Althea was upset with Easton. Despite the other things happening in the Capital, all she seemed to be able to focus on when they got back to the Duchy was that Easton had not confessed his feelings for Lady Ipheion.

Easton couldn’t deny that he was drawn to the lady.

It started with a curiosity regarding her mind, but then he saw her ingenuity, and the nonchalant elegance she had drew him to her. She was a mystery he wished to unravel, a puzzle he wished to piece together.

“Perhaps I am attracted to her.”

“Of course you are, Easton.” Althea sighed across from him at the breakfast table.

The Duke placed down his newspaper and looked at his brother, “So what shall you do about it, brother?”

Easton stared at the biscuit in his hand, “What if she doesn’t feel the same?”

“That is a risk we must all take for love, brother.”

It would seem Althea had grown impatient.

Easton stared down at the official letter in his hands requesting that he and Lady Ipheion go to the Zinnia Marquis lands for a diplomatic mission.

Lady Rhea looked superb in her travel ware the following day. They met at the Port City and took a sky ship until they were to reach the Marquis's land. The lady came with one knight and he worried it may not be enough for this mission. Even his brother convinced him to take two.

The Marquis’s second son had made a major mistake with his message regarding the Empress’s supposed death. However, the Empress was fair; the Marquis had helped calm the coup. Suspicions that the Marquis was the very one behind it were in the minds of many higher-ranking officials, but without concrete proof, there was not much they could do except for a light slap on the wrist.

Lady Rhea and Easton stayed mostly apart on other parts of the ship. It wasn’t until they landed in the commerce city and switched to the wide-wheeled carriages that the nobles would use to transport themselves across the desert lands that they were placed in the same carriage, their knight followed by camel.

The silence stretched out, as there wasn’t much to see out their windows except long stretches of golden sand.

“Lady Rhea.” Easton stopped his words failing him. He wasn’t used to talking with people. He left the talking to his brother, it was enough he could hear other’s inner voices as soon as he entered a room or neared them; he didn’t need to deal with their inane words. And yet he found himself wanting to have a conversation with Lady Rhea. He wanted to know more about her. Then as if skipping the formalities of small talk, he directly asked a question he had been curious about. “Why did you name your business, the Flower Path?”

Lady Rhea turned her head away from where it was dazing out looking out the window and turned her attention to him. Her wide blue-eyed gaze searched his features and then as if finding it she spoke, “When I was small I would be told stories about happily ever afters. Fairy tales, if you will, but they all had something in common. The main character eventually walked down their own flower path.”

Easton tilted his head, “How do you mean?”

“A flower path represents a successful life lived.” Rhea glanced out the window, her thoughts far away from his grasp. “I wished to name my business after my goal in life. It was not too odd a name as so many teas originate from the dried petals of flowers.”

“To walk down the flower path. What an interesting concept. Have you achieved this dream of walking down the flower path?”

Rhea tilted her head as gazed at him, her thoughts coming through to him.

‘No one has asked me that, not even ALICE.’

Who was Alice? The name didn’t sound familiar to him.

“I’m learning that life isn’t always that simple.”

“You’ve been successful with the Flower Path business, it's known throughout the realm.”

Rhea murmured, “I suppose, but I wonder if that is all there is to life.”

Still, he heard her.

His next question stunned even himself, “Have you ever thought of courting someone?”

He was being quite inquisitive today but he couldn’t help himself around this woman. He wanted to know how her mind worked, what she valued, what she loved and wanted.

Before Rhea could respond though there was a knock on the glass of the carriage window.

One of his knights bowed toward them both, “There is a sandstorm on the horizon. We are nearing an inn, we suggest that we take cover for the rest of the day and night, sir.”

Easton nodded, “So be it.”

The inn was rustic and small, but there was just enough space for them and their knights. The two male knights bunked together, leaving Lady Rhea’s female knight a room for herself and one for each of them.

The rooms were small, leading them to be in one another’s company as they had a meal at the inn.

When Lady Rhea finished, before she could retire, Easton found himself drawing her into conversation once again.

“What if we courted?”

Her eyes widened and she stared at him. He could almost imagine the questions going through her mind even if he could not hear them.

Easton felt his ears heat up and he cleared his throat, “Hypothetically, of course.”

“I’m not sure what to think about it, in truth, Lord Easton.” She held her glass tightly in her grasp, “I have just come to realize you might like me.”

“I more than like you, Lady Rhea.”

“Oh.”

“You fascinate me. I can’t help but be drawn to your very presence.” Easton stared at her, his gaze drifting to her lips as she pursed them like two plush pillows.

There was only silence in reply as she gazed at him with an intense gaze.

“I see.” Her words drifted off and she looked beyond his shoulders to the stairs before nodding toward him and making her escape, “It’s growing late. Good night, Lord Easton.”

Easton sat back in his chair feeling like a fool. He ran a hand over his features, what in the realm was he thinking? His gaze drifted to the stairs where Lady Rhea disappeared. No, he didn’t regret his words, even as he felt a blush come to his cheeks. Lady Rhea wasn’t a prize to be won, she was a being of power and elegance. He knew her also to have an innocence that was rare to see. He wished to cherish it and protect her from the world but he knew it wasn’t his place…at least not yet. He would show her, that his words were not folly. He would show her that he cared for more than just her pretty eyes, enticing lips, or her intriguing mind and he would do it soon.