Chapter 23

“So, what do you say, your Majesty?” , Lord Wordsworth asked, leaning in slightly.

Luther wanted to give him a straight and definite reply and he would have if the person with them was the real Allisa. But he couldn’t because he was sure that Alyssa wouldn’t like it if she found out that he would be marrying him. Not after he had promised not to rush her and give her space to make her own decisions. Marrying him had been one of the reasons she didn’t want to come back with him and if she found out that’s her father wanted them to get married soon, she would try to leave and he didn’t want that.

“Why I it taking you so long to give an answer, your Majesty? Forgive me if I’m being impudent, but does marrying my daughter seem to be a burden for you?”.

“That’s not what it is, Lord. Are you considering the fact that your daughter might not be inclined to this marriage? She did run away before”.

“What are you saying, your Majesty? My daughter has been dreaming of the day you would make her your queen. I’ve watched her pine for you over the years silently and patiently waiting for you to take the first step in the direction of the marriage but it seems to my now that you just want to continue fooling around with her and messing with her emotions”.

“All I want to do is give her more time to make up her mind. The last thing we both want is to force her into doing something she doesn’t want to”.

“I see”, Lord Wordsworth said, rising up from his seat. “It seems that your Majesty is not ready to tie the knot with my daughter. The best thing to do at this point is to cancel the entire thing and marry her to someone willing so she can give up on what ever she feels for you. I will speak and appeal to the ministers to have the betrothal annulled”.

“But…”.

“ Thank you for your time, your Majesty. With all due respect, you have made it abundantly clear that you want nothing to do with my daughter so it is time she has nothing to do with you too. Don’t you agree?”.

“She is my betrothed”.

“She can easily be given to another. I do not want you to keep toying with her. It’s best that we end this farce and I send her somewhere she can forget about everything that has happened”.

Luther gritted his teeth and clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The words she had said to him reverberated in his mind but he couldn’t watch her father take her away from him. He couldn’t let her go. The startling realization that maybe he didn’t want her simply to birth his children made him pause briefly.

“Wait, Lord Wordsworth” .

The man who was at the door turned with a smile. Luther sighed inwardly. He knew he was being cleverly played by the man but he had to o oblige to his wishes because he didn’t know if the man would make good his thinly veiled threat to take her away.

“How soon do you want the wedding to take place?”.

“Does your Majesty have any plans for next week Friday?”.

Luther rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. “No, Lord. I do not”. He could hear the elation in the man’s voice.

“Then this humble subject will begin the wedding preparations. All your Majesty has to do is bring yourself to the event in your best coat. I will make sure that my household is immediately informed and wedding preparations are arranged”.

Luther feigned a smile as the delighted older man left the room. He sighed as he stared at the door. He knew Alyssa would be upset but he just couldn’t refuse her 'father' and lose her. It was better to her by his side that for her to be taken away or even married off to someone else. Not that she would ever care or believe that he had made the choice for her own good too.

****#####******######

“Mum, I’m telling you the truth. The king didn’t touch me”, Alyssa sighed as she told her mother for the for the tenth time.

“Are you sure, dear? I know how crazy you have been over the past few years about the king. Emotions like that don’t just suddenly disappear. I’m afraid that when you two were together, something might have happened. I wouldn’t judge you for it, I just want to know”.

“Mum, don’t worry. Nothing happened. Even if I was in love with the king, I would never let him take advantage of me”

Her mother walked closer to her and held both of her cheeks. “I’m sorry if I’m being annoying. I’m just really worried about you. You know as well as I do about the king’s womanizing ways. I just don’t want you to get hurt”.

Alyssa smiled. “I won’t, mum. Trust me”, She responded lightly. At least Luther was right about the fact that here, she had people who loved and cared for her. It made her feel good and bad at the same time. And it also made her wonder what the hell was going on with Allisa. She had thought that Allisa might have been living in her body back in her world but it seemed like she wasn’t. When she went back, she had still been wearing the same clothes that she had left in and no one had seen her until she came back. She found the quite suspicious. The questions she was expecting when she went back was supposed to be about why she had been acting strangely not why she hadn’t been seen at all.

She didn’t know what to do. She could only hope that when all of this was over, Allisa would come back home safely.

The door opened and Paschal walked on and bowed slightly.

“Come with me, my lady. The king demands your presence”.

Her mother caressed her hair. “Go to him. I will go and speak to your father. I wonder where he has bee off to”, Lady Wordsworth said before walking out.

Alyssa followed Paschal who led her straight to the study before bowing to her again and closing the door.

“You wanted to see me?” , Alyssa asked, hoping he had decided to let her go back.

“Yes, I did. Have a seat” , He said and Alyssa sank into one of the plush armchairs in the room.

“What’s going on, Luther?”, She asked , noticing the serious expression on his face.

“I just finished speaking to your father… Allisa’s father a few minutes ago”.

“Okay, and what do you to talk about?”.

“Our marriage”.

“Marriage? This again? I thought we talked about this”.

“I had no choice. He seems to believe I have defiled you and you won’t be able to get married to someone else and people would talk because we were missing for almost a day. So he wanted us to get married as soon as possible before tongues start to wag”.

“But I don’t care if people talk. It’s none of my business”.

“Its Allisa’s business though. Look, he made it quite clear that if I didn’t agree, you would be taken somewhere far away and then married doff to some random guy. I’d like to believe that’s the last thing you would want. Marrying me seems like the best option right now”.

“What about when Allisa comes back? What would we do then?”.

“We can think about that when she does come back. She’s not here at the moment, you are”.

“You’re just doing this to trap me here”.

“That’s not true and you know it. I’m doing this to protect and keep you safe. It’s upsetting tht you don’t realize it. Besides, the one I want to marry isn’t Allisa, it’s you. You’re the one I want to get married to if I had to marry anyone at all. Just hang in there until we find Allisa”.

“And how the hell are we going to find her? We can’t expect her to just come to us”.

***######***#####

“I wonder when she’ll wake up”.

“It’s been weeks already and she still hasn’t shown any signs of waking up yet”.

“Shouldn’t we try to contact her family?”.

“Do you think I haven’t thought of that? It would be easy to do if we knew who her family was. If we knew who she was. But she doesn’t have an ID or anything like that on her”.

“Poor thing. She’s all alone without her family. I pity her. She’s so beautiful”.

“Lets just pray that she wakes up soon and tells us who she is”, The woman said as they both stared at the beautiful frail young girl that lay unconscious on the bed.