Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions
Chapter 161 - Staying Over

Lena found herself spending a lot of the day with Jovani and Samuel even though she didn't want to be around the former much. Her father was still refusing to let her work for the rest of the week and because Samuel was still worried about her- wherever she was, that was where her fiancé wanted to be.

She wouldn't have minded if it wasn't for the fact that his cousin happened to want to spend time with him as well. It was odd to her how intent and interested he was in getting to know the other even though they had hardly met. Did it have something to do with the fact that he didn't get along well with the rest of his family?

That didn't quite make sense to the princess though seeing as Evalyn was there that day too and Jovani didn't seem to share the same level of interest in catching up with her. Sure they had talked for a while, but only while Samuel was there and once he had discussed some things with his mother and came to understand more about the Vedova Nera based upon what she remembered, he went back to being around the princess.

Lena opted for sitting outside on the second floor terrace. If she had been in better condition she would've gone for a ride, but Clarice had advised against her doing too much physical activity until after her injuries had healed. She would have chosen to ignore what the other had said if it wasn't for the fact that her father had happened to overhear it as well.

Thus, she was stuck with either reading or staring up at the sun and hoping it didn't make her go blind. Reading only worked temporarily for her however as trying to focus made her head hurt plus the chatter of conversation from Jovani and Samuel that was going on near her made it hard to focus.

Watching them interact it was oddly easy to tell that they were somehow related. Samuel certainly didn't carry the same dangerous aura about him the way that Jovani did despite his calm exterior demeanor. They were both however very expressive and got excited about small things that she couldn't quite understand. Perhaps that was just because she had become disenchanted about life at an early age and learned to not care much about small trivial or physical things. Very few items carried sentimental value to her. Most of which were ones that either her mother and father had gotten her or the few odd things her brother had brought back from England for her that he picked up because he thought she would like them.

"No pocket knives." The princess interjected as she set down the open book so that it was laying on her upper chest as she glared over at Jovani for his suggestion. He already had the knife out however to show Samuel, both heads turned to look at her at the same time with the appearance of children who thought they were about to get into trouble.

"Shouldn't it be safe for him to look at it? The blade isn't even out?" Jovani asked as he looked at the princess.

"It's not like he can actually hurt himself on it, I mostly just wanted to show him the symbol that has been engraved on the handle." He defended as he showed her the knife.

"A pocket knife can't be much worse than handle a gun, can it?" Samuel agreed as he looked over at the princess to wait and see what she would say.

"I doubt you've ever handled one before and it can be too easy to cut yourself if you're not careful even if the blade isn't drawn. You can show him but don't be careless." Lena replied as she kept an eye on what they were doing.

Pocket knives weren't more dangerous than guns, but it was certainly easier to cut one's self on them depending on how they worked. She never kept one on her simply because she felt that it was more trouble than it was worth to take the extra steps to pull it out and use it compared to a gun or fists.

"Is that the family emblem?" Samuel asked in awe as the looked at the carefully carved glossy looking black widow that adorned the case of the pocket knife that Jovani was showing him.

"It is. It's the one that has been passed down for years through the generations. There are two of them, usually one given to the head of the family and the other belongs to the one who will be his successor as sort of a bond." Jovani explained, tilting the case of the knife just that the light shone out of it and revealed that the red was mark was in fact a small ruby that had been encrusted into the design.

"Does that mean that you'll end up being the successor?" Lena asked looking up from the knife to see Jovani's reaction to this question. A small smirk twitched at the corner of his face in response to this question.

"That might be the case. Honestly though with everything that has been going on with the family recently, I don't think that the head of the family has chosen yet who will be taking over once he retires."

"Because of what has been going on between you and Marcus you mean?" Samuel clarified curious to know what his cousin meant by this. Jovani tilted his hand slightly as though to indicate a so-so answer.

"Partly that, but other matters as well. As I explained before it hasn't just been my cousin who has been causing problems within the family. There was his father before that." He replied, setting the knife down on his lap.

"Not just that though. Other tragedies have struck within the family as well that have kind of caused things to go off-kilter and created a problem with how to move forward. Much of the main family for one reason or other has died over the years causing the line of potential succession to get smaller and smaller." Jovani stopped after he said this though, glancing over at Lena with a smile she didn't understand before turning back to Samuel.

"But that's something we can talk about later.. Probably not best to have such stuffy conversations today before any decision is made about whether or not you'll be coming back with me." Lena narrowed her eyes at him when he said this, what exactly was he trying to hide from her?

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