In The Name Of Love

Chapter 13

He looked awful in the morning. His eyes were puffy, his skin was pale and he was literally just falling asleep when I slid out of bed and turned my clock off.

"Do we have to get up?" he asked.

"Go back to sleep, Mircea," I murmured and kissed his forehead.

He did without complaint but only because he literally couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. I watched him for a moment, changed the alarm time to half twelve which was late enough to let him get a decent amount of sleep, but early enough to give him time for a shower before meeting Florin if he wanted one, and then on silent feet walked out, pulling my silk dressing gown on and picking up my schedule folder as I went.

I wasn't sure if anyone else was up yet so I quietly made my way down to the kitchen. On the stairs I saw Simona polishing the banister.

"Good morning, Ma'am," she smiled and bobbed a curtsy. "Sleep well?"

"For the most part, thank you," I smiled. "That bed is like a slice of heaven. How are you?"

"Very good, thank you, Miss Anwyn."

"Good. Do you know if anyone else is up?"

"Her Majesty had an early meeting and left earlier with Prince Miticia, Princess Sofia is up and about in her room and I think I saw Princess Tereza getting breakfast when I came in."

"Ok. Thank you."

She bobbed again and the only reason I could cope with it after last night was because it was like the bobs the waitresses gave all over Europe. I hurried down to the kitchen positively craving even just the smell of tea leaves. As soon as I was in there I was putting the kettle on and then searched for the cupboard devoted to tea Mircea had promised me was waiting for me. After I'd opened about ten cupboards someone laughed behind me.

"Try the one directly above the kettle," she said in English.

I did and nearly cried. The first box of tea I saw was English Breakfast. I swear I relaxed as soon as I had my hands on the familiar Twinings box. There were mugs hung under the cupboard and I picked out the biggest one I could find. It was actually mine.

"So that's where this went!" I exclaimed. It was more or less tye-died purple and my name had been written on it in my shaky, huge and very bad four year old handwriting. It was a miracle it had lasted this long.

"Mircea posted it a few days ago apparently. He was laughing about it last night. Apparently you'd been pretty frantic about it."

I actually had been. The kettle boiled and I set to making a perfect mug of tea and then I sat with Tereza at the island. She was eating toast and looking at a now familiar schedule. She saw me looking at it even though it was a quick glance since it was all in Romanian.

"We didn't get to talk much last night. I'm helping the people in the homeless shelters," she said. "I visit them a lot but it seems like a never ending task. Makes me feel bad about living in such a nice place. I've got a penthouse in one of the new apartment blocks."

"Nice."

She smiled. "So I'm in meetings all day, what about you?"

"Dancing, hair make over for the interview which I am not thinking about and a meeting with Mircea and Florin."

"Between you and me, I think you and Mircea make a pretty deadly team. His political know how and your farm knowledge... you look pretty amazing together too. Just, don't tell Alexia I said that. I'm sorry about her attitude towards you."

"Uh, thanks. And not a word is going to pass between us. Not that we can both understand anyway."

She chuckled.