Chapter 47

“I CAN see that the Marquis has fallen into your trap, my love,” Aiden stated as Arabella turned to look at her husband. The young queen sipped her wine before she was smirking.
“I told you, it will work out just like I wanted. I know how these lords’ minds work,” she said as she was looking at Aiden. Her husband was arching his eyebrows at his wife before she was chuckling.
“Do not forget, we still have 3 more lords of the Higher Court to do my bidding,” Arabella said as Aiden was smirking at her.
“You are very persistent when you want to be, my love,” he said.
“And you love me anyway,” she said before she pulled Aiden to the dance floor after she had put the glass on the tray of a passing servant.
“Shall we dance, my love?” Arabella asked her husband. Aiden smirked.
“Don’t mind if I do, since you will be planning your next wicked matchmaking,” he said as he was ushering his young queen to the dance floor.

IAN was looking at the mask that Emmy left behind before Arabella was sighing behind him. He turned to glare at the young queen before she was smirking at him.
“Ah, the masquerade ball. The secret, the mask, and the elegant gown,” the young queen said before her eyes twinkling with mischief.
“Not to mention, the forbidden kiss,” she said as Aiden was chuckling behind her.
Ian was looking at the royal couple before he got a sense of what was going on around him.
How can I be so stupid? Ian mused before he gripped the mask even tighter. “What are you planning, Your Majesty?” Ian asked Arabella, who was arching her eyebrows at him. She gasped before she put her hand on her chest.
“Marquis of Kain, I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said as Ian was rolling his eyes at the young queen.
Surely, all of this was her plan. The ball, the masquerade, and the invitation. Ian thought that Emily was a maid who worked for him.
But he was wrong. So wrong that he wanted to kick himself in the shin as the new maid had done to him before.
“Aren’t you curious about the real identity of the young woman that you just kissed, Ian?” Arabella said as he was scowling at the queen.
“No, I don’t,” Ian replied coldly even when his heart was aching to get to know Emily better.
I want to know all her secrets, he mused as he was looking at Arabella and Aiden. The young queen smirked as if she knew what Ian was thinking.
Damnation!
“Well, if you don’t want to know, I wouldn’t mind sharing this one secret that I know about her,” Arabella said as she was looking at Ian expectedly. He knew that the young queen would not stop at anything until she got what she wanted.
And that was for the Higher Court, the court that she trusted to advise her on queendom, to secure an heir and lineage of the next gentry.
Right now, the Demon inside Ian was stirring. He did not want Emily to be inside someone else’s arms as she fitted in his arms.
She belongs to me, Ian mused before Arabella gave her a letter. Ian arched his eyebrows before Arabella winked.
“You will thank me later,” she said before she went inside the castle again with her husband, leaving Ian to his thoughts of what he would do next to keep Emily by his side. Then, he opened the door and a smirk was plastered on his lips.
“I see,” he said before he tucked the letter away and went to the castle as if a new hope was inside his chest.
Lady Emily Moore, you will be mine, I will assure you that you are, the marquis mused before he went to enjoy the masquerade ball before his mind was planning for another step ahead for his future as well as Emily’s.

EMILY was looking at the Golden Castle where she had gone to the masquerade ball and she had lost her mask.
Great, just great, she mused to herself as she was pulling her cloak to her body tighter. She was making her way to the Kain Estate, which had taken much of the night before.
Emily was back in her room, back in the servants’ quarter. She sighed as she was leaning against the door before she lost the cloak that was covering her yellow dress.
It was hugging her figure perfectly before she changed into her maid’s clothes. She had to forget what had transpired between her and the lord named Ian tonight, who, not to her surprise, was the very marquis that she was working for.
Emily was putting the yellow dress inside her suitcase so that no one would know that she had an extravagant dress that did not suit the station of a maid. She was washing her face before she slipped under the cover.
She was trying to forget the kiss and the feeling of Ian’s lips against hers. It was magical and well-fitting for her. Emily touched her lips, which were still tingling with his kisses.
“I must be mad. I even know who he was,” Emily whispered before she blew off the candle as she was closing her eyes to get some sleep. It would do no good if she was dwelling on it.
Emily laid in her cot as she stared at the ceiling. Her body shivered with the memories of the mysterious lord—not so mysterious anymore for she knew his name was Ian.
She tossed and turned as she was trying desperately for the sleep to claim her. But her eyes were wide open. Nothing can keep her from falling asleep except for the warmth that she stole from Ian while they were dancing and that kiss…
The first kiss that she ever shared with another soul.
Emily was biting her lower lips as she was gripping her thin, worn duvet. She sighed loudly, closing her eyes as she was rubbing her eyelids.
“No, this is not what I want when I went on an adventure tonight. Gods, what do you want from me?” she mumbled softly against the dark. It was a whisper of want, a whisper of need that came out of her. Emily knew that deep inside herself that she wanted something more from the adventure that she had tonight.
Despite that, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—until she knew her future was secure without any ties that might jeopardize her to do anything stupid.
Such as finding out where Ian was and dragged him somewhere secluded to claim his kisses for eternity.
Emily tsked. She closed her eyes and threw the duvet over her head. She counted sheep until her eyelids gave out to stay open.
The past is in the past, it’s time for me to forget and move on, she mused as the dreams came to her with the amber eyes and silken black hair that was the star of her dream that night.