"The duke is not back yet?" Evenly asked, realizing immediately why her friend looked like she hadn’t gotten any sleep and was looking for Rav.
Belle gave a nod. "He’s not. Is Rav in his room?" she asked.
As if on cue, before Evenly could reply, Rav came out of his chamber and walked toward them. He greeted Belle with a bow, but his eyes shifted to Evenly, and a faint color settled on both their faces. Belle couldn’t help but notice the look they shared.
Could it be that they had both shared a room? she thought suspiciously and hopefully at the same time, as she would have liked more than anything for Evenly to find someone who would love her for who she was. And who else could do that better than Rav, the man she had noticed many times being attentive to the other woman when they were in Aragonia? 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖
But to avoid putting the two in an awkward position by asking to confirm if they had slept in the same room, Belle quickly addressed the reason she had come to this side of the castle in the first place.
"Rav, he’s not back yet. Can you help me communicate with him to know if he is all right? I don’t trust the king, who has Gaggers as guards, not to hurt him."
Rav, grateful that the lady didn’t pry by asking why Evenly was coming from his room in her nightdress, hurriedly nodded before trying to reach his master. Not long after, he received confirmation that Rohan was all right but was being delayed by something else in the royal castle. However, not wanting to make the lady worry, Rav didn’t tell her that the one delaying him was the king.
"His lordship says he is fine and will be back soon," he told Belle, and noticed how she relaxed visibly, then smiled before she thanked him and walked away with Evenly, talking softly. His eyes remained fixed on Evenly as she left, wishing he knew a way to explain to her that he wasn’t in love with Alison anymore. The only thing holding him back from expressing his true feelings was a guilt he didn’t know how to rid from his heart and mind.
With a war expected to happen, he didn’t believe it was wise to let her leave without planning to come with them to the safe mountain cottage, just as Rohan had arranged.
"I’ll have to make her change her mind," he muttered to himself. "Even if I have to convince her to marry me."
For the next few hours, Belle felt more relieved and was able to focus on other things in the castle without worrying.
She bathed Angel and herself, then made him his pudding and fed him in the kitchen. Lately, her milk had stopped rushing as it used to before, since her son had stopped breastfeeding for over a month now, and unless she pressed it, nothing came out of it anymore. She no longer gave him her milk but instead fed him rice pudding made with cow milk and honey, which he loved and ate gladly.
After finishing his meal and letting him get busy with Rohan’s parchment again, she went to the kitchen to help prepare breakfast before Rohan came back.
Things were going very well in the kitchen until Evenly called her name to tell her something, which led to Belle seeing something she would have given away a finger to never witness.
"There’s something I want to tell you, Belle," Evenly began as she cut the vegetables Rav had brought in from the garden. She thanked him softly, just as she always did, acting like nothing had happened last night to make the air between them less awkward or uncomfortable.
"What is it?" Belle asked, putting a lid on the boiling pot of soup on the fire before turning her full attention to Evenly.



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