"You’ve heard I’m to marry Li Fengfeng?" the Second Prince asked i ili plainly.
"Yes, your highness," she said with gentleness.
She knew he disliked the woman, as they all did, but what could be done?
He needed the Pri Minister’s support now more than ever; so did Bai Li and her brothers. In the face of that, it seed like the only path.
And yet, what was he sacrificing? It could be his entire chance at happiness.
Li Fengfeng would be his wife! It seed an impossibility she could make him happy... And she would for sure make the lives of any concubines he might take unbearable; if she let them live, ili thought with a shudder of fear.
"It’s not what I want," he said miserably. "I know she was behind the attack on you during the Royal Hunt. Probably she was the mastermind behind pushing you into this lake too," he said, without looking at her.
He stared, dry eyed, across the water, his face an inscrutable mask, a far cry from his usual teasing self.
She was cautious with her words. This woman would soon be his wife. If he was lucky, he may co to love her...
"Second Prince, I know you need the support of Pri Minister Li in order to have any influence at court. My brothers and Bai Li need your help now more than ever. The people need a good man like you to balance the n at court who don’t have their best interests at heart. And even though your Emperor Father doesn’t realise it yet, he needs you too. I’m so sorry it’s fallen to you to make this sacrifice."
She turned to look at his side profile. He looked so distant and cold, but she knew this man. He felt things deeply. He had learnt to wear a mask from his early childhood, but it didn’t fool her.
"I rember when I was telling you my girlish fantasies about freedom, you said to not to envy the life of my brothers, and that they would also feel trapped by the life that their birth dictates they must lead. I wondered back then if you were speaking about yourself. Now... I know for sure that you were... You more than any of us, are trapped in a life of duty. Almost none of your choices are allowed to be about your own desires."
He turned to look at her, and the compassion in for him her eyes almost broke his resolve.
"This is as it should be," he replied. "As a prince of the realm, I get so many advantages. In return, my life is dedicated to the betternt of the people. It’s not really my own. And still, this is a new low point. It might be made more bearable if the woman wasn’t so detestable, but she is. And the worst thing is how much she dislikes you."
He searched her face for so sign she felt as he did, but all he saw was innocence and compassion, the sa feeling she might have held for her brothers.
"It doesn’t matter if she likes or not, your highness. Once she’s married to you, I’ll no longer be a threat to her, so I’ll be of no consequence."
"Is that truly what you think?" he asked with incredulity, his voice pained. "Knowing her, she will certainly still consider you a threat."
Because of my feelings for you, were the unspoken words in his head.
Her eyes widened, how could it be that once Li Fengfeng held the position of First Wife, she would consider her, a re friend of the Second Prince, a threat?
"Our Country needs you, your highness. I know you do your duty. We all know why you must do this. You needn’t consider your friends in the equation, though it speaks volus for the man you are that you care so much."
He raised an eyebrow at her, "friends? Hmph," he sniffed in disdain.
He placed a hand on either side of her, trapping her against the bridge rail, just as he had done on that occasion in the garden of her mansion. The mory can flooding back.
He leaned down towards her, until his face was inches from her own.
She gasped slightly and leant backwards, but he leaned forwards, closing the gap.
"You know what I want from you, i ili," he said with intensity, "and it’s definitely not friendship".
She stared into his eyes, her lashes fluttering nervously, still trying uselessly to back away from him when there was nowhere to go.
He dipped his head to almost rest against her neck, where he stopped and drew a deep breath, like we was drawing her in.
His breath was warm against her neck, and she shivered involuntarily.
"I don’t know, Second Prince," she gasped. "Y...you’re too close to !"
He turned from his position in the crook of her neck and looked up into her eyes.
"Can you stop calling that?" he said wearily, closing his eyes. "When we’re alone, call Zhu Yicai. Please?"
She gulped. That would be completely inappropriate, and yet the pleading tone of his voice and the piteous look in his eyes tugged rcilessly at her heart.
She drew a deep breath, "that would be a breach of protocol," she said gently, without much conviction.
"Please breach protocol for when it’s just the two of us. It would an a lot to , and it’s a small thing. You have no idea the tireso drag of all of your friends calling you ’your highness’ and only my Father calling my Yicai..."
She thought of his absent Mother, and his eyes were breaking her heart.
"Alright," she conceded.
He looked at her expectantly.
"Zhu Yicai," she felt the unfamiliar words on her tongue, like she was breaking the law.
He closed his eyes with pleasure. "Say it again," he purred.
"Z...Zhu Yicai?" she called him.
His eyes sprang open, and this ti, they were filled with a hawk-like intensity, inches from her own.
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