Villainess Loves

Part 51

"It would make sense, but I've visited the royal castle many times and I've never heard of a secret area in the south gardens." I shook my head sadly.

"Why not? A place of power such as the royal castle should have secret areas for emergencies and safety." Henry slightly smiles. He glances around and points to a particular area.

"Try there." He suggests. I look at him strangely. Henry is pointing at a wall of plants.

"You sure there's something there? It just looks like the corner of a bush." I felt suspicious.

"Up to you to decide." He shrugs.

"I say, doesn't hurt to try!" Mary starts to head closer to the corner. We follow.

At first glance, it looks like a regular corner. A dead end. Nothing out of the ordinary. We walk even closer. The corner wall still looks the same as the others that surround us. I drag my hand from the bottom to the top of the corner, trying to feel for something. As I bring it up to my eye level, I feel something hard.

"Oh?" I exclaim.

I pressed harder on the solid part of the corner. It doesn't budge. I try to grab it and pull but whatever it is, it's too big for my hand to grab. I use my other hand to feel the end and pull with both. I felt a release and like magic, a part of the corner wall separates, opening to an entirely different area than the one we were currently in.

"Woah."

"Incredible."

"How beautiful"

It was incredible. The plant door opens to a much wider field of endless gardenias. The white flowers litter the expansive field. If I didn't know the scope of the castle's property, I would have thought there were some magical powers of space expansion to create such a grand area.

I walked up to a small bundle of gardenias. The small milky flowers sway slightly in the wind. It's dark green leaves only help highlight the pure white color of the flowers.

"Should we take some?" Mary's voice reaches my ear. I look up to see her a few feet away, reaching over to touch the flowers.

"...maybe just a few," I murmured, fascinated by the sight of the gardenias dancing.

"What?" Her voice calls back.

"..Only a few," I repeat louder. I look around to see Henry staring at me. His raven black hair slightly flutters in the wind. His presence seems slightly out of place in this whimsical area, yet his beauty is not ruined.

"..what's up?" I tilt my head at him. Henry seems to be distracted. I wave my hand at him.

"Henry?" I call.

"..!.. Yes, my lady?" Henry seems to awaken from his thoughts. I stand up and walk to him.

"Nothing, I just wanted to know what you thought about this place." I smile as I stand in front of him.

"..beautiful." He says slowly.

"Isn't it? Such a magical place. Mary did well in suggesting it." I laugh. This is such a cool place. I want to create something like this back at the dukedom.

"Do you think it's possible for me to take some home and recreate it? I never had a favorite flower, but this changed my mind." I wondered. Now that I'm looking at the flowers closely, I think these look slightly different from my memories. This world may not have magic, but the energies are much more abundant than back in my original world.

"It's not impossible," Henry says. He suddenly reaches over to touch my head. My heartbeat quickens as I realized the close proximity of the situation.

"Uh?" I stammer, flinching slightly. Henry flinches too, pausing just slightly above my head.

"There's a petal on your hair." He explains, pulling away to reveal a small white petal between his fingers.

"..oh." I squeak. He laughs at my reaction. This only makes my face heat up more.

"How cute." His smooth voice sends shivers down my spine. If I didn't think my heartbeat was fast, now it is beating fast, maybe hyperspeed fast.

"...." I could only stare at the fine specimen in front of me. Nothing but his striking dark eyes filled my mind. We stare at each other for what seems like forever. I couldn't think, I couldn't move. All I could do was just stare.

"...Lady Annelise, Sir Henry, what are you guys doing?" Mary's voice suddenly appears next to me. I jump and quickly turn towards the source. She's standing just a few feet away from us, holding a small bundle of gardenias.

"Um, nothing." I smiled, turning my back from Henry. Mary looks at me weirdly but shrugs.

"..Ok? But look! I got some flowers! Let's go back and give them some water and put it in your room!" She says happily, raising up her bouquet of flowers.

"Sure." I trotted up to her. The flowers she picked weren't too big or too small and each of the petals was perfectly intact, not a single blemish.

"Woah, you got some really good ones." I admired her stash.

"No doubt! I examine each and every one! I even chose ones that didn't have any bugs!" Mary says proudly.

"Impressive," Henry says in slight shock.