Conquering His Cold Heart

Anastasia was curiously looking around that dining room because she had never been there before. She was always served food in her own bed chamber or in her antechamber. And she felt a little strange thinking how there were several such rooms in the castle which she had never entered.

The chefs had prepared a spread of food that Anastasia usually preferred to eat for dinner like pot roast, curry, lamb gravy, roasted potatoes, and several other mouthwatering dishes. They guessed that the Queen’s brother would also have similar taste as her since they were from the same place.

And rightly so, Alexander was reminded of home when he saw all the food that he was familiar with. He softly smiled and said to his sister, “It feels like we are having dinner in Orsenia. All that’s missing is a bad joke from our father and the laughter of our mother.”

Anastasia smiled and looked at her plate. “Yes. I miss our family dinner too. But we rarely ate together.”

“Mhmm…” Alexander took a deep breath as he cut the beef roast, and said in a sad voice, “I was barely home. I don’t know why our parents didn’t trust the teachers of Orsenia and sent me to another Kingdom. I surely learned a lot of things about the world, but I haven’t had a chance to learn about my own Kingdom. I haven’t gotten any chance to interact with our own people because of which, I am not that aware of the thought process of our people.”

Anastasia understood what her brother meant to say. So, she suggested, “Then you should focus on meeting the citizens after you return from Lavinya for good. It’s only a matter of a few months now.”

Alexander swallowed the juicy beef and said while tapping his fork on the piece of beef on his plate, “This is really tasty. But it is quite different than what we eat at home.”

Anastasia smiled and agreed, “I think the chefs here put some new ingredients. They cook most of the dishes based on Tilla’s explanation. So, I bet the chefs experimented a lot to prepare the dishes based on her explanation alone.”

.....

“Oh!” Alexander laughed and said, “Then I will find a cookbook with most of the recipes from our Kingdom and send it to you. It will be easier for your chefs to prepare the dish by following the cookbook rather than by trying to decode Tilla’s explanations.”

Anastasia also laughed along with her brother and agreed. “I thank you in advance then.” She suddenly recalled the previous gifts that her brother had sent her and further added, “And I really liked the shawl and the books that you sent in Lord Hamilton’s hand. I really enjoyed the stories.”

“I am glad to hear that,” Alexander looked at his sister’s content face and was happy to see her face glowing like that. “I heard that there’s a huge library here. You don’t lock yourself in the library every day, right?”

“No! I don’t.” Anastasia wrinkled her nose thinking Tilla had mentioned every little detail to her brother. She ate some roasted potatoes and then said to her brother, “But I do borrow a lot of books from the library and read them in my own chamber. Only during the day though.”

“Hmm…” Alexander gave a nod and asked, “And what else do you do to engage yourself?”

Anastasia shyly looked down at her plate and replied, “I spend time with Caspian. He likes to spend a lot of time together.” She smiled to herself when she further revealed how Caspian normally acted. “If it wasn’t for his advisor who hounds him to complete his tasks in time, he would spend the whole day hovering around me.”

Alexander took a peek at his sister’s face. He saw a genuine smile on her face. And even though he hadn’t had any romantic affairs with anyone yet, he could tell that the look on her face was the result of the genuine love that she felt towards her husband.

He wanted to ask a lot of questions to his sister regarding her husband. However, now that he saw his sister smiling like that, it was enough to clear all the doubts in his heart.

‘Both of them love each other dearly, don’t they?’ he thought with a content smile on his face.

Anastasia, on the other hand, realized that she had subconsciously spoken to her brother thinking that she was speaking to Tilla. ‘Did I say too much?’ she questioned herself and glanced at her brother’s face. When she saw him smiling ear to ear, warm blood rushed to her cheeks and her ears out of embarrassment.

In order to divert the conversation away, Anastasia cleared her throat and quickly said, “Would you like to see the library? I will show you around tomorrow. You will find it really fascinating.”

Alexander nodded while still smiling widely. “I would love that.”

“Great.” Anastasia looked down at her plate again. She thought for a while and again said with some enthusiasm, “And I will also show you around the castle. What about the capital? Shall we go there too? It looks livelier at night though.”

Alexander suddenly placed his knife and fork on the plate and then looked at Anastasia with a serious look on his face. He let out a sigh and said what he was thinking, “Anna, I am sorry but I think tomorrow I will head for Orsenia.”

“What? Why?” Anastasia knitted her brows because she was under an impression that her brother was at least going to spend a week with her.

Alexander looked sad when he gave his reason, “If everything had gone smoothly, then I was planning to stay here for a while. But things have changed. I should go and personally visit the grieving families of my guards. They lost their lives protecting me. That is the least I can do. And... I should also talk with our father before things escalate.”

“I understand,” Anastasia softly whispered. Although she would have loved it if her brother stayed with her for a few more days, she agreed with her brother. If their father started to assume things on his own and take action against Xanmar, then the peaceful relationship between the two Kingdoms would come to an end.

She took a deep breath and said, “I will ask Caspian to prepare a carriage and a few guards for you.”

“Thank you!” Alexander smiled and gently caressed his sister’s hair. He was sad for having to leave his sister sooner than he wanted to, but it was the price of being the Crown Prince. Duty toward the Kingdom came before everything else.