Annabeth and Percy sat together on the second floor terrace of the most famous and exclusive tea house in the royal city. Anyone looking up could see the pair talking and laughing together which was exactly what the pair planned. For sure, rumors would soon spread around the city that Duke Jackson and Lady Annabeth of the Chase family were on the path to be married.
Even more attention was thrown onto the couple as there were rumors that Count Castellan had wanted to be engaged to Lady Annabeth. The popular story went that the Duke and the lady saw each other for the first time at the Autumn Harvest festival, they supposedly fell in love at first sight. Annabeth was sure that Percy, who had quite a few friends in the influential society circles, had helped to spread the rumor. She had been prepared for the fact that society would look poorly on her for switching marriage candidates so quickly, and to one that made her seem like a woman chasing for wealth.
In truth, Annabeth was teasing Percy's limited architectural knowledge while holding a smile on her face. "I thought a Duke's education was supposed to be quite expansive. How could it be far limited than a lowly Baron's daughter's education?"
"I'm afraid I was too busy defending the nation and growing my trading company to be completely versed in every subject." Percy returned with a gentle smile on his face. "You'll have to excuse my deficiencies in such arcane and useless knowledge such as architecture."
His butler's mustache twitched as Annabeth's grip on her fork tightened. On the outside, the pair seemed to be enjoying their lunch but their conversation mostly consisted of launching small insults at each other. But there was a light in his master's eyes that suggested that he did enjoy the talk despite the barbs.
Fortunately, no other person was there to hear the truth of the couple's conversation since Percy had rented out the entire second floor of the tea house. Patrons usually had to schedule a reservation weeks in advance, but his master had secured the entire floor in one week. His master was very capable indeed.
Annabeth carefully reviewed both copies of the final contracts Percy had brought. It wasn't that she distrusted him, but she wanted to make sure that no other corrections needed to be made. The once a week term was still there. At least she had managed to change it from his original condition of 'at least once a week', which meant she could have shared her bed with him practically every day if he chose to. Was her memory from Lady Rachel incorrect and the Duke was actually a sex fiend?
Still ultimately satisfied, Annabeth and Percy marked their family seals on the copies of the contract.
"Is the count still bothering you?" Percy asked.
"Not directly." Annabeth's brows furrowed.
Kelli visited the Chase mansion often and Annabeth was running out of reasons to avoid her cousin. After her uncle and aunt had passed away, Kelli had declined to move into the Chase mansion. Now Annabeth was glad Kelli had made that decision or else Annabeth would be pestered day and night in her own home.
"Lady Kelli?" Percy ventured a guess.
"How did you know that?" Annabeth asked.
Percy smiled mysteriously.
"You had them followed." Annabeth surmised.
The Black Knights Order were officially part of the royal army that guarded the royal city, but according to her father, they were actually a secret intelligence network used by the royal family. The Black Knights Order tended to comprise of commoners more than the White Knights Order.
"Did you find anything interesting?" She asked.
"Count Castellan and your cousin seem to be very...enamored with each other. But you already knew that."
Percy picked up his teacup and drank the fragrant green tea. Tea was a luxury good whereas coffee was common in the Cuora nation. For the Duke to have access to such good tea meant Annabeth's new fiance was very, very wealthy.
"You seem to have gathered more information than you have said." Annabeth said.
Percy's green eyes twinkled in amusement. "What makes you think that? Information comes at a price, you know."
"How stingy."
Hmm, he was as shrewd as ever. Annabeth leaned forward and nibbled on a cookie.
"All right. How many gold coins does it cost?"
Percy held up one finger.
"One gold coin?"
She didn't think it would be as cheap as that.
Percy grinned wolfishly and winked. "One kiss."
Never mind, Annabeth took what she had thought back. The man in front of her was an excellent extortioner.
"Not willing?" Percy asked.
Annabeth knew that the intelligence network the Black Knights had was extremely thorough. The information Percy had was probably very valuable. No doubt, Percy already had her investigated from the moment she dropped her handkerchief dressed as a maid.
Well, she could afford a kiss, especially since she was going to marry the man anyways. Annabeth had never kissed Luke during the entirety of their courtship until after marriage, and even then he often gave chaste kisses. Besides, Percy didn't mention where to kiss him so she could just peck him on the cheek.
But the sly man already had plans, it seemed. Annabeth came around the table only for Percy to pull her in. Annabeth looked up at Percy with his arms around her waist.
"Wait, what are you doing-"
There was a huge cracking sound as Annabeth suddenly found her feet no longer touching the floor. Percy's arms swung her around and her feet found the ground again. There were screams and shouts in the air.
Annabeth coughed as a cloud of dust blew around her. She had to wait for the dust to clear before she could fully open her eyes. Where the terrace was before now existed a huge gaping hole where half of the structure had fallen down. People on the streets and in the tea house were crying out loud, all surprised that the terrace had suddenly fallen.
"Oh my lords, Your Grace, Lady Annabeth! Are you all right?" Percy's butler said.
Employees from the tea house came thundering to the terrace, making sure their most esteemed guests were not harmed.
"I'm fine. Lady Annabeth?"
Annabeth sneezed twice from the dust. "I'm okay."
She squinted up at Percy who didn't seem startled at all. His eyes were too busy scanning the scene of onlookers. A small realization hit Annabeth on the timing of the kiss. He must have known something was wrong.
"Let's get somewhere safer, shall we? I'll escort you down."
As Annabeth and Percy exited the tea house, a man stepped up. "Lady Annabeth? Would you like go back now?"
He was apparently the driver to her carriage, but Annabeth felt something was strange about the man. He wasn't the driver who had brought her into the city. In fact, this man appeared to be slightly nervous in the eyes.
"Where's the original driver?" She asked, suspicious.
No servant in the house usually called her Lady Annabeth. They all called her Miss Annabeth at her request.
"Ah, he was called back into the mansion but I am his replacement, Lady Annabeth."
"So, my driver didn't even personally notify me nor my maid? How disrespectful of him." Annabeth said. "I am not going back now. I still have some errands to do. Stay here and wait."
Hoping Percy could get the hint, Annabeth signaled at him with her eyes. Thankfully, he understood.
Annabeth allowed Percy to escort her into a private carriage bearing the symbol of the Black Knights Order.
"You already knew that the terrace was going to collapse, didn't you?" Annabeth accused. It was the first question she wanted to ask. "Why didn't you let me know sooner?"
"I expected that something was going to happen, but not that someone would be so insane as to bomb the terrace."
Percy peered out the window at the broke terrace. Workers were scrambling to clear out the mess.
Annabeth observed the onlookers still mesmerized by the rubble of the terrace. She caught the eye of someone in a hooded cloak who instantly retreated into the crowd, no doubt a person who instigated the crime or someone sent to report on the results. A few seconds later, two Black Knights slipped after the hooded figure.
"So someone did this on purpose." She murmured.
"Once the word got out that I rented an entire floor of the tea house, I found it quite interesting that the terrace was suddenly due to be renovated yesterday."
"And you didn't decide to choose another place?"
This man was unbelievable!
"I was, but then I felt the tea house owner who blabbed about my patronage needed to be punished as well." Percy smiled. "Don't worry, they weren't aiming for you."
Just then, there was a small commotion outside the tea house. The tea house owner was being dragged out by two Black Knights.
Damn him, Percy was far more dangerous than Annabeth thought. Not just that he himself was dangerous, but the people trying to kill him for their nefarious purposes were dangerous as well. How the hell had Lady Rachel survived this? She never mentioned this a single time to Annabeth, or else Annabeth would have just exposed Luke's and Kelli's affair and never gotten engaged to Percy!
"Don't be too sympathetic for the owner. He was embezzling from my company. Besides, if the terrace hadn't collapsed, then whoever did this would have realized that I was on to him or her. Now they'll just consider it unfortunate that I survived. But I apologize. I did not mean to use you as bait, nor will I do so in the future."
"And someone else planned on sabotaging my carriage?" Annabeth looked out the window to where her family's carriage was parked.
The driver stared uncomfortably at them. It was so obvious that the driver planned on doing something nefarious to her. Did they think she was stupid?
"I'll have someone look into that as well."
Annabeth had a strong suspicion the person behind this was Kelli. Was her cousin still trying to kill her? Looks like what had happened in her former life was still doomed to happen again, just earlier. But it didn't matter. She would survive, Annabeth swore.
But why would Kelli try to kill her when Annabeth wasn't married to Luke? For Kelli to get any of the Chase inheritance, all the main members of the Chase family had to be dead. Her cousin, Magnus, was also an orphan but he was talented enough to study in the Royal Academy through the Chases' sponsorship. Kelli had refused the same opportunity, like the selfish and lazy person she was.
Annabeth felt a sense of dread for Malcolm. She had to warn her brother and parents to be on the lookout.
"You still have to tell me the information you got on the count and my cousin." Annabeth reminded Percy.
"Of course." Percy tapped on his lips. "Payment first."
Annabeth could hardly get the words out as she glared at her fiance. This infuriating man!
**************************************
Kelli frowned as the fake driver her maid hired came back to her with failed news.
"I'm sorry, Lady Kelli." The driver knelt on the ground before her and bowed his head. "She was escorted by a knight all the way back to the Chase mansion."
Useless, Kelli thought. She had tried to hire someone who was similar in build and appearance to the Chase family's regular driver. Kelli had chosen this one in particular because she felt it was pleasing to have someone call her Lady Kelli, when everyone else in the Chase mansion called her Miss Kelli.
The plan was to have the driver switch out and drive with a broken carriage. The roads were muddy due to the rain and so the carriage wheels would be stuck and break. A small band of bandits would calm and assault her cousin, killing the fake driver and hiding the evidence that he was connected to Kelli. Meanwhile, now that Annabeth's purity would be sullied, the Duke would not want her. Luke, in a gesture of extreme chivalry and kindness, would take Annabeth even if she was not an innocent. At least, that was how it was supposed to be.
Who knew that the Duke actually quite liked Annabeth? In the end, her cousin had been lucky enough to be escorted by her new fiance without any harm. And this useless piece of meat was still here.
"That's quite all right. I'm glad my cousin got home safely, even without your help." Kelli smiled demurely. She handed him a pouch of gold coins. "Here you are, and be on your way."
The driver's eyes let up as he bowed three times. The original payment was only supposed to be ten silver coins. "Thank you, thank you, miss!"
Kelli and her maid watched the man exit out of the small house. Her face dropped the smile.
She didn't deserve to be living in this stupid two bedroom house on the outskirts of the city close to where all the middle class were. This and a small pension to hire one single maid was all the Chase family would give her, while they lived in their huge city mansion and retired to the Chase family lands and the mansions there. She deserved to be the true mistress of those households!
Even with the gold and jewelry Luke had given her, Kelli was not able to enjoy to the fullest extent because Luke was afraid that someone would be suspicious that Kelli suddenly had more wealth than expected of someone who did not work and relied on her relatives. She could not flaunt her beautiful dresses and jewelry at the latest social events, causing her great grief and annoyance.
What Kelli didn't realize in her selfishness and greed was that her uncle had offered her her father's old job despite her not having any of the qualifications. Kelli had rejected, offended that she had to do what her idiotic father did. The offer was not extended again, as she had inadvertently offended her Aunt Athena for saying scholarship was useless. Had she taken that job or the offer of studying in the Royal Academy, she would have made quite a decent income. Instead, Kelli relied on her face and innocence to attract wealthy men, and the biggest fish she lured was Count Luke.
"Go tell those dirty bandits that the plan has changed. Tell them to go kill that driver I hired. The gold on the driver shall be their payment."
Her maid, Miranda, bowed and quickly exited. Kelli sneered at her maid's rough curls. She had picked up the maid as a beggar child on the streets and trained her to be the obedient servant that she was now. She didn't even have to pay the maid's wages.
A few hours later, there was exciting news that reached Kelli's ears. It was the terrace incident. Kelli cursed the hired man for not telling her such big news. Kelli didn't know who caused the terrace explosion, but it was a pity that Annabeth did not die. Her cousin's luck was just too good.
There was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Kelli said impatiently.
Drat, her maid was out, and Kelli had to get up herself to open the door. Opening the door, she swore to give Miranda a good beating when she returned for not being quick enough.
Suddenly, Kelli found a sword pointed at her throat. The sharp point dug in the tender flesh, and a line of red began forming.
"Hello, Lady Kelli Chase. Scream and you'll find yourself without a head. Understand? Good. Why don't we have a cup of tea and talk about how we can help each other?"