The King's Lover-Chapter 453: Remain the same

Her maids ended up having to wait, and considering the fresh marks on her skin, Rose couldn’t even offer any excuses; she just apologized. Usually, she would have some time for the marks to fade a little, but she had no such luck now.

The two sisters helped her prepare for the morning, changed her sheets, and took care of her used nightdress. She was certain they all knew; there was no way to hide it.

Isla did try to bring it up at times, but her sister shut her up and now she didn’t ask any more questions. Rose was grateful, as she didn’t have answers. After all, what was she going to tell them?

Yes, I am the crown prince’s mistress.

The horror.

Even if they all had an inkling, it was still very embarrassing. Not only was she a mistress, but she was also a kept woman, literally kept in a room.

After she was cleaned up, Chelsey changed the bandage on her index finger. The wound was mostly healed enough to take the bandage off, but she wanted to keep it on for another day, just to be safe.

After breakfast, Rose did her tasks, and when she was done, she tried to read by herself. It was a little hard, but she was making a lot of progress.

However, even though she knew how to read a word, it was still pretty hard to write it out without looking at it. She couldn’t easily recall letters, and the more letters it had, the worse off she was.

Rose was still at her desk when night fell and Caius walked into the room. He had a satisfied expression on his face as he entered, and she immediately knew he was up to no good.

Either he had done something that would very much annoy her, or he was about to do something. Just as she tried to think about which it possibly could be, she saw what he was holding.

Her swallow.

He held the wooden bird in the palm of his hand as he approached the desk. He clearly wanted her to see it. Rose couldn’t think of what this was about, but by the smug look on his face, she could take a guess.

"Your Majesty," she called, glancing at the swallow, "have you decided to return what is mine?"

"Yours?" Caius said and dropped the swallow where she could see it.

Rose wondered if while he was working all he thought about was how he could possibly piss her off. He already took the swallow; now he was just showing off.

Perhaps she should head to Lady Delphine’s manor tomorrow so she could ask her father to make her another one.

"Yes," she answered and picked it up.

"If I recall, you gave it to me."

Rose studied the swallow and dropped it. She took a deep breath so as not to give in to her anger. The swallow wasn’t even that special; she could get another one, but somehow his show-off got under her skin. She found it silly, but in a way it was effective.

"You are right, I did," she lifted her face and smiled at him.

He didn’t look phased by her change in demeanor; in fact, he looked even happier. Rose shook her head; it was her fault for trying to understand him.

"Did you finish your tasks?" he asked as he took his usual position.

Rose nodded, all her annoyance dissipating as he became serious. It was impressive how focused he could be when it was time for her lessons.

After they were done, he gave her another set of tasks and asked her if she wanted to play chess. They ended up playing until Rose could barely stay awake. Caius then carried her to bed, placed her underneath the covers, and joined her.

---

Caira sat in front of her dresser as her maid Mara brushed her hair. It had been two days since the kiss, and it was still as vivid as ever. Caira had played it more times in her mind than she could count.

She would often touch her lips while she stared into the distance. It was hard to read, as every time she tried to concentrate she found herself daydreaming again.

The worst part of it all was that Rylen hadn’t come to see her in the library since then. He would come to the gazebo to inform her that lunch or dinner was ready, but that was all.

He also kept his conversations restricted to pleasantries and acted as though nothing had happened. However, she couldn’t seem to get it out of her mind.

Every time she saw him it was all she thought about—during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Caira could feel herself slowly running mad at the constant thought of it.

She didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt, and the more she thought about it, the easier it got. There was also the fact that she was certain the crown prince was doing the same with Rose and most likely worse, yet he wouldn’t touch her. She tried to imagine herself with him, but she couldn’t; Rylen’s face kept popping up in her head.

She told herself she was just curious; it was the first proper kiss she had gotten. It also felt very nice that someone wanted her. Rylen easily touched her, while Caius couldn’t. During the wedding, he didn’t want to drink from the same spot on the cup that she had.

"My lady," Mara called. "Won’t you get to bed?"

Caira snapped out of her thoughts. "I didn’t realize you were done," she said softly.

"I’m sure," her maid said with a knowing smile.

"Sleep well, Mara," Caira said as she got into bed and her maid started to close the drapes.

Caira closed her eyes but found that she could not sleep. All she thought about was Rylen. There was no doubt that he was avoiding her, but she didn’t want that. She wasn’t annoyed by the kiss. She didn’t want any distance between them.

Perhaps she would ask him tomorrow why he no longer came to the library. There wasn’t any harm in that, she told herself. After all, she wasn’t asking him because of the kiss; she just wanted things to remain the same.