Chapter 169 - Three Days

Samuel didn't leave Lena to think that night. He was determined that he was going to stay next to her until she gave him her decision on the matter of him going with Jovani in the morning. She did manage to get more sleep than she had the night before, but it hadn't come easily. 

Samuel was for the most part a much harder sleeper than Lena was and that was how she managed to leave the room before he woke up. Since she knew that the trip to where the Vedova Nera were located wasn't as long as it had been for him to move from his house to live at the estate, she didn't think that it was that big of a deal if he left a little later. He need to pack anyways since they would be gone for a few days anyways. 

She had decided to take that morning to talk with Jovani again, or rather to tell him her terms on what she would accept if Samuel was going to go back with him. She had a lot boundaries that she was expecting the other to respect. Not only in terms of communication but also interactions and what she considered as safety measures. 

Jovani like the princess hadn't slept much either though for much different reasons that were perhaps more pressing than what she had been dealing with. 

Still, he indulged her even though he already knew that there was nothing for her to be worrying about. Samuel would be coming back in the same if not better condition that what he left in. 

"Princess, I swear there is really nothing for you to be so stressed about." Jovani assured her from where he was sitting in the arm chair in the guestroom while she stood by the door.

"I know that the situation that unfolded wasn't the best, however the intent was never to harm Samuel. Simply just to make sure who he was engaged to was good enough." 

"You still haven't explained to me why exactly that matters." Lena pointed out. It was the one question that she was intent on him answering before he left with Samuel to know what exactly she should expect the other to be getting into. As with previous times though, Jovani simple smirked at her which only increased her annoyance with him. 

"And I believe that I explained before when it came to that as well that it would explained in due time. Like with your family, mine is also bound by certain rules that make it hard for us to take about things without outsiders until we get the right permission." He replied as he stood up from the chair, he strolled across the room until he was standing in front of the princess. 

"As as Sam goes back with me and we get a few things settled I can assure you that you'll definitely get all the answers to the questions that you want to ask." He told her, locking gazes with her as she narrowed her eyes at him. 

"And that's exactly the reason that I don't want him to go back with you. Because there are things that you purposely aren't bringing up." 

"Dear princess, I already just explained that it isn't by choice. I have family rules that I am bound by that won't let me speak freely even if I wanted to. I value my life far more than I do breaking the rules for someone who's impatient." He explained as he patted her shoulder gently before stepping around her so that he could leave the room. 

"I guess though that since it seems like you made up your mind- I can let Sam know when he gets up to expect to pack and get things ready for us to go back together." He paused at the door's entrance to turn and look back at Lena who had closed her eyes to take a deep breath in order to settle her temper. 

"Even though you haven't explicitly said it to me, I already know that you won't say no to him going with me because there's answers to questions you want plus you still intend to get engaged to him which we both know requires this process to take place." He said before he left the room.

Even though her answer to the question was going to be yes, it didn't mean that Jovani's attitude didn't bother her any less. Family rules certainly did bind people from talking about certain things. That rule though was usually reserved for those outside of that side of the world completely though. Not for those within families that were soon going to be joining together.

Lena wasn't going to bother brining that up to him though, she already knew that he wasn't going to change his mind on whatever it was he was holding out on saying unless she used less than savory means to get the information from him, but that wasn't really an option at the current moment in time. She wasn't looking to start a war between families.

Instead of standing there and continuing to be annoyed by the situation since the decision had already been made, she decided to head the kitchen as she was certain that Ryan would already be up and she could get some coffee since she wasn't in much of a mood to eat anything and wasn't intending to eat breakfast with everything that needed to be put into place before Samuel left.

"Didn't your father say though that you're supposed to be avoiding anything that could mess with your sleep schedule until you got it sorted out?" Was the first question that Ryan had asked when she came into the kitchen requesting coffee. 

"He did, but it isn't likely that my sleep schedule will be returning to the way it used to be any time soon and with everything that's taking place, it would be better this morning for me to have some coffee." The princess replied as she leaned back against one of the counters in the corner as she watched him getting everything ready for breakfast. 

"It isn't likely that he would find out about it anyways since I don't plan on living the kitchen until I'm finished with it." she added on in an attempt to persuade him further that it would be perfectly fine for him to do it without worrying about whether or not he would get in trouble for giving her want she wanted.

"First sweets when they shouldn't be served before dinner and now coffee when you're supposed to be resting and taking care of yourself." Ryan said with a sigh shaking his head. 

"What exactly has been going on recently?" He asked, going over to her the requested coffee even though he still didn't think that it was the best idea. Lena would've done it herself, Ryan was very particular about his kitchen though and didn't like people mess with his organization. 

"A lot of things that are annoying." The princess replied as she closed her eyes. She was tired almost to the point of being exhausted at this point. The problem was however that she couldn't sleep even when she wanted. Part of that was Samuel's fault last night. Whatever he did to her she wasn't certain how to process it. The other part was her mind couldn't shut down and she felt that if she were to sleep too much, she'd end up having nightmares again. 

"Want to try and talk with me about some of them?" the chef asked as he poured the cream and sugar and stirred the coffee. 

"Perhaps at a latter point in time." She replied as she took the cup of coffee he handed her. 

"Something to do with the annoying guest we have over currently. I would interested in what you think about him." She said before she took a sip of the coffee. She greatly appreciated the warmth. 

"which one? You've had a couple over recently." He pointed out with a laugh.

"The one that has been hanging around Sammy-boy." She clarified.

"Hmm, I don't think he's a bad person. Difficult and maybe overly clever, but unlike that other one you uninvited over, he's more straight forward and less sneaky." He replied as he began to heat a skillet and went back to chopping potatoes.

"Is there some kind of problem with him?" He then asked. 

"A number of problems with him, but I can't argue with your assessment." Lena replied as she watched what he was doing.

"He's apparently Samuel's family and due to some important matters, he'll be leaving with Jovani for three days." She explained.

"And you're worried because you don't know him." Ryan surmised and the princess nodded hear head in response to this.

"If he's family, I wouldn't worry too much if they get along. Three days is a bit of time but it's not like you won't know where they are or what's going on." He told as he poured some oil into the skillet. Lena made a 'hm' sound in response to what he said. It was along the lines of what everyone had been saying though she didn't like it anymore.

There was something else though that Ryan had said that caught her attention that she wanted to know more about.