Conquering His Cold Heart

Caspian and Alexander were also discussing a few things about each other’s respective Kingdoms. The two of them were naturally comfortable talking with each other. Both of them had heard good things about each other from Anastasia, which had already set a level of trust in their minds.

Anastasia was slowly making less and less contribution to the conversation. Her whole body was aching due to the continuous travel. And she was starting to wish that she could go back to her waiting room and rest.

However, at the same time, she didn’t want to leave because she wanted to be around her brother. She was forcing herself to try and focus on the conversation so that she wouldn’t notice the back pain and the pain in her joints.

Though she was doing her best to hide how she was actually feeling, Alexander could see that his sister was just pretending to be into the topics of the conversation. Knowing the history of his sister’s health, he was well aware that it was about time she went to rest for the night.

Thus, he looked at her and then asked, “Anna, why don’t I show you to one of the guest rooms? I will send some maids to take care of your needs. You can rest for the night if you want to. The ball will go on until midnight. So, you don’t have to wait for it to end.”

Anastasia, however, didn’t want to accept the offer since it would mean that they would be spending the night in the castle. Also, as it wasn’t Everard, the owner of the castle, who was offering her to use one of the guest rooms, she simply couldn’t accept it.

“Oh, I am fine, brother. I don’t need a guest room,” Anastasia said with a smile. “If I want to rest then I could use the waiting room. But I don’t want to go and rest, and miss out on all the fun.”

Alexander had already guessed that she would say something like that. But he still tried to persuade her. “There aren’t any fun activities left anyway. So, why don’t you go and rest? You look so tired.”

.....

“But I want to talk to you. I am meeting you after such a long time,” Anastasia looked down and pouted just the way she used to if she wanted her brother to agree with her.

Surely enough, Alexander couldn’t keep on insisting. He sighed and shook his head. And he complained to Caspian, “She always does this to me. She is one stubborn person.”

Caspian laughed because he couldn’t agree more. After all, it was her stubbornness that made him change his mind about sending her back to Orsenia. He placed his palm on top of Anastasia’s and then said to Alexander, “I know how stubborn she can get when she wants something.”

“Ah! So, you have also been a victim of her stubborn behavior, huh,” Alexander looked at his sister and joined in the laugh.

Anastasia frowned and tried to deny that accusation. “I am not being stubborn! Is it wrong to want to stay here with all of you and chat for a bit more?”

Caspian took his wife’s hand and then held it between his hands. Earlier, during the carriage ride, he had said that he didn’t want to stay here in the castle because he had only seen the negative sides of staying there. He had completely forgotten to take his wife’s stamina into consideration.

He could also clearly tell that his wife needed to rest. Even though his soldiers had found another place for them to stay, he would be making his wife unhappy. Finding another place meant leaving early from there. And he didn’t want to separate her from her brother very early unless Alexander also agreed to join them.

Since Caspian had seen how Everard was so dependent on Alexander, he doubted whether Alexander would agree to leave the castle too soon or if he would agree to leave at all.

Thus, to settle the matter, Caspian looked at his wife and said, “Anna, why don’t you do as your brother said? You can talk with him in the morning.”

Anastasia was surprised to hear Caspian say that. But she wasn’t still sure if Caspian wanted to spend the night here in the castle or if he was just asking her to rest for a while and then leave for another place a while later.

So, she asked curiously, “We aren’t leaving tonight? Are we going to spend the night here?”

Alexander was surprised when his sister asked if they were not leaving tonight. He wasn’t going to let Anastasia strain her body by traveling non-stop.

So, he instantly looked at Caspian and said, “Of course, you are going to spend the night here. You came from so far, there’s no way Everard would allow all of you to leave right away.”

Caspian gently patted his wife’s hand and said while nodding, “Yes, I think leaving tonight would be too tiresome. So, I think we should accept your brother’s offer and let him arrange the rooms for us. We can leave later during the day tomorrow. Or...”

He turned to look at Alexander and then said, “If you would accept my invitation to join us and let me host you in our Kingdom, then we could leave in the morning. Anastasia would really like that. So, what do you say, Prince Alexander?”

“Oh! Er...” Alexander smiled skeptically after getting the invitation out of the blue. Also, he had already given his word to Everard that he would extend his stay in Xanmar and support Everard emotionally during his transition period from being the Crown Prince to handling the role of the King.

But at the same time, he was now in a dilemma after getting invited to Sorvando by Caspian. ‘What do I do? Should I go along with them? Or should I stay here?’ he wondered to himself.