Be My Princess

In the Rolls heading northwards for Ruund Natural Park, at the outskirts of Musumb, Kat was feeling quite nervous. Laure and Tiana had chosen to dress her in a royal-blue A-Line dress and white stilettoes assorted to a white clutch; and Jane had used a bun to attach her long hair in a perfect up'do. She had also chosen pearl stud for her ears; but had met unbreakable resistance when she had proposed the assorted pearl princess necklace in the place of Kat's pendant.

Next to her, Angel looked quite impressive in his suit, despite his whole demeanour being rather stiff.

"You seem to be very attached to this particular necklace." Angel remarked. "Is it of a certain sentimental value to you?"

Kat looked at Angel and noticed that he was still looking straight in front of him as he spoke.

"You don't know about this necklace?" Kat asked.

"Should I?" Angel asked in return, intrigued by the young woman's apparent incredulity.

"Normally yes. This is the symbol of our grandfathers' oath. The medallion was carved as one then separated into two parts for each one of them to keep." Kat explained. "How come you don't know about this when fulfilling your grandfather's oath is a duty of so great importance to you?"

"Is it why you wear it all the time? To remind yourself that you're here to fulfil of your grandfather's oath?" Angel replied smugly.

From the front seat, Peter looked at the crown prince through the rear-view mirror. "You are really not helping your case, Your Highness!" He thought.

Kat exhaled her exasperation heavily; she then took the medallion in her hand, and when she laid her eyes on it, the familiar emotion she could not explain overwhelmed her once again.

"That's not the reason why I'm so attached to it." She said almost to herself. "My mom me told that I stumbled upon the pendant when I was about four years old and basically fell in love with it; and from that moment on, I've only wanted wear it. Even to this day, I can't explain why any other necklace appears dull in my eyes, compared to this one…"

The soft tone made Angel turn to look at her. Kat's dark brown eyes had a marvelled expression in them that inexplicably made his heart race.

Kat suddenly lifted her eyes to look at Angel. "According to my brother, it's because I could hear the call to my princely destiny through it." She added with a chuckle.

Caught off guard when their eyes met, Angel quickly diverted his gaze. With a slight frown, Kat observed the prince for a moment, intrigued by his weird behaviour.

When they arrived at the park, arrangements had already been made not to let visitors, and most of the staff, know that the crown prince was on the premises. And only reporters from news channels endorsed by the Throne had been invited to cover the crown prince's meeting with the Congolese Minister of Tourism.

Kat was feeling nervous about being in front of cameras for the first time; she was also afraid to become the centre of reporters' attention as she would be coming out of the crown prince's car. But when the minister had asked about her, Angel had introduced her as distant relative of the royal family on her first visit in Ruund who had requested to visit the natural park. Such event not being uncommon, reporters had not searched to know more on the subject and only focused their attention on the minister.

To Kat's disappointment, the visit was only limited to the security building of the park. Angel gave the minister a tour of the entire facilities, explaining at the same time how each of the strategies used by poachers to infiltrate the park was what had helped them design their elaborate security system.

During the 16th century, Ruund had infamously thrived on the commerce of ivory and slaves[1]. With time, both practices had been abandoned as other means of commerce had been developed; but the persistent lucrativeness of the illegal commerce of ivory – and now rhinoceros horns and gorilla hands as well – had led to the rise of poaching.

In the surveillance room, walls were covered with screens displaying live feeds of all strategic places and possible entry points all over the vast natural park. There, Kat had the opportunity to admire the beauty of the wild and even spot some animals as they appeared in the cameras' purview, while Angel was showing to the minister a video that explained how they had managed to camouflage the cameras in a way that will make them unspottable by either the animals or the poachers.

At the end of the visit, the minister was extremely satisfied with all he had been shown. To the reporters, he gladly announced that it had been decided that DRC and Ruund will collaborate on the project of building the same type of facilities and setting the same type of security system in all Congolese natural parks. He also announced that Crown Prince Angel had agreed to directly collaborate with them as consultant on the first natural park project.

The reporters followed Angel as he accompanied the minister back to his car, then they were dismissed by the royal guard as soon as the minister had left for the airport.

When Angel was done listening to the Head of Security's report on the significant decrease of poachers' attempts to infiltrate the natural park, Peter approached him.

"The maiden has already boarded the car, Your Highness." He reported.

"Good. Back to the palace." Angel ordered.

But Peter did not move. "The young maiden seems very desirous to visit the park." He calmly added, looking straight in front of him, as if he were just thinking out loud.

Angel looked in the direction of the car and saw Kat sitting at the back with her head stuck out the window, looking towards the park with longing eyes.

"An official meeting with a foreign minister where Your Highness did not exchange a single word with the maiden does not really qualify as a date opportunity to interact with the damsel." Peter continued.

Angel brought his eyes back on his personal guard who was still looking up front.

Peter slightly smiled. "Before we left, I asked for casual clothes and an unsealed car[2] to be prepared." He said. Then he finally looked at Angel and added: "Just in case…"

Angel could perceive a teasing sparkle in his guard's eyes. Though he was a bit curious about Kat, his main intention in taking her with him had been to keep Kat away from his cousin while avoiding being faced with his disappointed mother. He did not really intend to interact the young maiden, but Peter had taken advantage of the situation and was now playing matchmaker.

"Back to the palace!" Angel stubbornly reiterated.

Peter bowed in obedience. "Yes, Your Highness." Then he signalled his team to get in their cars while he walked the crown prince back to the main car.

When the three cars exited the park and engaged on the road back to Musumb, Kat sighed.

Angel looked at her and felt a twinge in his heart at the sight of her sad expression. He then lifted his eyes and met Peter's through the rear-view mirror. And after a moment of hesitation, he finally gave in.

"Peter, where is that car?"

"Right there." Peter answered with a smile, pointing at a spot not far in front of them.

Angel raised his eyebrows in astonishment; but when they got to the indicated spot, he noticed a pathway wide enough to fit a car, on which was parked a grey-blue convertible. Peter instructed the driver to enter the pathway and the guards' cars followed. When they had exited the car, the driver in the convertible imitated them and handed Peter two travel bags and the car keys. Peter examined the contents of the bags then handed each to Angel and Kat accordingly.

"What's happening?" Kat asked, puzzled.

"Well, you want to visit the park, right?" Angel answered.

Kat looked at the bag contents – a pair of jeans, a striped polo shirt, desert boots, comb and hairbrush, headband and sunglasses, then eagerly looked back at Angel with questioning eyes.

"You can use the Rolls to change since it has tainted windows." Angel said in response.

Unable to contain her jubilation, Kat tip-toed to wrap her arms around his neck. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

Taken by surprise, Angel failed to make a move for a moment; and when he finally started to raise his arms in order to hug her back, Kat quickly pulled back.

"I'm sorry…" She said with embarrassment. "I think I've let my joy go a bit overboard." She explained before rushing to the car.

Angel looked at her with a dazed smile on his face; it was only after Kat had climbed into the car that he came to realise that all the guards were looking at him with laughing eyes. Angel cleared his throat in embarrassment and turned to Peter.

"Have you contacted the park administration to request a trustable guide?" He asked.

To avoid any information leak to the press, the Throne had an agreement with managers, or heads of administration in all public places of Ruund so that only staff members who were trusted to be able to preserve confidentiality should be made available at any of the members of the royal family's visits.

"Before we left the palace, Your Highness." Peter answered.

Angel was really impressed by the efficacy of his personal guard. "How did you know I wouldn't say yes back at the park? In fact, how did you know exactly how long it would take before I finally gave in?" Angel asked in curiosity.

An enigmatic smile traced on Peter's lips. "Well, there is a strong possibility that this might not be the only car that I've had following us all the way here." He answered.

Angel was all the more impressed. "I'm normally a very difficult to impress person; yet you always manage to achieve that."

Peter simply bowed at the compliment.

Kat got out the car not long after that and looked at the car window to adjust the headband that was holding back the hair she had loosed from the up'do.

Angel couldn't stop his eyes from tracing all the curvy lines of her body clearly defined by the skinny jeans and fit polo shirt she had donned. It was not until Peter cleared his throat – when he noticed that Kat was turning to look in their direction – that the crown prince was able to reconnect with reality.

His face heated, Angel didn't even dare to look at his guard and walked towards the car with big strides in order to change his clothes as well.

Peter chuckled and muttered: "It seems you are done for, Your Highness."

When Angel came out of the car over fifteen minutes later, he had a pouty expression of his face. Kat noticed that all the guards were battling not to burst into laughter; and, once she took a look at Angel's clothes, she also felt like laughing.

The maids had purposely selected matching outfits for them. They both had black jeans, striped polo shirts and sand-brown desert boots. And where Kat had a pink headband and pink stripes on her shirt, Angel had a blue baseball cap and blue stripes on his shirt.

"Talk about going unnoticed!" Kat commented.

"Don't worry much about it; loads on couples like to dress in matching outfits, so it is a rather common sight on touristic sites like the natural park." Peter explained to her. "Plus, our itinerary will be different from that of the rest of the visitors."

Kat looked to her side and noticed that Peter had already changed in a short-sleeved plaid shirt, blues jeans and sneakers; and also had a baseball cap on.

"Wh… When did you change your clothes?" She asked in bafflement while looking around and trying to find a spot where the guard could have hidden.

"Being stealth and swift is part of my job description." Peter simply replied with a smile.

"So you are coming with us?" Kat asked again.

"Unfortunately, I have to be a third wheel. The crown prince cannot be left completely without guard." Peter explained. "But I'll give His Highness and the maiden as much space as possible."

Just in case they could be spotted by someone other than the designated staff supposed to tend to them, Peter had to play the friend accompanying the happy couple for a visit of the natural park; so the guard took place at the back of the convertible while Angel and Kat took the front seats.

When all the cars left the pathway, the rest of the royal guard headed for the Royal Estate while Angel drove back to the park. According to the arrangements Peter had made, they were to go in through a side entrance where most of the staff had already been cleared.

Not far from that entrance, the designated guide was already waiting for them, standing next to a safari truck with five rows of four seats on both sides of a small aisle at the back. A specially designed protective cage was attached to the back of the truck to enable the safe transport the visitors throughout the park.

Peter took seat in the cabin at the front with the guide while Angel and Kat climbed at the back and sat side by side on the third row on the left. The cabin was equipped with a microphone that connected to speakers installed at the back to allow the guide to communicate information about the various animals they would encounter while he toured them around the park.

Every time the truck would stop to give the couple time to admire the animals while the guide gave detailed descriptions of their living, feeding and mating habits, Kat, who was sitting next to the cage grid, would stand and place her phone at the level where rectangular windows had been created on the grid to allow visitors to have a clear view and take as many pictures as she could.

On the other hand, Angel, who had visited the park numerous times already, was way more interested into looking at Kat's marvelled expression at her sight of wild nature than actually looking at the animals.

"Do you really need that much pictures?" Angel asked when they had gotten to the giraffes.

"No, but I don't know which ones will actually come out good; so I'm taking as much as I can now, then I'll go through them later to select the good ones." Kat explained.

From the cabin, Peter turned to a look at the couple through the rear window; and when he saw how Angel was looking at Kat taking pictures, an idea popped up in his mind. He turned back and whispered something to the guide, and the latter looked at him with astonishment.

When Peter gave him an insistent look, the guide compliantly nodded and performed a manoeuvre that caused the truck to move forwards so brusquely that Kat lost her balance.

With quick reflexes, Angel stretched out his arms as soon as he saw Kat falling back; hence, he was able to catch her and make her land on his laps while the guide conveyed his apologies through the speakers.

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking into her eyes at close range.

"Yes… I'm okay."

"You should be more careful…"

As they kept looking into each other's eyes, Kat felt an inexplicable warn sensation gradually spread through her entire body. She quickly lowered her gaze and left his arms to sit back on her seat.

"Wajikit."[3] She said awkwardly.

"You're welcome." Angel replied, smiling at her shy expression.

Satisfied with the success of his plan, Peter chuckled and ordered the guide to continue with the visit.

[1] Authentic fact

[2] Without royal emblem or flags on it

[3] 'Thank you' without honorifics