Chapter 69 Chapter 69 I Don't Want to Marry You

I sat and thought for a while, and neither Lacey nor Patience spoke.Leixi moved slowly through our silence, first making tea, then slipping a cup into my hand.I looked up and tried to smile at her, then carefully set the tea aside. "You knew from the start that this was going to happen?" I asked. "I've always been on tenterhooks," Patience said briefly. "But I also know I can't do anything, and neither can you." I sat still, my mind almost blank.Nighteyes dozed off in a hole dug under the old stone house with his nose resting on a bone. Rely on it to steady yourself.

"Fitz? What are you going to do?" Tears stung my eyes, and I blinked to let the pain pass. "Just do what you tell me," I answered gravely. "I always do what I'm told, don't I?" Patience remained silent as I slowly rose to my feet.The wound on my neck throbbed faintly, and I suddenly just wanted to sleep.She nodded to me as I left, and I stopped before walking out the door. "I'm here tonight for something other than visiting you. Queen Kettricken wants to rebuild the Queen's Garden, the garden at the top of the Beacon Tower. She wants to know what the garden looked like when Queen Resolute reigned , I thought you might be able to remember for her."

Patience hesitated for a moment. "I still remember, and I remember very clearly." She was silent for a while, and then her whole body brightened. "I will draw it and explain it to you, and then you can pass it on to the queen." I look into her eyes. "I think you should go to her yourself, and I'm sure she will be very happy." "Fitz, I've never been good with people," she stammered. "I think she must think I'm weird and boring. I can't help…" Her voice faltered, then stopped. "Queen Kettricken is very lonely," I said calmly. "Although she is surrounded by ladies, I don't think she has any real friends. You used to be a princess, can't you understand how she feels?"

"I think her situation is quite different from mine." "Maybe!" I agreed, and turned to leave. "There is indeed a difference, that is, you have a considerate and warm husband." Patience made a small startled sound behind me at this time. "Besides, I don't think Prince Regal was as scheming as... as he is now, and you've always had Lacey's support. Yes, Lady Patience, I'm sure the whole situation is quite different and much more difficult for her gone." "Fitz Horse Rider!" I stopped at the door for a while. "What is it, ma'am?"

"While I'm talking to you, turn and look at me!" I turned around slowly, and she did stamp her foot on the floor in front of me. "You're getting worse and worse, trying to shame me! You think I'm neglecting my duty? You think I don't know what my duty is?" "lady?" "I'm going to see her tomorrow, and she's going to think I'm weird and clumsy and full of ideas. She's going to find out how boring I am, and then she'll wish I never came to see her, and then you're going to have to worry about it. I apologize for doing so."

"I'm sure you know the situation best, ma'am." "Don't fake flattery in front of me, you go! What an unbearable kid." She stomped her feet again, then turned and fled back to her bedroom.Lacey held the door behind me, lips pursed and prim. "How?" I asked her before leaving, just because I knew she still had something to say. "I think you are really like your father," Lei Xi said meanly, "It's just that you are not as stubborn as him, but he doesn't give up as easily as you." She slammed the door behind me. I stared at the closed door for a while, then set off to go back to the room. I knew it was time to change the dressing on the wound on my neck, so I climbed up the stairs, and every step I took, my arms would vibrate and hurt .I stopped at the steps, looked at the candles burning in the candlesticks, and after a while climbed another flight of stairs.

I kept knocking on the door several times, and saw a yellow candlelight coming out of the gap under her door; but when I kept knocking on the door, the candlelight suddenly went out.I took out my pocket knife and tried loudly to saw the latch.She seems to have replaced the latch with a new one, and added an extra bar, which is heavier than the tip of my blade can lift.I had to give up and leave. Sliding down is easier than climbing up.In fact, when one arm is injured, sliding down can be dangerously easy.I look down at the distant waves crashing against the stone like white lace.Night Eyes was right, there was indeed a little moonlight in the sky.The rope slipped in my gloved hand, forcing my weight to bear on my injured arm, and I cried out in pain.Try a little harder, I promise myself, and slide down two steps.

Molly's window sill is narrower than I expected.I wrapped the rope around my arm for a short rest, then easily slid the blade into the gap in the shutter, which wasn't a secure device anyway, and the upper hook had come loose.Her voice came from across the room as I tried to loosen the lower window hook. "I'll yell if you come in, and the guards will come." "Then you'd better make tea to meet them." I replied coldly, and continued to twist the lower window hook. Molly was flung open the shutters in a moment, and stood erect at the window, the dancing fire in the grate glowing behind her.She was in her pajamas, but her hair had not been tied up, her combed hair was fluffy and gleaming, and a shawl was draped over her shoulders.

"Go away!" she said to me angrily. "Get out of here!" "No," I said breathlessly, "I don't have the strength to climb back, and the rope isn't long enough to reach the bottom." "You can't come in," she repeated stubbornly. "Very good." I simply sat on the windowsill, stretched one foot into the room, and hung the other out of the window.Then a gust of wind blew, shaking her pajamas and the flames in the fireplace.I was silent.After a while she started shaking. "What do you want?" she asked angrily. "You. I want to tell you that tomorrow I will ask the king to allow me to marry you." I said without thinking, and suddenly felt dizzy that I could speak freely and do whatever I wanted.

Molly stared at me, and after a while said in a low voice, "I don't want to marry you." "I don't want to tell him that part." I found myself grinning at her. "You are unbearable!" "Yes. And it's cold now, please at least let me in to escape the cold." She didn't say yes, but backed away from the window, and I jumped briskly into the room, completely oblivious to the wound on my arm.I closed and fastened the shutters, then went to the fireplace on the other side of the room to add wood to keep the chill out, and stood up to face the fire to let my hands thaw.Molly stood upright and silent, arms folded, and I smiled and watched her.