The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 33: Why me? (1)

"I don’t have a dirty mind," Hazel replied.

"I beg to differ. What else might have been the reason behind the look you gave me? Do you want to go to where we are to eat or look around? You keep gazing at the garden so I must believe you are one of those people to be in love with it. It is pretty I suppose," Tobias said, looking out at the small glimpse of the garden he got from where he stood.

"You suppose? I have never seen a garden quite like the ones here. All of them so far have been beautiful. I’ve attended many parties of people who try to recreate the palace’s gardens but none compares to what I have seen here and at night. You are lucky," Hazel said, jealous of Tobias.

He got to see the palace gardens every day.

"Yes well, stick around for a few more years and you’ll see that it’s not all that pretty after a while. I don’t know what many of the gardens in the town look to know if the ones here are the best. I will take your word," said Tobias.

Hazel now remembered that Tobias did not go out to balls outside the palace like she did. It wasn’t every day you saw one of the royals attending a ball outside of the palace. You had to be pretty important for them to show up.

Though Hazel came from a good family, she didn’t enjoy going to those parties where the queen or king showed up. Only her mother and father did.

"Perhaps because you have seen it repeatedly, it has lost a bit of its beauty. I am the same way when someone visits our home and compliments something. If you were to see our garden, you would appreciate how beautiful the ones in the palace are. We should go to where we are to have dinner," Hazel said, not wanting to go off-path to upset the queen.

"That sounded like an invitation to visit your home. When I show up at your door and inform your father that you were the one to invite me, you must not forget this moment," Tobias said and then walked ahead to leave Hazel.

"Forgive me but I don’t hear where I invited you to my home. Why would the prince want to visit my home to see my garden? I was only trying to make you feel better about not seeing many," Hazel responded, hurrying behind Tobias to catch up to him.

"Well to my ears it sounded like an invitation and how am I to appreciate the beauty here if I don’t go around looking at ugly gardens? If you marry me, it would be me going to visit my in-laws. The perfect excuse to see a bad-looking garden and then realise that the ones here are better," said Tobias.

Hazel wished that there was no one around so she could knock some sense into Tobias’s head. Why should he marry her just to see her garden? He could not simply divorce her. It had only happened once the royals separated and she was sure the palace would like to avoid that scandal again.

Hazel bit her lip and looked around at the maids hustling to follow her and Tobias.

Hazel caught up to Tobias and walked beside him. "It doesn’t-"

"Lady Hazel, you are not to walk beside the prince. One step behind him," a maid instructed Hazel.

"Oh, my apologies," Hazel apologised and took a step back as she told. She walked with him wrong yesterday because the time they spent together, she walked beside him. She had even kicked him.

"Walk beside me, Hazel. You’ve done it already," Tobias said, not interested in following the foolish rule. He had not followed it since the selection started. Each time he wanted to look at Hazel, he did not want to have to turn around to see her. "Quickly."

Hazel turned to face the maid who seemed to be stumped on what to do because the prince was telling Hazel what to do. Hazel wanted to follow the palace rules, but at the same time, she needed to listen to the prince.

Hazel took back her spot beside Tobias so they could walk together. She worried about this being passed on to the queen and her being placed in a bad position because she ended up following the prince’s order.

"Give us some space. Make it less obvious that you are spying on our conversation to go back and tell my mother everything," Tobias said, stopping to turn to face the maid who had spoken up.

They were too close for his liking and seeing that Hazel was starting to be less relaxed which meant he wouldn’t get to enjoy his time with her as he wanted. He liked it more when she wasn’t thinking about behaving as she thought his mother would want her to be before him.

"The queen-"

"Is not present. This is my time to speak with Hazel, but how I am to do that whilst knowing there are four of you behind us and guards all around? Give us some space to speak in private. If my mother wishes to know what was spoken, she should come to me and ask. Take ten steps back and don’t be shy about it," Tobias ordered the maids.

The maids looked around at each other, not knowing what to do. They were given an order from the head maid who would have received the order from the queen. They were to watch the prince and listen to what was said. Be the queen’s eyes and ears for the selection when she was not around, but they had to listen to the prince.

Tobias released a dry laugh. "Perhaps I was away from the palace for too long that now you do not listen to my orders. Should I leave this part of the selection and have you explain it to my mother or will you give us some space?"

"Excuse us, Prince Tobias," the maid answered, taking steps back as he wanted. If he were to run away again just as he did when the queen sent someone to check in on him in his bedroom, they would be in trouble.

Next time she wished the head maid would do this job or the queen would stick around to oversee this.

Tobias waited for them to be at a good distance from him and Hazel to then turn his attention back to Hazel. "Better?"

Hazel thought it was better to not have the maids so close because she didn’t need to watch her words more than she was already doing but she felt trouble would come from this. "Won’t the queen be upset?" She asked.

She already started to assume the queen didn’t like Tobias’s choices of women yet. What if the queen were to think something suspicious was happening by Tobias threatening to leave if the maids did not step back?

"My mother isn’t the only person they spy for. Thank me later when news starts to go around about you and your peers," Tobias replied.