ANDREW BLACK

Chapter 12

Merlissa Highmore

"...So sharing it evenly among the silk merchant we acquired 80 yards of the finest silk as well as payment for last month's ball dresses for the chosen maidens " -allowed into the palace in an attempt to find Daemon a wife all of which he skillfully drove away- "then...Ah!" She groaned out in frustration just why did she need to go through this file of the Palace spending, when her father's wood works budgeting needed her immediate attention.

"Happy it skipped me over this time." She let out a startled yelp at the sudden voice looking up to see Dorsey.

"It is my turn anyway," she sighed dropping the seemingly endless file into its pile with the others. Her uncle had insisted on her, and her cousins go through the castle spendings on monthly rotations so they were not just ignorant royalty and had a fair idea about the movement and importance of money. Not that she needed any help with that she thought as her eyes wandered to the untouched pile of Highmore Timber; Wood with class. Merlissa dragged a palm down her face rubbing away some of her makeup from the day. "Life is hard Dorsey," she whined to him stretching across the table reaching for his hand. He took her hands gently massaging them. She approved by nodding delightfully.

"Do not let people with actual hard lives hear you," he told her.

"Look at me Dorsey," she began pulling back, "I am just twenty, but it seems like twenty more years plus my actual age and I am the owner of the largest woodwork on this side of the sea, surpassing Wruning kingdom," Dorsey nodded wondering where she was going with this. "And soon enough you'd married probably right after Daemon." He groaned in reply.

"Speaking of them, mother instructed that I spend the evening with the minions," he whined stretching his hands out to her, it was her turn to massage his hand. Taking his hands in hers, she tightly gripped them, and Dorsey was beginning to regret the idea.

"We are so young, yet most of our life is being sucked from us," she went on squeezing tighter, "simply because we are royalty," tighter "and we are accountable to the people," she finished, letting go of his hands and he quickly retracted it.

"The life of royalty," he sighed. "I have something to give you," he said.

"And here I was thinking you came because of how much I was missed," she said smiling at him, but he did not smile back. She tilted her head. "What is it Dorsey?" she asked quietly. Getting up, he came around her desk, her eyes following his every movement. "This came today, I found it before Audria could get her hands on it, I knew you would want to have it, I hope you get some closure from it," he said handing her the letter. She looked at him slightly confused then her eyes fell to the letter. She recognized the handwriting, his handwriting. She audibly gasped dropping the letter. Then fumbling in her seat, she tried to reach for it, but her eyes kept losing focus as the envelope got blurry and multiplied. Still, she reached for it causing her to fall the floor as a single tear fell from her eyes. Like that her illusion of being okay came crumbling down on her. A hand stretched out to her holding the letter she was desperately trying to find on the floor. She looked up at Dorsey and his face immediately fell. He squatted in front of her bringing his hand to her cheeks and wiping away the stray tear.

"Maybe I should have just had it thrown out," he whispered to her and she shook her head sniffing. She stretched out her hand. "Are you sure?" She nodded, and he reluctantly gave it to her.

She held it in her hand as if it were fragile and the slightest thing could destroy it when it was the other way around. This letter had the power to destroy her, even just seeing her name in that familiar handwriting was enough to wake her from the slumber she had been in the past few days. All the energy she had put into her pretense was suddenly zapped from her replaced with the all too familiar feeling of sadness.

She traced her hand over the writing then turned it over. "Do you want to be alone?" She heard Dorsey ask. She had forgotten he was here. He always did that to her- that is the nameless man. He always teleported her to another world where she forgot anything of her present life. Then it was a good thing because it was their own world but when he walked out of it, she realized how big and empty that world was when you were alone. Now at any thought of him, she was involuntarily teleported to that world. Unfortunately, he no longer dwelled there, he had left her behind. Left her behind in a world he created. "I mean I don't mind putting off the twins, no sorry I want to put off engaging the twins privately," her cousin pleaded, begging for an escape from his 'wives to be.' He was yet to choose. "I will just go lie on the bed in the corner and mind my business," he went on. Any other day she would have loved to help him out of his misery but right now she wanted someone to put her out of her misery, permanently.

"Au-nt" Merlissa began but couldn't find her voice, then starting again she said. "Au-nt would not be pleased, go to them and select a wife to be." His face turned from pleading to a grimace, "Unless you wish to marry both," his frown deepened and Merlissa smiled a bit, but it disappeared as quickly as it surfaced. "I will be fine," she said to him tapping his cheek lightly. Drawing her to him, he kissed her forehead and Merlissa allowed herself to lay in his comfort and protection for a second or two before he pulled away standing up.

"If you need me, just send for me and I would be here immediately," he said, and she nodded. "Well cuz duty calls if only the life of a prince was as rosy as it seemed in writing," he sighed referring to their earlier conversation while walking out. If only, she thought too, that their lives were as easy as it supposedly seemed she could easily slip away without causing an uproar.

Merlissa fiddled with the letter in her hand, she was tempted to open it, but she did not know if she was strong enough to read it. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be able to turn to her ever so reliable friend. Her eyes found her new favorite drawer.

'There were guests, now was not the time,' she told herself internally as she picked herself up and wiped the sadness from her lips. She was, however, unable to rid herself of the one in her heart. She opened the drawer and placed the letter on top of the symbolled paper and shut the drawer as though shutting away all her problems. She would read it soon enough, but as of now, she was not strong enough. She sat on her chair picking a file from the stack of Highmore Timbre she needed a distraction and what better way to do so than with the stress of wages to her workers and payments to partners. She flipped open the file a little to excitedly given what it contained (figures, names and more figures); she was terribly grateful for the distraction.