Ninth Part

"Rose !" I heard Andrei shouting from the long corridor . Without having no one to talk other than him I stopped walking and waited for him closing my eyes . His tall frame stood behind me . I heard him exhaling a deep breath .

"I don't know why is this happening to me ? " I felt his tall frame behind me , His warm hands touched my shoulders . I looked up in his eyes . He wiped my cheek with his big thumb .

"That's alright . You have done nothing wrong ." The assurance in his eyes comforted my thriving soul . "Do you want to visit my Garden ?"his voice rose in excitement .

"Do you all have different gardens for yourselves ?" He smiled and nodded .

"Yes I would love to go there . " I grabbed the base of my gown and followed close behind him . Two guards frowned at us . They must be thinking of me as a 'prince seeker' .

I found it as an opportunity to ask about my friend . After all he was a prince too and a royal member . Maybe he would help me in finding her and we both could escape /

"Andrei , Have you seen or heard of a girl my age found here in the kingdom ? " His forehead formed lines as he thought about anything like that he knew .

"No , to be honest . I only heard about you in very suspicious circumstances . But that's a surprise Alaric chose you in his Maids' group without any Father or brother of yours ." I looked away trying to hide the nervousness forming on my face . But I decided to continue my conversation .

"Can you please help me in finding my friend ? we both arrived in the new kingdom together but I lost her in the crowd ." My voice shook because of the new lie I made at the moment .

"Yes . I surely will . No individual can leave or enter in the kingdom without being caught by the soldiers . It will be very easy to find her if she is still here . " We continued walking down the long corridor . A wave of fresh air hit my face . The fragrance of the trees and flowers filled the surroundings .

" I have different varieties and species of flowers taken from 40 kingdoms . And Still my garden needs more ." The vines encircled the poles and lamps . A beautiful mermaid fountain stood in the centre with different colored water showing the water art . The birds were chirping sweetly . The nature welcomed us with open arms .

"This is beautiful ! I mean the most beautiful garden I have ever seen " He bowed a little to accept my praise .

"One more thing ." We both walked hand in hand . The garden grew more splendorous as we went in . It must be in acres of land . There was every species of flower arranged in a row .

We stooped in front of a beautiful white table with two chairs arranged by its sides . He asked me to sit but himself went away behind a big tree . I waited for him sitting there . Then he came a book and a pen in his hands . The pen had a feather attached at the end .

"I sometimes visit this part of the garden to write poems and my feelings in this book . It feels good to exhale out the stress . You can read the one I wrote on love ." I opened up the book and read the beautiful poems he had written . Andrei was busy in uprooting a weed . It was really a surprise to me that a Prince was this humble and friendly . maybe because his mother was a regular citizen , so he didn't have any arrogance .

I shuffled through the pages , one of them had black boundaries and a dried rose in it . Before I could read the written lines , Andrei snatched it from my hands . I watched his face full of weird expressions . Dark and angry .

"You should to go to your room . You look sleep deprived . " He started to walk and I followed him quietly . There was no need to ask if something wrong occured . These people are usually moody and rude too . His book was well hidden inside his long coat .

After the corridor opened to two different paths we chose our separate routes and left . My room was dark and cold so I just followed the moonlight and landed on my bed . But to my surprise it was not the soft mattress but a hard body . I instantly knew who it was .

So I lit a candle and confirmed my doubt . It was the prince sleeping peacefully in my room . I resisted the urge to wake him up and ask him to leave . There was no use at all . If he would wake up , it won't be easy to make him go away .

A yawn escaped my mouth and I decided to sleep on the carpet to be safe from any more trouble . Jeannine's crying face came t my mind . But I shrugged off it . Soon I drifted off to sleep without extra thoughts and stress .