The Princess's Dangerous Vampire Mate-Chapter 31: The market.

From the small windows in the carriage, I could see as the glaring rays of the sun eventually turned into the cool breeze of the evening and the sun was setting for the day. Another day including the previous three had been wasted in the months that I had taken from my sister for my research and investigation about the abductions. It only made my heart sink more in my chest as I realised that time was slipping by my hands and we could not hurry up. The carriage was at its full speed and I knew that because this carriage was not royalty and it was the only speed that it could manage to go at. Royal carriages had an exceptional pass for everything.

The carriage came to a stop and I looked out immediately.

"This is a place where travellers stop on the way to the capital for the night." The merchant said making me look at him, "We would be stopping here as well. Given that we have the company of five women, I find that to be appropriate."

"Then I presume if we had not been here you have to continue your journey if the whole night?" This was an arrow shot in the dark because I did not know what the man would answer. At the end of the day, he and his men were required to rest as well.

But on the contrary, Tristan nodded. "You could say that my lady. We would have surely travelled for the whole night, exchanging to rest and we would have covered up the more significant distance."

He then opened up the door and climbed down the carriage as he held his hand out to mine.

I took it and stepped down from the carriage. The warmth from his hand immediately affected me and I felt tingly sensations in my entire body. I let go of immediately.

It was . . . Something different.

When I glanced at him I knew that my action had taken him by shock so much so that for a few moments he still had his handheld out but then awkwardly he lowered it and folded them behind his back.

The man rose feelings inside me and it was not my fault I did not want to catch any because I knew that I was betrothed to someone else.

"P—Layla!" Merilyn came to me and once again for her slap I wanted to smack the girl for it. "Are you alright?" She asked me as she glanced at Tristan who was seen to be talking to Vaughn.

I nodded and my eyes caught the girl who was injured simply by walking quickly to her mother. "How is Lara? I hope she is feeling better after the rest."

Chiara nodded. "She slept most the way and now can walk. It pains her a bit but I suppose she does not want to be bothered to anyone."

I nodded and caught Gemma coming towards us. "It’s still early in the evening, the shops and streets are going to be buzzing people. Chiara has suggested that we should go out and enjoy the night."

My words slipped out of my mouth in front of my companions very easily. "I would rather travel the night and cover the distance more quickly."

Gemma smiled sadly, "I suppose I would love that too but alas, we are with people and even if we had hired carriages the driver would still want to rest. So whatever we would have still have taken around three days to reach the capital."

That lowered my spirits more. But in front of people, I nodded happily at the thought of going shopping and eating new foods. This was the only positive aspect I could manage to distract myself will after making the first mistake of taking the fort as the palace of Lethoris.

The carriages were parked into spots given to them as we had taken residence in an inn for the night. Leaving our bundles there we moved out after locking the doors.

"I suppose you ladies have never been to this town before. Don’t worry I know everything about it to make your night my fun!" Allan winked at us which made Solomon smack him at the back of his head which made Merilyn giggle.

"And how many times have you been this town to know what would be fun for them?" He scolded and we watched in amusement. "You know nothing about any of them, we have never stopped in this town before."

Allan was rubbing the back of his head as he gave Solomon a stink eye. "That was supposed to be between you and me and the rest of us. Only your brother would know how to ruin someone’s wooing."

Vaughn snorted. "This must explain why you have never managed to court a woman. If I was in the place of one I would never give you a chance as well."

All of us laughed at that and Allan looked away with a pink tint on his cheeks.

It was refreshing to be in the company of men that were not competing with each other to show which one was manlier than the other. From what I saw how they were all friends and valued each other’s company even though they joked about each other often.

I looked away from them. I have no friends. The only confident I had was Merilyn and she was my only confident because she was with me from my childhood.

I did not have friends and I knew that I was not going to have friends ever in my life because anyone when with the knowledge of my position would always want to befriend me given that I could benefit them directly from the Crown itself.

On the other hand, the people around me did not worry about what they the other could bestow upon the other. What they cared about was everyone was having a full stomach or not.

When we were eating at the vendor, Vaughn and Chiara had made make sure that everyone was having their share even more than Gemma herself. They cared and it was obvious.

"This would look good on you." Gemma placed a dress on my shoulders as she checked for the size. She had the familiar twinkle in her eyes that my mother did when she was choosing clothes for us. It was nostalgic.

When she went back to bargain with the vendor I looked for a way to find a tent in between of the shops.

There was something written in front of it and it was the tent of a fortune teller.