Seize the Day

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

The castle had finally settled down after two weeks of mourning and anxiety. It wasn’t exactly peaceful, but the guards had stopped jumping out of their skins at every noise. Kasib still resided in the castle, saying that Titus wasn’t fully healed yet. Part of me thought that the physician was simply scared to leave.

Now, as I sat in the study room with Clarice, I was enjoying the silence while she scribbled tirelessly in her worksheet. The sky outside the window was clear and beautiful. It was like the world had forgotten everything about Fallon De Luca’s assassination. I desperately wished that I could forget him as well, but that was impossible. I would never forget the look on his face as he took that fatal wound to his chest.

“I’m done.”

I started at the triumphant sound of Clarice’s voice. She handed me the worksheet. “All twenty-four questions are completed.”

“Good job,” I told her, checking the paper. She had answered every question correctly. It was no surprise to me, since Clarice was forbidden from leaving the castle grounds. All she could do was stay inside and study the materials I had given her. At first it was fine—Clarice was too scared to leave. Now she was stir-crazy and annoying the life out of me.

Clarice took a pin from her bun, causing her auburn locks to cascade over her shoulders. With a “Hrmph!” the duchess’ daughter laid her cheek on the table, gazing at me with steadfast grey eyes. “Lannie, I want to go outside and stuff.”

I sighed. For the past several days, she had expressed her desire to go outside every day without fail. “You can’t go outside ‘and stuff,’” I said, making it a point to correct the unnecessary addition to her sentence, “so stop asking.”

“Please, Lady Brackenbury?”

“Honorifics mean nothing to me. Stop sucking up.” I gathered my textbooks into my messenger bag. “Why don’t you go have lunch with Titus? I’m sure that would raise your spirits. And it would allow Odelia to focus on something else, I suppose.”

“What?” I looked up to see Clarice gaping at me. She was clearly insulted. “I’d rather die than have lunch with that pathetic excuse for a prince!”

I stared at her for a moment before I was forced to cover the laugh that escaped my mouth.

“Why are you laughing?” Clarice became red in the face and clenched her fists on the table. “It’s not funny! My mother wants something completely other than what I want, if you haven’t already noticed. Apparently, you haven’t noticed,” she added, noting my chuckling.

“No,” I said, wiping my eyes, “it’s just that your mother is so…confident of your relationship with Titus. Serves her right to be contradicted by her own daughter.”

Clarice sat back in surprise. “I wouldn’t go that far.” Her uncomfortable look made me wonder if what I said upset her. “I just don’t want to be stuck with that prince for the rest of my life.” The way she said that prince was filled with evident distaste.

“He’s not that bad,” I objected. I didn’t dislike Titus because he wasn’t arrogant like many other Royals I had heard about (Odelia, for example). But no one said that Titus wasn’t annoying.

“You don’t know him like I do.” Her lips were set into a firm line, her face a mask of barely concealed fury. “He’s dangerous.”

I blinked. Of all the things for her to say, I didn’t expect for her to say that. Her serious expression kept me from laughing. “What do you mean by ‘dangerous’?”