"Please go back, Your Highness; her Majesty is asleep," Lia politely refused him entrance.
Thorn looked intently at the closed door, as if trying to see through it.
He hadn't expected her to retire for the night so soon, and a wave of disappointment crossed his face as he turned to leave.
He walked through the castle's ground hallway, passing by maids who were either cleaning or walking past.
They bowed in greeting as he passed by, but once he was out of earshot, they gossip among themselves.
"I heard the queen quite favors his Royal Highness Thorn," a maid whispered to her companion.
"Tsk, but I'm more interested in warming his Royal Highness's Hunter's bed. He's so manly~ I wish he could grant me that opportunity." The other maid responded in a voice filled with desire, her mind flooded with images of Hunter's sweat trickling down his wheat-toned skin, making her insides tingle.
The person cleaning the window suddenly burst into mocking laughter.
