The King's Lover-Chapter 378: Vacation Is Over

"Your Highness," Caius’s personal physician, Lord Paul, called as he walked in from behind Thomas. He walked a little further into the room, placing himself partially in front of Thomas before his footsteps halted.

"Pardon the intrusion, Your Highness." He bowed as he spoke.

"A trip from the capital to Haiyes isn’t simply a mere intrusion, Paul. What are you doing here?" Caius stated rudely, calling the physician without his title.

"I heard Your Highness got into a mishap that led to an unfortunate accident." Paul eyed him suspiciously as he stared at the bandaged hand.

"Traveling all the way for a minor injury. I suppose you have nothing better to do."

"Your Highness is right. Besides, it wouldn’t speak well of me as Your Highness’s personal physician not to make the journey here at word of any injury, be it minor or major. Your father, His Royal Majesty, would have my head should I dare not fulfill my duty. I hope Your Highness wouldn’t be so vexed and understand that I simply would like to do as expected of me."

Caius narrowed his eyes at the mention of his father, but he no longer argued with Lord Paul; rather, he turned his attention to Thomas, the cause of this problem.

"I asked you a question, did I not?" Caius asked, directing his question at Thomas.

"Yes, Your Highness. I apologize for not letting you know, but I was uncertain if this was an emergency or not, and I did not trust the physician I brought to do a better job than Lord Paul. I apologize for not letting you know before I sent out the letter."

It was pretty clear that Thomas had no plans to inform the crown prince, and even as he gave his reasons, it sounded no more than excuses. However, Caius couldn’t exactly punish the young knight, as it was clear he had done it with good intentions, and if Thomas had asked him, he would have declined. The lad probably wanted to avoid that.

Still, Caius had no plan to sweep this under the carpet; he intended to let Thomas know he couldn’t go behind his back like this regardless of the intention.

The young knight’s actions had complicated his plans, as this meant revealing the secret to another person, but that wasn’t the only problem. Paul’s presence in Castle Catherine was not without the knowledge of a certain person, which meant he brought news that Caius didn’t want to hear about, and the worst part was that this was in person; he couldn’t pick and choose what he wanted to reply to.

It was also the most likely reason Paul got here so fast. If his cousin wasn’t so useful, Caius would have found a way to get rid of him; the pale, blue-eyed boy was a thorn in his flesh.

"Going behind my back is a punishable offense, Thomas," Caius stated.

Rose turned to look at him. Her disbelief was apparent. Caius frowned at her obvious fear. Why did he feel annoyed? Thomas was the one who had done wrong; it was only logical that he be punished. Why did she react as though what he was about to do was unnecessarily cruel?

"If Your Highness doesn’t mind," Paul cut in, trying to save the lad from any punishment.

Regardless of Thomas’s intentions, it was pretty clear he had gone behind the crown prince’s back, and that was enough to be punished if the crown prince decided on it.

"What?" Caius asked angrily when Paul interrupted but didn’t say what he wanted.

"I would like to check your injury, Your Highness. Just to be certain that all is well."

Caius narrowed his eyes, glaring at Paul, who refused to meet his gaze. He could easily decline and send Paul back to the castle, but it was likely to make Rose suspicious, and he wanted to avoid that.

He slowly turned his attention to look at her. "Go to your chambers," he said less softly than he intended. Her expression was still at the back of his mind.

Rose returned his gaze and slowly nodded before she stood to her feet and left his chambers. Even though Caius didn’t dismiss Thomas, the knight left the room with Rose, literally running for his life.

Caius didn’t say he could leave, but Lord Paul started to step forward, distracting him from the fleeing Thomas. Paul stopped in front of the writing desk where Caius was seated, with all the writing materials still spread out on the table. There was a bit of ink on the table; Rose had accidentally taken too much ink on the quill, and it had splashed onto the wood.

"Your hand, Your Highness," Paul asked politely, his expression giving nothing away.

"You don’t have to put on the act, Paul. Why are you here? What message did my cousin give you?" Caius bombarded the physician with questions, his irritation permeating the entire room.

"You are not wrong, Your Highness," Paul replied, trying to sound as apologetic as possible. He knew better than to get on the crown prince’s bad side.

"Prince Rylen sent a message, but truly my main purpose is to make sure you heal properly from your injuries."

"Should I say I am fine, would you turn around and leave then?"

"Well, I would say that would be a little too suspicious, Your Highness," Paul said with a small smile.

He was playing with fire, but he had a considerable relationship with the crown prince and could afford to be this blunt without losing his head. It was also for this reason that Prince Rylen had sent him to Haiyes, regardless of his suspicions.

Caius glared at his physician; from his tone, it was pretty clear he already knew Caius was faking it. "When did you figure it out?" Caius asked.

"It wasn’t me. Prince Rylen didn’t believe you’d fall from a tree. However, he sent me to make sure everything was alright. I wasn’t sure at first if he was right. As I said, Your Highness, my purpose here really is to treat your sprain. However, there is no swelling, not even a little. The physician had tried to make it look so, but it still isn’t right. That’s enough to tell me all I need to know."

Caius made a mental note to do something about Thomas; he didn’t want incidents like this to repeat themselves. He had practically handed Rylen a reason to come here; he was surprised his cousin only sent Paul.

"What does he want?" Caius asked, ignoring everything else Paul said.

He was still annoyed that he had to give in, but should he turn Paul away—other than it being suspicious to Rose—he was certain his cousin would show up at his doorstep, and he wanted to avoid that.

Caius knew there was only so much he could get away with, and if he hadn’t been gravely ill, his father would have stepped in to try to get him to return to the castle.

"Prince Rylen would like you to return to the castle in two weeks. The snow has already started melting, and in a few days, it should stop snowing completely. Spring is on its way, and Prince Rylen would like you to return to the castle before then."

Paul explained as gently as he could. He was simply the messenger, but it didn’t mean he was free from the brunt of Caius’s anger, should he anger the crown prince.

"My cousin sure has a lot to say. His only job is to watch the affairs of the kingdom in my stead, not dictate what I am allowed to do."

"I apologize, Your Highness, for what I am about to say, but Prince Rylen did say you’d say that, and that I should tell Your Highness that if you’re a day late, he will arrive in Haiyes and bring along Your Mother, Her Royal Highness."

Caius folded his palms into fists. His vacation was over, but he had clearly not made much progress with Rose. If he returned to the castle, things would be chaotic, at least for the first few weeks, and he would barely have any time to spend with her.

Caius wasn’t really worried about what his mother would do. She wasn’t a threat, merely a nuisance, and he knew his cousin was counting on that.

He wasn’t in the castle because he didn’t want to be bothered by external forces. His mother’s nuisance was a threat to that. Threatening him with his own mother was something only Rylen could think of.

"Is that all?" Caius asked; he wanted to get the bad news over with.

"Yes, Your Highness," Paul said with a bow.

Caius was rightfully surprised. There were a lot of things Rylen had mentioned in the last letter. He found it a little hard to believe Rylen wouldn’t mention anything about it, not even his father’s declining health.

Caius’s eyes darkened a little. Something bothered him. It wasn’t like his cousin to keep anything from him, but something seemed amiss.

Usually, when Rylen spoke about him returning to the castle, he always stated his reason as being tired of taking over Caius’s duties. However, there were no complaints, only threats if he didn’t do as Rylen asked. It was suspicious.

"Would you like me to at least change the bandages, Your Highness? It would be too suspicious if I didn’t."

"Whatever," Caius absentmindedly replied as he remained lost in thought.

The physician nodded as he prepared to get to work, taking the crown prince’s dismissive reply as a yes.