The Forgotten Princess Rose-Chapter 266

Catherine was the first one to exit one of the two carriages with the help of the coachman.

"I hope we are not late. There was a bit of a problem with our carriages getting noticed on the way here. We had to take another path but we made it," Catherine explained.

Rose linked arms with Zayne and walked down to the carriages. "You are just on time."

Catherine sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. My daughter rode with me while the king and queen were in the other carriage. Paige, meet Zayne’s wife."

"She exists," Paige said, waving her hand before Rose. "Did you hit your head out there, Zayne? This isn’t like you."

"I want to say it is good to see you but I don’t have it in me to start lying here," Zayne replied, wishing he had something to stuff Paige’s mouth with to make her stop talking.

Paige ignored Zayne and went to Rose who was the star of the night. "How did you fall in love with him? He’s a brute."

"Paige!" Catherine gasped.

Zayne held back telling Paige to leave since Rose worked hard.

"He is not a brute to me," Rose answered.

"How did you meet? When did you fall in love with him? Who said I love you first? What was your wedding like?"

Rose mixed up all the questions Paige threw at her since the princess spoke too fast. She turned to Zayne and understood why he said her threat of inviting the princess over on another day would end up backfiring on her.

"I," Rose tried to start but didn’t know where to.

"We’re married. That’s all you need to know now, stop talking and go inside. Or do you want me to find answers about why the man you were interested in courting is no longer around? Can’t make up your mind?" Zayne teased Paige.

"Mother," Paige whined. It was upsetting that Zayne somehow managed to get married before she did when she was looking for a spouse.

Zayne was meant to be the sibling they laughed about not finding a partner and now it was her. Paige couldn’t put her finger on what Rose saw in Zayne other than his face. He was handsome but he was still a brute.

By the end of dinner, Paige would get to the bottom of it.

Rose looked past Paige and Catherine to the couple who couldn’t hide their current position in the kingdom. Rose curtsied as the queen got close. "Good evening, Queen Yvonne. I am Rose Hamilton."

"You may raise. You don’t have to greet us so formally when it is only family here. I am Yvonne Hamilton, wife of the king. I am happy to meet the woman who made Zayne settle down. We have much to thank you for," Yvonne offered her hand for Rose to shake.

"I must apologise as I left my son home since it is late. I shall bring him the next time I am invited for a visit or I can call upon you to the palace," said Yvonne.

Rose shook Yvonne’s hand, intentionally not answering since now was not the time to mention she would not be visiting the palace.

So far, the queen appeared to be a welcoming woman. It was good to see after seeing someone like Lilian.

Rose’s gaze moved from the queen to the king who had been staring at her from the moment he stepped before her. It was quite obvious that he was inspecting her to make his judgement of her.

Since he wasn’t ready to speak, Rose decided to properly greet the king. "Greetings, King Gage."

Zayne’s eyes met with Gage’s eyes, daring him to do something stupid before Rose. Even the king could find himself on his ass and left outside while everyone else went inside to enjoy dinner.

"I see why you changed your mind. She’s beautiful," Gage said, smiling to kill the tension quickly building up. "Like my wife said, you don’t need to address us so formally when it is only a family present. You may address me as Gage. Go on."

"Gage," Catherine placed her hand on his back. "Let’s not push it. We’re wasting time standing outside when there is a lovely dinner inside. What is your plan for the night, Rose? Must we be seated now?"

"We will head straight to the dining room but not be served dinner right away. I know there will be some questions so I prepared light snacks for us and then we will be served dinner. I am excited to show you my new flower arrangement. Zayne and I went picking out a lot of flowers," Rose shared.

"Did he? I didn’t know Zayne had an interest in flowers," Catherine said, glancing at Zayne as she walked by him to follow Rose. "We must keep an eye on the sky since it might fall."

Paige smiled as she had plenty of questions she needed to be answered. "I hope you are ready to speak, Zayne. I can’t wait to hear how you fell in love with her and tell it to everyone. I- Wait," she chased him after Zayne started to leave her. "It is rude to walk away when someone is speaking."

Yvonne started to follow the others but stopped when she noticed Gage wasn’t moving. "We must go inside. What is on your mind now?"

"She wasn’t what I was expecting," Gage said, genuinely surprised.

"Is that bad?" Yvonne asked, confused as to where he was going with this. "They will know we are speaking about them if we lag. Come inside and we’ll talk when we get back in the carriage."

"I need to speak to him-"

"Gage," Yvonne stopped him. "Save it for after dinner. No one wants to jump to speaking about that. Just try to hold it in for now." ƒreewebɳovel.com

The evening was off to a better start than Yvonne thought it would. Yvonne imagined that Gage and Zayne would bump heads right away but they didn’t. It was a good sign there was some hope for the dinner ending on a good note.

Gage held Yvonne’s hand so they could walk together. "They all lack manners for walking ahead of their queen and king. My mother is a bit strange, isn’t she? She was a little hard on you but she’s eating out the palm of Rose’s hand. This isn’t like her."

Yvonne didn’t mind it. "You say that as though she was cruel to me. Your mother gave me a warm welcome. Rose’s situation is different from mine so we must approach her carefully. Do not ruin the night, Gage. You have that look like you have something planned. Do not tell me that you have come here to get even about your face all along?"

"I am not. I came here to apologise and that is what I intend to do. Walk faster, Yvonne. I want to hear if she will bring up the story of her once living in a brothel. Will they try to fool us?" Gage wondered.

He was most interested in finding out why Zayne picked a woman with such a complicated background. Luckily for Gage, he didn’t need to be the one to bring it up with Paige present. He passed it on to her so she would mention it.