Chapter 57

57 Eve

The next day, Caspian was sitting on his throne. The ministers and the councilmen had gathered in the hall. They were all going through the cases that had been forwarded by the human councilmen of the Silver Keep town.

Zenon was standing beside Caspian and was going through the parchments one by one. “A man named Jayleen Harper, age 32, has been accused of **** and murder of three women. He is currently in the custody.”

He flipped to another parchment and read, “A woman named May Wilson, age 25, brutally murdered her old husband...”

When everyone was busy listening to the reports, a messenger silently walked in and bowed everyone in the room. He passed the letters that he was carrying to one of the Royal Guards and then walked away.

That guard handed over the piles of letters to the King.

Caspian frowned and glared at the letters for a while. ‘What is this unpleasant smell?’

He quickly shuffled through the envelopes until he found one letter in particular with the seal of a growling wolf.

‘Royal seal of Xanmar? And... since when were we in talking terms?’ Caspian thought to himself and tore the envelope.

The subtle but pungent smell hit Zenon’s nose as well. He stopped reading the reports and glanced at the King. “Is everything okay, Your Majesty?”

.....

Caspian gave a nod and gestured for him to continue with the reports.

He, on the other hand, opened the letter.

He narrowed his eyes when he saw the first two words.

‘Dear Anna?’ Caspian’s frown lines deepened. He glanced at the bottom of the letter and read, ‘Yours truly, Eve.’

‘Eve? Is she a friend of Anna’s? She never mentioned that she had a friend in Xanmar.’

Caspian shrugged and folded the letter. ‘Well, Orsenia shares a border with Xanmar as well. So I guess, it’s not that unusual.’

Caspian rested his chin on his knuckles and pondered, ‘But is there a Princess with the name Eve in Xanmar? As far as I know, Xanmar only has a Crown Prince. Ah! Nevermind. She might be a first or second cousin of the Crown Prince.’

After the meeting was over, Caspian headed towards the library to find Anastasia.

Anastasia was reading ‘The Castle of Montiro’ along with Martha and Tilla in the library.

The moment the maids saw the King, they got up from their seats and bowed. And they left their King and Queen alone.

“Caspian, is your meeting over?” Anastasia asked her husband with a smile.

“Yes, after long boring hours.” Caspian took out the letter from his pocket and said, “You never told me that you have a friend named Eve.”

Anastasia’s eyes lit up when she heard the name. “Eve? He sent me a letter here?” She reached out her hand to get the letter from Caspian.

However, Caspian raised his hand so that Anastasia wouldn’t be able to reach it. He raised his brows at his wife and asked, “He? Eve is a ‘he’?”

Anastasia laughed and replied, “It’s his nickname that my brother gave him. And I also started to call him by that name. He hates it though.”

Caspian narrowed his eyes and thought, ‘He hates it enough to use that name himself? I wonder if his intention was to deceive me in particular...’ He regretted not reading the letter earlier.

Anastasia held out her palm and asked, “Can I get the letter?”

But Caspian put the letter back inside his pocket and asked, “Tell me more about this Eve person. And who is he to you?” A hint of jealousy could be felt in the tone of his voice.

Anastasia sat back down in her chair and answered her husband truthfully, “He is the Crown Prince of Xanmar, Everard Crestfire. He is my brother’s friend. But he became my friend as well after we began exchanging letters for the past year.”

Caspian didn’t like it at all. His heart was burning with jealousy when he imagined his wife sharing promiscuous words with some Prince.

He stood beside his wife and tucked her reddish-brown hair behind her ears. He then crouched down beside her and asked while trying his best to control his voice, “And what kind of letters, may I ask?”

Though Caspian was asking politely, Anastasia could feel the hostility that he was giving off.

She turned to face her husband and tried to clear whatever he misunderstood, “We used to talk about the normal things – weather, health, art, and literature. Mostly, I used to talk about the novels that he used to send me.”

However, that further pushed Caspian’s jealousy to the edge.

He placed his palm on Anastasia’s thigh. And he asked while rubbing his thumb on her thigh, “And he also used to send gifts to you.” He further asked her in a calm yet chilling tone, “Are you sure that he is just a friend and nothing more?”

Anastasia’s heart began to pick up the pace.

Caspian looked visibly angry and jealous.

She placed her palm on top of his and tried to calm him down. “Caspian, I assure you that there was nothing more between us. Sure, it all began when he asked me if I was available for courtship but-”

Caspian scoffed and rolled his eyes. He tightly grasped Anastasia’s palm. His beautiful eyes now looked like that of a predator ready to pounce on its prey.

And he asked in a threatening tone, “So it was not just a normal friendship, was it? Why did you agree to be my bride when a Crown Prince was dotting on you?”

Anastasia grimaced in pain and tried to get out of his tight grip. “Caspian... you’re hurting me.”

However, Caspian didn’t listen to her.

He grabbed both of her hands by her wrist and accused her openly, “There a hidden agenda behind you coming here, isn’t there? Else why would you insist on staying here with a monster like me?”

Anastasia’s heart skipped a beat because that was true.

Anastasia endured her pain and blurted out the half-truth, “Yes, there’s a hidden agenda behind me coming here. My parents had already given up on me when they sent me here. And I insisted on staying here because I wanted to be loved by someone.”

A few drops of tears rolled down Anastasia’s eyes because of the pain in her wrists.

Caspian’s grip on her wrists was getting tighter by the second.

And she whispered painfully, “I wanted to be loved by you, Caspian. Believe me, that is the only reason why I insisted on staying here.”

Caspian was keeping track of her heartbeat and he knew that she wasn’t lying. But even then, he was having a hard time putting his trust in her words.

He glared at his wife and asked in a harsh tone, “I’m sure this friend of yours would have also loved you enough if love is what you wanted. Why come to me when you didn’t even know if I would ever love you?”

Caspian snickered and pointed out the flaw in her words, “Hell, you hadn’t even seen me before. Neither did you know how old I was. You didn’t know if I already had a wife. When you knew nothing about me, why did you agree into coming here?”