"Plan Get Out Of A Bad Relationship?" Henry echoes, confused.
"Yeah, the name of my plan to end my engagement successfully." I clarify. I guess I didn't mention the name when I was explaining the plan earlier. Eh, not that big of a deal.
"Lady Annelise, you should shorten it or change it to 'Plan Break Out' or a different name," Mary suggests.
"Plan Get Out Of A Bad Relationship is too long and confusing. It's not time efficient." She adds on. I thought it was a pretty cool name? But Plan Break Out does sound cooler. Like a spy movie title or something.
"Okay, let's change it to Plan Break Out then. Good idea Mary!" I give her a thumbs up.
"Okay, let's get down to business now that everyone is here." I pull out a sheet of paper from my dress pocket. It's a basic outline of my plan. I brought it just in case I forgot to mention something.
"So, me and Henry will be meeting with Prince Orion tomorrow to get him to agree to end our engagement. His cooperation would really help speed up the process." I explain.
"Henry, I will be introducing you to Prince Orion as my personal knight. I won't drop the bomb of being my lover yet, but we should show some signs of it, so it doesn't seem too sudden." I turn to Henry.
"We should practice being lovers so that it doesn't look too awkward or weird. But we can talk about the details later." Henry already looks a little uncomfortable about being my lover but that's okay. We can practice and get more comfortable with each other.
"Anyways, besides his cooperation to end the engagement and introducing Henry, I also need to get his permission to stay at the royal castle. I'm going to use the engagement process as an excuse to stay for a prolonged period of time, but if in the worse case, I'll use the upcoming party as an excuse to stay over." I've thought about it a lot and even though I don't really want to see my fiance- ex-fiance-, gushing over another person, breaking off the engagement is the most important. The longer it drags out, the worse it will be. I don't want to attract any more trouble or convolute the waters and speed up my death flag.
"So Mary, I need to get my stuff ready before tomorrow's meeting so I can stay over at the castle immediately." I turn to Mary, who has been relaxing this entire time, enjoying the snacks. I feel a little jealous that she's just chilling, but I'll make her work!
"Yes, I assumed as much, so I already packed most of your essentials when you were meeting with Sir Henry earlier," Mary says as she pours herself another cup of tea.
"Good thinking!" I give her a thumbs up. She knows me too well.
"Okay, so we three will be staying at the royal castle for at least a few days, maybe a month, if I can't get enough evidence to support the engagement ending. So you guys-" I point to Mary and Henry.
"Need to pack your stuff too. I don't know if Prince Orion will let us stay together, so make sure to bring the necessities too!" I look at them to make sure they're paying attention.
"I don't have much, so it won't be a problem," Henry says. Mary nods in agreement.
"Hopefully, we can get this over with quickly, I don't really want to be staying at the royal castle for a long time, it doesn't look good for either side if a duke's daughter is staying over indefinitely." I sighed.
"Not to mention, I don't really want to interact with my former fiance when he's all over another person."
"Oh yes, I wanted to ask about that." Mary raises her hand. I gesture to her to go on.
"How do you know that Prince Orion likes someone else? And that he has the intent to marry her?" Mary asks. Henry looks interested as well. Hmm how do I phrase this? It is true that before this I was completely oblivious to his romance with his maid. I only know because of my memories and his weird behavior matching the story in the novel.