The duke's daughter

Chapter 4

At the royal palace,

His highness, the prince, was talking with his friends. But something seemed to bother him.

 "Oh what's wrong, your highness?" Duke Chamberlin cooed

"Tsk... stop it, rather, tell me if you have seen that annoying girl" He said while looking away in annoyance.

"You mean the daughter of the duke?"

The prince felt embarrassed for asking, as if he would ever care where that foolish girl would be... It was clear that he only cared about himself, he was just bored and longed for something amusing.

"Yes, are you deaf?!" He burst out in anger.

"I-I... no, your highness. It is just so unusual for you to ask about her."

Then count Abercromby interrupted the conversation, he was Prince Alexander's 'loyal dog' and would always try to please him in order to get on his good side.

"I have heard that the duke has placed his sole daughter on home detention, isn't that interesting?"

His highness scoffed and rolled his eyes at the count. There would be no way possible that the duke would ever do such a thing to his own daughter, and even if it were true, she would have talked herself out of it to go see him.

"Are you sure about that, count?!"

The count rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating, because why else would the prince ask that?

"I... of course your highness. I have my ways to know."

There was an awkward tension starting to create between him and his 'friends', they all stared at him with a weird expression. Some even started to whisper to each other, 'Is he really the prince we know?'

Alexander brushed it off by laughing, hiding his annoyance and frustration. The others glanced back at him to ensure if he was okay.

The prince glared at them when he realized that his very own 'friends' didn't follow him and instead watched how he laughed alone.

"What?! Aren't you idiots going to laugh with me?!"

They looked at each other before awkwardly laughing alongside the prince.

---

Meanwhile at the dukedom, 

Claire was sitting on her bed, still pissed off by the fact that her father, who had never spoken to her before, had decided to give her house arrest.

It was not only the fact that he has never shown any interest in her, but also that now she has nothing to do.

Besides, what will the prince think about her? She had promised to visit him but did not show up. Every second seemed to last forever as the minutes passed. It was almost like going insane, having this constant desire to see him, as if he were her drug.

'He is probably worried...' She thought while biting on her fingernails nervously.

"Milady, do you perhaps want to take a stroll outside, in the garden?"

A voice was heard from behind. The young lady quickly turned her head to see her maid standing there.

"Ah yes..."

There weren't really that many interesting things to see around in the garden, there was only green and some plants... plus it was actually really cold outside.

Thereby, she had to kill time or get the prince out of her head in some way.

'Urgh it is so cold outside...' She thought as she was walking, with some of her maids following from behind, not really paying much attention.