Chapter 292: For His Attention
There was no longer time for me to change my mind about this. I watched in absolute terror as the duchess put a beautifully manicured finger up to her lips to signal for me to stay silent as she waited for the call to connect.
“Oh, Prince Leonard...” the duchess said through the phone.
My entire body stiffened at the mention of the prince’s name. Unlike the carefree way that she usually spoke, the duchess’s voice was now clearly laced with worry as if she had just witnessed an emergency. I gulped while thinking that her acting skills were spectacular. My eyes immediately dropped to my unhurt ankle that was supposed to be sprained while I thought about how I would get through this.
Of course, knew that this was a foolish quest and that I would be nothing more than mincemeat if the prince were to find out that we were literally lying to him. Apart from the fact that it was already too late to turn back time now, I had to admit that I might be willing to go through with this if it meant that I could see the prince again. Even if, it meant that he wasn’t going to be here to see me because he truly wanted to of his own free will.
Even so...I wanted to see him.
“I guess I didn’t mention that. You see, I thought that you would have known had you been paying attention. Of course, I don’t think that it’s your fault. The first prince can never be at fault for anything, you see. Of course, I know that you were simply too busy with everything else. Work must be keeping you busy as always and so I took it upon myself to help out here and there as I could given my limited talent and capabilities...” the duchess spoke smoothly through the phone at a very fast rate.
My eyes widened at the way that she was using her words against the prince. Although she phrased it like it wasn’t his fault, it made me feel like she was making it sound like it was precisely his fault for not turning up to see me. All the while, she sounded so humble, polite, and politically correct. I was curious as to how Prince Leonard was reacting to this and what he was saying, but on the other hand, I was thankful that I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“That’s not what I’m calling about, though. We can discuss this, and you can blame me for everything later on for my absolute carelessness, Your Highness. However, this is a matter of emergency. You see, Mila has been practicing so hard for the past week. I heard that you plan to take her on a foreign visit with you and so this must have all been for that...” she said before taking a pause.
The duchess looked very disturbed and as she spoke it sounded more and more like she was about to start crying. I wondered what the relationship between the prince and the duchess was like. Since she’s Prince Florian’s mother, that would make her kind of like his stepmother in a way. The prince had never mentioned her to me before and perhaps that wasn’t at all surprising considering that he had never mentioned his mother to me either. Once again, I was reminded of how little I knew about Prince Leonard.
“The thing is...while we were practicing, Mila slipped and sprained her ankle...” the duchess confessed like she had committed a great sin that couldn’t be undone.
I had no idea what the prince said but the way the duchess turned to smile a smile full of teeth at me told me that it was exactly what she had wanted to hear from him. Her expression quickly turned sorrowful as she turned her attention back to the phone call once again.
“Yes, please. Please make your way over here as soon as possible. She is in great pain...and I’m so scared...I don’t know what to do...” the duchess pleaded with tears swimming in her eyes.