Rosangela: The Runaway Princess (Book #2)

As soon as Lucy left, I dug into the plate of pasta that she’d brought for me, and then washed it down with a glass of water. Sated with food, I got to my feet and then padded across the room to the bathroom to take a shower.

After locking the door behind me, I began to get undressed. Next, I stepped into the shower and scrubbed myself all over with soap until I was clean. Turning the tap off, I came out of the shower cubicle, rubbed myself down with a towel, and lastly, wrapped myself in that towel.

Emerging from the bathroom, I went straight to the walk-in closet to pull on a jumper and pair of sweatpants. I sat in front of the dressing table and looked my reflection in the mirror. Grabbing a hairbrush, I brushed my hair and tied my hair severely in a bun.

Afterwards, I swept out of the walk-in closet and minced over to the sofa which I usually used as my makeshift bed. No sooner had I sat down than there was a loud knock on the door.

“Come in!” I yelled.

The door swung open and Lucy entered the room. Apparently, she came back to retrieve my dirty plate and glass. However, she couldn’t stay to chat with me because she still got an immense amount of work to do. It really disappointed me, but I knew it was her duty, so I couldn’t complain when Lucy left me alone in this room again.

Having nothing else to do, I decided to walk up to Xavier’s desk before plopping myself down on the chair. Overcome by curiosity, I flicked through Xavier’s documents, didn’t care if I had to face his wrath later. Because I couldn’t find something interesting, I put those documents away, and finally, started doodling on Xavier’s notepad while trying to formulate an escape plan in my mind.

Since Mariana’s incident, King Joaquin ordered to tighten security in this palace. All the approaches to the palace were guarded by troops, therefore, it would be very difficult for me to get out of this place without being unnoticed by them. It meant that I was stuck with this kingdom for the moment. Though I was very keen to get the hell out of here, yet I had to be patient and wait for the right moment to escape. I could not act recklessly now; I needed to plan everything very carefully and leave no room for error in this plan.

The clock has just struck midnight, but Prince Xavier hadn’t returned to his bedroom yet. I wasn’t worried about him for he certainly could take care of himself. Besides, there were a lot of guards who could protect him in this kingdom. It’s just that I was fed up with waiting for Xavier to come back. Moreover, that annoying vampire prince locked me in his bedroom, so I couldn’t go anywhere.

“He should have told me if he would be back very late, so I wouldn’t have to wait up for him like this, or at least, he could be generous enough to let me walk around the palace, so I wouldn’t get bored,” I grumbled.

Because I had begun to feel sleepy, I finally rose from the chair, and then slouched across the room before flaking out on the sofa. At long last, I shut my eyes and fell asleep immediately.

I awoke from my deep sleep when I felt someone shaking me by the shoulders violently.

I peeked one eye open and found Prince Xavier hovering over me.

“Wake up, Angela!” he ordered.

“Five more minutes please!” I mumbled as I closed my eyes again wearily.

“Come on, lazybones, get up!” He yanked me into a sitting position impatiently.

“Yes, yes, I’m awake now,” I said as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

“Go and take a shower now! We’re going out to the town tonight,” Xavier told me.

His words caused great excitement surge through me. “Oh, really?”

He nodded his head. “Chop-chop! Get ready now!”

I leapt out of my makeshift bed and darted across the room towards the walk-in closet to fetch my clothes and shoes, and then sprinted for the bathroom.

“I’ll give you ten minutes to get ready. If you’re not ready by then, I will leave you behind,” Xavier shouted from the other side of the door.

“No! Don’t go without me! Just hang on! I’ll be ready in half a minute,” I yelled back.

Hastily, I stripped off, then showered, and lastly, got dressed in red sweater and a pair of blue jeans. I didn’t forget to slip a pair of sneakers on too.

“OK, I’m ready to go,” I announced while walking out of the bathroom.

“Let’s go!” Xavier pranced out of the room.

I started after him with a spring in my step.

“Where are we going?” I asked Xavier after we got into his car.

Prince Xavier sat behind the wheel because he preferred to drive the car by himself, while I sat down next to him on the passenger side seat.

Starting the engines, Prince Xavier replied, “Wait and see!”

“Why are you so mysterious; why don’t you tell me outright about where we’re going?” I complained.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you where we’re going, right?” he said with a wink.

I pursed my lips. Meanwhile, Xavier had a satisfied smirk on his face.

After thirty-minute ride from the palace, we finally reached our destination.

“Here we are!” Prince Xavier exclaimed.

I looked out of the windshield and gasped with surprise. I could not believe that Prince Xavier took me to a high-class boutique.

“Why did you take me here?” I inquired.

“I’m going to be fitted for my tuxedo tonight, and I want to buy an evening dress for you too,” he elaborated.

I squealed with delight and went to get out of the car. Nevertheless, Xavier seized me by the arm, holding me back.

“Wait!” he said.

Shaking him off, I queried snappily, “What?”

“Remember! When we are in front of other people, you must call me master!” he gave me a stern warning.

“Excuse me, but I think it will sound very strange if I call you Master in the human world. I mean, they don’t even know that you are a prince, so why do you want me to call you Master?” I tried to reason with him.

“The owner of that boutique,” Xavier said as he pointed his finger in the direction of the boutique, “is a vampire and all of the employees are vampires too, so they know that I’m a prince. That’s why I want you to call me Master in front of them because I need to keep my reputation. Do I make myself clear?”

“And if I don’t want to call you that?” I ventured.

“Then, I am going to cut off your tongue so that you will lose your ability to speak forever, and that way, you won’t be able to blacken my reputation anymore,” he threatened.

I burst out laughing. “Oh, please! You cannot be serious.”

“Let me prove how serious I am!” Unexpectedly, he took out a knife and pointed at me.

Quite frankly, Prince Xavier looked very scary. But I refused to be intimidated by him. Thus, I tried to bargain with him, “What if I call you ‘Sir’?”

“For crying out loud! I’ve just threatened to cut off your tongue, aren’t you afraid of me?” Xavier groaned with frustration.

I shook my head violently. “No.”

“Fine. Do what you like--I don’t care as long as you don’t embarrass me.” Hurling his flicker knife to the back seat, Xavier wrenched the door open and bang the door when he got out of the car.

I giggled at the prince’s antics before hopping out of the car and going after him.

“You know, you look so cute when you’re angry,” I said teasingly.

He glared at me threateningly.

“Sir,” I quickly added, grinning hugely.

“Just shut up, or else!” he seethed out.

I raised my hands in surrender. “OK, you win, I’ll shut up now!” Without another word, Prince Xavier waltzed into the boutique. Of course, I followed closely behind him.

The shop manager and several shop assistants all stood in a line to welcome us.

“Your Highness.” The shop manager bobbed a curtsy “It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to our boutique tonight.”

Prince Xavier only gave a curt nod as a response.

“Has my tuxedo been ready yet?” he asked brusquely.

“Yes, it has, Your Highness,” the shop manager answered.

“All right. I want to try my tuxedo now,” Xavier stated.

“Follow me please, Your Highness! I’ll show you the way to the fitting room,” said the shop manager.

“Hang on a sec!” Xavier said before turning around to face me. “Choose whichever dress you prefer, Angela! If you see something that tickles your fancy, I’ll buy it for you,” he stated.

I nodded enthusiastically. “Okay.”

“Remember, Angela! Don’t try to escape, or I’ll give you a

punishment that you can’t even imagine!” he warned me.

“Don’t worry, Sir! I’m not going anywhere. How can I think of escaping when I am surrounded by elegant dresses like this? I prefer shopping to wasting my time by trying to run away,” I assured him.

“Women!” Xavier muttered under his breath and with that he headed towards the fitting room with the shop manager and assistants in tow.

While Prince Xavier was trying his new tuxedo, I looked through the racks of clothes in this boutique. After some time, I lastly found a dress that really caught my eye. It was a knee-length dress decorated with bows and ribbons.

Quickly, I took the dress to the counter. At that very minute, Prince Xavier emerged from the fitting room. He directly came up to the counter with the shop manager and assistants at his heels.

“I like the tuxedo. Send it to my address as soon as possible!” Prince Xavier commanded.

“All right, Your Highness,” the shop manager responded.

“What about you, Angela? Have they found the dress that you want yet?” Prince Xavier asked me.

“Yes, I have. I want this dress.” I showed him the dress that I wanted to buy.

“I don’t like your choice of dress,” Xavier commented bluntly, “I think it doesn’t really suit you. You’d better pick another dress.”

“With all due respect, Sir, but didn’t you say that I could choose whichever dress I want?” I tried to argue with him.

“Well, I change my mind. It is apparent to me that you don’t have any dress sense, so I will select the dress for you myself,” Xavier countered.

I was about to protest but thought better of it, so I grudgingly had to give in to his demand. “Fine. So, which dress do you want me to wear for the ball, Sir?”

“Wait a second!” Prince Xavier ran his fingers through a selection of clothes and lastly picked out a dress with a flared skirt for me.

“I think this dress will suit you fine,” he said, pushing the dress towards me.

“I don’t want to wear that dress. It will make me look fat,” I refused, putting the dress away.

“You already look fat even though you don’t wear this dress,” Xavier mocked me.

“What?!” I squawked, glaring furiously at him.

“Don’t get upset! I was only teasing.” He simpered at me.

“It’s not funny!” I raged.

“OK, I’m sorry,” he said wretchedly.

I pouted angrily.

“If you didn’t want that dress, I’d rather you wear this dress.” Xavier forced a backless dress with a plunging neckline into my hand.

“You must be joking! No way am I wearing that! The dress looks too sexy,” I stormed as I gave him back the dress.

The vampire prince looked at the dress that was now on his hands one more time, and then he said awkwardly, “Oh, right.”

I rolled my eyes.

“How about this dress?” Xavier took another dress from the rack and handed it to me.

I stared down at the classic little black dress in my hand and shook my head. “No, I don’t like this dress. It looks old-fashioned.”

“A classic black dress never go out of fashion, you know,” quoth Xavier.

“What do you know about fashion, Xavier?” I sneered.

“I am a fashion-conscious man, so I know exactly what I’m talking about,” Xavier said confidently.

“If you really knew about fashion, you would not have told me to pick that dress because it will only make me look older than my real age,” I spat.

“You’re indeed old,” he said teasingly.

“Who says I am old? I am only 18 years old, you know. Meanwhile, Goodness knows how old you are. You’re probably older than my great-great-grandfather,” I taunted him.

“You can’t compare me with your great-great-grandfather. I’m a vampire, so I have a longer lifespan than a human like him,” he hissed.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Xavier. My great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side is a vampire,” I wanted to say it, but I bit my tongue. Instead, I said mockingly, “In spite of being a vampire, you can not ignore the fact that you’re still an old man, Sir.”

“Can’t we just drop it? Now, you’d better make up your mind which dress that you want!” Xavier demanded.

“Now look here, I have found the dress that I wanted. But then, you kept complaining that you didn’t like my choice of dress and you told me to choose another one,” I protested.

“I just want to pick out the best dress for you, okay?” Xavier reasoned.

“You certainly don’t know what’s best for me,” I snarled.

“Just shut up and choose which dress that you want now!” Xavier snapped at me.

I finally chose a dress at random from the rack and showed it to him. “OK then, I want this one.”

“I don’t like it,” Xavier said coldly.

Angrily, I threw the dress to one of the shop assistants which she deftly caught.

“What the blazes do you actually want, Xavier? One moment you said I could choose whichever dress I wanted, the next you said you’re the only one who could determine what I ought to wear for the ball,” I bellowed.

“Don’t get shirty with me! I told you I was only trying to help you find the best gown that’s suitable for the ball!” Xavier made an excuse.

I rolled my eyes.

“Now, quick, choose another dress! We don’t have all the time in the world,” he demanded.

Reluctantly, I selected another dress. Again, Prince Xavier didn’t agree with my choice.

Prince Xavier and I continued squabbling over which dress I should wear to the ball. After a heated argument, we finally agreed to take a lace ballgown which was embroidered with flowers.

“This dress comes in black, brown, pink, blue, and red. Which colour do you want, Miss?” asked the shop manager.

I was just about to answer her question when Prince Xavier pre-empted me, “I’ll take the blue one.”

“To be quite truthful with you, Sir, I’m not very keen on that colour.

I prefer pink to blue,” I disagreed with him.

“No, your ballgown must be blue to match my tuxedo!” Xavier insisted.

“But I want the pink dress. It’s my favourite colour,” I protested.

“No, you must take the blue dress,” Xavier said persistently.

I and Prince Xavier came to blows over what colour the new ballgown should be.

“Here we go again!” I could hear the shop manager mumbling to herself. I ignored her and carried on arguing with Xavier.

The shop assistants started to giggle at us, but Xavier quelled them with a glare.

Prince Xavier cleared his throat and stated, “Fine. You can take the pink dress, if you want,”

“Yes!” I fairly jumped for joy when Xavier finally pandered to my whim.

“Put that dress on my charge and deliver it to my address along with my tuxedo, the sooner the better!” Prince Xavier ordered.

The shop manager nodded in understanding. “All right, Your Highness. We promise to deliver within 24 hours.”

“That’ll be great, thanks,” Xavier mumbled.

“It’s a pleasure, Your Highness,” the shop manager replied with a smile.

“Let’s go home, Angela!” Xavier spoke to me.

“Okay.” I nodded at him, and at last, we swept out of the boutique.

Wandering back towards our car, Prince Xavier and I climbed into the car right away, and at long last, the both of us headed back home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“By the way, what did you buy me a ballgown for?” I asked out of curiosity after we returned to the kingdom of Nightshades.

Prince Xavier elaborated, “Every year, my kingdom hosts a ball in which every royal and noble family from the vampire kingdom around the world attends. This year, the ball is going to be held next week and I want you to be my date for the ball. That’s why I bought you the ballgown.”

I gasped and my hand flew to my mouth. “So you’re going to throw a ball next week and vampires from other kingdoms will attend the ball too?”

“Yes,” answered Xavier, “we want to involve as many people as possible in our celebrations, that’s why we invite other kingdoms too.”

‘Fine. That settles it. I’m not coming to the ball. I can’t chance bumping into someone who might recognize me as Princess Mirabelle,’ I thought.

But knowing Xavier, if I told him straight that I didn’t want to go to the ball with him, he surely wouldn’t hear of it. So I’d better try to persuade him. I doubted he’d allow me not to attend the ball, but it’s worth a try.”

“Xavier, I don’t really need to go to the ball, do I?” I asked hopefully.

“What are you talking about? Of course, you have to go to the ball. I’ve told you that you’re going to be my date for the ball, remember?” Xavier remarked.

“But I don’t feel up to it,” I reasoned.

“I don’t care what you want. No matter what, you must accompany me to the ball. I want to show off my beautiful new pet to my friends there,” he growled at me.

“Why don’t you ask other girls to be your date?” I suggested.

“No, I only want you to be my date. Only you. Is that clear?” he insisted.

“No, I don’t want to go to the ball with you,” I refused.

“Nonsense! You must go!” Xavier said insistently.

“No, I’m not going to the ball,” I said petulantly, my voice firmer this time.

“Yes, you bloody well are!” he roared.

“No, I won’t,” I said with heat in my voice.

“You’re coming and I won’t take no for an answer!” he remarked with emphasis.

Without another word, Prince Xavier flounced out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Running after Xavier, I tried the door, but it turned out to be locked.

“Xavier, open the door now!” I yelled as I battered at the door with my fists. However, my scream fell on deaf ears.

I screamed with frustration. “Can’t that prince stop being annoying just for once?”