An almost magical urge seemed to be pulling her into his arms but she mentally fought it.
His big warm hand had a comforting pressure on her small cold one, as he lifted his other hand to take the cloth out of hers.
Holding her fingers next to his cheek he leaned into her soft palm, stroking his cheek with it.
Not even alcohol could ever get him as addicted as he felt towards her touch. He felt like the longer he'd been unable to be close to her the stronger his longing turned.
Their intertwined hands lowered, and Alice knew she needed to speak to him, argue with him and figure out what the heck was going on, but her heart had other plans.
The room was cold but both of them felt warm in the presence of each other.
Theodore began to stroke his bondeds cheek, running his thumb over her face gently, down to her lips.
Alice craved for his lips on hers and the intoxicating love that he seemed to rule her world with, but her common sense told her to snap out of it.
She took a step back and tried to loosen his grip on her hand and face. She needed to talk, not to get emotional.
Theodore wasn't having it. His grip on her hand tightened before she could free herself. He pulled her into his arms, gently placing his chin on her head.
His big arms slithered around her back and her shoulders.
"I've missed you, little Alice." He said, his emotions running free, partially because of the alcohol that was making the library spin lightly as the adrenaline from the fight faded.
Raising her hands behind his back she wanted to hold him.
A memory of her fear that he made her feel back in Walzenor flashed through her head, and she lowered her hands instead of embracing him.
"Where were you?" She whispered, ignoring what he said.
His embracing arms loosened, letting her stepping back and away from him.
"In the pub." He said now avoiding her look.
He couldn't look at her when he felt like he was lying to her.
"Why?"
"To drink." He rolled his eyes.
"I, I know that, but you should tell me when you leave so we can avoid- all this." She gestured to his face, visually flustered by his simple answer.
Theodore was about to argue when the door slammed open, loudly banging the wall.
"Alice!" Her mother's voice boomed.
Alice turned quickly, to look at the queen, who was carefully scanning the situation.
"Mother?"
"What are you doing? I heard about your knight causing trouble."
"He wasn't, he was just, just following orders." She tried to explain, not understanding why her mother was making a scene.
Theodore didn't move. He just stared at the Queen.
"Leave us," she waved at Theodore irritatedly.
"Wha-why?" Alice argued.
"Alice, you're the princess of Lyria. You're not a servant, responsible for some knights wounds. Now leave us, I need to speak with my daughter." She said angrily.
Theodore looked unphased but his eyes shot to Alice. She nodded subtly, making him sigh in annoyance as he got up from the table and slowly left the room.
The queen eyed him strictly, and soon the door fell shut, with an equally loud bang, as when the queen entered.
Alice could hear her mother cussing under her breath.
"What's going on?" Alice asked.
Her mother sighed and looked around, for a place to sit, but decided against it after all.
"Honey, your father doesn't want me telling you, but there is a group of rebels planning on overthrowing us."
Alice was surprised but it made sense to her.
"Why am I not allowed to know?"
"Because we're not certain that it's true or if it's just a rumor."
"Who wants to start a rebellion and why?"
The seriousness of the situation was incomparable to the eased feeling they had had during the talk in the kitchen.
Things were serious now, this wasn't a game and both of the two woman knew that.
"We don't know who, but we're working on it. Before you arrived back here a man tried to assassinate your father, while we were in town."
The Queens majestic and authoritative aura reminded Alice of how much her mother cared for her country. She always stood straight, her chin high.
Before Alice could ask about it her mother already went on, "No one got hurt but since then we've been receiving a lot of information about the rebellion. We cannot trust anyone, and I'm sorry to say this but I don't want you to spend to much time with your knights."
"But they're from Walzenor, they only listen to their king, who is my bonded." The princess argued. It wasn't really a lie.
"That may be so but you wouldn't know what people would do for gold. It is something you must still learn. People are bribable." He mother said strictly.
"I disagree." People's morals should always be worth more then gems and gold.
"Whatever you may think, I don't want you spending time with anyone alone."
Alice wasn't in the mood for an argument so she nodded.
Till it was long past dark she'd used her time to free her mind off of everything that had happened and read up on her country's past once more.
For her plan to work she needed information...
———————————————
After having slammed the door, Theodore had started making his way towards the servants quarters. He knew he couldn't talk back to the queen but he was still angry at her.
He didn't want to bump in to Emeric.
If rumor of the King of Walzenor was here in Lyria, it would make his castle back home a target, putting his little brother Jaxon at risk. No one should know of him being here. He had been polish for leaving his helmet here in the castle.
With every step he took nausea seemed to overwhelm him.
He gripped his stomach area where he'd gotten the blows trying to keep it together. He would never show Alice that he was in pain but now that he was alone he felt horrible.
She gave him strength and now she was absent.
Swaying through the halls, sweat started to run down his forehead and neck as he turned dizzy.
The combination of alcohol and violence towards his abdomen wasn't mixing well. He changed his course trying to find a way out of the castle as he urged for a breath of fresh air.
Turning a corner, he almost bumped into someone. The mans eyes met his and an evil grin formed on his familiar face.
"Oh, my," he said, as Theodore realized that was that highly ranked knight from earlier. Sir Haden or something like that, Theodore thought to himself.
"You don't look all that well," Sir Hadrian spoke, clearly amused by the damage he'd caused.
Theodore clenched his jaw as the two of them stared at each other. Sir Hadrian was a tall man, about the same height as Theodore and there was something malevolent about him.
"Hope you get well soon," he chuckled bumping into Theodores shoulder roughly as he strode passed him.
Theodore chest seemed to burn with furry and he swore to himself that he'd be the one to kill that stupid knight one day, before he turned to the wall and emptied his stomach on the cobble floor, making his eyes tear and his throat burn.
May god have mercy on him because Theodore will not...