The only bright side of this long day is that I can finally retreat to my rooms with the excuse that I'm tired. I dismiss the maids as soon as they finish taking my clothes off, and I sit in front of the mirror to clean off the makeup.
I haven't ever dreamed that I would, one day, pretend to be tired after a shabby tea party. Me: the Queen that never sleeps.
The moment the door is closed, though, I hear a knock.
«Come in,» I say out loud, without even turning. This late, it can only be one of the maids that forgot something.
To my surprise, the one that crosses the door is not a maid, but the Duke. After a whole week, he remembered that he has a wife. He's wearing heavy clothes as if he just arrived from outside the Palace. His hair is ruffled, probably because of the wind. His dark eyes are as dynamic as always. I turn my eyes away and look at the mirror.
«Good evening, your grace,» I say, not paying too much attention to him. After all, he's ignored me for so long. He had seven whole days to visit me, ask me how I'm doing. He didn't even send a note. He just left me to a bunch of naughty maids.
I continue to clean my face, and then I apply moisturiser cream. I really like this aroma, it's fresh and sweet at the same time.
«Why are you doing this by yourself?» the Duke asks, looking at how I take care of my skin and hair alone.
«I don't like being touched,» I explain. «I prefer doing this trivial stuff without help.»
«I know that, already, but why isn't there any maid assisting you? I've ordered them not to leave you alone!»
«Duke,» I utter while I start braiding my hair for sleep, «I understand that your grace wants to control my activities all day long, but I can't sleep if I'm watched. Also, I don't like having someone standing at my back in these evening hours. It's the only time I have for myself, I beg your grace to leave it to me.»
«What if you need something?»
«I'll walk to the door and open it,» I shrug. «There is another thing I wanted to talk with your grace about if the Duke has the patience to listen to me.»
«Call me by name,» he says, all of a sudden. «There's no need to be so polite.»
I turn to him and sigh. I'm not sure where I made a mistake, but there must be one if he asks me not to address him politely. Does it feel like I'm tantalising?
However, there is an issue. I can't just fulfil the Duke's desire.
«I don't know your name,» I reveal. «It didn't sound right, to ask a maid about it.»
The Duke lifts his eyebrows in surprise, and he walks to me.
«It's Alexander,» he whispers. «You can call me Xander. That's how people in my family address me. Not 'your grace'.»
Alexander...
I'm still surprised by how difficult it is to understand him. I'm still wondering what he is thinking. His fingers caress my cheek and then play with a lock of hair that slipped from the braid. I don't dare to move away, and his attentions are not too bothering.
«I'm here to apologise,» he whispers, somehow lost in thought. I look at him through the mirror, trying not to be found out peeking. He looks like he's in another dimension, where nothing and nobody can reach him.
Apologise for what, by the way?
For winning the war? Caging the most beautiful city under the clench of the Empire? Not executing me immediately, instead of slowly eating my soul?
YOU ARE READING
Crazy Duke and Fallen Queen
RomanceShe's the Queen who lost a war. And he's the man who won. Theodora was the Queen of Polis, a city-state that lost the war against the most powerful empire in the continent. She is sure that they'll execute her immediately, but somehow she survives t...
