The Royal Deal

Chapter 238

Chapter 238

If I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have killed Celios so quickly, Alexcent thought. He was regretting everything he had done and the memories of Belice’s words made the situation even worse.

“Hey! 24885!” He heard someone calling him, so he quickly stood and brushed off the grass from his pants. He approached the overseer who was shouting his number. “The carriage is arriving soon. Go help them organize the supplies.”

Alexcent nodded. His hands could hardly grasp anything because of the pain, but if he didn’t want to get hit again, he needed to do this work, and quickly. The pain was intense, and he limped through most of it, but he was able to get the job done. As he sat on one of the crates to await the carriage, he heard the faint conversation of the maids at the lake.

“Carol! If you’re finished with the washing, hurry up and put it out to dry! We have to finish drying it while the sun is high!”

“All right, I’ll hang it right away.” The voice must have belonged to Carol, but it was a voice he knew all to well. He froze. His heart began thumping wildly and his head started feeling fuzzy.

Without thinking of the consequences, his legs automatically started walking towards the source of that precious voice. By the lake, where clothes flapped in the cool breeze, he could just make out the woman known as Carol. The red-tinged blonde hair sparkled in the sunlight as she hung laundry on the line.

He stood silently, watching the woman before him as her hair blew in the breeze like the clothes she hung. He was certain it was her, at least he hoped that it was, but he couldn’t be certain until he saw her face. If she only turned around. And what if she did? And what if it was her? What would he do? His emotions swirled with a chaotic mixture of embarrassment, anticipation, rage, and fear. He needed to know for certain.

Alexcent walked up behind her and took hold of her wrist. The woman turned around in fright, and that was when he knew. The wide eyes that stared at him in shock were the beautiful, green eyes that haunted his dreams.

***

Amethyst didn’t know how to react to the strange man that grabbed her wrist. She had never seen this man before, but he stared at her as if he knew her. His grey eyes, glistening as if he was about to start crying, seemed familiar in the back of her mind. Then she noticed the bruises and cuts that covered the rest of his face and body.

“Are you all right?” she asked the stranger.

The man seemed unable to answer and just stood, staring at her with her arm in his hand. He had bit his lip, which was trickling blood, but the man seemed unaware of this.

“You’re bleeding,” Amethyst said gently. She took back her arm from his grasp and produced a handkerchief from her apron which she lifted to wipe away the blood. The man flinched slightly but didn’t resist. He just stood, silently watching her as she cleaned off his face.

As she finished, another man approached and grabbed him from behind, turning him around. “Are you crazy! Who said you could play around with the maids?” the new man yelled. He then twisted the ashen-haired man’s arm and threw him to the ground.

“Are you ok?” Amethyst exclaimed, as she went to try and help the ashen-haired man up, but the angry man stopped her.

“Stay out of my way!” the angry man snarled at her.

“But he’s hurt!” Amethyst pleaded.

“So? What do you want to do about it?” the angry man asked in a threatening manner.

“We should treat him,” Amethyst suggested.

The man laughed in amusement. “Do you know who this bastard is?”

“No.”

“He’s a slave!”

A slave? He must be the person that Pauline had been talking about. The ash-coloured hair was as she described. And though his eyes were swollen, she could see the ashen colour in them as well.

“So? What if he’s a slave? It’s not right to hit anyone like that!”

“I haven’t seen you around before,” the angry man said, “but know this. Slaves come from fallen families, but that wouldn’t stop the masters from making you one as well. Get lost, before you have the bad luck of becoming one.”

The rest of the maids, as well as some workers, gathered at the commotion. No one seemed to want to stand up for the injured man.

“Even if he is a slave, he’s still a human being. He doesn’t deserve this!” Amethyst would not back down from this bully.

“What’s going on here?” The head maid had arrived, obviously having been informed of the tensions that were brewing. She pushed her way through the growing crowd to confront Amethyst and the angry man.

“Just a misunderstanding.” The angry man had restrained his aggressive nature and spoke to the head maid with respect.