he noticed her disappearing through the wide high door just in the last moment. her long gown draped behind her and was the last to vanish. this little young girl amused him. she was by far the most welcoming breath of fresh air their castle received in a long long while. sure she was bethroted to his older brother and was by that standards out of his reach. there was something unbelievably vivid about her. the way she handled herself, the way she handled others. she stepped into a room and everyone looked at her. it wasn't her face, even though she was a beauty. but her beauty was of the soft kind – you noticed it and you appreciated it. but only few would be prepared to go even further, to worship it and crave it night and day. he was still deciding where exactly did he fall. he went through the same doors and closed them loudly behind. the throne room in all its majesty. ‘’flirting with the throne, aren't you?’’ he spoke up, his voice carrying between the empty walls and dooming through the space. he walked towards her, his hands in the back, his eyes on her and a knowing smirk on his lips. ‘’walking all alone around the castle…’’ he continued as he stopped in front of her: ‘’someone might take the opportunity to steal you away from my brother.’’

‘’the throne flirts back with everyone. you should know that. he changed so many arses over the centuries… whore,’’ he replied, the last vulgar word merely above whisper. honestly it was all a big metaphor. so many people sat on the throne through the throne’s lifetime. and often people go crazy with desire for power just by looking at all the gold and brilliant gems. ‘’someone would have had to,’’ he nodded, easing back into the game of cat and mice with her. he was honestly relieved his older brother won’t end up with some sort of a stuck up frigid woman. there was a lot of talk going on about his sexual activities and mostly with whom he participated in such activities. men or women? it was not a subject orlando would want to breach as he did not really care about such things. but leandra seemed like just the right woman for his brother. ‘’but you seem to be capable to do it on your own. unless there is certain company, certain person you would like to escort you?’’ he played cluelees.

‘’it is rather boring,’’ he had to agree with her. however, he rarely spend any time at all in the castle. he only came because he had a bed here, a bath and food. it was his ‘little’ safe house. ‘’hm, how about every man in the castle?’’ he suggested a possible answer, obviously pointing to the matter of her beauty. he could have said 'every man with a functioning cock', but it would seem too crude. but he noticed the way servants eyes followed her. she noticed the way his eyes followed her. ‘’I follow everything with a skirt, leandra. but I think you already know that,’’ he lightly chuckled in a sincere answer. he never did hide his infatuation with everything related to women. he wanted to know them and love them all. some more than the others. he stayed still as she circled him around, like a wild animal circling its prey. she had it in her. to be the impossible seductress. ‘’are you undressing me with your eyes, lady? because it feels that way,’’ he looked at her with a smirk: ‘’I believe it is not appropriate.’’

‘’many,’’ he answered her very vaguely. ‘’I am not much for history, politics and power. you should ask some other member of the family. I’m sure one of them will gladly cite you all the years of coronations and all the lineage of former kings,’’ he explained as his eyes turned to the throne. it was a work of art, but not the kind he personally was interested in. it was painfully obvious he rarely paid attention to anything that perhaps wasn’t of his immediate use. it seemed shallow to some, his artistic way of thinking. too soft for the palace. too humane. ‘’ah, I believe your stay here will be quite long. there is a part in the marriage ceremony that says ‘till death do us part.’ it applies to you and my brother as well,’’ he corrected her. perhaps this right now was just a visit, but sooner or later the wedding will be set in motion. there will be no escaping these walls afterwards. women had it worse than men, he knew that. ‘’capable? yes, you look capable. among other things,’’ a secretive smile said it all.

‘’my brother, of course. what use and pleasure could you possibly get out of my humble company?’’ he laughed and watched her laugh as well. how her hand seemed to often cover her mouth. to hide the laughter? to hide these glimpses of bonheur? ‘’you shouldn’t cover your smile with your hand,’’ he spoke up without thinking twice and then added in relation to her observation of his ‘sweetness’: ‘’I know my way around with words.’’ he wasn’t a particularly good orator but he managed to make a lot of things come out better than they were. ‘’I think I’d be suspicious of the farmer in the front,’’ he eased himself into the playful teasing. a skirt. skirts, corsets, cleavage, long hair, seductive eyes. he loved it all. ‘’I do,’’ he shrugged, he definitely had a lot of imagination, it always presented a problem when dealing with fellow relatives. he let her question hang in air for a few long moment, before finally finding the proper answer that could be taken either as mocking or truth: ‘’well… eden, of course.’’