May Death Do Us Part

24 Chapter 24 : Confronting the past

Ella lightly groaned as she opened her eyes, how long had she been out? She noticed that the room was dark and there was barely any light coming through the curtains, was it late in the evening or was it early in the morning? The redhead couldn’t tell, she still felt a bit disoriented.

She attempted to move but noticed that a pair of arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, she trailed her eyes along the arms and stopped at a silver haired face.

“Good morning,” Nathan spoke, his voice still heavily sedated with sleep.

“I’m sorry did I wake you?”

Nathan shook his head and slightly elevated his body, balancing his weight on his elbows, and his eyes fixed on the beautiful girl in front of him. It was then that Ella noticed that Nathan was half naked, her cheeks were dusted pink as her eyes moved from his face down to his chest. Good lord this man was built like a god, even in the looming darkness she could still make out all the contours of his muscles. Ella swallowed hard and turned her face away from Nathan.

“What’s wrong Ella, are you still feeling unwell?” Nathan fully sat up and inched closer to the girl, making her blush intensify.

The man tucked a lock of her silky red heir behind her ear and placed his hand on her forehead, feeling her temperature.

“Ella! Your face is burning up!”

The prince pulled off the blanket Ella was tightly clutching to her chest, causing a little squeal to escape her lips. “Your whole body is burning up Ella, should I get you some water? Or do you wish to take a cold bath?”

.....

Ella could only shut her eyes and weakly shake her head. The reason her body was burning up was because his man boobs were practically shoved in her face.

[Get those gorgeous pecks away from me!]

Nathan suddenly froze, had he heard her right, or was he just being delusional. Ella had equally also turned into a statue, how could she forget that this sly prince could read her mind. Oh gods she was so embarrassed.

Nathan pursed his lips in a desperate attempt to hold back an amused smile, Ella was so adorable, is this why her face was so flashed? Because he was shirtless.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Nathan asked the woman, his question sounding more like a tease than a concern.

“Come here, it’s still way too early for you to be awake.” Nathan lightly pulled Ella close to him, “besides, it’s quite chilly right now, allow me to warm you up.”

Ella’s eyes where so wide that she felt like they would just pop out of their sockets. Warm her up? How exactly was he planning to warm her up?

Before Nathan could fully embrace the girl, her stomach growled loudly, making both of them halt in place.

“Hungry?”

The blue eyed girl slowly nodded, now that he mentioned it, Ella was starving. She had gone without food for a very long time since she had been out cold for almost the whole day. The last meal she could remember eating was the quick breakfast her and Nathan had eaten before the ceremony.

“I’ll try to see if the cooks are in,” Nathan responded. “I’ll ask them to make you something to eat.”

Nathan slipped off the bed and walked towards the chair where he had placed his shirt. Ella seemed to be unable to pull her treacherous eyes away from Nathan as he slowly slid his shirt over his perfect shoulders, down to his perfectly arched and muscular back.

“I’ll be back.”

When Nathan closed the door, the redhead fell back on the bed and screamed internally.

[Geez Ella get a grip! Nathan is nothing but a walking temptation, you don’t love him]

The woman grabbed Nathan’s pillow and hugged it tightly against her chest. Why was it so hard for her to love Nathan anyway? He was a good man, he was strong and kind and caring. And it didn’t hurt that he was very handsome. So then why? Was she broken? Was it because of Jillian.

Ella sat up and recalled the events that has happened at the knighting ceremony. Had Nathan spoken to price Adam and told him about her request? The redhead brought her fingers to her mouth and nervously nibbled on her nails.

What would she do if prince Adam really was Jillian? Had he somehow survived the attack all those years back? No, that was improbable. Was it that maybe prince Adam just looked a lot like Jillian and she’d just mistaken them.

Ella’s eyes darted towards the door when she heard it swing open, and through it, came Nathan with a lady, who Ella assumed was a maid, carrying a tray of food. The woman set the tray by the window table, curtsied and left.

The blue eyed woman watched as Nathan took the bow of porridge and sat next to her, he took a spoonful of the food and blew on it before bringing it to her mouth.

The girl looked at the prince wide eyed “Nathan it’s okay, I’m capable of feeding myself.”

“I know,” Nathan responded still holding the spoon to her lips. “I just want to do this.”

Ella reluctantly opened her mouth and ate the porridge. She instinctively closed her eyes as the warm milky food tantalized her taste buds. Gosh she was so hungry.

Nathan smiled at Ella’s expression, if this is how she’d look every time he fed her, he’d be doing this everyday.

He took another spoonful of food and raised it to her lips, and this time, she gulped it down without hesitation.

After a few more spoonfuls, and her tummy was no longer empty, Ella’s brain started working again. She looked up at Nathan with intent eyes, making the prince lower the spoon.

“What’s wrong? Are you full?” Nathan questioned.

“I am, thank you.” Ella responded.

Nathan got off the bed, placed the bowl back on the tray and started pouring a cup of hot tea.

“Nathan.”

The prince looked back at the girl with questioning eyes. “You don’t want some tea? It’s Jasmine.”

“Forget the tea for now Nathan, did you speak with with prince Adam about my request to speak to him?”

Ella couldn’t see but Nathan’s face had turned a shade darker. Again with prince Adam. He had hopped that after some rest she’d forget all about this Jillian nonsense. He should have known better, Ella was a very stubborn woman, it was one of the reasons he was in love with her.

“I in fact did.” Nathaniel responded as he continued pouring Ella’s tea. “He said to let him know when you’re awake and ready to meet him.”

The prince turned and walked to Ella, handing her the cup.

“Thank you Nathan,” Ella responded as she took the cup from his hands. “This means a lot to me, I just want to know if there’s any relation between the prince and Jillian. Only then will I have peace.”

Nathan forces a smile and nodded at Ella. It seemed that this Adam fellow would prove to be a problem, if Nathan wanted to be happy with Ella, he had to remove him from the picture somehow. Luckily, he had already devised a plan to do exactly that. So today, after Ella meets prince Adam, it would be the last time she’ll ever want to meet him ever again. In fact, she would completely forget about this whole incident and the two of them could go back to their normal lives in Meria.

When Ella finished her tea, he took the cup from her and carried the tray. “You go and freshen up Ella.” He spoke with a cheerful smile, “the maid will be here to fill your bath and help you dress. In the meantime, I’ll go see if prince Adam is not too busy so he can come over, and the two of you can talk.”

“Alright.”

*

After leaving the tray at the kitchen, Nathan made his was to a little cottage at the far corner of the castle and knocked at the door. The door swung open and prince Nathan walked into the cottage, his hands clasped behind his back and his expressions serious.

“Are you ready?” Prince Nathan questioned the man.

“Yes your grace, I’m ready.”

“Good.”

The price walked to the man, straighten his collar and ruffled his hair a little bit. “Don’t talk too much when you’re in there.” Nathan spoke. “Ella is sharp, she’ll see right through you. Only talk when she asks you a question and remember, you have absolutely no idea who she is.”

“Of course your grace.”

The prince turned around and opened the front door, “come on, let’s get this over with.”

*

Ella was pacing the room nervously as she anxiously waited for Nathan to return with prince Adam. Her breathing was irregular and her heart was pounding against her chest. The blue eyed girl’s eyes shot to the door when she saw the handle fidgeting, she felt like she was going to pass out again.

“Ella? May we come in?”

It was Nathan’s voice.

“Y-yes..”

Ella froze in place as the door swung fully open and the two men walked into the room. This was it, this was the moment of truth.