The Man I Was Not Supposed to Love

I Found Her!

Henry’s POV

I stared at the beauty right in front of my eyes. This girl is the most beautiful one I’ve laid my eyes on. Believe me, she’s nothing like the court ladies I’ve been acquainted with. She has this elegance around her without her exerting any effort at all.

I let my eyes travel from her straight black hair down to the red dress accentuating every curve of her body. I swallowed hard. She has the curves in the right places, and her red dress made her skin glow more.

Come to think of it. I never thought of finding what I had been looking for at this party that I hated. Two days ago, mom asked me to accompany her to this tea party organized by her friend. Of course, I know her real motive, since she has had one ever since. She will set me up with someone again as she did in the past. This has happened so many times already and I feel so allergic to it. However, my mom occupies a soft spot in my heart and I cannot just push her away. After all, she has always defended my right to the seat of Marquess from my ambitious step-brothers. For so long, while I have been serving as one of the secret Knights of Queen Mira, she has always made sure that I remain the next in line to my father’s rank as the Marquess of Arbor.

“Son, come in and refresh yourself before we go to the garden for the tea party,” mom said, cutting my deep thinking.

“She…” I whispered without cutting my gaze at the woman who had just caught my originally woman-evasive eyes. “Who is she?”

“She?” Mom’s voice was suddenly energized. From the corner of my eye, I can see her following the direction of my eyes. She walked closer as if she wanted a better view of the woman who had successfully captured her son’s attention. However, to my dismay, her forehead frowned as she looked at her.

“Don’t you know her, too? I thought this was your friend’s castle and you wanted me to meet someone here?” I asked, feeling disappointed for the first time.

I can see my mom’s surprised reaction by the time I turned my head to look at her.

“Is this real, Henry?” Mom asked.

“Is there no way to know who she is? I’m interested,” I said and walked past her.

“There is!” She almost shouted. “Of course there is! Is there anything that your mother cannot do?”

Upon saying that, she walked past me and pulled my hand. Oh, she seems more excited than I am about this thing. Of course, she wanted to introduce every lady in this land to me just for the sake of marriage for the past years, worried that I’d never marry someone in this life.

The time that we traversed the distance that separated the room from the place where the lady was standing felt like forever. There is no instance in my life aside from this when I wanted time to fly away faster. I felt frustrated.

“Welcome! Welcome, My dear Lady Narcar!” An old lady greeted my mother the moment we were out in the garden of the palace.

“Oh, my dear Lady Aran!” Mom greeted her back and hugged the lady who had just welcomed her.

I stared at both women hugging each other tightly but my jaw dropped the moment my eyes saw the red dress that captured my attention a while back. I wasn’t able to take my eyes off the lady’s face the moment I laid them on her. As if my eyes had their own minds, they refused to leave the lady’s face. Heavens, she looks like an angel in the light of day! She’s literally shining. If not for her red dress, I might mistake her for a real angel.

“Henry! Henry!” Mom’s voice cut my deep thinking.

“Oh, it seems that another beauty has chained his heart at once, Lady Narcar,” Lady Aran commented. “What a pity that she seems to be another woman than one of my own daughters. I wanted him as a son-in-law.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” Mom answered. “Nothing is final. You can introduce your daughters to him. For sure, they would render him speechless.”

Ah, I wanted to frown at my mother’s words but I decided to let it pass. I can’t embarrass her here, not in front of that woman in red.

“By the way, who is she?” Mom asked as her eyes followed my direction.

Lady Aran followed the direction of our eyes and frowned as well.

“Wait, she doesn’t look familiar. Have I invited someone I didn’t know? She has not come to any of the tea parties I hosted in the past,” she muttered as she looked at her closely.

Just then, a woman appeared at the side of the lady in red.

“Ah!” Mom and Lady Aran exclaimed at the same time. “Lady Roman!”

“How…” Lady Aran said and stopped in the middle of her words. “Don’t… don’t tell me that’s her daughter?”

“Daughter?” Mom asked. “She has never brought a daughter to tea parties in the past, not here and not in any other land.”

“Yeah…” Lady Aran said in a lower tone, as if she didn’t want others to hear what she was about to say. “Just between us, Lord and Lady Roman have a daughter who prefers staying in gardens and one who is not really sociable. Rumor has it that she doesn’t even go out of their castle. She has always stayed there all her life. Also, from what I can remember, her daughter looks ugly, unable to inherit the genes of the Romans.”

I frowned. Whoever said that this lady Roman is ugly has defective eyes. I can guarantee that!