Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 80: Going out of the palace

Chapter 80: Going out of the palace

Ave pursed her lips as she walked forward. "How did you know I was standing there when you’re not even looking?" she asked as she came to stand beside him and looked at the white horse he was patting.

"I can smell and sense your presence without having to look at you," he said blankly, causing Ave to glare at him before she sniffed her body. "What are you, a dog?" she scoffed as she realized she didn’t smell bad or any different for him to sense her from afar.

Lucian ignored her jab and instead said in an emotionless voice, "Pat Heaven the way I’m doing. Let’s see if she wants you."

Ave turned to him with a frown. "Heaven?" she asked before she realized he was talking about the horse and turned fully to it, where his hands were still moving on its mane. "You mean the horse?" Her eyes widened. "Are you going to give it to me if it likes me?" she asked, unable to mask her excitement as she recalled asking him to give her one of his horses, and he’d rejected the idea without a second thought.

Lucian saw Ave’s shimmering, excited eyes from the side of his vision and didn’t say anything. He saw her reach out her hand to pat the mare, which had once belonged to his mother and had turned dull after her death, without responding to anyone apart from him. It was as if the horse’s spirit to act like a normal horse had died the day his mother had; the mare would go crazy when a stranger attempted to touch her and had even once kicked a guard who had done nothing but brush her mane.

Lucian took three steps back when he saw Ave’s hand reaching to pat Heaven. However, the moment he moved back, the mare side-eyed Ave, whose hand was an inch from it, its ears pinned back in a way that showed the mare didn’t like the person before her, and when Ave touched its mane, the horse tossed its head back with a snort.

"Move away from her," came Lucian’s warning from the back, but Ave only turned to glare at him with a scoff. "I haven’t patted her properly yet, and..." she was saying while reaching out to touch the mare again. This time, Heaven backed up and reared up on its hind legs, neighing in agitation. Before it could strike Ave like it had done to others it didn’t like, Lucian moved forward.

Ave, shocked by the horse’s sudden reaction, felt Lucian’s arm wrap around her waist and lift her up at the same time the horse’s front legs landed in the spot she had been standing just a second ago.

Lucian pulled her back, and she fell into his arms for just a second before he pushed her away, gritting his teeth in annoyance. "Why don’t you ever listen to me when I talk? I told you to move away from her. What did you think you were doing standing in front of an agitated mare, waiting to be stomped on?" His voice was hard as he said each sarcastic word with a hard edge.

Ave, still feeling her heart throbbing against her ribs as the horse had scared the living daylight out of her, looked up at him with a small glare in her eyes. She had wanted to touch the horse because she had gotten along with the horses brought on set when she was shooting a movie. She was good with horses and thought she could make this one like her as well.

"Don’t yell at me. You’re the one who said I should pat her and see if she likes me. I was only trying to make her like me. She’s such a beautiful mare," Ave muttered as she turned back to glance at the mare, which had now turned back and made its way to the stable by itself without waiting for anyone to take it there. "But she looks depressed," she added.

Lucian also looked toward the mare, his annoyance calming down. He had been the one to make the mistake of thinking Heaven would like Ave because she possessed something similar to his mother’s, but it seemed it was a mistake.

Just because she had powers similar to his mother’s and had seemed to heal his poison, it didn’t mean she could heal a depressed mare he would give anything to see being as active as she was when his mother had been alive.

"You’ve lost your chance of having a horse," Lucian remarked indifferently from the side as the mare disappeared into the darkened stable. "She’s the only available horse you could have, and since she didn’t seem to like you, you can’t have any." He said this even though there were many more horses he owned in the stable.

"What the hell?" Ave looked away from the stable and turned to him with a frown. "That’s not fair. You didn’t tell me you planned to give her to me at first and made me mess up my first approach. And what about all those other black horses, whose are they? Why can’t I have one of them?" she asked, hands on her hips, locking eyes with him without flinching like the others who feared his burning eyes and would tremble at the sight of it.

Narrowing his gaze at her, Lucian briefly noticed the color of her eyes, but before he could get lost in them and lose control of himself, like he usually did when it came to this particular woman before him who had tortured him through the night, he spoke. "They are mine, and I don’t feel like giving them to anyone." Saying that, he turned to his own black horse and mounted it in one swift movement.

"You’re one greedy prince, you know." She scoffed. He had more horses than anyone in her time had ever had. "And I don’t care what you say. I will make sure I get that depressed mare to like me, and once I do, she will be mine forever, do you understand?" she demanded, causing Lucian’s brows to draw together as he looked down at her from his horse.

"Are you commanding me, Princess?" he asked, his voice slightly laced with what seemed to be amusement.

"Take it however you want, but I want you to know that you can’t go back on your word if I make that mare like me." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at him. To her surprise, instead of agreeing or disagreeing with her, Lucian held out his hand to her and said, "Let’s go before I change my mind about taking you with me."

"Where are we going?" she asked in confusion as she stared at the hand he held out to her from the horse. Though she had thought it was strange that he asked her to meet him at the stables after wearing the dress, she had assumed it was because of the horse when he told her to pat it.

"Didn’t you say you wanted to see the lands?" he asked blankly. "I’m going out to do some work. You can come along to see the lands; perhaps that will make you learn to be more wary."

Ave’s eyes brightened up, as she hadn’t expected he would take her outside the palace walls when he’d said no. Even though he was only allowing her to tag along on his work outing, she couldn’t suppress her excitement to see the lands everyone had claimed to be dangerous for royal women and those who wanted Lucian dead.

But then, realizing she would have to sit close to him on a horse when she would have preferred riding her own, she pursed her lips and looked away from the hand he was holding out to his face. "Can’t we take a carriage, or I get another horse to ride?" She had never sat with another person on a horse before. Well, she had with her co-actor on set, but that was different, as she wasn’t in any way affected by his closeness to her. But with Lucian...

She always felt uneasy when she was close to him, not to mention his scent. She didn’t like the feeling she usually had when in close proximity to him.

"We can’t take a carriage, nor can you ride on another horse," he said nonchalantly. "If you’re not going to ride with me, you can go back inside. I’m not forcing you to come along." He was about to withdraw his outstretched hand when Ave quickly stopped him by placing her hand on his, and his cold fingers immediately closed around hers.

In one swift movement, he pulled her up and in front of him on the horse, causing Ave to gasp in surprise as she hadn’t expected him to be strong enough to pull her like she weighed nothing. But then she realized he had pulled her in a way she was sitting with both her legs on one side instead of straddling the horse.

"Why am I sitting sidesaddle?" She asked already trying to move her other leg to straddle the horse, only for her to feel Lucian’s large hand placed on her thigh to keep her from moving.

"Women here can only ride horse when sitting in front of their husbands like this, if you don’t want to bring unwanted attention to us, remain like that until we are out of the palace walls." He said softly, his warm breath falling on her ear.

Ave didn’t argue as she also didn’t want any attention on her. The moment she settled in the position, she was consumed by his intoxicating scent, causing her to forget what she was supposed to do next now that she was sitting in a position she’d never sat before with a man.

"Put you hands here," his deep voice fell on her right ear and made the hairs at her nape stand on end as he guided her hand to hold the saddle horn.

Once her hands were now holding the saddle horn, she felt his arms come around from her waist as he held the rein, causing his forearms to be close to her chest. She made sure not to relax into him and sat with her back straight so she wouldn’t be touching him.

"Are you ready?" His voice fell on her ear again. She could only nod her head, as it seemed she had lost her voice. And the moment she did, he snapped the rein, and the horse began to gallop away at a speed that made her fall back onto him automatically. His arms around her waist tightened as if he wanted to protect her from falling to the side, as it seemed she had lost her ability to sit on a horse like a pro because of his presence.

’Get yourself together, Aveline!’ she scolded herself internally, as she didn’t like that she was acting like a fool because of him.

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