บท 22: Confusion
The next morning, Theodore woke up, he took a bath and left the house without even eating breakfast. His mother was anxious about him, she wondered what was going on with him.
Theodore rode to the palace, met with Fife, and they started work. All through the day Fife noticed that Theodore wasn't himself.
"Theodore, are you okay?"
"Not really, I am not".
"want to talk about it?"
"Not really".
"Hey, guess what?", Fife asked Theodore.
"what is it?",
"My family was invited to the dinner tonight as well. So, you are going to enjoy the pleasure of my company",
"that's nice".
"sadly, Betty will be there too", Fife moaned dramatically. He clutched on Theodore's arm, "you have to promise me that you won't abandon me with her".
Theodore patted his back sympathetically, "don't worry, I will be by your side the whole time". Fife looked up at him. "You look troubled, why don't you take a break and go take a walk in the garden".
Theodore looked at the pile of books on the table, "I can't leave, I still have a lot of work to do",
"don't worry about it, I will help you. Go take some air".
Theodore stood up and went outside to take a walk in the garden. As he walked and felt the fresh air, he thought about what had happened the previous night.
He knew that how he had treated Alistair last night had been harsh. It's just that he had been so confused about himself that he had taken it out on Alistair. Sure he had some fantasies about Alistair, but not until some of those fantasies had been fulfilled last night did he realize the consequences of his fantasies.
Men and women got together and did those things, not two men. How would his parents feel if they knew about it, how would the rest of the kingdom look at he and Alistair if they found out about this? He was already treated differently because of his appearance, how would it be if they found out about this?
He sat on a bench and buried his face in his hands, he was so confused about what to do.
"You look worried", someone said. He looked up to see the princess. He looked around to see if any of the guards were around, but to his dismay none of them were to be seen.
He remembered what had happened the last time when he had called her your highness. "Hello mother", he said tentatively, hoping that she didn't fly into a rage. She smiled approvingly at him and sat beside him. "Hello to you too, why do you look so worried".
"It's nothing, I will be fine",
"come on tell your mother everything, I won't judge you, I promise".
Theodore kept quiet for a moment and shrugged, what was the harm in telling her? It's not as if she were going to tell anyone. Besides, maybe if he talked to someone about it, it could lessen the burden in his heart.
"What if you don't like what anybody else likes. What you crave for is actually different, what would you do?". The princess listened to him attentively and mulled it over before answering him.
"The first thing I would do is to be sure that I actually want that thing, and then I would go ahead and take it for myself".
"What if society frowns on the thing I like?",
"does the thing you like hurt anybody?", Theodore shook his head. "Then to hell with the society, we should do what makes us happy and not follow the dictates of the society".
Theodore thought that she was actually making sense with what she said. He looked at her surprised, wasn't she supposed to be mentally ill? Or was she healed.
He was about to ask her another question when she suddenly squealed and stood up. She started to dance while laughing wildly.
The guards who were looking for her met this scene when they arrived. They apologized to Theodore and took her away.
Theodore shook his head at her funny behavior and walked back to the library, he felt a little better.
Meanwhile, the ladies in the kingdom weren't finding the new garlic law pleasant at all. Across the houses in the kingdom, various ladies could be heard complaining about the new law. The most disgruntled person seemed to be Olivia.
"So I am going to have to carry garlic around with me", she asked the servant who had brought the message up to her.
"Yes, my lady",
"am I supposed to be smelling of garlic? Ugh, I absolutely detest this vampire or whatever the beast might be. First, our night parties have to be stopped now I have to carry garlic. How am I supposed to attract lord Alistair this way?", she bemoaned her fate.
Her servants tried to soothe her, but it was to no avail.
"I will not carry any garlic with me", she declared resolutely.
"But my lady, what if the Vampire attacks you?", a servant asked with fear in her voice. She scoffed in reply, "I would like to see it try to attack me".
Theodore and Fife finished up at the palace and went to the front of the palace to wait for the servants to fetch their horses. Their horses were fetched, they got on their horses and rode out of the palace. They saw Alistair waiting outside the palace. He rode up to them as soon as he saw them.
"Lord Alistair, you seem to be a frequent visitor at the palace these days, if I didn't know better, I would have thought you were courting one of the palace maids". Fife teased Alistair.
"Hello Fife, hello Theodore", Alistair greeted the both of them, completely ignoring Fife's banter.
Fife replied him heartily, while Theodore mumbled a response.
"How was work today?",
"exhausting", Fife said while yawning and stretching his arms.
"Theodore, I was wondering if you are interested in a ride in the park", Alistair asked Theodore.
"Not really, I am really tired. I just want to go home and rest", Theodore declined his offer.
"Can I escort you home then?",
"I just want to be alone Alistair, I don't mean to offend you, I just have many things on my mind, and I am afraid that I would be terrible company".
"But Theodore…", before Alistair could even try to persuade him, Theodore had already turned on his horse and rode away.
Fife looked at Alistair with an amused grin on his face, "you are certain, that nothing happened between you two last night",
"fine, something happened okay, and then he pushed me away and has been acting weird since then".
Fife tried to resist the urge to pull out his hair, "you can be so dense at times, the poor boy is probably going through a lot of confusion right now and here you are still disturbing him".
"So what do you suggest I do?"
"Give him space, don't disturb him to talk. In the meantime I will talk to him",
"do you promise to talk to him?",
"I promise".
Fife grabbed the reins of his horse, "come on, let's go take a ride in the park".
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