Sold for 30 Days

Chapter : 14. Bumping with the prince..

Flora’s point of view :-

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With shaky body and high fever, I finally managed to get out of the bed. I don’t to get punished again, that’s why even after having a fever, I bathed myself and changed my clothes into nice one. Thankfully, after taking a warm bath my temperature went down a little, and I got back the strength to move around without help. But my eyesight is still a bit blurry but I don’t think it will create a problem to walk in the same place at the training. Once I was ready, I went to the ballroom on time. Surprisingly, I was early before Valerie and had to wait for her for a few minutes.

“That’s a relief to see you here in time, all prepared. See what one day’s punishment can do? I guess you won your today’s meal finally. But that’s not a promise, until you do today’s task carefully. What do you say?” She said to me as soon as she entered the room.

“Yes, madam. I will try my best.” I said to make sure she doesn’t change her mind again. I desperately need some food in my stomach to heal and work properly. Or else I will die sooner than my expiration date.

“So, we are going to change the training today. You have trained enough walking. Now it’s time to learn to present yourself properly. Show me how you respect a royalty. Come from the gate.” She pointed me to the main door of the ballroom, and I walked all the way back. Reaching to the gate, I turned around and walked towards Valerie gracefully and bowed down with poise.

“Hmm… That was okay. Try joining your hands in front to look more cultured. Go and try again.” I again walked back to my place and did as she instructed. This time by her nod, I understood that she was really impressed.

“That was good. But needs a bit more polishing. Try balancing this book on your head, and make sure it dosen’t fall when you bow.” Saying this, she pulled out a book from the couch, which she used to read while making me trained, and placed it in my head to balance. Here we go. I knew she would try to make this simple thing harder, so that she can’t find a reason to punish me. I don’t know what problems she has with me, that she is trying her best to make me insane.

There's no escape from getting punishments now. So it's better if I get into work and finish it as soon as possible. With this thought, I went back to my previous position, put the book on my head, and start walking. Walking without holding the book is making it shake it in my head. So I tried my best to keep it steady. Finally reaching near Valerie, I bowed down slowly. But no matter how slow I do it, the book fell off my head immediately.

“Do it again and try to keep your head steady.”

She orders me again, and I again went to my work. But unfortunetly, this time also the book fell down. I had to repeat it six times before Valerie lost her temper and got up from the couch she was sitting on. Her book is too heavy to keep balance on so it was falling down repeatedly. As a result, when I was focused on the material of my head, a hit of her cane fell on my leg. I screamed out in pain and fell down on the floor while holding my bruised place. Tear came out of my eyes due to the pain of the impact.

“Get up his instance. Do it properly or more of this is coming in your way. Get up.”

I pushed myself up off the ground to save myself from Valerie’s wrath. But when I tried to walk, the pain made me limp in my way. Putting the book on my head again, I started walking. But the pin on my leg isn’t helping me at all to walk properly. As a result, the book was shaking like a leaf in my head, and I had to hold it with my hand once to keep it in place. And as expected, another hit came in the same place as the previous bruise on my leg. I broke down crying and couldn’t understand how to impress her. My body is already too weak to handle this much pressure and on top of it, her hits are making me unable to walk anymore. I started cursing my fate for falling into such an evil woman’s hand, who is not leaving any chance to torture me. Why me? Why do I have to be the one to bare all of this? It was not my choice to be born into a poor peasant family. It was not my choice to be chosen as a slave. And it was definitely not my choice to be sold for some gold coins.

When I was cursing my own fate, I didn’t notice that my delay to obey Valeries order, is making her more angry. And when I understood it, it was already too late. Not one, but three hits fell on my back, making me lay down on my place because I lost all of my strength at that moment. I don’t know what happened next, because my eyes have turned all dark and my senses gone. I have gotten unconscious from not only because of a weak body, but also from the pain my body is having at this moment.

When I woke up, I found a maid sitting beside me and sprinkling some water on my face. Valerie must have called her, when she found me laying unconscious on the ground. But she has no regret of how much pain she was causing me. And the moment she found me awake, she started screaming at me again.

“There is no place for a weak girl like you in this palace. But I have no choice except of training an imbecile like you. If I had the power, I probably had driven you out of this palace on the very first day. If you want to eat food today, then get up right now and do it perfectly.”

Hearing her harsh words, I again tried to pick myself up and do as she told. But it is too hard for me to carry a heavy book on my head when I’m walking with shaky legs. Half of the day passed by like that. I also got two or three more hits on my leg because I still couldn’t mange to walk and bow properly.

“It’s already lunchtime. If you don’t do this properly this last time, then you are not getting any food now. Think what you want to do now.”

Hearing her words, I got scared. I can’t afford to starve one more day. I have to do this as she wants. This is my ultimate chance. With this thought, I gathered all the strength I have left in me and started walking after taking a deep, long breath. With a steady leg and trust in myself, I walked near Valerie and bowed down perfectly. Thankfully, it was steady enough to not let the book fall. I did it. I finally did it. With a joy in my heart, I stood up and looked at her. By the look on her face, I could tell that, although she is not impressed, but she also couldn’t find any fault in it.

“Hmm.. That will work for now. You can go and eat your lunch. After it we will continue this training with an introduction.” She said to me and left me alone in the ballroom.

Once she was gone, I took another long breath of relaxation. Now I can finally eat something after starving for four days. I really earned this first meal of this palace. Thinking this, I got out of the ballroom. The moment I was out of the room, I remembered that I don’t know where is the dinning room for maids. It’s been almost three days I’m living in this palace, and still I don’t know anything about the palace except of the way to main gate to the ballroom, ballroom to the maids’ chamber, and the way of the garden from the ballroom. What am I going to do now? NO... No matter how much I have to, I will find my path to the kitchen. Probably from there I can find out about the place where maids eat.

With this determination, I went out in search of the kitchen. I was looking here and there, turned every corner, took all the hallways, checked all rooms, but couldn’t find the one I’m looking for. But while in this process, my body is getting weaker and weaker with each step. Now I’m at the very last of my remaining strength. My vision is now all blurry and I couldn’t find out where I’m going. I’m just walking where my feet are taking me blindly. Until I finally bumped into someone while turning a corner and lost my balance. Thankfully, this person caught hold of me before I can fall down and I rest my head on his chest a bit to relax.

“Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to…”

I picked my head up to apologize to the person for bumping into him carelessly. Although I wasn’t strong enough to pick my head up and look into that tall mans face, But still it was not proper for a woman to bump and cling into a man’s body and don’t apologize about it. But the moment I looked into his face, Panic filled my whole heart. It was none other than the prince Albert himself. Valerie is definitely going to kill me if she finds out that I was resting inside the prince's arms out in the public. The lesson of him being my master and me being his slave, came into my mind and I pushed myself out of his body.

“I’m so sorry, master. Please forgive me. I made a huge mistake by not seeing the place I was going into. Please forgive my mistake.”

I kept begging for his forgiveness in fear of getting more harsh punishment than what I already got. I am even more scared to think that, he is going to scream at me for being so careless. Bumping with the prince or the king can bring a death punishment for some slaves in other kingdoms. I am scared to think that he would also give me the same death sentence as other royals. But nothing like that happened as I was thinking. Istead he is the one who started apologizing. I wanted to look at his face badly to see if he is being genuine or not, but couldn’t dare to because my luck is not with me today. It’s best if I go safely.

“As you wish, master.” I told him with one more bow to make him forget my mistake. But his words kept making me more and more shocked.

“And, can you please stop calling me master? It feels weird. You are not my pet for which you have to call me that.” What? What does he want from me now? Does he want me to get into more trouble? Is he doing this purposely? But no matter what he says, I’m not disobeying the rules and getting beaten again. So, I told him what I have learned on the very first day here. And I also made it clear to him that I have no intensions to break the rules of this palace.

“Did Valerie tell you to do that? It must be her. You don’t have to follow all of her orders. She’s just a trainer, and I’m your prince. Who do you think you should listen to?”

With these words, he made me fell in a deeper thought. Now what am I going to do? I can’t disobey the prince’s order. Neither can I break Valerie’s one. If I don’t listen to the prince, she would punish me. And if I don’t follow with her very first rule, she would punish me even more. What would be the right choice to do now?