Secrets of the Villainous Empress

Chapter Forty-Three: Who Answers Prayers?

Imperial Palace

Okay, so perhaps today was the worst day to steal apples from the banquet room to feed the Empress’s favourite foal. However, is there really a day to steal apples? Katelyn thought, her body pressed out of sight from the arguing couple outside.

-s**t!-

Going to town with Bridgette and the other ‘off’ maids who had worked yesterday now felt like a good idea than bearing secrets that could possibly lead to her early death.

 The man was Leeroy, of that she was certain. Not because the woman chanted his name as though it were a spell. But because a particular devil in her core always reacted to the deepness of his voice.

Yes, a devil, because since his arrival three months ago, even before her engagement had broken, he had always done strange things to her. His presence, albeit secretly, did more for her than Julio’s kisses.

Leeroy was sexy, quiet and aloof, the perfect type for wallflowers like she to daydream of, mainly because the gorgeous maids had all professed their love to him and had all been rejected. It was his unreachability that added to his charm. That caused her to regard him as a safe object of fantasy because if he had rejected literal goddesses, why would he ever look twice at her?

She knew her stand with him, so she would ensure he remained solely in her mind, like the terribly sexy actor Florencio Serrano who has never dated publicly since his career peeked. The fact that he kept women at bay earned him even more admirers, including her, because he was safe.

Until she died or found the courage to replace Julio, he would always be there for her, even in poster form, cheering her on in more ways than he would be comfortable knowing.

And perhaps leading her to prod into her newly discovered trust and commitment issues.

Of course, now that Leeroy was canoodling with a noble, from the call ‘My lady’, she realized that he was so far off her reach that it was best to end her childish fantasies and remove him from her safe list. Perhaps maybe even reserve it for the rich and famous.

Could the rumours that he was supposed to be the Empress’s s*x slave be true? She wondered, now that it had been clarified that he, a slave, knew those in high places.

It did make a little sense, she reasoned, especially as he was the only slave to have been promoted from the Abandoned Fleurian palace near the Akonian border to the main court.

“I am so so so so sorry! I am terribly sorry, Leeroy, you have every right to hate me.” the feminine voice said.

“My lady, if there is nothing else, there are tasks that beg my attention,” Leeroy responded.

“If you could just stop! Stop shutting me out, and let me explain myself.”

“Then explain what you feel you need to explain, my lady. You are free to do so, as you had so clearly stated only mere moments ago, you own the entire world.”

“I did not mean it in this context.”

“and yet it fits wonderfully so!”

“Okay, perhaps my initial comment was spoken out of a headrush, but, Leeroy, for what I did, I can not forgive myself.”

“That is unfortunate, my lady. However, you do not, at least to me, resemble one who has had trouble sleeping? Perhaps we praise the quality mattress?” Leeroy replied.

“I was young and ridiculously terrified of the duke-,”

“Oh? So no different from now?”

-Yikes!-

The hay next to Katelyn was beginning to tease her nostrils.

“Could you just stop putting me-!!” the voice stopped, “Just give me a chance to clear the-”

“No, no, no..no.” Leroy paused, then seconds later continued, “No, no, no.”

Katelyn did not even have to see him to know that each ‘no’ he uttered was couped with a furious shaking of his head, as though his entire body rejected the idea of granting her a few moments.

His courtesy also shifted the more they spoke, his aloof façade slowly crumbling.

“Look, I am-,”

“ ‘Sorry’ or ‘scared’ or ‘alone’ or ‘insecure’ or ‘in pain’ or, or, or, or….” Leeroy interrupted, “there is always something that you are. Not when you stole my project and produced it as your own, or when you accused me of claiming your innocence to your father.”

“If you would only-,”

“I am a slave now, my ladyship! I cannot own anything, including dignity, so what more is there for you to take??”

“I don’t want to take any more from you, I…I just need you to understand!!”

“To understand what? What?? What Virginia??” he paused, “What?”

There was a tense silence that surrounded the area before Leeroy repeated his question.

“What am I to understand that I have not already?”

“Y-you said..you said my name...?”

Again, a pause before a soft chuckle that sent shivers up Katelyn emanated from Leeroy.

“Gods…I detest you.” Leeroy replied.

“Leeroy, surely you-,”

A sneeze escaped Katelyn's throat before the woman had completed her sentence, making all warmth seep from her face.

-F^@&)@*-

The silence was palpable, f**k palpable, it was asphyxiating.

Her hand gripped her mouth tighter as though any further attempt at silence would prove rewarding.

Katelyn’s eyes immediately darted to the loose wooden plank beside her as she tried to approximate whether, if she were to crawl, she could fit in the space.

“Do you...is there someone in there?” the woman called.

The heels clicking on the paved path that led to the stables sounded.

“Is there someone eavesdropping on a private conversation?” The female voice asked once again, “reveal yourself before I send for the auctioning off of your entire family!”

-#@$#$^%&!!-

Oh, gods, if ever she was to awaken the invisibility ability in her life, this would be the time.

“My ladyship-,” Leroy began, but for some reason, he stopped halfway.

Katelyn’s heartbeat grew shriller and more agonizing.

Her hand’s grip on her mouth tightened, and rather than focusing on the comforts of her life’s retelling in her subconscious; she began whispering a prayer to the gods that she had long denounced.  

“Oh, merciful gods watching above the land. Save this pitifully ignorant girl from this self brought end. I shall give ten per cent tithe that I have not been providing because…because of reasons...okay? It is partly your fault. What use do the gods have in collecting my salary? I need it more than-,”

“Curse! no, I mean, I shall volunteer my services to the temple during the fire festival, should you prove merciful to-,”

“Oh gods!” the feminine voice, almost at her location, cried.

 In a stunning turn of events, the footsteps receded from her spot.

“What?” Leeroy asked, sounding a little winded as though he, too, had been holding his breath on the grand reveal.

-Et tu? Sexy gardner, et tu?-

Still, Katelyn marvelled, the gods had answered her parers

“My knight! I have lost my connection to my knight. I fear that he has been killed?!” she responded to Leeroy’s question.

-…Hmm…-

“I- I should go, but Leeroy, I shall come to see you again. Please give me a chance to explain myself properly!” She announced, her voice sounding more distant with every word.

-I...I probably didn’t kill the knight with my prayer…-