White Rose by Gao Yang (ink book reader .TXT) 📕

"Huh?"

Mia looked at her and noticed how she was sweating. "You're sweating. Are you still thinking about that?" She was caught off guard again as the events haunted her; she was about to faint again. "Mistress!" Mia caught her then she caught all her senses and stood up tall on her feet again.

She looked outside the window at the sky. "It's getting dark. Isn't the Fall Festival starting anytime soon?" She loved the beautiful view of the village, all the lights, and beautiful scenery of the ocean.

"Yes. It will begin soon." Mia said as she slipped on the outer coat for the dress on Isabella. "Mistress, it's time." She turned her head and nodded.

They walked out the door out of the dressing room, and to their surprise, Bryce was standing there, waiting.

Mia and Isabella both saw Bryce and curtsied at the same time. "Greetings to you, my lord." They both said.

Bryce walked over and helped Isabella up. "You're a guest. You don't have to bow to me if you don't want to." She looked at him and he curved a smile from the corners of his mouth.

"I may be a guest, but I'm still a commoner girl from the village who still has to curtsey to the King and all Nobles." Isabella said as she lowered her head, not looking at him anymore.

Bryce didn't like how Isabella was seeing herself as such a low ranked person in this world, even though he knew what she said was true.

He wondered how it would be like to be loved by her, to hold her in his arms, to have the privilege to kiss her, to touch her. He always wondered what it would be like to be able to call her his.

"I'd like to show a very special place." Isabella was scared it was another imposter being Bryce and dragging her into places again. Bryce saw how scared she was. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you. You can trust me."

For Isabella, after hearing those words from Bryce, she thought to herself. Can I trust him? I've only met him for a couple days.

Bryce avoided reading her thoughts because he wanted to respect her privacy and her inner most thoughts, but he wanted to know what she always thought about on a daily basis.

He reached out his hand to her; she hesitated to reach out, but she finally reached out to his hand and held it tight.

Mia, who saw what was happening, left her mistress with Bryce. Besides, he was her half-brother.

"Where are you taking me-" Bryce pulled her hand and their bodies collided together. She smiled awkwardly as she backed away from him and was still holding his hand.

"I wanna show you a beautiful view up on the roof." He said as he smirked at her.

"The roof?" She let out a quiet laugh and looked down. "Isn't that a little too dangerous?"

He lifted her chin and looked into her deep brown eyes and smiled passionately. "But isn't a little danger fun as well?" He held her hand and led her down the hallway, bringing her to the roof of the palace.

When they both reached the rooftop, no doubt it was really was beautiful. A sight that Isabella haven't seen in a long time, the view, there was something special about it.

"This is-" Isabella said, followed by Bryce's words.

"So beautiful." He smiled at her and she smiled back at him.

For Bryce, it was one of the only times he ever saw her smile ever since he met her. All he wanted was to see the beautiful smile on her face everyday, but inside her heart, she's broken, in pieces. He wanted to be the glue and help her heal by putting the pieces together for her.

Isabella, remember you still have Colin! Her inner conscious came in as her smile vanished. So don't live happily ever after just yet! If Colin finds out you've been with another man, who knows what he will do.

But Bryce though.

She felt sorry for leading him on. She didn't want to regret for leading him into believing that they were actually going to be something in the future. Your future is with Colin, not with Bryce!

He made her feel special, he's helped her with pretty much everything. She couldn't lie from it, she's really grateful for everything he's done for her. From the night in the alley to today. It may have been only a day that she's been with him, but she just couldn't betray her love for Colin.

Bryce looked at her, still avoiding to read her mind, noticed how deep Isabella was into her thoughts.

"Isabella?" She flinched and looked at Bryce and sighed as she turned, facing towards him. "Is there something wrong?" She shook her head, denying her problems and lowered her head, holding her hands together.

She already felt guilty for him, for leading on such an amazing and sweet gentleman like Bryce. She couldn't imagine how he'd react if she told him that there was nothing real between them.

Bryce walked up to her and cupped her face with both of his hands and looked at her. "You can trust me." He dropped his hands, reaching for her hands and holding them into his chest. "I didn't want to tell you this and I will not lie to you, but ever since I first saw you, pardon me but I feel like I've fallen for a girl who seemed like an angel sent from the beautiful heavens."

Isabella teared up, but she didn't tear up cause of his beautiful words, but how she was going to regret this.

Bryce saw how she was tearing up, he caught a tear that was coming from her eye and wiped it away.

"I honestly don't want anything from you much because you're already all I could ever ask for."

Stay away from Bryce, Isabella! You can't do this to Colin. You promised yourself, that you would love only Colin for your lifetime.

Before she even realized it, Bryce locked his lips with hers.

Now you've done it!

Isabella was surprised by Bryce's actions, but she didn't retaliate or stop him; she just simply kissed back. Then Bryce backed away as he caressed her cheek, and he smiled at her.

"I only want you and your beautiful soul, nothing more." She smiled and laid her head in chest and looked at the beautiful view; Bryce held her in his chest, putting his arms around her.

He looked down at the village, the people were already starting, the guards were guarding the perimeters of the village and the stage.

"We should probably get going." Bryce said as Isabella was still in his arms.

Isabella felt safe in his arms, it was like he was sent down from the Gods to protect her from all harm. He had the face an actual angel and a heart of an angel, which was rare in this society. Which made her wonder, why was he single when he has every girl in the village, falling on their knees, just begging to be in bed with him?

It was getting pretty cold, plus with the cold wind blowing on them. Isabella was shivering from the wind and needed his warmth for her comfort. He felt her body shivering and held her close.

Isabella, don't blame me, your inner conscience when problems occur!

Bryce led her back inside, holding her hand, making sure she was right beside him. As they walked down the hallway, they ran into Percy and Charles.

"Yeah, and then I told my mother that I want to see the Fall Festival this year." Charles said from a distance. Charles looked over at Bryce, he was with a mistress, for the first time. "Who's that with Bryce?"

Percy looked over at Bryce with a mistress. "I'm not sure, that's probably the guest mistress."

Charles looked at Percy and back at Bryce and the girl. "I didn't know we had a guest. What's her name?"

Percy thought about it for a second. "I think he said her name was Isabella...?"

Charles was amused by how amazing she looked. He wondered if she was a mistress who lived nearby.

"Does she live nearby?" Percy shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, but I heard that Bryce found her in an alley one night when he was coming back from a trip in the woods." Percy said as he watched the both of them were talking and smiling.

"Bryce!" Bryce's attention was turned to Charles and Percy who were down on the other side of the hallway.

"Who's that?" Isabella asked as Bryce looked over at the two young gentlemen.

"Oh, you haven't met them yet?" She shook her head. "Then, I can introduce them to you." She smiled and nodded.

"I'd like that." She said as they walked over to them.

As they walked down the hallway, Isabella felt tense when she approached the two gentlemen, they were different, way different compared to Bryce.

"Who are you with, Bryce? Finally got yourself a mistress?" Charles teased as he looked at her.

"No. I'm just showing her around." She didn't look at them. "Isabella, this is Prince Charles, youngest son of King Henry."

She raised her head to look at him. Prince Charles. She curtsied and greeted him. "Greetings Your Highness." Charles nodded as she got up back to her feet.

"And Charles, this is Isabella, daughter of Mr. David Schmidt." Charles bowed down before her. She couldn't help but think of how handsome Prince Charles was, but she couldn't build improper thoughts on him.

"This is Percy, son of Noble Chamberlin Wasley. He was also with us earlier."

Percy finally got a look at the mistress, then he realized that it was the girl he supposedly spoke to a few days back.

"Greetings to you, my lord." She curtsied while Percy stood there frozen. She looked at him and met his blue eyes. She then realized that he was the stranger who came and asked for some medical materials at her house.

"Percy?" He flinched as he didn't realize he was staring at Isabella for a long period of time. "Is there something about Isabella?" Charles asked, Bryce and Isabella were still standing there with them.

"No, it's just that, forgive me. Greetings to you too, Miss Isabella. It's just that I think we've met somewhere and I just didn't realize that you were the guest." Isabella nodded, understanding him.

"You've met her before?" Bryce asked. Percy nodded. "Isabella?" He asked her, just making sure.

"Yeah, he came by my house and asked for some medical materials. But we didn't know each other till just now." She said as she looked at Percy.

Charles, standing there awkwardly, tried to catch on with the story of how Isabella and Percy met. He looked at Isabella and noticed how kind she was and how innocent she was.

"The Fall Festival is starting real soon, ten minutes to be precise." Charles said, disturbing the silence.

They all looked at Charles, Bryce nodded. "Ah, he's right. How about all of us go together?" Bryce offered. Percy and Charles agreed, and Isabella kindly smiled and they all walked down the hallway.

Isabella stayed close by Bryce, while Charles and Percy walked on their own.

"Isabella, may I ask how you are liking the palace?" Charles asked, starting a conversation.

She smiled and replied. "The palace is really beautiful. I've been wondering and adventuring around for a bit.." She trailed off as she thought about the dark hallway where she was earlier.

Bryce looked at her and she was flustered. "Isabella?" She looked at Bryce and smiled.

Avoiding the detail about the dark passageway, she just put a smile on her face and continued on. "Like I was saying, I was adventuring around for a bit and I found that servants don't just act like servants."

Charles giggled with Isabella as she laughed. "What do you mean that servants don't just act like servants?" Charles was amused by her humor and her presence.

"What I meant by that was the servants don't act like any regular old servant, they all have an education of some