Blue Blood and Belgium Chocolate

|29| The Escape of Duke

PRINCE LAURENT

and his loneliness

I KNOW WHAT I'm doing is stupid. I don't need an additional reminder as I linger by the garden near the kitchen. Truth is, I want to see the blonde girl with the crooked teeth. So, I'm walking around, within sight of the kitchen doors, Duke on his leash in my hand.

I feel a bit like an idiot. My heart is racing so fast it feels like one of the chefs might come out and ask me what I'm doing here. 

I try to be calm. 

Act like I'm doing something important like walking Duke. But Duke makes it difficult by tugging at the brown leather leash to dart off somewhere he hasn't gone in circles for the fifth time. 

The door opens and my heart spikes, I quickly turn to pretend I'm walking Duke in a direction where I can glance at the door. Then my heart falters. It's the chef who doesn't like Duke and from his glance I can tell he's not pleased the two of us are right outside the Kitchen's backdoor. 

The man's holding some compost in his hands as he takes it to the vegetable patches in the garden. He glances at us, but doesn't say anything or stumble over himself to bow. 

Why should he? I'm the fifth. I can't stop feeling bitter about it, as he heads back to the kitchen. It's probably a bad idea, I'm even doing this.

I let Duke tug on the leash as we move away from the kitchen. The door opens again and a familiar blonde head comes out. She's smiling as she moves towards me. "Greetings Prince Laurent," She says cheerfully walking towards me. 

"Hey," I say back, wishing I knew her name. Her strides are almost playful, comfortable even as she comes towards me. I liked it. "What are you doing here?"

"Chef Tumas doesn't like Duke lingering too near the kitchen," She says smiling. "So, he sent me here to politely tell you please walk him away from the kitchen."

I raise a brow, "any reason why he can't tell me himself?"

She smiles at this, "Because they think you're very wild and will probably bring him in the kitchen."

I laugh, "They're not wrong."

She's still smiling at me with her slightly crooked teeth that I want to stare at, but I force my eyes to meet those lively lime green eyes. She bites her lip, drawing my eyes back there again. "Please don't go in there with Duke," she says half serious half teasing. "I don't want Chef Tumas coming after me."

I smirk, "I'm afraid you'll have to stop me from heading there." I walk towards the general direction of the kitchen.

She steps in between but I don't falter... at least till she puts her hand on my chest.

Then, I stop, and look down to meet her eyes again. The smile is gone on her lips but there's something shining in her bright eyes. 

"Please don't," she says. Then after a breath adds "sir."

I want to step forward and I want to step back all at the same time. Her hand burns through my shirt and into my skin. Never has anyone touched me like this. 

Duke then lurches forward, remnants of his lack of training forcing me to collide into her. We both lose balance and I let go of the leash. My hands grab her, as I try to stop both of us from falling on the grass. 

My efforts, in case you were wondering, were in vain. 

We both fall, me falling on top of her. 

"Ouch," she groans. I immediately move up, moving the worst of my weight off of her. 

"Sorry," I mumble. I quickly hop off, ignoring the burning in my cheeks as I ran to catch my wild dratted dog. 

"Duke," I shout, running after the devil himself. He's already got quite a headstart from the two of us. 

"Laurie?" Fabianne says as I run past her and Elle. 

"Is his cheeks red?" I hear Elle giggle to Fabianne as I ignore them, trying to catch Duke.

At the rate he's going, I might as well get one of the palace horses out from the stables to catch him. 

I never thought about the benefits of having four solid very strong legs to push you. There's once a time I could keep up with him but with the vitamins and supplements we're giving him, he's managed to put weight on his once starved frame. That weight has clearly turned into muscle. 

"Duke," I shout furtively. "Duke, come here!"

Duke ignores me. 

I mean, everyone does the same here but it doesn't sting any less.

Or was it because I'm feeling a little winded.

I stop, because face it, I can't keep up with him. 

I slump on the ground, not bothered if the grass would stain my off white shorts. I watch him dash off in the garden. Running as fast as his legs would carry him. Great.

First, I royally embarrassed myself in front of her. 

I didn't even help her get off the grass. What was wrong with me?

Second, there's a wild Duke running around -

Duke was running straight towards me. 

Drool drips from sharp canine teeth. 

I wait for him to dash to the side.

But he doesn't.

It occurs to me a second to late when he collides into me, pushing me to the ground. With a wet tongue and 15 seconds he's effectively licked every spot on my face.

You'd think I'd be annoyed because I'm drenched in saliva, but my lips are curled in the biggest grin, so hard that it feels like a strain on my face.

Because he ran to me.

And this was something he wouldn't have done a fortnight ago. 

AN

I wasn't kidding when I said Laurie's chapters were easier to write. HAHAHAHA, maybe it's because I see a lot of myself in Laurie and Daegan. 

The events of this chapter is inspired by my Golden Spitz Honey when I took her for a walk after my accident and she broke free from the leash. Unlike Duke, she ran back to me when I called and it meant the world. 

Warm wishes, 

Pain.