Chapter 12

 

This chapter has been transferred without any additional editing.

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Romeo looked around and strained his ears and smiled, letting out a relieved breath. The king had retired to his room, saying he was especially tired today for some reason, the duchess had similarly taken to her chamber, and her assistant had a case of regurgitation. The queen knew what they were doing and approved, so she sat quietly in her room with a new book.

Romeo stood from his stool and knocked on the girl’s door. He had been put in charge of guarding her this evening, but they were about to do much more.

A voice from beyond the door invited him inside. She was reading a book, looking quite comfortable on the plush couch. He walked over to the couch and sat down next to her, speaking quietly incase the walls weren’t as solid as they looked. “There’s a get together with the staff in the guards’ wing. We’d like you to come. Liam- Sir Reed- could really use you to come. That, and the alcohol is free and the darts sharp. We have a dart board, we’re not throwing darts at each other.” he laughed a bit at the idea.

The girl didn’t seem like she was going to talk. Romeo gently took her hand and took her out of the room and pulled open the bookcase. The girl looked alarmed, but she went with him.

The guards’ wing was the least polished of the whole palace with plain wood paneling and old wood flooring worn smooth by boots, not sanding. Romeo paused in a room and quickly removed his armor, changing into more comfortable clothes. It was a relaxed get together, no one was going to wear a set of armor.

When they opened the door at the end of the hall, the queen’s ladies and the guards were standing around talking to each other. “I would beat you so hard at a game of Don’t Wake the Llama, you’ll be scratching your head for a week.” Amelia told Montoya, wearing his dress overcoat. Romeo guessed he didn’t get many chances to wear it, so he chose to wear it now. Still, it was rather warm outside, didn’t he have a better outfit to wear?

“That may be, but I promised Alice and Bernard that I would challenge them first. We’ll have to find out later.” he said coolly.

The girl walked over to the bench where Liam was sitting. A smile appeared on her face, and he turned his head in her direction, almost smiling himself. They deserved to have companionship in each other. Just so long as they stayed friends…

“Fine, Romeo, Liam, Anwyn, let’s see who will win at darts. On your feet, this is your honor we’re talking about!” she was pretty excited for someone who didn’t win very often.

“Have you played darts before?” Romeo asked the girl.

“No, I haven’t,” she admitted.

“It’s pretty easy. You aim at the middle of the board, and the closer you get they better points you get. So, like this…-” he threw a dart at the board and hit it squarely in the middle of the board. Amelia squealed and jumped. Unlike Amelia, Romeo won at darts all the time.

“Ok, now it’s your turn. Step up to the line.” Romeo instructed. The girl tried to copy what he had done, the stance he had taken, but she was doing it wrong. Too bad for her, it was easy points for him and Amelia if she did it wrong.

“No, Anwyn, turn your hips, and your shoulders are facing the wall, have them gave me. Almost like you’re firing an arrow from a bow, but not quite. Be straight.” Liam spoke up, sculpting her. She corrected her stance, then went to throw the dart, but it had slipped out of her hand and stabbed the floor behind her.

“Good thing I missed my dress, Otherwise I’d have to try and fix it!” she blushed, and Romeo could almost see her let her walls down a bit. Slowly, she was coming out of her shell. And so was Liam.

Liam took her place and expertly took up his darts. If there was one person who could compete with Romeo in darts, it was Liam. He was calm, sure of his abilities, and focused. It made him a worthy opponent.

“Just make sure you have a good grip on your dart, the floor won’t like being so mishandled.” Anwyn joked.

At that moment the Llama tower fell over and Liam jumped, making his dart go off target and hitting a bit too far to the left. Romeo went over and gave Montoya a hug. “Eh, you may have own me the game! Thanks man.”

“You owe me, I lost.” he said gruffly but with a smile.

Amelia tried to hit the target, but she ended up hitting the wall next to it. After a few rounds of this, Romeo and Ameila ended up winning, but the girl and Liam didn’t seem too upset that they had lost.

“Hey, guys, no hard feelings, right? Let me poor you guys a drink.” Romeo offered, but they didn’t act like they heard. The girl had pulled Liam into a firm hug, and he wrapped his arms around her. But they didn’t let go of each other for nearly six seconds, and that looked like more than a friendship hug.

They sat down on one of the benches, shoulders touching even though there was plenty of space on the bench for them to both sit comfortably without doing so.

Liam pulled Anwyn close to him on the bench, and whispered in her ear. “Hey, would you like to see something amazing? We can be there before dawn, but we have to leave soon.”

“How can we even be here? Won’t the royals disapprove of all this? We could get in serious trouble…” Anwyn wondered.

“The cook can be bribe to treat the king’s food with a sleeping herb, and since the duchess is here, she gets the same treatment. The queen doesn’t care and apparently rather likes her alone time.” Liam explained. “The duchess's assistant got food poisoning. Three people being overly tired starts to draw too much attention, so we found another way to make him blind to our activities.”

“I see. And in the morning…”

“In the morning they sleep in, wondering how they could have slept away half the day.” Liam stated matter -of-factly.

“I see. In that case, It’s a beautiful night, plenty of moon to see by, let’s go.” she agreed.

~*~

The stars had started to fade on the eastern horizon by the time they arrived at the destination. The ruins of the ancient castle lay quiet, and the sound of the wind in the grasses made it feel like the stones were speaking to them, welcoming them to their villa.

Liam looked at Anwyn in the moonlight. Earlier that day he had heard that she was going to be queen, but that didn’t diminish how he felt for her, it just made him feel it more.

“This is a beautiful place. Too bad I’m not prepared to go swimming, but now I know where to go. How did you find this place? It’s… quiet. Peaceful. Like you. I can see-” Anwyn started chattering away again, but Liam interrupted her by taking her hands in his.

“Anwyn, I need to talk now.” Her face became one of wondering and asking but still good humored. “I know that you are going to be queen, and I see what the king is doing to you. I hear it when I have to stand guard, feel it travel in the walls when I’m in my quarters at night, and I- I can’t let you go on not knowing how I feel. We haven’t known each other very long, but I want to protect you. I want you to be safe, to feel safe. I want to be by your side until I die, and If my ghost can comeback and comfort you, I will fight my way back to you. I will always return to you.”

Anwyn looked away from him, blushing, with a shy smile on her face. Without warning, she leaned in and kissed Liam, startling him at her forwardness.

“I feel the same way, Liam. I feel it too.” she said simply, not spilling into speech this time.

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As the moon set and the sun rose, Anwyn and Liam enjoyed each other’s company, sharing in each other’s strength.

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Author’s notes: Anwyn and Liam didn’t need much of a push into this, and Anwyn even rolled a whim to marry Liam after they because boyfriend/girlfriend. You’ll just have to keep reading along to see if they ever get that far, won’t you?