Chapter 44
"You can come out now," Artemis said after Aurora had left and she went to find where Alexander had wandered off to. She found him laid up against a tree looking up at the sky. "Smart choice not to go so deep into the forest. Are you thinking about your upcoming engagement with the princess? Do you mind if I crash the wedding that day?"
Alexander remained silent, ignoring Artemis, enjoying his soon-to-be headache of having to tell Darius he was not planning on marrying his sister. "You know what, you're probably going to kill me by the end of this so a marriage is nothing for me to concern myself with."
"Nope. For the sake of your future wife who is desperately waiting on your return, I am going to free you after this. Your welcome," Artemis grinned, enjoying Alexander's annoyance. After her talk with Aurora, she needed something to distract herself, and watching Alexander be annoyed did just that. "Plus, I don't want to keep a son away from his father too long and I don't want to harm a siren's son. If I threw you into the water do you think you'll be good?"
"How about you just don't throw me in the water?"
"I'll have to think about it. I feel the urge to throw something and here you are right beside me," she took a seat by the same tree he was leaning against.
Alexander looked around for anything she could use and found a stone. "Here you go," he passed her the stone so that she could throw something other than him.
Artemis took the stone from Alexander and threw it against a tree. "That felt good. Find me some more."
Alexander picked as many stones as he could find around the tree and handed them to Artemis for her to entertain herself with. Silence overcame the two as Alexander found stones nearby and Artemis threw them.
The next day in the palace, Catherine woke up bright and early to get some information on the whereabouts of her future husband and to start planning their wedding. When Alexander returns, as she knew he would, she wanted to present the wedding plans almost finished. She couldn't wait to have dressmakers designing her dress that will make the young women in the kingdom jealous.
"I wonder how much the princess's dress cost? I wonder who designed the dress? Look how tiny her waist is. I'm so jealous she's getting married to Alexander," Catherine clapped her hands excited to hear these comments. She couldn't wait to pass out the invitations to her friends who doubted she would ever marry Alexander.
She'll have people begging to receive an invitation to her wedding but she just couldn't invite anyone. "I want other royals to travel from their lands, prestigious families from here in our own kingdom, and one or two townspeople so they don't get offended but have them in the far back. I want everything about my wedding to be glamorous. Everyone should have on their best attire and jewelry," Catherine said as she walked back and forth in her bedroom while her personal maid wrote down all of this.
"Imagine if it were to take place in the winter and I held the wedding in the glass room? There would never be another wedding to top that. Winter will be falling upon us but I want my wedding to happen as soon as possible so my brother won't be able to go back on his word."
"Many will think you are pregnant if the wedding is rushed. Your brother might not agree with the things you wish for princess," Catherine's personal maid, Alexis said so the young girl could beware of the rumors.
"Even better. If there are threats of rumors spread around that Alexander might have gotten me pregnant then my brother will pay better attention to the wedding details. And it's not like it will take long for me to become pregnant after we get married. I want to have his child as soon as possible. The Mclane's might warm up to me faster if I am carrying their blood. Only Alexander's father seems to like me so far."
'More like he tolerates you,' Alexis thought to herself since she couldn't correct the princess. Catherine had a temper similar to her brother when she felt disrespected and Alexis wanted to avoid it. She spent years just agreeing with the princess even when she had a different opinion.
Alexis personally did not believe the wedding between Alexander and Catherine was going to happen. The man had shot down the princess's attempts many times. There were so many other men for her to get married to and have this family she dreamt of, why continue to bother a man who would never love her? She believed the princess only loved the idea of how she would look beside Alexander as his wife.
"Where on earth are the planners? For the amount of money we are going to spend, they should be here on time. I heard talking on the outside. Go out and look," Catherine rubbed her temple annoyed with people already.
"Yes princess," Alexis went to the door and opened it to see if the planners had arrived but instead it was one of the men from the court. "Good morning, mister Garfield. How can I help you?"
Instead of stating what he wanted, he stepped inside the princess's bedroom. He had no need to speak to a common maid. "Greetings princess."
"Mister Garfield. Aren't you aware you should state what you want before entering a woman's bedroom? A bedroom belonging to a princess at that? I am an engaged woman." Catherine hated men like him. Her brother had given mister Garfield and many other men the position of court minister just to shut them up.
"Ah yes. Your engagement is why I am here. I've heard you have already been ordering things for this wedding and that is why I came to have a chat with you." While the king remained soft with his sister, mister Garfield was here to burst her little bubble and serve her the reality of her engagement.