Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 246: Hurt By First Love

Chapter 246: Hurt By First Love

" I’ll meet them all and I’m choosing two, Your Majesty," Talia closed the big binder on her lap with a smile.

"You only need to choose one Lady in Waiting, Mary" King Louis said to Talia while giving a glare to Sir Leonard who was holding back his smile.

"A blonde one and another one for me," Talia’s smile widened as she trained her eyes on Louis. Cordelia sitting beside Talia started to chuckle.

"You lost, Louis..." she said amidst her chuckle not minding him trying to act majestic.

Her simple husband thought he could manipulate Talia, but she is much more smarter than he thinks she is. Talia had realised his intention. How funny!

Talia didn’t care much about that. When Talia was called here, she was told she’d be given a gist of her engagements as the Princess Royal.

And she could only raise her brows when Louis gave her the list of her official engagements. Most of them were to be shared with Prince Lambert and additional engagements can be planned by her team in case she wants to support a charity or a fundraising event.

Although Louis said that her joint engagements with Lambert are to ease her into her official duties, Talia wasn’t that convinced it would be the sole reason.

And as she expected, Cordelia passed her this thick binder asking her to choose one of the ladies from the noble families as her Lady in Waiting. The binder contained all the details about the Ladies, down to their favourite band, cosmetic brands, perfume, soap and even jewellery.

Why would I care about that?

As Talia went through it, she could only think of this as the binder Lambert would be given to choose his bride more than a binder for her to choose her Lady in Waiting. As far as she knew, her Lady in Waiting need not be from the noble families. Cordelia’s Lady in Waiting is not from an aristocratic family and so she won’t be required to choose one of the noble ladies.

On the other hand, it would be preferable if Lambert’s girlfriend is someone from the aristocratic family. Lambert never had a proper relationship till then. His longest relationship only lasted few months and he is not very keen on finding a woman to settle.

Twenty six is not too late to settle, it is a little early even, but Talia could understand the Dowager might want to see Lambert getting married soon too. Who knows, this ploy to set Lambert with a woman might be under the Dowager’s order too.

With all her engagements, she would need to bring her Lady in Waiting with her. With Lambert joining her, he’d have more chance to spend time with her Lady in Waiting. Who could predict what might happen next? If it goes as the family wants, it would lead to something celebratory in the future.

Talia was in a way very pleased that she was given this important task of finding a girlfriend for Lambert.

Did my record of joining couples reach Louis’ ears?

She looked at Mr. Ed with a questioning smile and he returned a controlled smile.

He did talk about my innate talent!

Talia could understand. She felt very proud as her innate talent is getting recognised by more people.

King Louis on the other hand, tried to keep his regal demeanour, but failed by his sweet sister looking at him with pride in her eyes and his lovely wife’s mocking chuckle.

"We let him be till now and he still is not acting responsible. By his age I was married and became a father..." Louis’ eyes softened as he looked at his wife. He hit the jackpot by marrying Cordelia. He wanted his brother to find a woman for himself,and he wanted Talia’s help in that. After all, she was the one who opened his eyes towards Cordelia.

Just like he found his soulmate not far from him, he thought his brother could find his too. His brother dated a lot of women with a lot of cultural differences and it didn’t work out. Maybe he should start looking in his home country for now. He is not going to force his brother to marry a woman he chooses. He will give him choices and it would be nice if his brother likes any of them. If not, he will back off entirely. It is his life partner and his brother has the right to choose. He would just give aide for sometime.

" Why a blonde though? He has dated half the blondes all over the world and couldn’t find his soulmate among them..?"Cordelia asked with little worry and she was very curious.

" Isn’t blonde his type? " Talia scrunched her face. All the women he dated till now are blondes. Isn’t that telling?

" He might be into brunettes, actually... " Louis said rubbing his chin. " His first love was a brunette with blue eyes. "

" Really? What happened? Why don’t we try and help him rekindle his first love? " Cordelia was much more curious and asked. Talia looked at Louis with inquisitive eyes too.

" No," Louis refused immediately. "It went terribly bad for him. And she... She can’t be in the picture anymore." Louis shook his head and Cordelia nodded.

Louis seemed to be hiding some stuff and she didn’t want to pry. Talia noticed it too and didn’t bother much although she was a little curious who that woman might be. She just thought that woman might already be married and that’s why she is out of the picture.

But only Louis knew Lambert’s first love was Talia and it broke Lambert’s heart when he learnt she is his cousin. Lambert, maybe because of his raging teen hormones was so madly infatuated with Talia and the reason he had to back off, made him very heartbroken and made him a lot scared to fall in love again.

Louis has a feeling that Lambert’s hate towards Talia is actually his disappointment having his first love getting squashed by such an unpredictable reason and not because he disapproves of Talia. Louis also believed that Lambert’s aversion towards brunettes is related to his first love too.

But this situation cannot be blamed on anyone and can only be associated with a series of unfortunate coincidences. In a way, Lambert’s obsession towards Talia was what brought Talia into the Rosandale Royal family. If not for Lambert and him, their great grandmother wouldn’t have doubted that Talia might be their cousin.

Past is past!

And now, Louis was happy that lately Lambert and Talia are getting well together. And whenever Louis brought up Talia with Lambert these days, Lambert didn’t have that distant look in his eyes anymore. Maybe he accepted and got over the hurt of his first love. Now would be the time for Lambert to find a woman and fall in love with her. He shouldn’t be scared to fall in love anymore.

Surely there won’t be any sisters or cousins popping out from nowhere anymore.

"I’ll take care of this delicately," Talia assured and stood up. "Maybe I’ll get me a redhead as a Lady in Waiting. Lady Jolene Montfort has a very nice mahogany shade of red hair." Talia said looking at Cordelia. She wanted to know her opinion. After all she grew up here and she’d know more about the ladies here than her.

" Lady Jolene? " Cordelia’s smile widened." She’s actually my distant cousin and although her family is not very well-off, she is very talented... Talia, in a way her character could be compared to Rebecca’s."

"That’s good then," Talia was pleased. With such detailed records maintained about these Ladies, it wouldn’t be hard for her to assess the characters of these ladies. Talia thought that Lady Jolene would suit her character more and Cordelia proved her point. "Won’t half of these ladies here be your cousins or distant cousins?" Talia asked in a playful way. In the past, nobles only married among themselves and most of them will be related to each other in some way.

"Isn’t your husband your distant cousin too?" Talia couldn’t help but take a dig at Louis.

"Yeah, seventh or eighth..." Cordelia looked at Louis. "Sixth, actually" Louis said and he felt a little odd as Talia brought that up. "Isn’t Frederick Boswell related to you too?" he couldn’t help but ask.

"No," Talia smirked proudly. "Benefits of marrying someone from a family who were feuding with your family for centuries is that you won’t be related in any way."

Seeing Talia’s very proud smirk, Louis just wanted to put her down immediately. But Sir Leonard spoke first.

"Your Majesty, you should remember that our Dowager Queen’s grandmother was a daughter from the main Boswell family. During the peace treaty signed after the-"

"Pff! I know, right? So much for feuding families... He is actually related to you!" King Louis started to laugh looking at Talia. Cordelia rolled her eyes looking at her petty husband and he still couldn’t stop laughing.

Talia didn’t bother with Louis. So what if Fred is related to her? In fact she vaguely remembered the last Lady born with the Boswell name was sent to Rosandale to be the bride of a prominent Duke. It was with that familial connection, the Boswell family tried to overthrow the Monarch of Esteria by gaining the support of Rosandale and failed.

Wait... So great grandma won’t have problem with Fred since he is from her grandmother’s family? But.. A lot happened after that.

But still... It is amazing she is related to Fred.

" So Jolene it is..." Talia changed the topic back to her Lady in Waiting. "But I’ll still have to find another one. There are a lot of blondes here... Wonder who’ll suit Lambert. I’ll meet them all before deciding, Your Majesty, " Talia wanted to leave.

"What’s with your obsession with redheads? I heard they are hard to get along," Louis really couldn’t understand why Talia likes redheads. There were many men who liked redheads too and for him, he couldn’t understand the appeal.

"They are more loyal, sensitive and intelligent," Talia shrugged. She had read there might be scientific differences between others and redheads with them needing more anaesthesia and redheads generate adrenalin quickly and that’s why they seem to be short-tempered. And there are many folklore comparing redheads to vampires and witches.

Whatever there is to it, she liked redheads. In fact she didn’t care much about those unchangeable genetic characteristics and cared more about a person’s character.

"And... When I was born I had red hair. My grandpa was not happy but later my hair darkened and turned auburn brown. Maybe that’s why as an ex-redhead, I like redheads?" Talia smiled and waved before leaving the room.

"Do you know who Lambert’s first love is Sir Robert?" Talia asked Mr. Ed and his lips thinned to a straight line.

He knows!

Talia knew if she uses her rank and force him, Mr. Ed will reveal the name, but she decided not to force him.

"Is she married already?" she asked.

"No, Your Highness. But she is committed with someone else," Mr. Ed answered.

"Hmm... That’s a shame," Talia shrugged. So she really is unavailable.

Poor Lambert have to look for another woman.

At that time, her phone rang and seeing the caller ID, she smiled and answered the call immediately.

"Rebecca, how are you?"

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