Chapter 41: The disgrace of the second princess!

Just as Selena had predicted, several attendants and maids had caught the pitiful sight of Caro Silva throwing out an inappropriately dressed Vanessa out and the rumors were running wild.
Natasha glared down at her stubborn daughter, annoyed that she had been so foolhardy as to risk her own reputation.

Without hesitation, she slapped her daughter in the cheek, and Vanessa flinched harshly and stumbled backwards. She didn’t even dare to look at her mother. She was appalled by her own actions too, but unlike her stiff and stoic mother, she possessed no control or self respect when it came to matters of the heart.

“You have made a joke of yourself. Everyone in the Kingdom of Valyria now knows about your little adventure at night at your sister’s fiancé’s room. I had given you my word that I would try my best to ensure that their marriage would never take place and, in the end, you will be his wife, but you just had to jump the gun and humiliate yourself, didn’t you? Now you are a vile and conniving woman who tried to seduce her own sister’s fiancé. And now the public support towards the first princess had further strengthened. If the first princess were indeed to get married to Caro Silva, my plans to get Andrew to ascend the throne would fall into disarray and I, myself was initiating a plan were the both of them drew apart, but why would you involve yourself in such a matter when I clearly warned you not to? Don’t you have even a midget of trust in your own mother?”, the concubine ratted on annoyed as Vanessa shriveled under her mother’s intense glare.
Just then the attendant entered the royal concubine’s room and said in a polite tone, bowing his head formally, both at the concubine and her daughter, “The King of the West, Caro Silva wishes to speak to you”

The concubine narrowed her eyes at the attendant suspiciously and nodded at him and he went out to invite Caro Silva in while Vanessa shot a panicked glance at her mother, the humiliation she felt last night running fresh in her mind.

The concubine sighed, seeing her daughters distressed face and gently patted her back, in a bid to calm her down. The concubine was quite wary of Caro Silva too after his merciless treatment of her daughter.

Caro Silva entered the room and both the royal concubine as well as her daughter immediately bowed to him formally and he waved off their bow, dismissing it completely, as he still felt guilty about what he had done.

Vanessa suddenly feeling embarrassed, looked everywhere else but at him while the concubine eyed him with distaste and mild annoyance for putting her daughter through all those public scrutiny and rumors. She had been under the impression that the King of the West was a perfect gentleman but now she wasn’t so sure of the fact, as no gentlemen would have done what he did last night. He should have escorted Vanessa back to her room politely instead of making all this commotion and drama and catching everyone’s eyes and drawing out a gossiping crowd.

“May I speak with your daughter privately?”, Caro requested of the royal concubine politely and she let out a sigh and nodded at him, and escorted herself reluctantly outside the room leaving the two of them alone.

Vanessa eyed the King in the West warily, but kept her mouth firmly shut, as she for the life of her couldn’t figure what more he could want of her as he had explicitly stated last night not to come in front of him again.

Caro bowed deeply towards the second princess, shameful and guilt ridden for his actions and murmured a quick apology, ashamed of the way he had treated a lady, no matter how vile and vain she was, “Please do forgive me, princess. I was too hasty to get rid of you that night that I unknowingly ended up ruining your reputation and pride in the society. I hope that you would be kind enough to forgive my atrocious actions”

Vanessa’s eyes softened at him, touched by the sincerity of his words and once more with hope flourishing in her eyes, she strode forward confidently, closing in the distance between the two of them.

Caro frowned as he realized that she might have misunderstood his intentions and immediately took several steps back and sighed at the sight of her acting like a lovesick puppy again. Vanessa froze perplexed, seeing his stoic attitude towards her, right after he had uttered a heartwarming apology.

“Let me get this straight, princess. I am apologizing for the things I told you, I don’t regret them as I meant each and every word of them. Nothing will ever happen between the two of us, I only regret my conduct towards you when I threw you out of my room”, Caro said sternly and Vanessa flushed angrily at him.

“Why not?”, she asked furiously.
“I am engaged to your sister”, Caro stated as a matter of fact and Vanessa winced.
“I wasn’t asking you to take me as your main wife. I was just begging you to take me in as a concubine. Me being of royal birth, it hurts my pride deeply to beg you to take me in as a concubine and yet you reject me. After all, you do already have a concubine. It isn’t as if you would only love Mia for all of eternity.”

Caro repeated sternly, enunciating every word he uttered, “For this lifetime, I would only love your sister. In fact, if it weren’t for her, I never would have come here to apologize for my treatment of you”
Vanessa eyebrows shot up in surprise and she gave Caro a scandalized look when she finally realized the implications behind his words.

“She was in there when I was in there, wasn’t she?”
Seeing Caro remaining mute, she swore internally, flustered and indignant at having her worst moment being caught red handed by her rival.
“She was having fun seeing me humiliated like that wasn’t she?”, Vanessa yelled out indignantly, suddenly seeing red and Caro flinched at her sudden change in tone.

Caro pursed his lips tightly and retaliated, “Not at all. In fact, she was indignant on your behalf and she was the one who made me realize my mistake.”
Vanessa narrowed her eyes at her beloved and scoffed at him. How dare the first princess act like the virtuous maiden while painting her out to be the snake?
Caro, unsure of what he was supposed to do now, exited himself promptly, leaving a flustered and furious Vanessa alone.
She curled her fist tightly and cursed the first princess internally. She made up her mind to exact revenge on the first princess for the humiliation she felt today, all her pent up jealousy and anger towards Mia exploding out of control.