Where is the Prince? 2

Stella darted her eyes around warily and bent to reply in a hushed tone, "My lady please do not question me such, else I be slain for gossip. The whereabouts of the first prince are not for servants like I to speak of.

I'll go prepare your bath now." She lowered her head and then turned to leave.

Rain narrowed her gaze at the back of the servant leaving hastily. Her lips puckered slightly and her forehead creased into a frown, but she didn't bother the jittery maidservant anymore. In an unfamiliar land, it was wisdom to respect tradition.

Stella clearly knew something, but it appeared she would rather jump off that window than tell a soul.

Rain sat on a stool by the bath tub and watched the maidservant gradually fill it with warm water.

Once she had washed and helped to dress, she was led to the far-flung room pace of a dining hall. Awaiting to serve, uniformed servants adorned in regal uniforms filed in waiting around the dining table.

Rain Attor must have once thought this an honor back in Cradya, as she'd never been let to dine with the royal family. But seeing it now, she was only embodied in the awkwardness of been surrounded and the ridiculousness of the enormous edibles that lined the table to its edge just for her appetite.

Indeed, as she'd been promised, the meal was exaggeratedly noble and sumptuous than the supper she'd last night.

After breakfast, Rain left in the company of Stella. She was to return to her chambers afterwards, but it was rather with ease that she distracted the maidservant and threaded off quietly to look for the prince alone.

She hurried past the corridors and left the dining hallway.

At sunrise, the castle was more illuminated than it was in last evening, and even busier. But it was still gloomy and barely had a noise although several servants moved to and fro busily.

It was just as Stella had said; the castle had been long deprived of furnishings.

As Rain walked down the long sweeping stairs, she noticed the servants moving heavy loads.

Basic furniture, heaps of blankets, rugs, curtains mattresses and several opulent decors were carried and pushed on carts along the corridors.

The guide of proficient architects could be overheard labeling design plans for the various rooms. The clanking of craftsmen tools filled the air and so did that of the carpenters.

Time to time, as Rain walked past, the servants paused to acknowledge her with a bow.

She had no mind of where she was going, but kept on ascending stairs and scaling passages.

Once she sighted guards merely standing guard, she approached them.

"My lady," they said in unison and lowered their heads.

Rain smiled stiffly, getting breathless from how much she'd walked in circles. "May I know if the prince in the castle?"

She only wished to know if the prince was within the castle's premises. How hard could that be?

Once she'd spoken, the guards turned almost at the same time to cast puzzled gazes at each other. There was an awkward silence for a while as they contemplated if to rebuke a princess or simply lie. In the end, one chose the latter and said mildly, "We do not know that, my lady."

Rain nodded and eyed them doubtfully. "I see." With that, she lifted the hem of her dress and turned away.

The prince's whereabout was to be kept from her ears, she figured.

As she sauntered round the castle, she could sense the servants putting their heads together to whisper behind. However, she didn't have the leisure to pay it heed.

She knew well enough that her presence and relation to a man as infamous as the first royal prince will arise a lot of questions. Many were curious and assumptions were bound to be made. Especially now, that she was going about asking of the prince like an abandoned wife!

She was burnt out, but she was desperate.

*

Down the castle's foyer, Lucas was with the castle's butler, taking list of every piece moving in and out of the castle. One of the guards Rain had met earlier came to meet him.

"Sir, the Lady is asking the servants of His Highness's whereabouts. I'm afraid, if she persists, someone might tell her what she wants to hear and get her in trouble."