Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 266: Discreet Act

Chapter 266: Discreet Act

As Talia sat in one of the tables, waiting for her tea, the bell hanging by the door rang as if someone was pushing through, startling Celine.

A bald, fat man burst in. As he walked, his belly swayed side to side and maybe because he never walked this fast before, he was already sweating and was panting.

A thick chain was dangling on his chest which Talia recognised to be the Mayoral chain. She inferred he must be the Lord Mayor of this town.

With an obvious sycophantic grin, he bowed his head and greeted Talia.

" You could have visited the Heavenly Dewdrop teashop right next, Your Highness. It is more extravagant. This modest place won’t satisfy your expectations," he extended his hand to help Talia stand.

"Is the Lord Mayor questioning my choice?" Talia smiled politely interjecting him and although she looked polite, her eyes looked scary.

What a slimy guy he is for spending on himself, the money that was for the people?

The Lord Mayor, chucked at her awkwardly and ordered others around to get her served, which was entirely unnecessary. Talia could understand he was trying to avoid her talking and tried to change her mind towards something else.

Talia acted like she fell for him gimmicks and listened to him ramble about everything. Celine observed Talia closely.

The biscuits that were served in the teashop were really good and the tea tasted better than average.

Talia didn’t expect this much quality in a small town teashop. She was pleased and as they were leaving, Mr. Ed handed her a form that she needed to sign.

Talia reckoned that should be the proof of her visit and that would be necessary for this teashop to file for tax exemption. As she signed, she smiled seeing the name of this teashop. It was Heavenly Dew.

Why are there two shops with almost the same name nearby? Interesting...!

As she was going back to her car, she saw a man wearing a hat trying to pass through the crowd. He had an envelope in his hand and was shouting "Your Highness!"

As Talia was shaking the hand of a woman and looked in the direction of the man wearing hat, he had disappeared. She kept an eye at the direction and she noticed two men wearing black, pulling the guy away from the crowd.

So the mayor’s people stop the complaints from reaching the higher-ups? What a way to serve the people!

Talia immediately turned to Mr Ed. She knew he must have noticed that incident too but he won’t care for anyone but her and so he’d ignore that.

"Send someone to get that envelop for me, Sir Robert." She said and he nodded.

Talia turned to return to the car. "The tea shops...?"

"Your Highness, the one we went in, Heavenly Dew was the first teashop in this town and was fairly famous for it’s biscuits. And later the Mayor’s brother opened a teashop with an almost similar name and -"

"That form I signed... The Lord Mayor will try and get it from the shop. Make sure he gets caught in the act," Talia got in the car.

"You’re very observant!" Celine was very impressed. With all the confusion and commotion with people around shoving and pushing to get a glimpse at her and shake her hands, she was able to observe this much?

"Did you see that guy, growing his belly, robbing the food of others? So despicable!" Talia was really angry.

The car left as if nothing was wrong. No one had noticed one of the security guys of the Princess staying back in the town.

Half hour after they left the town and when they were very close to the brewery, Mr. Ed who now took his seat in the back, received a message.

He stopped the car immediately to inform the Princess since she seemed passionate about this issue.

"Your Highness, the two guys were beating up the guy who tried to pass a complaint letter to you. They were caught in the act with video evidence and they are arrested as of now."

"How bad was the guy hurt? And the letter?" Talia asked.

"He has some bruises and lacerations and is brought to the hospital to check if he had a concussion. And the letter... He was grabbing the letter as he was getting hit and the letter got soiled." Mr.Ed said in a low voice and gulped.

It was pitiful to watch that guy, holding the letter dear to his heart and refusing to let go even when he was getting hit. The letter had stains of blood on it.

" Make sure he gets good treatment and give protection to his family. And the soiled letter will reach His Majesty’s hands directly as it is."

"As you command, Your Highness!" Mr.Ed bowed his head with reverence.

The Princess is going to make this a big issue, so that everyone who oppresses their constituents will fear for their dear life.

Just then, he received another news and he immediately relayed it to Talia.

" Your Highness, the Lord Mayor tried to coerce and get the Privilege Edict you signed for the teashop and the teashop owner refused and... The Lord Mayor hit the wife of the teashop owner. A lot of witnesses came forward. I think the courage of that one guy who stood up against the thugs gave them courage too. And they trusted our guy we left there."

Talia took in a deep breath and contemplated for a moment. She, in her power can launch an investigation on that guy. But she didn’t want her name to come out regarding this.

She called Louis immediately. As soon as the call connected, Louis started to say how disappointed he was when she ran away like that. Talia had to interject him and explain what happened in the town she visited.

"Tell them to launch an investigation on that Lord Mayor. He is very corrupted. And by the way, the four lane road you wanted to get built is not here. Only a very broken two lane road is available. I bet the road here belongs to the past century!" Talia exaggerated.

Louis was silent for a while." There are no new roads?"

" No, there aren’t. I’m going to meet the Duke of Luxxenshire later. So don’t bring up the roads for now. Let’s hear what he has to say since the roads are missing just in the areas under his jurisdiction. Just take care of the Lord Mayor of-"

"You can order an investigation yourself, Mary," Louis said, interjecting her.

"But I’m busy!" Talia smiled.

Louis fell silent. He could see what she is doing. If she orders an investigation, that would make her seem more competent and caring than him, since he didn’t even know about the roads till now. And in the eyes of the public, she’d look like the hero when the King didn’t do anything to help his people.

She doesn’t want admiration and adoration from the public? Why is that?

Louis knew this can be used perfectly by her to create a very heroic image of her in the public. This new image would remove the stigma around her name and would give her a new makeover. She worked in PR for years, she should know how it is. But it seems like she doesn’t have such intention.

"I will order the investigation." Louis ended the call.

It is in a way incompetent of him to not supervise closely and have a check on what happens to the money he allocated. And how did she find out about this? She took a road trip to bring everything to light, didn’t she?

Great grandma, I can see what you saw in her when you suggested she becomes the Monarch...

-----

When they reached the brewery, they were welcomed very warmly by Walter Trembely. Talia through the corder of her eyes, could see Celine getting red just by shaking Walter’s hands. It was so pleasant to watch.

Walter didn’t show much expression towards Talia and acted pleasant with her. She was treated neither better nor worse than Celine and Talia liked his behaviour towards her.

As they slowly walked through the big factory, a familiar obnoxious voice made Talia cringe.

Why is Asher here?