Dust Of Lust

Chapter.10*The Ugly Truth*

I was dragged to bow before Madame Noela by Konrad. Not only Madame Noela, but almost everybody was present here for the show. My eyes vaguely watched my mother’s face, who looked mortified at the thought of what they were going to do to me.

I steeled my body amid Madame Noela walking towards me, things were gonna go down for me now.

"Your filthy mouth couldn't hold it back till the party was over?" Madame Noela grabbed my hair and pushed me down on the floor until my forehead was pinned down. I got a glimpse of my mother eyeing me to not protest just before my vision was blocked by my face being planted against the floor.

I endured the ignominy just because my mother wanted me to. She had served them for longer than I had, so she knew them well than me. If I messed up, my whole family will pay the price for my stupidity.

"But that's not something one can control mother." Princess Flora, who I have heard several bad things about, mumbled. Her voice was very soft and calming, the snarky aspect in her voice made it even beautiful at that time.

"You shut up, what do you know about them?” Madame Noela groaned at her daughter, which made her lose her grasp over my hair and let me free for a moment. I didn’t get all the way up as that would piss her even more. I was able to get a glimpse of Princess Flora, who sounded offended by her mother’s scolding.

“This filth did it on purpose,” just when I thought Madame Noela would be only verbally abusing me, she slapped my head very brutally.

"I bet she was drunk." Prince Luke approached Madame Noela to stand by his mother, rubbing his palms while his eyes scanned me nastily. They had me surrounded while I sat on my knees. Whenever I lifted my face, my eyes met with my mother’s eyes, who had so much pain for me. I felt bad, no mother would want to see her daughter getting humiliated when she is not even feeling well.

"How can she be drunk?" Madame Noela questioned, putting her hands on her hips.

"I saw her standing with Warrick, holding the bottle of beer." He totally exaggerated it, he saw Warrick doing his laces but he changed the story to spice it up. "I bet he drank from the same bottle afterward." he pretended to feel disgusted, followed by the same act from his mother. So they were okay to put their mouth, their tongues in our mouths, but drinking from the same bottle disgusted them?

As much as I wanted to lash out at them for the unfair treatment we villagers had been suffering from them, I stayed silent.

"That boy is going to get us all sick one day." Madame Noela didn't make any sense, she was the one who showcased me to Lady Grace without having no fear of her getting sick because I have a disease of poverty.

The faces they were making me so uncomfortable that I found myself compelled to react to that.

"I didn't drink with him, he----" I felt a harsh slap on my cheeks as Madame Noela hit me, and the rest of the words stayed in my mouth.

"You didn't teach her to not open her shitty mouth in front of us?" Madame Noela shouted at my mother, who was already pretty scared and looking my way with sadness in her eyes. It was my first month working with them and I was already doomed.

"Forgive her, she will behave from now onwards." My mother stuttered and rubbed her hands nervously.

"Take her away and make sure she doesn't repeat her mistakes again." Prince Luke yelled at my mother from afar. With a hesitant nod to her head, she grasped my hand and pulled me along.

"Tell me if I haven't told you to behave." My mother kept giving jerks to my arm as we briskly walked out of the mansion to our village.

"I was sick, how is it my fault?" I argued, shrugging my arm free from her grip and stomping my foot on the ground.

"Lower your tone we are still near their premises," she eyed me and frowned.

"So what? Let them hear it. It's not like I'm lying." I was stubbornly ignorant of what they were capable of. I haven't even finished stating my views that my mother slapped my cheek. Ugh! The pain of getting slapped twice is awful, my cheek felt a burning sensation.

“Are you coming or do you plan on getting us in trouble again?” she glared through her narrowed eyes and waited for my response. I had to bob my head and follow her, even when I was desperately craving someone to ask me if I was doing fine.

We went back to our huts and honestly, nobody cared that I was sick the whole day. We had the leftovers and after that Kanika and I sat outside the huts with the lanterns.

"It must burn." She sadly watched my cheek and lowered her face.

“It's fine. It's my self-esteem that is hurt." I replied with honesty. We were stronger than those rich people, we can tolerate way more pain than them. "I had encountered Prince Warrick in the carnival." I wrapped my arms around my knees and watched Kanika staring at my face.

"Did all that happen because of him?" She questioned. I don’t know why she would always ask me if Prince Warrick did something or not as whenever I had an encounter with him, I know it was mysterious but I never felt threatened. Why? Had he not shown his true colors to me or what?

"No! He never offered me the drink, which is what they were complaining about." I replied, "tell me how their other daughter died?" I was curious about her the whole day. There were frames and pictures of her everywhere and she was really very pretty.

"Princess Marion?" She shook her head, "What happened to her was awful." She said in whispers. This was the first time a worker had so much pain in their tone for a Royal.

"How did she die?" I repeated, my eyes were stuck on her face. I knew whatever happened must be horrible enough that she had to take a pause to respond.

“Her mother happened!” she whispered into her mouth and quickly lowered her eyes and face. Her one simple phrase shook the world from under my feet.