A Royal Tale of Hearts | ✔

05| oth'r girls

In the end, Lubna and Nadim went to the Duke's chambers to say that the princess was far to worn out to attend the dinner.

She then spent the next few days tactically avoiding Oliver Cosson or anyone of much importance in the court, trying to figure out with her friends what exactly it is that was being hidden from her.

Yet they didn't find a single clue and apparently, there were some things even one of Nadim's lady friends did not know about.

So Afsana decided to approach the one other person that could have any information on the King and Queen, their own son.

Prince Francis was already waiting for her in the courtyard of the Louvre, his nurse holding the tennis bat that had been custom made for his chubby little hands.
He'd been dressed in brown overalls and was tugging at the hem.

"Prince Francis." Afsana bowed to the boy.

He instantly bowed back, muttering a soft greeting.

Afsana dismissed the nurse, knowing they wouldn't be able to openly speak if she hung around and then kneeled in front of him.

"What would you like to play?" Afsana smiled, hoping to chip away some of his nerves with a game.

"I wanted to play tennis but-" Francis paused, looking up at her with blue eyes and the swiftly looking at the ground.

"But?" She said. "You can tell me."

"You won't get mad?" He asked.

"Wallahi. That means I swear to God back home." She assured him.

"Well, I heard that you're awful at playing tennis. A-a-and I can't tell you who told me." Francis said.

Had it been anyone else she may have gotten rather a bit annoyed, but coming from such an angelic child the observation made her burst into laughter. In fact, she was laughing so much she had to sit on the grass and hold onto of Francis's hands for support.

"Well whoever it was, they weren't wrong." Afsana said, having finished laughing. "Perhaps you could teach me, your majesty?"

Francis blew her a full blown smile, putting on display his gap filled baby teeth and nodded in agreement.

Getting herself off the grass, she grabbed a bat and followed all of her suitor's instructions carefully.
Once the lessons began, all his shyness disappeared and got replaced with what was a rather bossy boy. Francis was constantly pointing her mistakes out and ordering her to move about, but by the end of two hours she had grasped the basics.

All in all, she didn't mind being bossed about. If anything she found it amusing and it reminded her of the time spent with Akbar back home.

"P-prince Francis, I am exhausted, may I take a break?" She rasped, wiping sweat off her forehead.

Though his own cheeks were red as tomatoes, he kept up a pretense of resilience and kept his gladness at her request a secret.

"Fine, but only because you're tired. Not me." He said firmly.

Letting the skirt of her dress pool around her legs, Afsana dropped to the ground and rested her head on the trimmed green grass. Francis joined sat beside her with criss crossed legs across from her neck.

"Did you have fun?" She asked.

He grinned and nodded. "Yes, I am going to tell mother about today in my letter. And I am going to tell her that I want you to be my wife. "

That last statement made her laugh. "Don't you think you're rushing?"

"No, I like you. You're not like other girls, they're so boring." Francis said. "They play with dolls and just want to dance, you're fun."