orders. I have to go to the city."

"Should I come with you?" She asked.

"No need." He grins, praying she won't ask Peter.
-
"Alright, see you." You wave and return back to your room. Another pile of papers stood there.

You might as well sort them out.
-
Ed breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her go. He didn't want to lie to her but he had to.

He rode off to the city while the sun is still rising.

The shops were just opening and he's been greeted as the 'first customer' at at least five shops.

He wanted to get an idea of how the rings were. Yeah, he was here to buy rings.

Well, he did like few. Most of them were chunky diamonds. While they can be appealing to many but Ed didn't feel so.

As he moved from shop to shop, he noticed that the models were repeated.

Sighing, he went back to the castle.

Why is searching for rings so difficult?
---
"Hey." You grinned as you saw Ed come in.

"Hi." Ed smiled.

"How'd the work go?" You ask.

He looked uncertain but he said, "Oh...um...really good."

"Are you okay?" You ask.

"Why not? I'm perfectly fine." He says and turns the other side, getting his papers from the coffee table.

"Nevermind." You sigh.
-
Ed looked at her over his shoulder. She has seen right through his lie. And she knows something is up.
---
After a long day's work, you stretched.

Ed stood up and put his work aside.

"I have to talk to Peter. I'll be back in few." Ed nods.

You nod but you couldn't shake the feeling off that something was bothering him.

Ed does get angry quickly, he's got quite a temper but that's just an emotion he shows. He keeps everything else bottled up inside him.

You sigh, you have to ask him when he comes back.
-
Ed knew Peter was the right person to talk to.

The man got married couple of months back and he'd know.

"Peter?" Ed knocked.

It was late at night but Ed knows Peter won't be asleep.

"Hey Ed. Come in." Peter opens the door and lets him in.

"Were you busy?" He asks, walking in.

"Nah. Tell me." Peter sat down.

"I just wanted to talk to you about something." Ed says.

"Yes?" Peter asks. His place is silent indicating Peter's wife is asleep.

"I'm thinking about, you know, --" Ed started.

"About proposing?" Peter asks.

"Well yes." Ed nodded. "I just don't know. Do you think it's the right time?"

"There's no right time for marriage, trust me. Just tell her what's truly in your heart. That's what I did." Peter smiles.

"Easy for you to say." Ed rolls his eyes.

"Oh come on. Where's the courage?" Peter grinned.

"You know what? I'll just head back for now." He sighed. "And get that ring person to me. 10 o' clock."

"He'll be there." Peter smiled. He nodded back and left.

He opened the door to see Adara fast asleep, her head on the papers. Ed shook his head and smiled. She works far too hard.

Trying not to wake her up, he carried her to the bed. He pulled the covers over her and whispered a Good Night, heading back to the table to finish his work.
---
You weren't very sure how you ended up in the bed. The last thing you remember is working. Now you're on the bed with Ed asleep beside you.

Ed rubs his eyes and sits up.

"You were awake?" You smile.

"Yeah." He smiles.

"How did I end up here?" You ask.

"You fell asleep by the table." Ed said, standing up and slipping into the bathroom.
---
Ed waited for the person to come and he did.

"Is there a catalogue I can go through?" Ed asks.

"Yes, sir."

He takes a gigantic book from his bag, about the thickness of a small tree bark.

"You want me to go through all that?" Ed raised his eyebrow.

"Sir, in case anything catches your eye." He says.

Ed was just about to open the first page when someone knocks.

"Come in." Ed said.

And in came Adara and there was no where to hide this gigantic book.

"Ed, Lucy wants the-- who's this?" She asked, looking at the ring seller.

"Uh...He wanted to talk to me about....uh...the dams! Yes, the dams, and what and all and...uh...the other things."

Ed mentally kicked himself. Who lies like that?

Adara raised an eyebrow and spoke with sarcasm. "I see."

Ed coughed and pretended he didn't hear that. She smiles and nods at the man and looks back at Ed.

"Anyway--" She looked down and got distracted again seeing the giant book. "Which one is that?"

Thank heavens the book was covered with some fancy drawings because Ed said, "Uh....Population!"

"Perfect." She grinned, "Lucy wanted the population records." She stretched her arm to take it, but Ed put his hand on it.

"This is...from 5 years ago." He fetched another book and gave it to her.

"Why were you going through 5 Year old records?" She asked.

"For comparison, you know." Ed grinned.
-
You stared at him. Ed wasn't good at lying.

"Ah. Right. My bad." You smiled.

He must have noticed that you found out, because he coughed and looked away. 

"I'll get going." You sighed.

Ed's face visibly relaxed. You sigh and leave.
--
This time too, Ed was sure she saw through his lie. But either way, he has work to do, ring to find.

He flipped through the boring pages.

None of them caught his eye. He sighed and the ring seller tensed. For some reason everyone was scared of Ed. It was not like he did something but, maybe because he doesn't smile as often as Peter.

"You know what?" Ed slammed the book close halfway and the man flinched. "Richard, is it?" He looked at the man and he nodded, "I won't eat you, Richard." He smirked.

The man smiled, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"All right." Ed smiled, "Do you want to note down what I want?"

He pulled out a notepad and looked at Ed.

Ed described the ring and the man left.
---
That day evening, they man brought it.

Ed smiled and paid the man and then once he left, stared at the ring like a retard with a smile on his face.

It would look so beautiful on 'certain someone's hand.' And he can't wait.

As he thought about where he would do it, a brilliant idea struck him and he dashed out that instant. There was still time for dinner.
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