A Secret (pt 2)

Bernard, ill prepared for the bolstering hot weather, dressed in his most fashionable formal suit. His personal servant tried to voice his concerns that the suit would be too warm for the humid summer weather, but Bernard brushed him off, prioritizing his own skewed views on how to woo the Duke of Berhllan's only daughter.

He knew he was an above average looking man, and whenever he'd worn suits of this style, he never failed to garner the attention of multiple women at the party's held in the Western province. He'd even taken to bed a couple dancers at a party in the king's palace one time, which only fueled his confidence in the power of his manly suit even further.

His father had made it clear that he needed to present himself well at today's meeting with Miss Ava, as it would establish their family as second most powerful in the entire kingdom, second only to the King's. The Pearls, as the name might suggest, garnered respect and power from their great wealth earned through the seas. However, suspected dark connections between their family and the nortorious Skylar Pirates constricted their desire to gain higher political influence with the King and royal court.

On the other hand, the Duke of Berhllan, as uncle to the current King and his daughter, the King's first cousin, had great connections within the royal court. The great hill city of Grethyll had also been the original center of power centuries ago, before the kingdom grew to it's current borders, making the Behrllan family one of the oldest Noble lines in the kingdom.

Bernard was certain he could pull off this meeting without a hitch, but Ava had other plans in store for him.

By the time Ava made it out to the garden where their "distinguished guest" had already been seated, Bernard had already began to feel himself quite uncomfortable under the midday sun. Picking up on his obvious discomfort, Ava quickly changed her game plan. She could tell he thought himself so suave with the disgustingly confident grin he flashed her when he stood up to greet her. Taking a moment to observe the three piece brown suit he had on, Bernard thought his trick had worked, 'miss Ava must've already fallen for my looks' he thought to himself. In reality, she was trying to understand who would be so idiotic as to wear such clothes in the midst of summer, noticing the sweat gathering at his neck.

She began the interaction as she'd first intended, giving short and plain, uninterested answers to anything the man asked.

Struggling to maintain conversation with the lack of interest miss Ava was putting forward, Bernard found himself grasping for anything to talk about and break the awkward silences that followed her short replies.

Further sweat dripping down his forehead, and beginning to feel himself get a bit dizzy with the heat, Bernard loosened his collar, and took off his jacket, asking the teenage Ava, "it's quite hot today isn't it?", a slight nervousness breaking into his tone. "Yes," replied Ava succinctly, her eyes moving to scrutinize the drenched shirt that had now been revealed.

Noticing her lower her gaze from his, Bernard took a moment to take a closer look at the girl in front of him. Wavy light brown hair, clear green eyes, cute pink lips - 'her personality may be worse than a rock's but at least she's decent to look at', he thought to himself. His eyes then drifted to taking in her dress, before his gaze landed on her chest. His depraved eyes lingering longer, he noticed the shape of her little nips poking out through the fabric, processing she may not be wearing a bra, his eyes widened.

Ava immediately picked up on his perverted stare and called him out on it, "It would appear our distinguished guest is nothing more than perverted oggling piece of bird s**t!" The attention of every servant waiting in the garden immediately turned to hear Ava berating their visitor with a myriad of insults until they witnessed Bernard reply, calling her a "boorish b***h" and even more incredibly harsh things until Ava smirked and stormed out of the garden.

She stormed straight to her father's study, where she demanded that she be excused from ever having to be in the company of such an awfully disgusting man again, and to postpone any talks of marriage until much much later. Her father had already heard the commotion from the garden as they had been yelling loud enough for the entire castle to hear, so he could not help but give in to her first demand. However, he was adamant that she must be married in her eighteenth year and that he would continue to look for another suitable match.

'Argh!' she thought to herself, frustrated and needing to blow off steam, she left her father's study, slamming the door shut and made her way to the stables to ride out into the nearby forest to exhaust her fumes.

It was much cooler in the forest, shaded by the trees, the gusts of wind Ava and the horse created galloping through the trees felt refreshing against her skin. Slowing to let the horse rest and breathe in the cooler air, Ava noticed the sound of stifled sobs coming from her left. She turned her horse in the direction of the sound, curious as to where it was coming from. Perhaps someone got hurt in the forest and needed help.

As the sound grew nearer, Ava jumped off her horse and slowly approached around trunk of a red oak tree. It was then that her eyes fell wide upon the person in front of her, seated with his back against the tree, knees bent up to his chest for him to cry into. It was none other than her best friend Alex.

Hearing the snap of a twig breaking under foot, Alex's head snapped up to look at her, with red eyes and tears still streaming down his face, he managed to stutter out, "A-Ava?"