I run down the hallway. I see Elizabeth walking. Aha, I finally found you. I have the advantage of being able to run. I run down the hallway and tackle her.
“What are you doing!?” She yells out.
“Detaining you.” I don’t think it is that hard to find out.
“In the hallway? Everyone is looking at us.” She complains. If I didn’t know better, I'd say that she was embarrassed.
“Well, I can’t let you escape, now can I?” She just sighs. Honestly, I want to see her face but since I tackled her from the back, I cannot see it.
“What do you want to tell me?” Obviously, she isn’t in the mood to talk with me. Was this the best idea? No, what been done has already been done. I must continue moving forward.
“It wasn’t what it looked like, she just came up and did that suddenly.” I tell her. I beg of you, just believe in me for this one thing... I beg of you.
“I know, she saw me from the couch.” She responds. She actually trusts me. Thank God. Wait...
“How did you know she was on the couch?”
“I saw her.” She responds immediately.
“Then why didn’t you come in?” I mean it took her a tad bit before she even got to my desk.
“I don’t think I need to answer that question.”
“Answer me.”
“I was going to enter but she started moving towards you. I wanted to see what would occur.”
“Still, I wasn’t leading her on. It was all her decision.”
“Yes, she was trying to make me jealous.” Did it work? No bad James. This isn’t the time to wonder that. You got to fix this before you ask. “Why did you even bring her here? I just can’t figure out the reason.”
“It was obviously for her conversational abilities.” I respond dryly. I’m not going to mention that image to her. I just need to keep Sibylla around until then. If I have to give her my entire fortune then so be it. Even if that image never becomes true in the end, it will still be worth it. All for you.
“My history with her has determined that to be a lie.” She retorts. For a reason I have a sense of Deja-vu.
“You’re not much better.” I mutter. Unfortunately, since my mouth is near her ear, she caught that side comment.
“Is that how you see me?”
“If you more honest, I wouldn’t be having this problem.”
“Honest!?” She yells. “What do you mean by that?!”
“I mean, that if you just trusted me a bit more, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”
“Well, if my family has taught me one thing it is that you cannot trust anyone, not even your own family.” She says. Ah, dammit, I just stepped on a touchy subject there. No, this is necessary.
“Have I ever betrayed you? Have I? I can promise you that I won’t. No matter what, no matter the consequences, I will always be on your side.” I tell her. I beg of you, trust me.
“That's the thing, it isn’t your enemies that can hurt you, it is the ones that you trust.” I can only see red. I extend the olive branch just for her to throw it back into my face. This is what I get for trying to reason with her. I let go of her and stand up.
“Get out, I don’t want to see you right now!” I yell. Perhaps I look like a child throwing a tantrum but I don’t care. She just gets up not even once turning to face me. Not even once. I turn to face the servants staring at me. I give them a look and they begin trembling, some even fall to the ground. “Don’t ever speak of this, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The few who could spat out. They seem to have gotten the message clearly. I turn around and head back to the office. I don’t want to deal with paper work, but I don’t have the time to be lollygagging around. I have an empire to run. That is the most important thing right now.
A/N: This is an important chapter for James and Elizabeth's relationship. I think it also cuts to some of their problems. As for what Elizabeth says, that is something to be elaborated on later but it is the reason James doesn't really like Goldwell.
