Lily turned around slowly, a slightly forced smile on her face.

  “Hello… Damian,” she greeted him, bowing her head.

  She hadn't expected to see him again so soon, and she hadn’t wanted to. She didn’t want to be te to see Asher’s parents. The rulers of the kingdom. If she were to be te, that would make a sting bad impression. She was already a commoner, someone she assumed his parents wouldn’t be happy that Asher was socialising with her. If she wasn’t punctual, she would be seen as rude and not fit for Asher to associate with.

  “You seem tense,” Damian commented bluntly. His eyes were locked on hers, even if she wasn’t making direct eye contact with him.

  “Ah maybe, I just have to be somewhere now, so if you’ll excuse me-”

  Damian interrupted her, cutting her sentence short.

  “Yes yes. I won’t keep you longer. Come visit my shop another day when you aren’t busy. I’m always here, even when I’m not,” he fshed her a smile, before turning and going back into his shop, not letting Lily say anything more.

  Lily was slightly confused by what he meant, but shook it off, going back on path to the castle. She wasn’t used to wearing high heels and it did slow her down, especially since she took a shortcut on a dirt path. She held her dress up off the ground so it wouldn’t collect dust and dirt on the bottom. Her heels crunched on the hard sand and dirt, leaving small prints as she sped walked along. It popped into her mind that she forgot to buy some makeup, but it was too te to turn back. Hopefully her natural face would be good enough for royalty. Probably not but she could only hope.

  After about an hour of walking, she could see the castle in the distance. She was relieved, as she could feel blisters on her heels from her high heels. Her eyes wandered to a figure standing in front of a gate, the entrance to the castle grounds. It was clearly Asher, his tallness making him easily recognisable. He stood in his high quality clothing, hands behind his back. He also immediately noticed her as she came into view.

  Her legs staggered from left to right. He chuckled to himself, walking up to her before she could walk any further.

  “I see you aren’t very comfortable in your attire,” he let his arms fall down to his sides, observing her clothing. Lily sighed and shook her head.

  “The dress is so long. I don’t understand how royal and noble women wear this everyday and don’t collect dust all around the bottom of it. And the high heels are even worse! They are so hard to walk on and they hurt my feet! Unfortunately I didn’t get time to buy a corset as I was running te,” she was partially telling the truth. She was running te, but it’s not that she didn’t have time to buy the corset, she just didn’t have money for it.

  “Well if you walked all the way here I don’t see that being a problem. You shouldn’t have anyway. I could have sent you a carriage, but you insist on not asking for help,” he joked, being half serious. He didn’t understand how she couldn’t be sweating from every part of her body when she walked so far on a sunny day like that. The sun was beating down on the earth, and no clouds were in sight. What a mystery this woman was.

  He held out his arm for her.

  “I’ll take you inside. First I’ll wrap a bandage around your heels, so it doesn’t hurt while you are meeting my parents. Then we shall meet them and have lunch together. Does that sound appropriate, my dy,” his voice mocked in a formal manner, one side of his mouth lifting up as she took his arm.

  “Why of course, your highness,” she said in an unnaturally high voice, also mocking formal speech. They ughed together, walking towards the gates. There were knights standing on either side. One signaled to a person that stood in a small watch tower on top of the wall. Then the gates slowly opened, letting Lily and Asher enter the enormous pace grounds. A long gravel driveway led up to the daunting castle. The walk looked like it would take them another hour.

  Lily admired the perfectly cut, green gardens and bushes. Pink and red flowers adorned half of the bushes, the colours that represented the kingdom. Pink was said to symbolise love, healing and tranquility while red symbolised authority, danger and power. They were both a contrast to each other, that created a perfect inbetween. Lily thought it kind of sounded like her and Asher. They were both calm and happy around each other, but also loved sparring together, verbally and physically. Though the tter was a rare occasion,

  as they both always met up in the forest, and there wasn’t enough space to spar.

  Lily was so lost in thought that she hadn’t realised that they had reached the castle entrance. A butler started opening the door but Asher shooed him away and held the door open himself.

  “After you, Miss Lily.”