Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 194: Passing the Blame

Chapter 194: Passing the Blame

"This butterfly wants the flower for himself?" she softly pushed him back. " How greedy and entitled of this butterfly!" she smirked. "Let the butterfly put a fence around the flower if he wants to claim the flower..." she made a circular motion around her left ring finger. "Then the butterfly can freely enjoy the nectar of the flower, for the rest of his life," she bit her lower lip and winked.

"You little..." Arthur wasn’t pleased with her answer and tried to get her.

Is she saying she won’t commit to me without a ring? Can’t she just say ’yes’ and get on with it?

Talia ran towards the bathroom with a giggle. Realising she angered Arthur, she wanted to shut herself in. She wanted to take a shower too.

Arthur ran behind her to catch her, but the door knock was heard and so he slowed. He made a lunging motion seeing her peeking her head out from the bathroom door and mocking him by sticking out her tongue.

*Bang*

The bathroom door closed and he smiled pausing his actions.

What a woman!

He walked to the door and it was Sir Robert and Arthur invited him in. He had a bunch of things for Talia and he got everything from him and placed it in the bedroom.

Arthur saw Mr. Ed sitting on the couch with his fingers tapping on his knees and realised he needed to say something and sat opposite him, crossing his legs.

"When are you going to announce the breaking of your engagement?" Mr. Ed asked. His voice seemed calm and his eyes held an intrusive stare. He was trying hard to hide his real emotions and appeared to be neutral.

"You can expect the official announcement tomorrow," Arthur replied. Seeing the little sigh of relief escaping Mr. Ed, Arthur’s lips curved slightly.

At first he wondered how Sir Robert knew what he and Iris talked about in private. His mind went to different scenarios. But now he knew that Sir Robert wasn’t asking him a question, but was advising him to break the engagement.

That’s very protective of him, Arthur thought. It would be better this way too. Or will it be? Cyrus protected her, but he never let his emotions get in the way while protecting her. That made him more efficient.

But... Cyrus died and it seems like Sir Robert is the one by her side now. Will forming an emotional bond with the one he protects, work in the long run?

"Have breakfast in the restaurant with the Princess and give something for the paps to write about," Mr. Ed said and Arthur nodded rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

"So what did the guy confess?" Mr. Ed asked, casually popping the roasted cashews on the coffee table in his mouth.

"Which guy?" Arthur raised his eyebrows. He knew the guy who was caught trying to kill him confessed. Even he himself got the information just this morning. But how did this knight knew about it already? Wasn’t that guy’s capture kept a secret?

The Rosandale Royals seems to be wielding a lot of power. It is impressive, but Arthur himself didn’t know what the guy confessed since he was handed over to the Lockhart family. Even Cyril is kept in the dark and everything regarding Cyrus’ death is being handled by Christopher Lockhart, their father.

"Our Princess’ future depends on knowing what happened that day. No one can deny the authenticity of the video of her shooting that guy. But who knows why she shot him? Who knows what he did to the Princess to push her to do what she did? He was a man known to be frivolous-" Mr. Ed spoke with his eyes locked to Arthur’s, but was interjected by Arthur’s snicker.

" You want us to announce that she shot him because Cyrus tried to do something to her? You think she’d accept that announcement? ’That guy’ you say... Cyrus was not ’a guy’ for your Princess. He was much more than that. He was closer than a family or a friend to her and yet far from a lover. Their relation cannot be put in a single box or defined properly, but it was close."

" But he could’ve - "

" She remembers that day clearly, Sir Robert. I know it would be very easy to clear her name blaming that dead person for his own death, and claiming self-defence of some sort on Iris’ side. But she won’t handle it. Telling her to lie that Cyrus tried something on her is... utterly stupid and dangerous to say the least. She’d kill him thousand times over before accusing him of anything. And I know what it did to her to kill him. No... " he chuckled slightly and shook his head seeing Sir Robert trying to say something, " You won’t change my mind on that."

" Seeing how much the Princess is hurt, wouldn’t the late Mr. Cyrus Lockhart want the Princess to do anything to protect herself? Wasn’t that the relationship between them? I heard he did a lot for her. She’ll listen to you... If you convince the Princess-"

" Sir Robert! " Arthur gritted his teeth, fisting his hands. He wanted to punch that Knight’s face for trying to manipulate him. He is not a kid to be manipulated. When he realised Iris’ mind can’t be changed, this knight is trying to invoke Cyrus’ name?

True, Cyrus would do anything to protect Iris. But will he be willing to be accused of trying to hurt Iris? Will Cyrus ever go that far for any reason? Wouldn’t he die before getting accused by her?

"You have a daughter right, Sir Robert?" Arthur took a deep breath and his eyes had a dangerous glint. "What situation would be preferable for you, if your daughter wants to accuse you of-"

"You really are-" Mr. Ed interjected and his tone wasn’t that gentle. He knew where Arthur is going on with this sentence.

My daughter?

Mr. Ed felt his skin crawl. How brazen of him to talk this way? He felt enraged and his anger couldn’t be suppressed.

He wanted to say something when the sound of the bathroom door unlocking was heard and he paused. Seeing the woman with a smile walking towards them, both Arthur and Mr. Ed covered up the animosity between them.

"Good morning, Mr. Ed," Talia who was covered in a bathrobe walked out with a smile.

Seeing the two guys relaxing from the imposing postures they held seeing her, she wondered what those two were talking about.

"Get ready soon, Princess Talia," Mr. Ed said with a bow and walked to the exit.

As he stepped out from the room and closed the door, he took in a deep breath and his anger went away. He didn’t know why he was asked by the Dowager Queen to talk about this to Arthur and not the Princess. Also that incident with the stylist saying weird stuff angering the Princess... The Dowager’s hand was in it as he found out.

What is the Dowager planning? Even if the Princess murdered that guy in cold blood which is highly unlikely, no one would care or bother to talk about it as long as the Royal family is willing to bury it. If so, why is the Dowager doing all this.

Did she go senile?

Sir Robert know aging did nothing to devolve the Dowager’s wisdom, but it made her more wiser. And she never does anything without any reason. If so... Why is the dowager giving weird commands?

Then it dawned on him and Sir Robert couldn’t help but smile.

So that’s it... But how would Prince Lambert take it?

---

Talia looked at Arthur and raised her eyebrows questioning what happened. She had never seen Mr. Ed so agitated before. Arthur just shrugged and got up from the seat.

"He brought you medicines. Come take it," Arthur walked to the bedroom. He knew he went a little too far when he talked to the Knight, but what is the Royal family planning?

She is a blood Princess and they are capable of hiding anything or they can just put a gag order. Why are they bringing up something that happened ten years ago?

It can’t be because they are worried her reputation would affect their family... There should be a lot more to it. In fact they can use this situation to pull her to their side entirely and keep her away from Esteria.

Or do they not want her in Rosandale? Do they find her a threat?

Talia knew both men were discussing something serious and Arthur still is thinking about something and walked to the bag filled with various ointments and pills.

One particular pillbox made her heart skip. She pulled the box out and read the instructions. She remembered Arthur didn’t use any protection the previous night. And this is just a say after her periods and so there is practically no reason for her to take the morning after pill.

Should she?

Arthur came out of his thoughts watching her staring at the box and walked to her and hugged her from the back.

"Should I take it?" she asked feeling the warmth of Arthur on her back.

"I... Don’t know," he said. Should it be his decision, he didn’t know. "I’m sorry I didn’t use protection." he buried his head at the nape of her neck. He really felt bad about that.

"I should have reminded you... It’s not like you purposely skipped it," Talia spoke truthfully. Yesterday in their passion, they didn’t have the sense to think about all these. It’s both of their fault.

"These medicines won’t have side effects, right?" Arthur asked. He really was upset. He didn’t know why, but his heart hurt.

Talia was not in a good mood either. "I don’t know... If Mr. Ed bought it, he would’ve checked with my doctor before getting these for me," Talia said with assurance.

She threw the box in the bed and turned and hugged Arthur and took in a good whiff.

"Fred, I love you," she wrapped his arms around his shoulders tighter and he lifted her up with his arms around her waist.

"I love you too, Iris" he said and looked in her eyes. Those blue eyes seemed to be filled with emotions and it felt like she was going to tell him something.

Talia looked at Arthur and felt Arthur’s hold around her tightening and she wrapped her arms around his neck a little more closer to strangling. She felt warm as the warmth of Fred spread to her and she wanted to melt into him so that she’d never have to leave him.

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