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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Mother."
Though spoken softly, the word cut through the scene like a knife. And it invoked a direct reaction.
"Monster!" The woman sprang up from her seat, and fled to the other end of the pavilion. When the part of her long dress that was stuck under the instrument got pulled out, the harp swayed and loudly crashed onto the ground. "Stay away from me!"
A sharp pang of pain let Nathaniel narrow his eyes. "As if I want to be near you. There is only one reason to - "
"GUARDS!", she cried out. "Help me!"
As Nathaniel's face darkened, he rushed to her side. However, she was nimble like a weasel and escaped his grasp. That was until he set a foot on the hem of her dress and pinned it down.
Her green eyes widened, her chest heaving with fear. Just when she wanted to shout again, he pressed his hand against her mouth. The other held her on her waist. Since he couldn't have a normal conversation, he would only fulfill his purpose. "Where is she? Wh
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"Thank you, Sam." The relieve Nathaniel felt was neither in his tone nor bearing. They were calm and straight like usual, way calmer than in the last few hours. To know where she was and that the location wasn't connected to any evil fraction, already pacified his anger and anxiety tremendously. It irked him that the promise to his father forbid him from personally looking for Katherine outside the city gates though. All in one breath, he uttered a few commands: "Ensure her safety. Investigate how she got there. Is she injured?""No, Milord, but in a state of exhaustion and deep sleep."The possibility that she fled from him and hid by her allies - he knew the Golden Cauldron from Pete's report - gnawed at Nathaniel's heart. Did he overreact? But was she really hit so deeply by his casual words?He remembered that there were a few things that didn't match up with this theory: for example, she had no purpose to come to the palace before, and the state of exhausti
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Her lids felt heavy. Warmth and drowsiness made her unwilling to open them. It was so comfortable. She wanted to sleep a bit more..."Katherine."His voice was like a warm breath on her face. She knew who it was without thinking, but the surprise that he was here while she was asleep, opened up her eyes.There he was, slim lips and high cheekbones under beautiful red eyes. Even though his brows were locked together, the gaze was softer than usual."How do you feel?", he asked. When she realized that it was worry that made him look so vexed, a fuzzy feeling raised in her chest. The cold wall he raised to keep people away was lowered right now."Tired", she murmured and closed her eyes again."Don't sleep." It wasn't uttered like a command, but more like a wish, a hope. It made her unable to refuse, however much appealing the darkness and warmth of sleep was.While slowly blinking her eyes, she noticed that her arm was out of the beddin
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