Chapter 31

He walked forward till he was standing side by side with Elena, the clear difference in their height on full display to the princess. She seized another glimpse at him, wondering just what it was they were feeding him.

"Your highness." She announced in a polite curtsy, "I believe this is the first time we've met, it's an honour." Elena went on to say, conversing freely with him, under the consideration that he was two years younger.

The king gaped at her and lifted a brow in stun, he was convinced that she had never once been this well mannered when he addressed her in the past.

He dry coughed then swiftly deflected his eyes to the already loaded carriage, "we should leave now while the day is fairly young, if we're going to reach our destination." Said the king with both hands behind his back.

Elena wrinkled her brows against each other but complied to his words, she waltzed over to the carriage and stood at the door wearing an expectant face.

Her presumed husband the king gazed at her with a tolerant expression for a brief second then proceeded to ascend unto the coachman's seat, taking the reigns of the horse.

Elena scoffed as she watched him get comfortable without even bothering to help her with the carriage door. She pouted her lips then forcefully pulled the door open, helping herself into the carriage.

The inside was far more cramped than it looked, jars of liquor and dried animal meat took up almost half of the seat space. While her clothes which were roughly forced into a sack took up most of the floor space. Elena let out a relieved sigh when she realized it would be only her in this cramped up carriage.

"Mistress, do take care on the journey, be sure not to get on master's bad side." Jairo said standing by the carriage window, he leaned in forward to whisper something into Elena's ears.

"If Mistress plays her cards right, then you might return with news of an upcoming heir." He said grinning from ear to ear, an all knowing look plastered on his wrinkly face.

The princess felt her cheeks burn at the mental image of what he was insinuating and stiffened a giggle. She nodded in affirmation, then relaxed into her seat, more than ready for the trip.

"If that's all, we'll be off." Alixandre announced from where he sat in a flat tone, Jairo bowed to head to him then backed away from the carriage.

He stared at the king for a second and found the expression on his face hard to decipher, it was one he seldom saw his majesty use.

"Kya!" Alixandre cried out slapping the horse with it's reins, the horse responded immediately and charged furiously through the gates of the palace at full speed!

"Does he want to kill us both?!" The princess exclaimed holding unto the carriage for dear life as the breeze from outside roughly slapped her face and tossed her golden locks of hair around.

She had half a mind to scold him for being so reckless, but knew better than to talk back to a crowned prince, hence she kept her complaints to herself.

The carriage charged through the kingdom's capital all too quickly, the princess who had plans to sightsee busied herself with trying to stay alive in the carriage. It was till they had ridden past the kingdom's borders that the carriage finally slowed down a bit.

Elena caught her breath as her accelerating heartbeat finally calmed down. The hellish ride gradually turned into a steady drive through the plains.

"Is his Majesty going to be the driver for the entire trip?" Elena suddenly asked, taking the initiative to make conversation.

It wouldn't be much of a honeymoon if she didn't take advantage of the time they spent alone.

"It seems you have a lot of energy to be speaking." He retorted, keeping his eyes forward as the horse walked by the river side.

"Is it because of the poison?" She sharply chimed in a light hearted tone of voice. Her question made Alixandre flinch but he almost immediately recovered from the shock.

"I remember the butlers say something about me being poisoned when I regained consciousness." Elena said, making sure to shout a little, so her voice wouldn't get drowned by the sound of the carriage wheels against stones and sticks.

The plains weren't half as pretty as Elena had hoped, the grass was dried and there were hardly any pretty flower to gaze at. The river itself wasn't as glistening as the ones back in her kingdom, and seemed to not have any fish living in it.

Something felt odd about these lands to the princess.

"So you heard?." Alixandre answered her in a gruff tone, stating rather than asking. Elena rested her elbow against the window and placed her chin on her palm, her green eyes scanning her environment.

"Am I going to die?" She mindlessly asked, unknowingly voicing out her thoughts. It was only after a brief moment of silence that she realized what she had said out loud.

"My apologies! It's silly to talk about dying when his Majesty is trying his hardest to find me a cure." She noted, taking Alixandre by surprise.

He clicked his tongue at her, "where did you get that idea?" He muttered under his breath loud enough to be heard. Having a conversation with the enemy wasn't what he had planned for the trip.

"It's just...I believed that for his Majesty to set off for another country without security meant we would be travelling discreetly. If this were a honeymoon, then wouldn't there be a maid or two to wait on us both?"

Alixandre wanted to argue with her logic but decided against it, he instead chose to ignore her completely till he had need to speak to her.

Elena, who realized shortly after, that she might have been a tad too imposing decided to change the topic of discussion towards something more light hearted.

"Now that it is just us both, I believe we should introduce ourselves properly. I know that we are both married... though I cannot recall when." The latter part of the sentence was interlaced with suspicion in it.

"I still do not believe that I've caught his majesty's name yet." Said Elena, focusing her gaze on her husband's visible side, drinking in his manliness.

As she called it.

"What sort of woman gets married to a man she doesn't even know his name?" She heard him ask in a flat tone, as though he were mocking her for it.

She pursued her lips and flattened her brows, "what sort of a man marries a woman two years older?" She retorted with venom in her words, folding her arms angrily across her chest.

Alixandre chuckled inwardly and pulled his lips back into a small smile which only lasted for two seconds. "What would you make of us then?" He unintentionally replied, getting sucked into Elena's pace gradually.

The princess scoffed at him and rolled her eyes making jest of the ridiculous situation they both had found themselves, all in the name of preserving the bloody throne.

"A perfect pairing." She listlessly whispered under her breath, peering at her husband, who was everything she hadn't expected in the slightest.

The princess had a deep hunch that something wasn't right, and things were about to get more interesting.