Red Strings

It's been more than a week since the first day Liz arrived in the Elverston Palace. Nothing big happened. She officially 'greeted' Leonard in the morning after, spend breakfast-lunch-dinner time with the Royal Family and attended more lessons in the days after. But there's no progress at all between her and Leonard. The Prince was so busy and Liz barely have any time to talk to him, and when she did have time, Leonard didn't talk much.

Now that she already knew the basic, the classes weren't as bad as before. On her free time, usually Liz went to the library. But today, she decided to take a walk on the garden. The Palace had a huge garden, they said it's because the Queen really like to take a walk there. Liz was about to sit down at the garden's bench when she could feel a light tap on her shoulder.

A familiar face smiled to her when she turned around. She hasn't see that face since months ago but she won't forget that face. That person is William Jeovin, one of her best friend. Will went to the capital a month after the festival, so he wasn't there when Liz finally know her Bashert's match.

"I can't believe it's really you, Liz." Said Will before pulled her into a hug.

Liz needed some time to fully absorb what really happened. "I don't know you become the Palace's Guard!!" She said as she hugged him back.

"Don't hug me to tight, milady, or I will get punished from hugging the future Queen."

The female pushed her best friend away playfully. "It won't be like that!" Her reply made Will laughed. The lad offered his hand, as a joke, and Liz hit his hand this time.

Will put on a hut expression when he got rejected before laughed again. "So tell me your story, Lady Alicia."

After giving another hit on the male's arm, Liz began to tell him her story. Start from the moment Will left their hometown to the recent thing that happened today. Both of them walking side by side while Will listening to her closely. It's easy to talk to Will, the feeling is similar like talking to a reliable big brother.

"The Prince.." Will said after she's done with her story. "What do you think about him?"

Liz fell silent, thinking about the right word to use. "To be honest, I don't quite know what to say about him." For her, the prince is really different from everyone she ever met. Quiet and a bit hard to understand. She couldn't imagine the marriage life with him, but she didn't have the courage to tell anyone.

"Do you like him?"

Again, Liz fell silent. It's hard to decide that when she's just arrived here last week and only a few times meeting the prince. "I don't know about that, Will.."

Will nodded, as if he already understood without any explanation. "I heard that he's hard to approach." That words made the female raised her eyebrows. "Hey, I talked to some of the guards and the staffs here before, so I know that much." He laughed when he saw Liz's expression.

Silence got between them. Only the sound of the wind and the birds in the garden that could be heard for a while. The garden is quite empty at that time, only a few gardeners could be seen and they're far from where Liz and Will are so the two of them took their time leisurely.

"How about Ken?"

When Will mentioned that name, it seemed like all of Liz's limbs froze in one second. She just stood still but Will didn't notice that.

"You know his feeling for you right?" He said as he took another step. "I never asked, but how about your feeling? Liz?"

Finally, Will glanced at Liz, noticing that she was a few step behind him, still standing still there. The girl didn't say anything, or actually, couldn't bring herself to say anything. And Will noticed that his words were the one that made her like that. Feeling bad because he made the girl uncomfortable, he coughed a few times to get Liz's attention.