Chapter 102 Round 2

Seeing how nervous Luciana was, Alicia almost rolled her eyes. Even though Luciana had come to her with bad intentions, she doubted that the young lady would be bold enough to do anything.

"While taking me around the palace, we will get to see the stable too, is that right?" Alicia asked hopefully.

"Yes, if you want to. Why?" Luciana asked curiously, wanting to know why Alicia was interested in the stable or riding a horse.

"Nothing serious. I just want to see that horse..."

The rest of her words trailed off when someone knocked on the door, and they both turned to see who was there. "Come in," Alicia said, wondering who was coming to see her so early in the day.

Her nose wrinkled in dislike when the door opened, and Beth walked in, looking rather pale and humble."

You don't have to be here. You are no longer responsible for her," Princess Luciana informed Beth, thinking she had come to report for duty to Alicia.

"I'm aware, my lady. I only came to apologize to her," Beth said without meeting Alicia's gaze, and Alicia could tell that her apology wasn't a sincere one.

Who cared whether the apology was a sincere one or not? As long as Beth was here to apologize, and she knew that it was something that Beth hated to do, she was fine. Alicia folded both hands in front of her as she watched Beth and waited for her to go on with the apology.

"I'm listening. Go on and apologize," Alicia said in a condescending manner as she crossed both arms in front of her.

Beth gritted her teeth in annoyance as she bowed her head. She really did not see any reason why she had to apologize to someone like Alicia. She had gone to present herself to the Queen to let her know that she was feeling better now, and the Queen had ordered her to apologize to Alicia, hence she was here. Who would have thought this stupid human would treat her like this?

"I am sorry for everything I've said or done wrong to you," Beth's nails dug into her palm as she apologized, and Alicia didn't miss it, nor did Luciana miss it.

?

Alicia eyed her as she walked up to her and patted her back in a manner that she knew Beth would despise. "I'm sure you are sorry, my dear. Try to be a good girl from now on," Alicia said in a pleasant tone.

"Now you can go and sin no more," Alicia said dismissively, with a smirk, before walking away to the bathroom.

As she had her bath, she remembered what had transpired between her and Harold that morning. He had said that she hugged him and touched him. Why did she do that? Why did he let her do it? The question that was begging for an answer in her head was, why did he sleep on the bed with her? If he had taken advantage of her, she would have known that it was for sex, but he didn't. So what other reason did he have for being with her in her room? And what was the reason he asked that she sleep in his room with him? Was he perhaps beginning to fall in love with her? Was that why he didn't want her to leave and kept saying she was his wife and not Amber?

She had no idea what to think about that. But her heart was racing at the thought, causing her to bury herself in the bath.

He was going to ruin her plans if he loved her. Her plan had been to make him believe that she was going to stop trying to run away now, but maybe now she needed to include another plan in it. She could try to make him hate her so that he would want her to disappear.

'Arrgg!' she groaned in frustration. It didn't make sense. She couldn't accomplish both at the same time. It was going to have to be one or the other. Unfortunately, knowing how smart Harold could be, she doubted that he was going to fall for it.

What was she going to do now? Who knew how much she must have said to him in her drunken state? She couldn't even bring herself to ask him that. But she trusted herself to not have revealed anything.

Alicia's stomach rumbled noisily, reminding her that she had yet to have a proper meal for the past two days. With a resigned sigh, she got out of the bath, feeling sorry for herself as she prepared to go for breakfast.

Away from Alicia's chamber, as Harold made his way down the hall for breakfast, he massaged his temple, which was seriously aching. Although he had slept peacefully the whole night, he had never been this stressed out in his entire life as he kept trying to come up with a plan to keep Alicia. If he had known that marriage would bring him this much trouble, he would have thought twice about it before he agreed to make that trip to Amber's kingdom.

Of all the people in the world that could have possibly possessed Amber's body, why did it have to be someone as erratic as that? She kept making him do silly things, yet he wanted her to stay, and he couldn't even begin to understand why.

"Good morning, your highness," Williams and Susan greeted Harold in unison as they approached the dining hall.

On seeing the twins, Harold's steps faltered as he remembered what Alvin had said about Williams' meeting with the queen and Ivan. Although he didn't trust anyone in the palace apart from Alvin and Ali...

Wait, what? Alicia? Did he trust her? His brows creased in a frown at the thought. Why would he trust her? What did she do to earn his trust?

Seeing the frown on Harold's face, the twins assumed that Harold was displeased with them or something, so they hurried out of Harold's way and went into the dining room.

Harold shook his head to get rid of his thoughts as he walked into the hall. Surprisingly, Alicia was already seated in the hall, and once she saw him coming, she flashed him a smile that made him suspicious.

"Good morning, my lord," Alicia greeted with a bow, surprising everyone but Harold, who smirked as he sat down.

He wasn't the least bit surprised. He could tell that she was thinking that her plan was still secret. Even more amusing was the fact that she was going to act like nothing happened between them that morning. Judging by her behavior, he could also guess that she had probably been told or remembered what she had done to him.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked, and she smiled at him.

"Very well, my lord. I hope you did the same."

Everyone, including Ivan, listened to the exchange between the couple, wondering what was going on between them.

"It seems like you are both getting along now. I'm happy for you, little brother," Ivan commented with a smile, but neither Harold nor Alicia had the time to respond as the king and queen made their entrance at that time, and they all stood up.

Once the King sat down, and they all sat down to eat, the whole place was quiet and devoid of the usual small talk as everyone had different thoughts running through their minds.

But one thing they were all grateful for was the absence of the King's Beta.

While Harold was busy thinking about how to keep Alicia from leaving, she was thinking about how to execute her plans and win Hellion's heart.

The king, on the other hand, was thinking about how Harold was looking healthier lately and was wondering if what he had heard about Harold spending the night in his wife's chamber was correct.

The queen's mind was occupied with the conversation she had with Williams the previous evening. She hoped that Williams would be able to get her the information she needed while Ivan was thinking about what his mother had said about getting another wife if Luciana was unable to conceive.

Susan and Tyra were occupied with thoughts of the hunting festival, while Williams worried about the queen's request. Paulina was scared and nervous enough as it was, and he really didn't want to get her into any trouble. Besides, Harold would never let him go if he happened to so much as find out anything. What could he do? Do it and get on Harold and Paulina's bad side, or not do it and get on the Queen and his father's bad side? He wished he could confide in someone about it, but he couldn't tell Susan. That would only upset her and put her in trouble, and he didn't want that.

Harold's eyes suddenly lit up when something occurred to him, and he hid a smile. She wanted to leave? Well, he would love to see how she would escape without a horse. Why didn't he think of that sooner?

Well, Hellion was in trouble.

ROUND 2:

Harold 1-0 Alicia.