River smiled and cocked an eyebrow at me while he pulled on hisshirt.
“My lip will behave, my Queen. Unless…” hebegan.
“Unless what?” Isnapped.
“Unless you want it to misbehave,” River said with another smirk. His head was tilted slightly forward, and he looked at me through those dark eyelashes ofhis.
Misbehave, River. I dareyou.
“Shall we, River?” I asked him as I stepped back into thecorridor.
Once we were both in the corridor, he walked alongside me. I pointed out various pieces of artwork and family heirlooms that donned otherwise dark walkways andpaths.
“My great, great grandmother painted this portrait of my great grandfather on the balcony,” I pointed out. “It is actually mybalcony—”
“Which one of them is your favorite?” River coaxed as I was in mid-sentence.
“What?” I asked sharply and came to a sudden halt to facehim.
“Out of the boys. Which one of them is your favorite?” hepressed.
I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him. I was somewhat irked that he had interrupted me while I had been speaking of my family. More so, I was annoyed that he dared to ask me which one was my favorite. I was even more annoyed that he looked devastatingly handsome while I was trying to be angry withhim.
“First of all, River, it is rude to interrupt me when I am speaking. And second, they are not boys, they are gentlemen,” Iinsisted.
River tried to wipe the grin off his face as he looked down and cleared his throat. When he brought his face up, the cocky grin was gone. He nodded and put his hand over his heart as an apologygesture.
“Please, forgive me, my Queen,” heapologized.
“You are forgiven. Now, shall wecontinue?”
He motioned with his hand for me to begin walking in the direction we had been walking before his snarky question. My mind was still boiling on his question about favorites, but I tried to push it from my mind as I continued with the tour. He was very polite and asked interesting questions about different parts of the castle orrooms.
River was extremely interested in the workings of the Darick mint that was deep underground. I showed him the family coin molds, and we watched some of the staff pour liquid silver into the molds before setting them in a vault to form and set up. I explained the process to River as we watched a few coins beingmade.
“See, that man holding the red string upward and tight from the mold?” Iasked.
“Yes,” River nodded and frowned as he tried to figure it out what he was doing with thestring.
“Now watch,” I instructed as another man poured liquid silver into the mold that surrounded the string. “He will take the mold into a cooling room where the coins set up and form. They will tie the end of the string to a rod, and when the coin has cooled and formed, they will cut the excess string.” I picked up a silver coin from a wooden box and turned it over in my hand several times. “You see, this is the end result. You can see and feel the end of the string on eachside.”
“This is so fascinating!” River said and looked around with wide eyes at the processes takingplace.
“My father used to let me play with the coins that did not look perfect,” Imused.
“Have you ever heard of any fake Royal Darick coins hitting the streets?” River asked as we began walking out of themint.
“No. It is easily identifiable. On each side, you can see the stitch mark, which is only authentically madehere.”
Once we got outside, we walked along the creek that led to the back of the castle. I enjoyed walking beside River. There was something very different about him. I enjoyed all of the gentlemen, but walking beside River gave me a different sense of security. One that until this very moment, I had only felt when I walked beside one man;Klyn.
“I apologize again for asking you the question earlier about which one of them is your favorite,” River said as we strolled toward the south-eastturret.
“It is alright, River. As I said before, I do not have afavorite—”
“Yet,” River interrupted meagain.
“What does that mean?” I asked with folded arms across my chest again and put all on my weight on oneleg.
