Dust Of Lust

Chapter.14*At Your Feet.*

I approached my hut, following my sister, and spotted Kanika perched with the lantern. I hurried my pace to greet her, but her face was the first thing that I noticed, she was all bruised up.

My heart missed a beat instantly the moment I saw her bruises.

"What happened?" I didn't feel the pain when I was being slapped, but I did feel something when I saw my friend crying and wounded.

"Don't be late," Kelly whispered in my ear before heading inside the hut. I didn’t like that Kelly didn’t even want to make sure if Kanika was okay. DeShawn eyed me while going inside. I had to roll my eyes at my siblings, they were too scared of these Royals, but then again, can I blame them?

"That's pretty normal for us." Her lip was swollen, black eye visible, and tears pouring down her cheeks, but she made sure she smiled at me to make me not feel bad with her.

"Who did that and why?" I lifted her face by placing my finger down her chin and scanned her face.

"Prince Luke thought I had stolen a piece of jewelry from him." She mumbled in her mouth and sobbed. Wait! I remember that jewelry issue, I bet it was the same thing that he had stolen from Princess Flora, who took it back from him.

"But that was Flora, who took it back," I mentioned, Kanika knew that too.

"Too late for him to know." She winced in pain as she tried to clean the tears off her cheeks.

"They are brutal," I stated, she held my hands and then stared me in the eye. She knew I was being tortured as well.

"This is who they are." She said in her mouth and stood straight. "I was just waiting to say goodnight." I felt bad for her. She went inside her hut before me.

I couldn't stop thinking about Williams all this time. He was a slave just like us, and it felt like he had no family there. Also, what Luke did to Kanika could happen to me if I didn't stop messing everything up.

The next few days, I was trying my best to avoid coming in contact with Prince Luke or Lord George.

I had cleaned all the rooms and was waiting for Luke to leave so that I could make his bed. It was kind of my luck to prevent coming in contact with him. Every time I would hide behind a wall outside his room and waited for him to leave so that I could rush and do his room in peace.

He was finally gone and that gave me some time to do my chore and leave before he comes back. I've just finished his room and was about to leave when loud voices caught my attention. There was something going on in the front hall where they would sit and talk, talk, talk.

I briskly reached the hall and saw Flora, Madame Noela, and Lord George gathered around what it looked like Prince Warrick, who was the only one sitting in the chair.

My mother crossed me in haste, holding a tray and a bunch of medicines in it. Once I got a clear sight of Prince Warrick, I saw blood all over him. Was it his blood or did he beat up a worker?

"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS PUT US IN SITUATIONS LIKE THESE?" Lord George wouldn't shut up, he kept yelling and hitting things while Warrick, who was slightly bent forward, his elbows on his thighs and watching my mother as she cleaned the blood from his hand, didn't seem like listening to his father.

"Learn something from your brother, why can't you ever be like him?" Madame Noela muttered and in the back of my head, I replied *yeah be a stupid arrogant, good for nothing guy like your brother. *

There was no way they would nag him for hurting a worker, so, it was his blood.

As my mother began cleaning the blood off his shoes, Warrick pulled his feet back.

"I'll do that, please don't touch my feet." he requested, and not even proudly but very humbly like he felt bad that my mother, a woman at his mother's age, touched his feet.

My body felt a different sensation, the sensation of respect for someone so humble.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO US?" Madame Noela yelled, pushing my mother aside.

"I HEARD YOU GUYS AND IM NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR GIBBERISH." It was the first time Prince Warrick had raised his voice. The whole mansion was shaken up by the loudness of his voice, everyone went silent and I bet every single one of them gasped. He was standing straight, looking in his mother's eye angrily.

"This is not a way to address your mother, apologize." Lord George commanded, while my mother briskly began gathering up the tray together.

"No!" Warrick mumbled in his mouth, slowly tilting his head to his father.

"HOW DARE YOU DEFIED ME." Lord George shouted to scare Warrick who didn't even move.

He walked past his father, arrogantly shrugging his shoulders and leaving the sight. Everyone wasn't much shocked at his behavior, that's why I was being warned about him. Nobody could ever predict his moves, he would look calm as a cucumber, but at the same time, he could scare you away with his one stare if he wants to.

"Go, and help him with the wounds," Madame Noela yelled at me. Why was I standing here, waiting for trouble? "And you bring us water." She continued to my mother. I grabbed the tray from my mother's hand and went to Warrick's room. I was going to be in a huge trouble now, this guy was heating like fire spread across the forest and I was the one to be around him.

The door was slightly open but I still knocked.

"GO AWAY." Ye shouted, sitting on the chair beside his bed and watching the scratches and bruises on his arms. He was in a fight with some drunk people in the Tavern earlier, when the guards found him and demanded him to return to the mansion on Lord George’s behalf.

I knocked again and when he lifted his head in anger, I gulped, "I'll be punished if I didn't do my job." I announced with my head lowered down but my eyes lifted enough to watch him.

He grunted, throwing away the one shoe that he had taken off on the floor and moving his jaw as he gritted his teeth. I waited for two seconds and when I decided to leave, I heard him doing a bothersome cough.

"Get here," he commanded, sounding mad. Did I piss him off? I turned around and walked inside the room.

"Come close." His voice turned back to the melodic sound. Making me take steps closer until I was finally standing Just by his side, he rested his head back on the chair and eyed me to finish my job.

I began to sit down on the floor, but he very calmly pulled a small stool for me.

"We are not allowed to sit on these," I argued, nervously backing away a step.

"Just sit." He voiced in a murmur, slowly bending ahead and pulling his arm out that had bloody scratches on it.