Chapter 11

"What I am about to tell you may seem a little bit crazy," he picked her up and they both stood facing each other. "You have to promise me that you will not to be afraid. Do you promise to stay firm as I say what I have to say next?"

She watched him as though he had lost his mind. She was not going to let him off easy for hiding and making her worry.

Whatever he has to say, he can say it to himself. I have to find a way out of here. How are you planning on doing that? He has your hands in his.

"Do tell me your majesty what it is that you want to say. I shall not run away as you already have my hand in yours." She looked down at their hands entwined together.

"Oh, sorry about that." He made an effort to let her go but he was not assured of her staying after what he was about to tell her. "I would let your hand go but why take chances?" he winked at her.

He caught her off-guard so she smiled. It was a small beautiful split of her lips but it gave him hope. He loved it. "I want you to know that I love you, Shinja."

"What?" she cried.

"Yes, I love you so much from the moment that I laid my eyes on you. That moment your eyes strayed and you looked at me while you danced with your sisters. I have never seen such beauty," his eyes toured her face with wonder.

"You are outstanding. My heart has beat for you from the day that I saw you."

To say that she was shocked was an understatement, she was going to die from lack of breath. Her corset was getting tighter by the minute.

Breath Shinja, breath, do not beat yourself up. The prince is not well may be. Yeah keep telling yourself that, you sound so reasonable to yourself, don't you think? This was no time to be sarcastic, she knew it but her mind had a mind of its own.

Such tender words said to her with so much passion and intent caught her off guard. They shook her to her core. She twisted her hand out of his hold. Then ran away from him back to the castle making no stops until she got into her room.

Once inside her room she fell on her bed, book forgotten she covered her head with the blanket and she cried. How it had come to this, she did not know! Torrents and torrents of tears, flowed out of her eyes. Why are you weeping? You should be happy, he loves you, isn't that what you wanted? Maybe it was what she had wanted, at this point she was not sure about anything, even her mind was working of its own accord. She could not trust her feelings or anyone for that matter.

Back in the park, the prince's heart tore into a million pieces when she ran without glancing back. It had taken a lot of courage for him to pour out his heart to her. She had been avoiding him for days on end and now that he had finally caught her in his hold, she reacted like this? A forlorn tear ran down his left cheek. He poured his heart out to her and she had said nothing back, only trampled upon it with each footfall as she ran out of the park into wherever God knows where.

No hope, no consolation! Just tears and footfalls as she stomped back to the castle. It took him a mighty amount of time to gather the bruised broken pieces of his heart eventually managing to trudge back to the castle.

He could not fathom how well he was going to wash off the pain he felt. No amount of talk, food, money or action could console him. He would sleep with a heavy heart tonight.

Maybe if I had been a little more patient? Oh come on! Do not beat yourself up. Go sleep over it.

He doubted if sleep would come to him later in the night. With all the emotions boiling inside of him, he was sure sleep would evade him and only a brown-eyed princess was to blame for his predicament.

You're overthinking again! Get a hold of yourself. Sincerely, he was being pathetic. He would try again, hopefully this time with better thought and preparation.

When Shinja was in her room, she heard a soft knock on her door. Although she was still crying, Shinja managed to put herself together. 
She wiped her tears away quickly, steadied her voice and said, "come in," with a shaky voice.

You just said come in without asking who it was first?! Are you out of your mind? Have you forgotten what happened earlier? What if it is the prince from the park? Oh my God! She had not given it much thought. She was too busy crying to even mind asking who was at the door.

But you had sense enough to let them in? Wow! Kudos, on such sense and sensibility Shinja!

She silenced her patronizing thoughts. What is done is done! She had already told whoever it was to come in so whatever happened next, she would find a way to deal with it. Bouncing off the bed, using her shaking fingers, she made right her dress and sat on her bed. She kept wiping her face with the back of her hands to disguise that she had been crying.

To the best of luck, whoever it was at the door must have had someone they were talking to so they did not come in as soon as they had been granted permission to. This granted Shinja more time to make things right.

The door went slightly ajar so did Shinja's heart rate. Her heart was running a short marathon race at the left side of her rib cage. Whoever it was kept talking with another person on the other side of the door.