A Spoonful of Sugar: Don't Beg for Love

At that moment...

Rickard sneezed.

"You were caught in the rain yesterday. Do you have a cold?" The help, Mrs. Potter, walked over and handed a cup of tea to him. "Ms. Rivera would probably laugh at you for catching a cold because of some flowers."

Rickard looked at the roses that Hesper put in a vase on the balcony. Roses sold that way rarely survive for long, but Hesper would stare at them every day in the garden.

Rickard stood on the balcony and watched her. He didn't know what was on her mind but could tell that Hesper was happy.

Rickard scaled the wall in the storm to bring the flowers home. Even he didn't believe that he did that.

He drank the tea in silence, then put the cup down and said, "Did you have any updates about what I told you to do? Did you notice any suspicious people in the area?"

"No, there's really good security in the area. I've checked. When Ms. Rivera moved over, there was a threatening package but nothing else happened after that."

Rickard nodded. His eyes turned dark and sharp like a sword.

The biggest reason he chose to stay near Hesper was because of this hidden danger. Hesper was once kidnapped by those people, so before Rickard started an investigation, he already knew why she chose to stay there.

He had to find out who were the people hurting Hesper before he could leave in peace.

Rickard stood up and gave Benji a call.

***

Hesper soon forgot about what happened in the afternoon, but she had a feeling that Rickard hadn't returned to Halwanest, so Renfrew came to her mind.

"Mommy!"

Hesper would usually only call him during the weekend, so Renfrew was minding his own business. When he answered the call, he was wearing his blue light-filtering glasses that he wore when he studied. Hesper felt guilty, but trying to find out where Rickard was from Renfrew shouldn't be an issue, so she cleared her throat and said, "Is Daddy home?"

Renfrew adjusted his glasses and then shook his head. "He's not."

Hesper was stunned. She knew it!

"Daddy should still be working at this hour. Why do you ask?" Renfrew beamed.

Hesper coughed twice. "So he's in Halwanest and in his office. Is he not... at Fredonia?"

"Yes. I can get him to call you when he's back."

"No, it's fine." Hesper rejected. "Am I interrupting something?"

Renfrew shook his head and smiled. "You will never be interrupting something, Mommy. I miss you a lot. I hope you can be by my side soon..."

She could tell that Hesper wished that she would go back soon but wasn't rushing her. Hesper lowered her head and held back her tears, then nodded. "I promise that I'll be back soon."