Sundown

arena

Saoirse was rushing from corridor to corridor in search of Pauline. The guests were to arrive that day and the Princess needed to be ready, if only she could be found.

She bumped into another house servant passing by, who was carrying a tray full of silver utensils, knocking it over.

"Watch it, wench!" He huffed out in annoyance, quickly bending down to retrieve everything.

"Have you seen the princess anywhere? It is quite urgent." She enquired, slightly out of breath from all the running around.

"In the arena." He said and Saoirse darted off toward the arena, one of her favourite places in the castle, where all the royal men trained themselves in the art of warfare. Pauline sometimes liked to go and watch the training sessions and mostly she took Saoirse with her.

When the girl reached the large, intimidating arena, the air heavy with the smell of sweat and blood, she found Pauline sitting on one of the front seats in the spectators' area. She approached the princess to find her nervously fiddling with the sapphire ring on her index finger.

"Pauline?" Saoirse tried.

The princess, with a start, turned to look at Saoirse, relieved to find it was only her.

"Sit with me." Pauline spoke, her eyes trained on the the fencing ground.

"You know I can't. The seat next to you is for another royalty. Serving maids just stand close by." The spectator areas for royal ladies were built at a height, each area consisting of two throne like seats for the ladies and plenty of space in the bank for their maids.

"You and your damnable protocol. There is not another soul here apart from us, Timmy and his training companions, who couldn't care less who was up here." Pauline replied.

"The Prince is here?"

"Oh, you of all people should notice him right away in a room." Pauline teased and Saoirse couldn't help the scarlet that covered her cheeks and ears. She looked toward the fencing field and sure enough he was there. Saoirse's blush deepened and her breath was caught in her throat when she saw Timothèe, naked on his upper half, expertly swinging his sword he called 'Edge', the muscles of his sculpted, pale back flexing as he easily disarmed the three others training with him. He put Edge back in her sheath as a servant took it from him, placing it by his clothes and another offered him water.

He ran a hand through his lush, brown curls in an attempt to get some air into his sweaty scalp and another servant came by with a towel, wiping the perspiration off of his back, shoulders, arms and front.

"Saoirse? Saoirse?" She heard Pauline call and with a jump, she apologised for not paying attention.

"You came here for something? If you're done ogling at my dearest brother that is." Pauline teased again and Saoirse hated herself for being so obvious about her desires.

"In case you've forgotten, the guests start arriving today and I need to get you ready."

"Oh my God why didn't you come find me earlier? I would hate to not be the first royal who receives the Prince of Brookwood!" Pauline panicked as she got up, took Saoirse by the arm and rushed out the spectator area and down the stairs. They passed corridor after corridor, still nowhere near her chamber. It was time like these when she hated living in a huge castle and would rather prefer a cottage in the woods.

"Pauline, you need to slow down before you trip and fall. Surely the prince wouldn't like a limping princess. Besides, it is just a little after dawn and the guests from Brookwood arrive by twilight." Saoirse reasoned with her, knowing how logic cancelled out the princess's panic.

"You are right. You are always right. You know sometimes it's hard to believe that you're not a royal." Pauline spoke, her former pace slowed down to a walk.

"And why is that so?" Saoirse asked.

"You're too bright and charismatic to not be one."
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Author's note
I know this doesn't need to be made clear but the characters used in this book are people from real life and some of them are my imagination. This in no way is a representation of any of their real personalities and everything written in this book is purely fiction, so treat it like that.
Hope you're enjoying what you've read till now.

Gordon Ramsayingly,
Smriti.