Alexia
"I'm not sterile," I replied, finding my voice.
"How do you know?"
"I don't know.
"Then you may be sterile," she said, "and if you are, you're useless, a princess who can't bear children is unacceptable."
I looked at her indignantly, feeling my blood boil, and felt Estevan's soft hand rest on my back.
"I think we'd better start eating," said Estevan, and I looked into his eyes indignantly, realizing that he wouldn't say anything, maybe he was used to it and I don't know why, but I expected him to defend me.
I sat down and looked at my plate, realizing that I didn't even know how to use so much cutlery. I looked around, the king was looking at me seriously, and I avoided looking at the queen, knowing that she would be even more annoyed.
I looked around nervously.
"Something wrong? Don't you like wild boar? I heard it was your favorite dish," Soraya said, watching me.
"No, not at all." I picked up one of the pieces of cutlery, trying to remember the right way and from the look on his face I hadn't made a mistake.
I let my shoulders relax and the tension go and started eating.
"Have you shown Charlotte the garden?" Soraya asked.
"Not yet," he replied.
"They must have spent the morning in bed," Acacio said automatically, turning me red. Estevan looked at me for a moment before turning to Soraya.
"I'll show her in the afternoon, she likes walks."
"So you're talking a lot, that's good." Soraya said between glances at us. "But she doesn't seem to be much of a talker."
I looked at Soraya, I'd never had such a tense lunch, I could feel the atmosphere between us, especially between me and Soraya, I knew she wasn't going to make it easy for me.
"We don't talk much," I said sincerely.
"Why? Won't you have plenty of time to do that later when the honeymoon is over and you still don't know each other properly?" Soraya said.
She was right, but perhaps it would be better if we didn't get to know each other in depth.
"We'll talk in the afternoon," I replied with a smile, trying to show sympathy, but only I smiled.
"Leave all the guests to me," said Acácio, raising his glass and smiling at a man in the background, who turned to me. "Take some time this week to sit in my drawing room with me or go for a horse ride, whichever you prefer."
"Hunting room" I said quickly and Estevan let out a low, sarcastic laugh, and I looked at him incredulously.
I'd had a good impression of Estevan last night, but now it was gone.
"All right, I imagine you'd like some tea and sweets, I'll send them over."
I shook my head in agreement, I imagined that perhaps Acácio would want to ask me specific questions, I would try to postpone this day as long as I could.
"The women's salon is now your responsibility, once the honeymoon is over, on to the parties, guests and..."
"Do you really need to talk about work now, Mom?" Estevan asked, clearly annoyed. "It's Charlotte's second day at the castle.
"I'm just getting her ready, I don't know what instructions she's been given, but everyone has a role here." She raised her glass to me, but I couldn't return the gesture because of the irony in her countenance. "I don't want to create enmity between us, life here is hard for us, I think you know that we all have an important role to play and we can't make mistakes, there's no room for mistakes or even weakness in our lives. Are you strong, Charlotte?"
I looked into her eyes and spoke firmly.
"Stronger than you can imagine."
"That's the answer I was hoping for," she said with a smile, "so it won't break when faced with adversity."
After the awkward and tense lunch I had, Estevan and I went out into the garden, walking in silence while I observed everything around with a distant mind.
"Gardenias."
"What?" I asked, looking at him and seeing a for in his hand, he turned it around "There's..."
"You're looking, but you're not seeing."
I took the flower from his hand.
"I don't like gardenias" I lied and threw it among the others.
I hoped this would upset him, but Estevan remained calm.
"Your eye."
"What's wrong with my eye?"
"You blinked twice, did you lie, Charlotte?"
"No" I lied again and Estevan laughed, only then noticing that I had blinked again "How?"
"There are subtle and common signs that a person can reproduce when they lie, they are involuntary, because of nervousness you can try to deceive, but your mind knows and your body tells the truth."
"I don't like being read, so stop.
"No" he said firmly, Estevan looked me in the eye and continued "Unraveling you is all I want Charlotte, I believe that in this short time it has become my obsession."
I felt a warmth run through my body, I knew I was red so I looked away and started walking again.
"Your parents..."
"They're difficult to deal with."
"You could have told me before."
"I didn't even want to talk to you this morning," he said sincerely.
"I know you didn't, but we seem destined to spend as much time together as possible."
"Then let's make that time fun, for the rest of our lives." His words made me turn to him. "Don't you think it's better to be my friend than my enemy?"
"I'd like that," I said sincerely, and we smiled as the mood lightened.
"We haven't even been together twenty-four hours and we've already had our first serious fight," he said.
"Is that bad?"
"I think it's great, I need to get to know you, don't I?"
I shook my head.
"Your mother didn't like me!"
"She's difficult, but she didn't mean anything by it. I don't know how things were in Torrem, since your kingdom has remained neutral and peaceful, but Olimper has a long history of wars and conflicts between kingdoms."
"I've heard of it."
"Even a three-year-old has heard, our reputation is not good."
"You still have the power to exterminate anyone."
"Not for long." Estevan's words put me on alert, I looked into his face expecting him to continue, but he didn't.
"Why?"
"This isn't a matter for now, let's just enjoy it," he said. "You don't have to worry, just stay by my side."
"What if I abandon you?"
"Then I'll be alone again. Nothing new..."
I watched him as we walked in a kind of trance.
"Why are you staring at me?"
"I'm just watching you."
"And what did you notice, that I'm handsome?"
I smiled in amusement, Estevan was different from everything they had said, maybe it was too soon to say it out loud, maybe it wasn't even good because I should walk away, but I was too attracted to the man in front of me with the golden hair and the striking eyes.
Taking me by surprise, he raised his hand, I looked at it for a moment and then held it, feeling my heart warm.