The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

It was only after Alicia staggered into her chamber that she realized that she had forgotten to raise the important subject for which she had asked the king to have lunch with her.

She was still too overwhelmed by all that the king had said and by the realization that if anything happened to Harold, she was royally screwed. With that realization had come the other realization that, as long as she was stuck in this era, she wanted Harold to be with her. How had she gotten herself into this?

"You seem to care about him more than I thought you did." The king's voice rang in her head. She had been so lost in her worries that she hadn't realized it until he mentioned it. And when she looked at his face closely, she noticed he looked relieved.

"Eh? W-What?" She stuttered in confusion.

"I want to believe that you care for him greatly as much as he cares for you. And that you won't let yourself be used by anyone against him."

"But... if you care for him a lot, why don't you protect him? What could I possibly do? He... doesn't even tell me anything." She had said to him, sounding hurt.

Why didn't he tell her about the attacks on his life? Or tell her what had happened that evening before she fainted?

The King smiled sadly as he said, "You must know that we do not have the best relationship."

She knew that even without being told.

"His mother died when he was still an infant. Everyone he was close to died. I cannot protect him and everyone of his person."

"Why?" She asked in confusion because it didn't make sense. Wasn't he the king? How come he couldn't protect his son? Or...

"Is it because of the rumour I heard?" She asked carefully. "About... his older brother."

The look on the king's face changed when she mentioned that, and she immediately stopped talking.

The King picked up his wine and took another long sip, this time.

"That is a long story."

"O...kay."

The King looked at her intensely for a while, making her shift in her seat uncomfortably before he said, "If I am going to protect Harold, you have to let me know everything. The things he is doing, the things he says, and what you suspect he is going to do. Everything."

She frowned in confusion. "You... want me to spy on him?"

"You are his bride. You are not spying."

"I cannot do that. Reporting everything to you means spying on him." She said, still frowning.

"Why can't you?"

"Because it is wrong. And I would hate it if someone was doing that to me. I'm sorry, but I won't do this." She said politely, her hands clenching her dress beside her.

When the king didn't say anything for a long time, she raised her head and noticed he didn't look as serious as she had expected.

"Good. You have done well." He complimented her before rising.

She was lost in her thoughts now and could not stop thinking about everything they had said.

She wasn't stupid enough to not know that the major reason she got away with everything she did was because of Harold, and it was because Harold cared about her.

The King had made it sound like it was a big deal. Or maybe it was because Harold didn't care about anyone. Maybe only Alvin and Tyra. But he seemed to treat her a lot better and even allowed her to do whatever she wanted. How else was she to explain all his thoughtful gestures to her the past couple of days, and his incessant tantrums whenever she didn't do as he wanted? Or his anger every time he saw her with Alvin? She could tell that his feelings towards her had changed. And that was trouble.

Big trouble.

Speaking of tantrums, her eyes widened when she remembered that she had told him she would get back in time to go and see Hellion with him. Now he was going to throw another tantrum, Alicia thought as she gathered her gown and ran out of her chamber, but as soon as she got outside, she remembered the small box with snacks, which was wrapped with a cloth and was currently sitting on her dressing table. She went back to retrieve it. After getting it, she ran like she was being chased by a mad demon until she ran into someone, and she almost fell. Thankfully, she was able to protect the box while also stopping herself from falling.

She silently prayed that it was Harold or Alvin who she had run into, and no one else, as she straightened and raised her head to look into the face of the person. She took an involuntary step backwards, clutching the box in front of her tightly when she met Prince Ivan's cold eyes glaring at her.

Ivan eyed her with dislike. She was everything he hated in a woman, and now she was trying to make his lovely wife become like her. He looked down at her, contemplating if he should bother with her or merely ignore her existence and go on his way.

Alicia swallowed nervously as she flashed her brother-in-law an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I was in a hurry and wasn't looking," she said, not wanting to get on the man's nerves any more than she had done already. If for any reason, she wanted to reduce the number of enemies Harold had, she had to start with those within the royal family, and for now, the ones she could guess were Prince Ivan and his mother.

From what the king had said, the members of the royal family already had enough enemies, and the last thing she wanted was to stir more discord between them. She didn't want the brothers to fight against each other when they should be fighting side by side against their enemies.

Ivan thought this was a good opportunity to teach her a little lesson. He hadn't been the one to look for her. He was on his own when she bumped into him rudely. But just as he opened his mouth to give her the scolding of her life, a voice growled behind him.

"What is going on here?" Harold growled from behind Ivan when he saw Alicia standing in front of him, looking like she was scared. He immediately assumed that Ivan was harassing Alicia, as he had promised to do if he saw her with his wife again.

Ivan turned around and the brothers engaged in a stare down, with neither of them backing down.

Immediately Alicia heard the anger in Harold's voice and noticed the intense glares, she ran to stand in front of him and explained, "I was running to meet you, and bumped into him by accident," she said, holding Harold's right hand with her free hand.

Ivan looked at them both with disapproval, and without uttering a word to either of them, he walked away, fuming. Immediately after he left, Harold withdrew his hand from Alicia's grip and glared at her.

"Why were you running? Why were you within the palace in the first place when you were supposed to come back after your lunch with the king?" He asked, obviously in a foul mood, but Alicia couldn't blame him for it. She had been expecting it and she was prepared to accept it.

"I'm sorry," she said meekly without bothering to explain the details to him, and that only confused Harold more. When did she start apologizing so easily? Did Ivan scare her that much?

"Did he hurt you? Did he say anything to you?" Harold asked, every trace of anger in his voice now replaced with worry as he scanned her body with his eyes.

"I'm fine. Nothing happened." She said in a soft voice. She had never been so mentally tired in her entire life.

He raised her chin with a finger so that she would look up at him and he looked closely at her face. He could tell that something was wrong.

Seeing how concerned he suddenly seemed, tears gathered in Alicia's eyes as she stepped away from him. "I'm fine," she said, not trusting herself to say more than that. She had never had someone be concerned about her in the way he had.

Yes, Paulina cared about her, but it was actually Amber that Paulina cared about, and she cared about her because of some deep sense of loyalty that she owed the queen. But with Harold, it was different. She was the one Harold cared about, not Amber. She was the one he kept taking care of and the one who had promised to help her escape this place. Maybe not exactly escape, but he had agreed to help her with Hellion and turn a blind eye as long as he didn't see her escaping.

Harold was confused when she stepped away from him, and in those few seconds, his brain began to think about different things that could make her reject him. But when she suddenly stepped forward and embraced him before breaking into a sob, he became even more confused.

It had to be the king.

What did he say to her?