Flower In the Palace

Chapter 9: Prince Jai

I watched her walk away and felt like I was losing something. It was an easy decision to follow her back. I wasn't ready to leave her presence yet. I consoled myself with the thought that since she was a guest I was sure to see her at the banquet.

By the time I reached the steps of Orchid palace she was nowhere to be found and I sped up my pace to get back to my chambers. No one noticed or stopped me as I made my way inside, still in a bit of a trance after our short encounter.

“There you are, your highness. Where have you been and what is that that you're wearing?" Head eunuch Van rushed toward me as I opened the door to my bedchamber, pulling off my clothes as I went.

“Never mind that, where are my robes?" He rushed to get them as the others came running. “Oh merciful heavens, saints be praised." The chamber mistress wrung her hands and shook her head at me.

As much of a rush as I'd been in not more than an hour ago to escape the festivities going on in the palace, I was now in that same rush to get there. What if she left before I arrived?

What if I never saw her again? The thought had something approaching fear awakening in my gut as I hurried eunuch Van's assistant along with getting me dressed.

Would she recognize me? I wondered as the crown was placed on my head instead of the scarf. Would she reveal my secret if she did? Or will she just think me a liar for misleading her?

I was nervous as I headed towards the south grounds where the dais had been set up, with my attendants following close behind, as if expecting me to disappear again.

I bowed before my father and mother before taking my place on the dais. Before us were long tables set up on either side of the grass lawn with a stage set up in the middle where acrobats were in the middle of their performance.

I scanned the guests as I took my seat but did not see her at once. I felt sick to my stomach when I did not find her face amidst the crowd. Instead my eyes landed on my cousin who always seems to find herself in my way whenever she visits the palace.

I looked away from her gaze quickly, not willing to give her an opening to approach me later. At least I knew she wasn't so bold as to approach the dais so I was safe from her grasping hands for the time being.

I couldn't help making comparisons in my mind between her and the young maiden I'd just met. Where one had an ethereal beauty and charm that had touched me, the other left me cold.

Princess Rowena is the daughter of my father's older brother. The two have a very similar story as Prince Javan and I do. The difference is that I trust my brother implicitly, while my father is ever wary of his.

Uncle Loren as far as I'm concerned is the slyest being I know. If the ministers are degenerates, then he is the master of it. His words never seem to match his actions, very much like his mother Empress Valeria.

We never have much dealings with each other, except here lately when he's been visiting the palace more and more often and for some odd reason trying to seek me out.

I've been able to avoid him so far and with good reason. The whispers around the palace have it that the time is fast approaching when the court ladies, led most likely by the empress, would choose a Princess Consort for me.

No doubt he wanted his daughter to take that position. And why not? She would one day become the empress of our nation, making him the internal prince. Father in law of the emperor.

I'll never let that happen, not after what it was rumored that he'd done to my father in the past. Not to mention she was most likely Empress Valeria's choice as well and her I would not please if I can help it.

It was no secret that my betrothal was more for political gain than love. That is the way with royalty after all, and has been for centuries.

But I have in mind to find a love like the one my parents share. I have no interest in side consorts or concubines, as I have seen what that had done to my father and grandfather. But no one knew this but me, as I wasn't fond of sharing my inner thoughts that freely with others.

No one knew that I had my own ideas about the woman I would one day marry, the one who would rule beside me. No one knew the deep thoughts that lived inside me. Shaped by the mistakes of the past.

I will have no one that I did not love. My future empress must be someone I can trust, who had only my interest and the interest of our people at heart.

I have no doubt that Princess Rowena is controlled by her father and would seek to carry out his every wish if I were ever stupid enough to accept her.

As I looked out over the gathered guests again, I had the fleeting thought that the girl I had met not too long ago would make a perfect empress.

In just that short meeting I'd learned a lot, maybe more than she'd expected to reveal. I knew that she had a strong core of ethics, that she had no fear and that her laugh felt like the heat of the sun on my face on a warm summer's day.

My feelings were rash and unlike my usual careful manner when dealing with matters of state. But somehow I couldn't shake the feeling because of the way we met, so unexpectedly, that she belonged to me, that we were meant to be.

I couldn't share these thoughts with anyone I know, because the fight for the position of Princess Consort was going to be a rough one. And anyone vying for that position was sure to face great opposition.

I knew this from studying the history of my ancestors and listening to the stories the servants told when they thought I wasn't listening in.

It's a habit I picked up long ago when I realized they sometimes know more than even the emperor himself.

I know from my reading and listening in where I shouldn't, that over the centuries blood had been shed in the palace and beyond to seat a preferred woman on the throne. Someone that can be easily controlled by the ruling faction of the time.

As a future Empress, the woman I choose would one day be second only to me on the throne and would wield great power.