Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 42883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 214(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 214(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
“Hi, I’m Eric. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say.
“The pleasure is all mine, Your Royal Highness. My name is Herald,” he says in a stammering tone while blushing beet red.
“Nice to meet you, Herald,” I say with a smile. The interns line up one by one, ready to meet me and shake my hand. They all seem so sparkling and excited. I guess if I were in their shoes, I would be too because it’s not every day that you get to meet a prince in the flesh. Then again, they all think that royal life is so glamorous, but the reality is that it can be quite draining at times. Constantly pretending to be somebody else makes you lose track of who you really are.
At that moment, a pretty young housekeeper walks into the office carrying a tray of glasses filled with wine before distributing them to the guests. If only she were the maid who stumbled into my bedroom this morning as I was sleeping. It's probably a good thing that she isn't because she were, I’d pin her against the wall and kiss her in front of all of these folks, before lifting up that skirt for another peek at her sassy red g-string. That thong hasn’t left my mind since I saw it this morning, and I know it'll continue to float in my thoughts until I see it again.
Of course, my current train of thinking would leave these poor souls shocked and appalled. Word would get back to my father that I was behaving inappropriately again, and Wilhelm would corner me for another “talk.” Fuck that.
Shaking my head, I turn back to the party.
“What do you think, Your Highness?” the Chancellor asks. Shit. I realize he’s been babbling about something, but I have no idea what. I clear my throat as I shift from foot to foot, trying to come up with something to say. All eyes are on me, and I can’t avoid answering the question any longer.
“Well, if it’s good for the people of Chromia, then I’ll support it,” I say with a solemn air. I’ve seen my father spit out this very sentence multiple times, and it always seems to work. Sure enough, the magic strikes again when everyone smiles and applauds. Whatever the question was, I guess I must have given a good answer.
“Excellent,” the Chancellor says with approval as he nods. “Well, that just about wraps up our welcome ceremony. Thank you for attending, Prince Eric.”
“Of course. It was my pleasure,” I say formally. “It was great meeting you all too.” I walk around the room, shaking everyone’s hand one last time as the interns smile brightly, still in awe of my presence. Some people would love to have that effect on others, but I would prefer to walk in and out of a room without having people gape at me.
At last, time for my exit. After a short car ride, I’m back at the palace, and move swiftly towards my chambers. I need to find my pageboy to confirm that the rendezvous with the pretty maid is happening tonight. After all, maybe he didn’t give it to the right girl, or maybe he didn’t find her. Plus, I need to make sure that this is all confidential because if word got it, it’d be World War III. My father understands that a man’s got to sow his wild oats, but Wilhelm thinks I should marry the daughter of some noble family– preferably from a nation we could become allies with. Is he fucking kidding me? This isn’t the Middle Ages where marriages were political alliances. But Wilhelm just doesn’t get it because marriage is a duty to my father; he doesn't believe love should be a factor when choosing a significant other. To be honest, he’s already tried to pair me up with some of the world's most powerful men's daughters, but half of them are nitwits, and the other half are so skinny as to be unattractive. Yet each one of them threw herself into my bed, ready to do what I wanted. That’s just life, I suppose.
I sigh again, lost in my thoughts. My father means well by placing the needs of our people above his own, but it's not a sacrifice that I'm willing to make. I don't want to have to live my life constantly making decisions based off of what's good for the people of Chromia; I want to have some say in my own comings and goings. I've expressed that to him time and time again, but Wilhelm’s reply is always the same: the crown comes before everything else. Yet with my personality, I just can't see myself falling into line like a lemming, no matter how hard I try. Some folks just weren’t meant to be lapdogs, least of all me.