16 If looks could kill (1)

Hazel sighed in relief, but she still had an urge to strangle Tobias for messing with her in front of the queen. She raised her head to look at Tobias standing behind his mother. He avoided her gaze and she was glad that he did.

Tabitha missed the fear from Helena at one side of the table and the anger from Hazel at the other since she was enjoying the fact Tobias wanted to dance with her. She wouldn't have been able to, but she enjoyed hearing him say it.

Tabitha didn't bask in his comment for long as many eyes were watching her interaction with Tobias. She couldn't act as a mother right now. "I still want you to sit down and have a talk with the young women with me to then pick two of them. A chair," she said to one of the maids standing close to the table.

"I want to sit to your left," Tobias said, going over to be near Hazel. It was disappointing that Linda would be beside him instead of Hazel. "This side always looks more radiant."

"You're too much," Tabitha replied, suspicious of Tobias's behaviour. She would have preferred him to sit on her right to be near Helena, but she couldn't say anything about it now to question his judgement. 

A chair was brought to the table for Tobias to sit in between his mother and Linda. After he sat down, Tobias purposely stepped on Hazel's shoe. His shoe hardly touched her shoe because of how far he had to reach, but he made it known that he did. 

"Oh silly me. I'm sorry for stepping on your shoe Hazel," Tobias apologised. 

Hazel smiled, knowing now was not the time to say what was on her mind to him. 

"How did your foot get so close to her shoe to step on it? How are you sitting Hazel? Don't slouch," Tabitha advised her. "You must be making it uncomfortable for Linda to sit if my son touched your shoe."

Hazel shifted her body like she was sitting up to fix slouching though she wasn't. The queen had turned to scold her for her foot being stepped on when she had not moved and it was all Tobias's fault. Tobias was sitting right next to Linda. Why didn't anyone question what his foot was doing near her? How did he even avoid Linda to touch her foot?

"It was my fault, mother. I should have looked where I was putting my foot," Tobias said, helping Hazel before his mother made it more serious than it needed to be. He was just looking to get a little rise out of Hazel, but his mother tended to be so serious that she would ruin it. 

This was the downside of having the queen as his mother. Their time to have fun was always short. 

"As I was saying, we were just talking about your dance at the ball with Helena," Tabitha said, moving on from what happened to Hazel's foot. There was no need to go back to it. "She was delighted to dance with you. It was truly a shame that you did not pick another young woman. Hopefully, there won't be too much jealousy Helena's way."

Tobias found it amusing how his mother would say that, but then do little things to put the women against each other and when the maids informed her that it was getting out of hand, his mother would sit back and do nothing.

The women at this table were too caught up in trying to please his mother to realise how she was finding entertainment with them. Tobias stayed out of it since the young woman would be too mesmerised by his mother to listen to him.

Tobias finally looked across the table at Helena who might have been staring at him all along. She was pretty, but there was something about her that he couldn't get used to. She looked like she shouldn't be sitting here. Most of the women looked that way. 

They were all beautiful in their way, but they were not the usual kind he would spend time with. The kind he felt attracted to. It all came back to them acting and looking like his mother with the way they dressed.

Again, Tobias wished everyone in the palace would stay out of his decision on who was going to be his wife. He wasn't going to marry for the sake of having someone to birth sons like the court was planning. He should at least have someone who was fun around and he was attracted to. 

Then again, he didn't want to ruin anyone's fun by having them be caged in the palace with him.

"She is a great dancer. The other ladies would have every right to be jealous of her, but I will do my best to spare time for every one of them. I already have in mind one person I want to spend time with. It was not a hard decision," Tobias said, reaching forward to pick up one of the grapes on the table.

There was so much good fruit decorating the table and yet, no one was enjoying them. To not waste the grapes, Tobias took it upon himself to eat them. He didn't see why none of the ladies would want to eat in front of his mother. Eating was something natural.

As long as they weren't eating similarly to the pigs he saw on farms, nothing should be said. Though now that he thought about it, there were some cases where young women became so nervous around his mother that they kept spilling everything.

It was fun for him, but hell for that young lady.

"One person? You need to pick two," Tabitha said, hoping he was on the same page as her to pick Helena and Linda. Jasmine could join the second pick with another young lady. 

"Very well. I would like to spend some time with Linda Henson," Tobias said, hearing a gasp to the left of him from said girl.

Normally, he would look to avoid her, but here she was without her brothers and as the future king, he had to keep a close relationship with her family. He would dangle the prospect of her getting married to Edgar in her face to start a better friendship with her. That was all it would be since he could not have her brothers become part of his family. 

Linda thought she had heard wrong because her mind was playing tricks on her. She had been repeating in her head that he would not say her name. It was all a trick of the mind, wasn't it?

Hazel stared at Linda, crossing her fingers for Linda to say something so it wouldn't be twice that she didn't answer when spoken to.

"I look forward to spending time with the prince," Linda said, wanting to use that time to know why he picked her. There was never a day he had any interest in her and he could never get close to her because of her brothers.

It couldn't be that the prince had liked her all this time and now that she was away from her brothers, he was going to make a move. Linda didn't want that to happen since she already had her eyes on his best friend. Edgar wasn't going to show her any interest if he thought his best friend had feelings for her.

Tabitha didn't mind Tobias's first pick, but now he had to be on the same page in picking Helena since she was the star of the selection thus far. "Wonderful. And the other young lady?"

"Hazel Wallace," said Tobias.