...54...
BETTER A SECRET THAN A LIE
After much investigation, the truth behind the riding accident and the fall was unveiled about two days later.
The sole cause of the accident was the horse's saddle.
The horse's saddle had ripped.
Red Rose's saddle had been cut, purposefully and left there by someone who was just happily waiting for it to rip while the obvious owner of the horse was riding.
The Emperor had been angry.
How could such a thing have happened in his royal manor?
How?
It was no mistake.
Who was it?
He had no answer to that question.
He wondered if his enemies -the ones he was protecting her from- had finally infiltrated his empire.
He did not know which.
He was not sure if it were them.
Besides, his empire was well guarded.
It was a different thing.
This enemy was an internal one.
This was done by an insider, but who?
But whatever it was, it only meant one thing to him.
Someone had definitely intended to harm the Lady Rose.
That meant that the Lady was no longer safe in his territory.
And if it wasn't with him, where else will she be this safe?
He strode out of his study room and to the bedroom to go see her.
He was just done with some of his official work, and he missed her.
He found her sitted at his writing table, reading a book.
He stood at the door, unnoticed, watching her.
He had ordered that she not leave the bedroom until she was well enough.
And though she had argued that she was, he had won, like always.
'Mine,' he said the moment she sensed him and looked up.
She smiled at seeing him standing there.
'Beast,' she said.
He returned her sweet radiant smile as his blood warmed considerably.
Her endearment for him always did that to him.
Well, he had come to like the name and the effect it brought.
'You are back, again,' she pointed out to him and he laughed.
It was true.
He had been here multiple times today because he kept missing her quite badly as it was.
'Yes,' he finally said when he was done being amused by her. 'What are you reading?' he asked her, going into the room and shutting the door.
'The Linamine Chronicles,' she simply told him as she raised the book for him to see it properly.
'Ahh,' he said with a nod as he went to her. 'I see.'
'I am at the story of the the second Emperor of Linamine, Emperor Ixon Linamine.'
'That would be my great great great great grandfather,' he explained to her.
She nodded.
'You are correct about that. He is an interesting man. I bet if he was still alive he would be a rather molliscent and beguiling charmer, adequately charming clothes of ladies of different calibre,' she told him.
'Seduction is a Linamine trait. It runs in the family Mine.'
She giggled.
'I do not need to be told that, do I?' She was simply asking herself rather than him.
Her lashes lifted, her pupils traveling over him in a rather suggestive way.
The emperor swallowed softly at the subtle but brazen gaze.
'Sometimes, we actually do nothing. Our looks does all the work for us you see?' She said nothing this time, looking away from his sexy melanous eyes.
He was inadvertently seducing her at the moment with those his sexually maleficent eyes -dark, deep, mesmerizing and dangerous.
Her body was beginning to gradually heat up.
'Anyways, why are you reading this? You mightn't have preferred Romance novels to this?'
She shook her head at him.
'I might, but I want to know all about your history.'
Now, that left him stuck in glee.
It was different.
Everything was different now, including them.
Her mind was finally buried there along with her body, her heart somehow finding how to belong to him.
She was no longer thinking of running away from him.
'Then read the recently compiled version. That has my story in it, though I doubt that you need to know that,' he informed her, murmuring the last past of the second sentence to only himself.
'And where can I find this recently compiled version?' she asked him sweetly, currently losing interest in the book she was holding.
'That will be in one of the shelves in my study. I update it every now and then,' he told her.
'When I am done with this,' she said raising the book in her hands once again, 'I shall go and find it. I hope I would not search much for it?'
'You can ask Peter. He would bring it to you,' he suggested.
'Ah Peter!' she said in sudden realization. 'I will ask him to do so much later.'
'Mind you, it is not a diary. And, please do not take that photograph in my drawer,' he said with pleading eyes.
She smiled.
She hadn't thought about doing that at all.
'Wait, you have another photograph of me?' she suddenly asked him in surprise, remembering that she had taken the photograph she had seen before.
He nodded.
'In this one, you are in a pink dress and you are smiling happily,' he orally painted the picture for her.
'Wait, I'm in a dress?' she asked him in disbelief.
'Yes you are.'
'I am?' she asked him again in disbelief. 'But from where do you get all these paintings of me.'
'Before you became an irony, present and absent,' he told her.
'Me?' he nodded. 'But how? I do not understand your parable like words,' she said in perplexity.
'Go back to your reading Mine,' he cajoled her curious mind. 'I promise you that one day, you will understand everything.'
She pouted and made to do so grudgingly.
He hesitated, but finally asked her something that had been bothering him.
'Was there anything off with your horse before you fell off while riding?' he inquired.
She stared quizzically at him.
'Nothing that I noticed,' she answered him all the same.
'Who brought you your horse?' he asked another one.
This time, her questioning brow waxed higher.
'That would be the stable hand of cause. The horse was prepared ahead before we arrived.'
'Your horse is always gentle,' he pointed out. 'What then must have caused Red Rose to rear?'
'Red Rose? You know my horse's name?' she said in surprise.
Well, he seemed to be full of surprises today, didn't he?
'I do not remember ever telling you my horse's name, you know?' she continued.
'I think one of your aides told me that important information. I keep up with your activities Mine,' he added instantly.
She gave him a pointed but suspicious look for a moment.
And when his gaze didn't waver, she "oh-ed" and then nodded in understanding.
'But you are right, something must have startled Red Rose. And something do startled him apart from that explosion I heard. I don't know what, but I knew that he bolted. What even caused that explosion anyways?' she was suddenly curious.
'Fireworks went off by accident somewhere nearby.'
'Oh, that had nothing to do with Red Rose bolting. But, why at that same time?' she pointed out.
'Why what?'
'Why did the fireworks had to go off at that same time?'
'I do not also think that it was a coincidence Mine. I did not rule it out, the possibility that this whole thing was planned. The fireworks must have been to cause some sort of distraction I guess.'
'But you just said it yourself that the fireworks went off by accident?' she asked him.
'I also said that I did not rule out the possibility of all this being some huge scale set up,' he pointed out.
She quietly thought for a while and then nodded in support.
'No one knows who lit the fireworks. The fireworks couldn't have lit themselves, and if that is not suspicious then I don't know what is anymore. The one who cut your horse's saddle had someone do that to put off the investigation and brand this accident as a rearing due to the sound of the fireworks.'
'The saddle's were cut? You did not tell me that!' she snapped at him in shock.
Her irises blazed with unbridled annoyance.
He groaned in frustration.
He had gone and done it.
He wasn't supposed to tell her that until after the culprit was found.
She dropped her book on the table and sat upright with angst.
'Why? Why would someone do that? Someone wants to harm me?'
'Mine, calm down,' he coaxed her in a soft voice and a hand on her shoulder.
He did all while he half sat on the table, thereby facing her.
'I will definitely find whosoever did this and severely punish that half wit.'
She knew it was no threat.
He meant what he was saying to her.
She nodded at him, still in too much shock.
'It's rather scary,' she began after a moment, 'to think that someone wants to harm me. Who on earth could it be? That Draco princess who doesn't hide that she thinks I'm her competition? Or the Xing princess who hates me for no reason? Or the other empress candidates who look at me as if I killed their clan all on my own because they got punished by you?' she told him in agitation.
A bright light bulb suddenly went up in his head at her words.
'You are a genius Mine. You just compiled a list of possible suspects for me. Now I only have to investigate their alibi.'
She stared at him for a second or two before she simply nodded her head.
'Have you had your nosh yet?' he inquired.
She shook her head in answer.
'No I have not,' she continued just after shaking her head, obviously thinking it better to speak to him with her mouth.
'You should have begun by now. It seems like Hyeera is so busy she forgot to come with it. I shall sought her and have her bring it to you,' he informed her.
'I will appreciate that thank you. Now that I really think about food, I am just a little bit hungry at the moment,' she said with a shy smile.
'A little bit? I doubt that. I'm sure you would soon wolf down everything before it actually arrives,' he teased her with a chuckle.
'You talk as if I were a big fat glutton you know?' she said as red began to stain her cheeks.
'Wait, you do not think that you aren't do you?' he said with a mock 'Ohhh' expression.
She flashed him a dirty look and he teased her the more.
'Wait, you do. Ah! For your information, you are just as you described, a big fat glutton.'
She gasped.
'You eat like you hadn't a chance to do do in your previous life. Were you a stone by any chance?' he said as if he were thinking it through.
She sighed with exasperation before she doubled over with her laughter.
'You are one mean beast.'
They laughed together for a little while and then he said to her.
'After you have your nosh, make sure that you rest Mine. And, I do not care if you eat up the whole kitchen. I only care that you are well and healthy,' he said to her.
'Truth?' she asked him with a sweet pout.
He couldn't resist reaching out to touch her full cheeks.
'I would never lie to you Mine, I promise. I would rather not tell you that lie to you.'
'Better a secret than a lie?' Her brows rose high in humour.
'You get me really well these days don't you?' he said to her with a slight chuckle. She smiled in return.
'Yeah, maybe we are in sync. I guess,' she said with a shrug.
'Anyways, try having a catnap too if possible. You hear me?'
'I will do so. I really need to because these days I have a huge appetite but I also get really tired easily, like dead tired.'
She didn't see him, but his brow lifted slightly afterwards.
'After I have eaten, I just fall into bed really quickly. It's like I'm pregnant or something.'
The wide eyes he shot her had her laughing before she could even think to stop it.
'Why are you looking at me like that?' she demanded.
He only stared.
'Like how?'
"You know..." She began.
Then she shrugged.
'Your expression, it looks deadly and lethal at the moment.'
He sighed.
'It's because I keep you. But I haven't ever touched you right?' he asked in a soft voice.
She nodded her answer.
'Then you can't talk of pregnancy unless you have another lover, here," he added.
She smiled.
'No I don't,' she said as her smile morphed into laughter.
A mischievous thought slid into her mind and she voiced it out without any hesitation.
'Then you raped me?' she mocked him slyly.
His eyes widened.
And his composure cracked.
'What the fuck?'
"I'm just teasing," she clarified before she burst again.
It took him a moment to process that it was just a joke.
And then, he joined her, and both of them laughed together.
'You are being really silly today, I swear," he groused.
She shrugged nonchalantly.
'Don't worry, you'll be fine with much rest," he smiled.
'Actually, I am fine,' she stressed.
'I'll go and continue with whatever it was that I was doing before I came here. Though, truthfully, I do not actually remember what it was.'
She shook her head with a tsk sound.
'You really are silly today.'
'Be well.'
'I'll be.'
He began to leave then.
She watched him then, intently, admiring his tall masculine frame.
She was caught red handed when he suddenly stopped and whirled around.
Their eyes met and she instantly flushed a certain shade of purple.
'You were racing with Zoë when you fell right?' he asked her, seemingly not noticing anything out of the ordinary.
She nodded first.
'Ye-yes, yes I-I was,' she stammered in embarrassment.
'Where did you meet her?'
'At the stables?"
She paused to think.
"Or was it the riding arena?" She asked after a minute.
He stared at her, his eyes urging her to remember well.
"I think it is the former. She was there alongside her aide, Jessica. But they were very nice me."
The emperor swallowed.
Something was fishy.
"She particularly meant no harm at all that day I assure you."
Her last statement confirmed that something was indeed suspicious about this.
'That is the more reason to be suspicious. Zoë is never nice to you, or is she?' he asked.
She shook her head.
He thought for a moment and then he just turned and left.
She tittered after he was gone, shutting the door firmly behind him.
She was delighted because he had not had the chance to notice her blaring stupidity.
Meanwhile, the Emperor stood outside the bedroom door and smiled to himself.
She had been ogling him earlier on.
He had been surprised when he had turned and met her eyes.
This time, she had not been disgusted that he had caught her eyes on him.
She had acted like some shy introverted teenage girl.
Heat bubbled up in his chest and a faint smile met his lips.
Finally, his days of unwarranted torture might just be coming to an end.
...OmaPhinaPhire