To His Hell and Back-Chapter 183: Garden Escapee-I

Arabella’s mind was empty as she tried to find a corner with the least people. By chance she had managed to find the perfect spot fat the far end corner of the room where there was no one at all. She suspect it’s because everyone else wanted to be in the limelight especially more than ever today and so they avoided places with more shades and less attention grabbing, making this a perfect chance for her who had just lashed at Princess Marissa to take a break and reflect on her own actions.

Arabella sighed and placed her hands over her face, trying to bury the muffled scream she then let out. Why did she do that earlier? Why had she snapped? How could she reacted that way to the princess?

She was out of her mind. The princess wasn’t someone who was entirely bad but she had pressed the sorest spot in Arabella’s heart that she wasn’t going to confront or comfort yet. Being poked in a place she didn’t want to deal with as of now hurts her and her emotions gotten the best of her which caused for her to react badly.

But this was her first time. Her first time ever in her 19 years of age.

The princess has always been a dreamer, someone who wishes for a dreamy like fairy tale kind of love. But Arabella was the opposite. Having seen how her mother left and her father turning to gamble instead of doing what his responsibility as a father asked him to do, it has molded Arabella into being more rational, sometimes overly rational as she begins to think that marriage was a battle rather than a union of two lovers.

She didn’t dream of a man with such dashing figure who would be there to answer all of her problems.

She instead dreamt about having a life where she would have enough money to fulfill all their needs without having to trust a man who would eventually carve a stab wound on your back.

She knew not all men was as heinous as her father but she had grown in such an unstable family with a horrible dynamics that she couldn’t bring herself to trust someone else with her future.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was how the princess believed that with love everything could be solved but that’s not the truth for her.

If she loves Cassius hard enough, it won’t make him the crown prince. It won’t abolish his old sins. It won’t turn him into an angel that he isn’t. It also wouldn’t change the fact that she comes from a village, a small one, with a father whose debts could mountain in just a matter of a few hours of naps.

No matter what she does, no matter how she dresses herself, it won’t change who she is or who her family is.

There are already a lot of things on Cassius’s plate, enough for Arabella to understand that she shouldn’t add more to his problem than necessary. Like begging him not to get married... in the first place who is she to him? What is she to his eyes that she could just walk up and order him not to choose any of the princesses in the castle?

The answer... Arabella knows it better than anyone else.

As she sighed, a hand reached out and tap her back. She turned around, startled to find Princess Isabelle who was staring at her, her head tilted and her round eyes blinking adorably as she tried to confirm the person she was seeing is truly the one she knows, "Bella? It is you, isn’t it? You aren’t dressed like the other day but I’m sure it is you."

Taken aback by the princess’s kind voice, Arabella pushed herself from crouching and patted her knees in a small embarrassment, "Oh, Your Highness," she bowed, "It is me."

"I knew it! What is the occasion for today? You’re dressed in such a lovely gown, but I have to say that you are even more beautiful than this gown." The kind princess praised her though Bella had just met her once.

She smiled back at the princess, returning the politeness while pulling away from her thoughts and the words that Princess Marissa who had told her which still haunts her head.

"Thank you Princess."

Princess Isabelle beamed, her hands lightly clasped in front of her as though she were genuinely thrilled to find Arabella, even in the farthest, shadowed corner of the ballroom.

"I’m glad I found you," Isabelle said, voice still soft and sweet, though her brows furrowed just slightly. "You looked like you were trying very hard not to be found."

Arabella gave a quiet laugh, awkward and strained. "I was. But you have a very good eye, Your Highness."

"I have two older brothers. Finding things that don’t want to be found has become a specialty of mine," Isabelle replied with a sly smile, then took a step closer, lowering her voice slightly. "Forgive me if I’m intruding, but... you look as though the world has dropped something heavy on your shoulders."

Arabella’s throat tightened. It was strange. She barely knew this princess. Yet something in Isabelle’s tone, warm, without pity, made the ache in her chest almost unbearable.

"I... may have said something I shouldn’t have," Arabella admitted, her voice barely audible. "To someone I shouldn’t have said it to."

Isabelle’s gaze softened with understanding, and without a word, she gestured to the stone bench behind them. "May I sit with you? If you don’t mind sharing the shade?"

Arabella nodded, and they sat together in a stillness that wasn’t uncomfortable. The corner felt more like sanctuary than exile now.

"You know," Isabelle began, folding her hands on her lap, "Princess Marissa has a way of... brushing against wounds she doesn’t realize are open. Or maybe she does. I’m still undecided."

Arabella blinked, turning to Isabelle in surprise. "You heard?"

"Well, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I heard only a little so I hope you’d forgive me," Isabelle said with guilt over her face and seeing it Arabella shook her head.

"You did nothing wrong. How much have you heard, your highness?"

"Well... about how you should pursuit love regardless of what you have to sacrifice?" Sighing Princess Isabelle leaned back, "Well, as a princess, she must have forgotten how not everyone could simply live as privilege as she does. Marissa is a little out of touch sometimes it could come up as insensitive."

Bella smiled as she hugged her knees, "She must have said it because she cares a little about me, maybe as a friend. I have been too mean to her."

"Oh Bella," sang Princess Isabelle, "People could come from a good place when they say something but if it hurts and you reacted from the hurt, it’s not your fault. If you feel guilty, you can simply explain your standing and then ask for a forgiveness. But I don’t think the fight is the only thing that makes you sad. Does this have anything to do with the love you two talked about? That you love someone but you think that your rank isn’t suitable to them?"