In the Doghouse - Chapter 171
He stammered like a fool,
“W-When… when did she go to see the Emperor?”
“Just now. She told me not to follow her, so I came here right away.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Richard bolted out of the office, ignoring the startled attendants who tried to follow him. He ran directly toward the main palace.
Richard couldn’t begin to understand what Courtney was thinking. He had anticipated some backlash from his reckless plan, but he had never imagined she would leave without even confronting him.
Had she already made up her mind when she threw him out of the bedroom? The thought filled him with dread.
Without stopping to catch his breath, Richard sprinted across the palace grounds.
He headed straight for the reception hall in the main palace, but none of the staff he encountered had seen the Crown Princess. When he asked about the Emperor’s whereabouts, he received only vague answers.
“Courtney…”
Frustrated, he began searching every room in the main palace, flinging open the doors to the reception and audience chambers, convinced the Emperor might be deliberately hiding her.
To his irritation, he only found lower-ranking servants, and none of the Emperor’s attendants were anywhere in sight. He finally asked a passing servant, though he wasn’t expecting much of a response.
“Where exactly is His Majesty the Emperor?”
“If he’s not in the palace, perhaps he’s in the annex?”
“Oh.”
Richard let out a frustrated sigh, berating himself for not thinking of it sooner. He sprinted out toward the annex at the back of the main palace.
The annex had been built for the Empress and was a small manor that the Emperor had constructed for her, the place where she had passed away. Since then, the Emperor spent nearly half his days there. Richard, who barely had any memories of his mother, usually avoided the annex altogether.
But this was an emergency. As he approached the building, he spotted a familiar attendant nearby and ran straight for the entrance, swallowing back his labored breaths.
“Where is the Crown Princess?”
“She’s in a private meeting with His Majesty.”
“Move aside.”
Though the attendant spoke with respectful firmness, Richard shoved him aside and forced his way into the entrance. The attendant had no real power to stop him.
Once inside, Richard’s eyes swept the room, searching for any trace of Courtney. He heard faint sounds from upstairs. He started up the stairs, but several attendants appeared and blocked his path.
“His Majesty ordered that no one be allowed in.”
Richard glared at them menacingly. If he hadn’t been looking for Courtney, he would have set the place ablaze just to force everyone out.
“Do you have a death wish?”
His seething gaze turned the attendants pale. Even if they currently had the Emperor’s protection, they knew that Richard would eventually take power. Any time there was tension between father and son, it was the servants who felt their hearts in their throats.
Richard pushed past them and strode down the hallway. At the end of the corridor, the head steward stood guard in front of a closed door. It was clear that the Emperor was inside, and likely Courtney, too.
“Open it.”
The attendants exchanged anxious glances, but the elderly steward reluctantly stepped aside. Richard shoved past him and flung the door open.
Inside was a simple reception room. Courtney sat across from the Emperor, her expression grave. Richard urgently called out to her.
“Courtney!”
* * *
Courtney’s head turned instinctively in Richard’s direction. Her gaze was colder than he had ever seen it, as if she had made up her mind entirely.
She didn’t scowl or shout. She merely looked at him with an unreadable expression, then turned her head away as if she expected nothing from him. Her demeanor, so devoid of hope or expectation, left Richard feeling frozen in place.
The Emperor, who had also turned to look at him, picked up the teapot on the table. Without hesitation, he hurled it in Richard’s direction.
The pot smashed against the wall right next to his head, sending lukewarm tea and shards of ceramic scattering over his shoulder.
With a voice filled with restrained fury, the Emperor spoke slowly and clearly.
“I told you no one was to enter.”
The attendants at the door lowered their heads in terror, but Richard didn’t even glance at the Emperor.
Tea soaking into his clothes, he kept his gaze fixed on Courtney, who refused to look back at him.
He took an unsteady step toward her, feeling the urgency but struggling to form coherent thoughts. Barely managing, he blurted out an excuse.
“Courtney, this is all a misunderstanding.”
Of course, such a simple statement couldn’t explain all the chaos he’d caused, nor could it undo his actions. Courtney continued to look off into the distance, and Richard found himself stammering through his half-thought-out excuse.
“I did it all on purpose. Pretending not to be in the bedroom, having the maid—Morrison—say those things, I ordered all of it. And the letter, I wrote that myself and told Anton to deliver it to you. I just… thought that if I made you angry enough, you’d come and see me… that maybe then we could talk…”
Richard’s face flushed with embarrassment and shame. Even as he confessed, he realized how foolish it all sounded. He had assumed that once she came to see him, he could explain everything and smooth things over, that his carefully planned ‘misunderstandings’ would make her come running to him.
Courtney finally looked at him, her expression one of cold disdain, as if she were staring at a pathetic, foolish man. It was clear that she wasn’t surprised—she must have already figured out everything.
