Chapter 163: Meeting At The Palace (2)
"I am facing a lot as it is, His Majesty should spare my trembling soul before I lose consciousness." Orson, who clung to Cassian’s side like a helpless leech, tried to avoid Alaric’s wrath by immediately lowering his head, willingly accepting his mistake, but knowing Alaric since their military days, it would take more than an apology to convince him to let him off the hook.
The young King takes pleasure in browbeating, and it has reduced greatly since he was made King and had to start controlling them, but as they say, old habits die hard.
"Darling, stop frightening the innocent soul. He’s here today as you’ve requested of him, let him be." The young queen, by the name Theresa, nudged her husband’s elbow as a way of persuading him to leave Orson alone, and of course, Alaric couldn’t say no to his beautiful wife when she kept sugarcoating him.
Madeline, on the other hand, felt more nervous than she had ever done. From the corner of her eyes, she could spot the elite guests occupying the corners of the ballroom as their intruding gazes followed her and Cassian. Cassian was basically popular in both the good and the bad, popular enough for his name to reach the lower East quarters where the people there certainly had nothing to do with him.
She shouldn’t be surprised if he gained most of the attention, but then why were their gazes following her as well?
"Ah yes! And the action woman herself." Alaric’s humorous voice broke Madeline from her train of thoughts as she startlingly met his eyes that were visible from his mask.
"Hmm?" Realizing at a later point she was staring into the eyes of his Majesty, Madeline immediately lowered her head before Alaric and his wife, feeling stupid to have let the rules slip from her mind due to her own distraction.
"It’s..... it’s an honor to be in front of his Majesty and the Queen, thank you for inviting us to the lovely event." Pinning her lips together, it suddenly dawned on Madeline that His Majesty just referred to her as an ’action woman’, and another wave of embarrassment filled her up after recalling her behavior the night he visited.
"Please, feel comfortable, and enjoy, but if you don’t mind, I would like to borrow Cassian for a few seconds. My father has been expecting him, and he would like to see him, but you don’t have to worry, I won’t hold him captive for too long."