Honey : The Empire's Treasure 388 Meeting The In-Laws 3

"Sienna! Remember the plan…!" Lady Delju pinched her daughter's arm to stop her from following the Prince with her eyes.

"Ow! I know, you don't have to pinch me!"

"Your father is coming this way! Watch your behavior…" Delju put on the pitiful expression she had on earlier.

"Mano...your courtyard…"

Mano walked back to his wife and daughter and sighed.

"I know. It's unlivable now. You two will have to relocate to a different courtyard until I am able to get it repaired."

"...but...but all our things were in there! We have nothing, just the clothes on our backs...Mano." Lady Delju and Sienna had long dropped the blankets from their shoulders, leaving their bodies to face the early evening air in the semi-burnt dirty clothes.

Seeing the problem, Mano relented.

"I'll tell the accountant to send you and Sienna some funds. For now, I'll have the maids go out a get you guys some last minute clothes from the shops that are still open."

*Cries*

"Okay…" Lady Delju was delighted to hear this, but kept her face looking sad at the lost of her personal items.

This morning, when she and her daughter looked into their wardrobe, they hated all the old clothes inside. 

They couldn't be caught dead in those clothes. They rather have them burned to a crisp than let Prince Ailwin see them in old fashioned garments.

"Go and get changed then join everyone for dinner." Mano had a maid come to escort the two women away to a temporary courtyard. It was further away from the rest of the main family, but was closer to the courtyard Prince Ailwin was staying at.

_

In their courtyard, Mika sat in her mother bedroom telling about everything that she had found in Rowood City and about the King.

"Mikaela, you could have gotten seriously hurt! Why would you go there when you didn't need to!" Lyra was even more upset with Prince Ailwin than she was before.

Uh-oh! Maybe I should have waited to tell my mother about Rowood City until after she met with Ailwin. Mikaela thought, but when her mother pulled her out of the meeting hall to go back to their courtyard, she felt right at home and want to share everything with her.

"Mom… He needed my help-"

"What kind of man is he?, if he needs the help of a fourteen years old fledgling!?" 

Ouch! Mom, that hurt!

"Heeeey...! I'll have you know I am more competent than most adults out there!" Mika huffed.

"Mikaela, I know that...but that still doesn't change the fact that you are a fledgling."

Well yeah, if you need to get technical about it...

"….he was caught by surprised...so…" Mika quitely responded.

"Oh, Mikaela don't make excuses for him, it just makes it worst." Lyra sighed before taking a sip of honey water from her mug.

Mikaela didn't know what to say in front of her mother's negative feeling towards Ailwin. She has never dealt with anything like this before and it was out of her comfort zone.

When she had watched Ailwin leave with her father, she honestly felt bad for him during lunch. However, every time he would look her way for help, her mother would give her a light poke in her midsection reminding her to mind her business.

Choosing the woman who birth her, Mika let Ailwin suffer through meeting with her family alone.

"Mom...can you not emasculate my first boyfriend? ...I kinda like him and want to keep him." Lyra saw her daughter's pleading expression, and calmed herself down.

"Okay, I won't say anything more…"

"...and you'll help him with Lady Thalia...?"

"….."

Taking a sip of her water Lyra said nothing else.

Getting out of her seat, Mika stood in front of her mother before getting down on her knees.

"Come on, mom! Give him a chance…" Using her best sad puppy eyes she could muster, Mika begged her mother for leniency.

*Sighed* "Fine….and get up off the floor." Lyra shook her head as Ailwin just got himself another strike against him in her book.

The bastard made my proud daughter get on her knees for him! No good...rotten...

Mika didn't realize that the more she tried to help Ailwin, the worst her mother thought of him.

Heh! I should make Ailwin buy me doughnuts for all good work I'm doing for him…

While Lyra and Mikaela were both in their own little thoughts, Ailwin suddenly shivered then sneeze as he was changing his clothes.

"Prince Ailwin, maybe we should ask for the healers to give you some medicine." His steward suggested.

"No, that won't be necessary. I'm fine." Ailwin didn't know what came over him, but he felt a slight chill on the unusually warm night. 

Refreshed from a pleasant bath and nap, he wanted to take a walked around the guest courtyard before meeting everyone for dinner.

The clear night sky litter with stars and the smell of the flowers in the garden, made all the stress from the last couple of days drain away from his shoulders. That was until voices from the gate infiltrated his tranquility. 

His soldiers guarding the gate were arguing with someone very loud. Loud enough that he could hear it in the back gardens.

"Will you move aside, I told you I'm here to escort Prince Ailwin to dinner!" Lady Delju shouted in the two soldiers' faces.

"Ma'am, we have already told you that it won't be necessary." 

"Are you spitting on the Amara clan's courtesy!" Delju hollered.

"No."

"Then let me inside!" Lady Delju hadn't thought she would be stopped at the gates by Prince Ailwin's soldiers.

Being one of the Ladies of the house, she thought her standings were high enough for a meeting alone with the Prince.

"What is going on here?" Ailwin's presence stopped all arguments.

"Sir, these two ladies want a meeting with you." One of the soldiers gestured to Lady Delju and Sienna.

"Um, and who might you two be?" Ailwin didn't feel like dealing with anymore of the clan members right now, but he couldn't lose his cool in someone else's home.

"Hello, Prince Ailwin…" Lady Delju pushed the two soldiers aside as she walked to stand in front of him.

"I am Lady Delju, Lord Mano's wife, and this is my daughter Sienna…" She indicated the shy looking young miss standing behind her.

Hearing that it is one of Lord Mano's wives, Ailwin knew he couldn't be impolite.

"Hello, Lady Delju...Miss Sienna… What can I do for you?" 

"Oh, well we were just on our way to the dining hall and wanted to know if you would like us to show you the way?" Delju smiled brightly in his face, leaving no room for him to turn them down.

"Of course... I would appreciated that greatly...thank you." With a few parting words to his men, Ailwin left with the two women.

Chapter end