Prologue
I had never particularly considered our first encounter to be romantic .Whenever I thought about it, I concluded that I had simply seen him sitting on a bench reading a book.
But now I recalled things differently.
I recalled the silence of the garden, the cool breeze from the trees, that one purple and black butterfly that had landed gently on his knee. He never made an attempt to shoo it away, being too engrossed in his reading.
There was a certain foreign grace to how he read. The way he positioned his fingers so that the book could be held securely in one hand, the other stretched out on the back of the bench, only being removed occasionally to flip a page.
He looked relaxed, the posture was what one would term as 'laid back' . I stood there, leaning against the bark of the jacaranda until he seemed to feel my presence and looked up.
And just like that, I was suddenly on edge.........
Chapter one
The thing about royalty is that you always have to aim more to please . It matters not whether you're referring to how you hold the cutlery while you eat, or how you walk and talk. As long as you were born with the legendary silver spoon in your mouth, your life is often times not your own.
I speak from experience.
I leaned against the oak door of my bedroom window and listened in. My father was having a private conversation with my private tutor Salim. The homeschooling had been my mother's idea and now I understand why. As a prince, I was not destined to have what one would term as a social life. And that is precisely what my father and tutor were discussing in their " private conversation".
Don't get it the wrong way, they weren't talking about how they needed to put metal bars on my bedroom windows but rather about Simra.
Simra.......she was lovely I suppose. Had these grey eyes that sucked you into a limbo where all that existed was you and her. The two of you together.
She was also the daughter of the palace's head of staff. She had left a note for me under my pillow.
The third time she had done so, last time she slipped it under my door, and the time before that she placed it in between the pages of my favorite book.
You see, Simra alone wasn't the problem, it was what she stood for. The entire female population that is. Just the other week a couple of girls wrote me letters where they confessed their undying love for me. One asked me to elope with her.
I do not even know who they are.... that's the saddest part of it all.
" I believe that is the best choice. He is a male after all, he can't spend his entire life cooped up in these walls. He needs to learn independence if he is to one day rule these lands. " I heard my father say and wondered what he meant .
I had no wish to rule the lands. That plan was literally nowhere in my foreseeable future. All I wanted was a life somewhere far from home. A far as I could get.
I held my breath and listened in more closely, My palm pressed against the thick and ornately carved slab of timber and my ear as close to it as I could get it. It was the tutor that was speaking this time.
" Will his mother agree to this? " Agree to what?...I wondered.
" She has no choice in the matter, I am the emperor after all, my final word always goes." I heard pride in my father's voice and was not all surprised, my father was a very proud individual. He had an ego that was almost unmatched.
He also had a temper that most chose to not speak of.
" Did you do the research? " He asked .
"Yes emperor, and I believe I have found just the right place."
" Is that so??...does it meet all my requirements?
I imagined the tutor nodding vigorously in an attempt to convince my father.
" All of them emperor, with some added advantages to ensure that Jerald is most comfortable. "
Jerald....that is me. First born son if the emperor and inevitable heir to the throne. Unless of course
it is discovered that my father has another bastard son out there who will be more than happy to take over his duties. That has been my wish for as long as I can remember. But the reality is most heartbreaking.
" Thank you Salim. You may take your leave now, we shall discuss more about this matter tomorrow."
There was a brief silence where I imagined Salim bowing. And then I heard his footsteps as he walked away. But my father called out to him a second later, and I heard him as he asked.
" What's the name of the institution? "
The response came immediately after.
" Seville my Lord. Seville All Boys Boarding High School. "
Then there was silence. A moment in time where I contemplated everything I had heard and put all the pieces together. The outcome was as clear as it could be.
I was finally going to leave that place.
