Married to The Ice King: Pampered Princess' Survival Guide

"Mr. Kingsley…" Daisy stopped.

Their movement abruptly halted when they barely took a step into the marble-tiled foyer.

"What?" Theo asked.

Definitely different. The expression, the vibe. Subtle, but noticeable. That was the word she was looking for. Subtle.

There was something different about the way he looked at her now, maybe less cold and a bit softer?

The kind of change you only saw when someone was trying to appear a certain way. 

And that made it feel even colder somehow.

"I'm not comfortable…" she finally said, gently tugging her hand free from his.

Theo raised his eyebrows.

"I mean…" She lifted the hand he'd been holding. "You're holding the one that's still recovering."

"Ah…" Theo nodded slightly, like he was only now remembering. Without missing a beat, he shifted to her other side. "This side then."

"No—" Daisy pulled her other hand back just as quickly. "I don't think we have agreed on this and we don't need to hold hands to prove we're a couple."

She blinked, realizing what she'd just said.

"I mean… contractually married people don't usually—"

"Daisy! Daisy, right?"

A woman's excited voice cut through the hallway like a beam of sunlight, making Daisy's words tangle into a stop.

She turned.

An elegant woman was already approaching with graceful urgency, her designer heels barely making a sound on the floor. Her smile was warm. Her arms slightly spread, as if she might go in for a hug at any moment. The soft pearls around her neck gleamed under the lights.

Daisy blinked fast. It was the same woman from the office.

Theo's mother.

"You're even prettier up close," she said, stopping just in front of Daisy and reaching to gently cup her hands. "And you look much less… startled than the time I saw you at the office."

"I—um," Daisy started, casting a quick glance at Theo, who remained still beside her, face as unreadable as ever, though his posture subtly shifted, shoulders slightly tense.

The woman's smile widened, her eyes narrowing just a fraction as if she sensed the tension like a dog sniffing out secrets. "Oh, I'm sorry, darling. I didn't mean to interrupt anything important."

Her tone suggested the opposite.

Then, she paused mid-step. "Oh wait…" Her eyes caught the bandaged hand Daisy had tried to keep low. "What happened?"

Before Daisy could lower it, the woman reached gently and lifted it closer, frowning at the sight. "Did you hurt her?"

Theo said nothing, but Daisy could practically feel the weight of his silence pressing down like fog.

"Ah—no, no!" Daisy quickly shook her head, waving her unbandaged hand in frantic denial. "I fell. Down the stairs. Just a little slip, that's all."

The woman's brows remained furrowed, eyes flicking between the two of them. "Hmm."

Daisy forced a bright smile. "It's really nothing. I'm clumsy sometimes."

"Well," she said at last, looping her arm with Daisy's again, "you'll have to be more careful, sweetheart. I'd hate for you to get hurt again, those stairs at Theo's house can be tricky."

"Huh?" Daisy blinked. "How do you know—"

"Oh…" She smiled, eyes twinkling with far too much innocence. "I may have heard something about a maid getting fired the other day. So I guessed it had something to do with this?"

Theo sighed, clearly not surprised. He glanced at his mother, his voice flat. "Did you plant someone inside my house again?"

He wasn't really asking. Just saying it out loud, like reciting something that happened all the time. Of course he knew and the person would only report what was supposed to be reported anyway.

His mother smiled, utterly unbothered. "I wouldn't call it planting, darling. I prefer the term keeping an eye out. For your own good, of course." She then looked at Daisy, "Let's go, everyone is waiting."

Theo gave a slow blink, the kind that said he'd long accepted this as a permanent feature of his life.

Daisy, meanwhile, was still trying to process the fact that this woman, warm and chatty and nothing like she imagined, was his mother. She looked nothing like the cold, imposing figure she'd expected. If anything, she felt hugged by her presence, even if they were just walking arm-in-arm.

"Well," Theo's mother chirped again, glancing at Daisy with a twinkle in her eyes, "even though you'll be calling me Mom soon, I suppose I should still introduce myself properly."

She extended her hand with the kind of grace that came naturally to people born into power.

"I'm Evelyn Kingsley," she said with a warm smile, "and I've been dying to meet the girl who finally managed to shake my son's marble heart."

"Oh," Daisy returned the smile, quickly raising her hand for a handshake, "Daisy Sinclair."

Their hands met.

"Daisy Sinclair," Evelyn repeated, as if tasting the name. "Lovely. Strong."

Then she leaned in slightly, her voice dropping to a playful whisper.

"Now be honest with me… is he treating you well? Blink twice if you need help."

Daisy blinked once. Then, a little slower, again.

"I—uh…"

Theo cleared his throat behind them.

Evelyn's laughter was soft, amused. "Relax, darling. I'm only teasing." She turned to Theo with a knowing look. "Mostly."

As they reached the entryway, she paused and slipped off her shoes in one practiced movement. "Shoes off from here, dear. House rule. Richard's a stickler about that."

Without missing a beat, Daisy stepped out of her heels with practiced grace. "Right! Of course. Got it."

Theo had already stepped out of his shoes in silence, barely casting her a glance.

While Daisy bent down, a maid appeared almost out of nowhere, already holding a pair of pristine house sandals on a velvet tray.

"Mrs. Kingsley," the maid addressed her with a small bow, though it was clear she meant Daisy now.

Daisy raised a brow, the corner of her lips twitching. "Thank you… but…" she leaned closer to the maid, "I'm not Mrs. Kingsley."

The maid tilted her head slightly in confusion. "But…"

Daisy, at that moment, looked at the maid and smiled with her eyes, slipping into the soft, luxurious sandals as if she'd been doing this her entire life because, frankly, she had.

But now, it was different.

Just as she adjusted the strap, a voice rang out from the hallway.

"Whoa… is that our savior?"

She turned, startled only to come face to face with a man who looked like Theo's younger clone, but with 200% more mischief in his eyes.

Hands in his pockets, grin stretching ear to ear, he tilted his head and added, "So… are you the Barbie doll who's supposed to save this house from turning into a glacier?"