The Servant With The Mark Of The Goddess

Mortified

HANNAH'S POV

Cleaning floors isn't as easy as I had imagined. At least not here.

The Lady named Kyla showed me a couple of rooms and a corridor to clean, left and never came back.

The rooms are huge and unnecessarily spacious. Every single one is twice or thrice the size of my room. I had to be careful not to knock down anything because the stuff in the rooms are expensive.

But cleaning the long corridor between the rooms was the most frustrating thing I have ever done. People kept passing, trending on the wet floor and leaving behind lines of footprints.

I want my work to impress Kyla so she can be a little kind to me.

None of the passersby seemed apologetic about it. Some were polite enough to say 'hello' and even ask my name as they passed. Others uttered an insult when they slipped or accidentally stepped on the rug.

Anyway I gave up repeating the work again and again and focused on cleaning the rooms first. They are on either side of the corridor, ten of them, but Kyla only wanted six cleaned.

She is not the nicest of ladies and didn't seem to like me either. She didn't look super slim like my sisters but she was really beautiful in her curvy body and I wanted to be friends with her. I saw her purse her lips in disgust when I smiled politely and I immediately understood that she wants nothing to do with someone that looks the way I do.

My back was aching by the time I was done with cleaning the sixth room. I don't know if servants get lunch here, Kyla didn't say anything about it and not even the servants that walked by me carrying plates of delicious foods on trays asked if I was hungry.

Such delicious foods are for royals, of course. People like us can only have such in a dream.

I have been working the whole day without a thing to eat and my stomach feels like it's on fire.

But only half of the corridor remains unclean. I will soon be done and head home where maybe I will find a fruit to eat.

I didn't get a chance to join the little tour of the place mother had promised to give my sisters. She was to take them to the training grounds so they can see the much adorned Prince Nathan. I am also curious to see what he looks like even though he won't like me, of course.

I was brought here to clean as they chatted with the Queen. Now I am not sure which way would take me to first floor. But I will figure it out after getting the job done.

I drop the rug into the bucket of water and stand to stretch my back.

I feel the back of my head hit something hard which of course isn't a wall because I am standing in the middle of the corridor.

I clutch the injured part as I turn to see what is behind me that I bumped my head into.

What I see first is a majestic, tall and mascular frame dressed in all black and a sword hanging from the leather belt .

I must be standing in front of a giant knight. Yes, one with a sword and smells really nice.

And I just hit my head against his . . .chest? There is no way my height could have gone past that.

I look farther up only to find the loveliest pair of eyes glaring down at me. The sheer beauty of the man's smooth face is hard not to stare at.

He may be glaring at me but I am yet to decide if he is real.

"Your eyes have a problem?" A deep, angry voice snaps and I jump back.

I trip over the bucket of water behind me and fall backwards, knocking down the bucket and it's contents in the process.

I lay flat on my butt with water soaking into my dress and hair. The back of my head just got another blow and the pain is excruciating.

I look up at the man who just snapped at me and see him frown in disgust.

He is really gorgeous and I feel mortified to be in this position in front of his eyes.

"You work here?" He asks in a really cold voice. My hurting head is really taking time to process things because I am not sure I know the answer to his very simple question.

"Uhmm . . .what?"

The anger on his face literally doubles. Who the f**k is he? He is acting exactly how I would imagine someone with his beauty to act, rude! I really hope he is not a royal.

"I am sorry for . . . bumping into you! I was tired and not watching my surroundings." I apologise.

His glare move from me to the mess I have made. The spilled water is flowing into the rooms that I just cleaned and even those that I wasn't asked to clean.

I look back up at the angry man. I don't know, but he may be someone who can get me in trouble since he looks too refined to be a servant.

He could be a handsome knight. Or someone of the royal family.

"Sorry for the mess too!" I add and his sharp glare returns to me.

"Um . . .who are you?" I ask as politely as possible.

My question seems to irritate him. "You're dumb as well as fat?!" He asks in the rudest of tones.

I gape in shock. He walks past me with the frown still on his face. I have this urge to insult him back, but I am afraid he may be of royal blood and I really don't want to lose this job this soon.

"Make sure you clean every drop of that mess!" He yells in that deep voice that I could have found husky if it were not snapping at me.

He is such a beautiful jerk!

I didn't mean to bump into him, it was an accident and he didn't need to be a genius to see that I didn't mean to. He is probably hating me because of my looks just like everyone does.

I watch his majestic walk until he turns a corner and disappears.

I can't believe this is my first day of work. I have really ravaged my dignity. And I still have a big mess to clean.

I am so hungry, so embarrassed and in pain. Cleaning the mess will be really tough.

I wait until the pain dies down to a dull ache before pulling myself back to my feet. Parts of my dress are wet and more water is dripping from my hair.

I squeeze out the water from the lower part of my dress which is really wet. I think I will have to forget about my dignity and get to work.

I grab the empty bucket and the rug and start drying the water back to the bucket.

The job is worse than just cleaning. I feel like crying out loud by the time the corridor and the rooms I had cleaned are dry again.

But the water did flow into one of the rooms I wasn't asked to clean as well. I have to dry that water too. One can only imagine how mad Kyle would be to find that I messed even the rooms I wasn't ordered to clean.

I did see one of the servants carry food into that same room. But other than the servant, I haven't seen anyone else walk in or out of the room. I wonder who the food was for.

Can there be someone in there for all those hours? Why haven't I heard them talk?

I think I will have to go in there and find out?

I carry the bucket of water and rug to the front of the room. I knock gently once and wait for an answer. It doesn't come so I push the door open.

There is a little boy laying asleep on the King size bed at the center of the spacious and lavishly furnished room.

The room looks like a little kid's paradise, but the boy laying quietly on the bed has a skin that has turned way too pale and has got little dark dots on it too. He has got the disease!

People with the disease are not allowed inside the palace, so why is the boy sick and still here? Could he be the little Prince that mother was saying is sick too?

No one else with the pale skin and dark dots would be allowed to walk into the palace, let alone sleep in a room like these.

His condition is bad because he is also shivering despite it being very warm in here.

I wonder if he can wait until Princess Aria arrives. He is too beautiful to die.

But he is also lucky to be in here. If he is really the little Prince, his father must have hired the best doctors to keep him alive. And the famous Princess Aria who is also a daughter of a great sorceress is taking a long journey from her father's kingdom to come and heal him.

The people out there with the disease are left alone to die. Some of their families are too afraid of catching the disease that they don't even try to feed their sick.

It's really unfair.

I look at the floor and realize the water had not flowed far into the room. I can dry it quickly and leave before anyone knows I was even in here.

I grab the rug and hastily dry the floor. I am about to grab the bucket and leave when I hear the boy make a sound.

I turn to see that he is writhing on the bed. I think he is having a bad dream. "I am . . . scared . . . help . . . please!" He whispers the words with his eyes still closed.

Should I wake him? Bad dreams are terrible when you're a kid. Sometimes it's a monster chasing you, sometimes it's a long fall into an endless, dark pit. I used to hate those childish nightmares.

I dry my hands with the front part of my dress that is not wet before making my way to the side of the big bed.

I reach out a hand to gently touch the boy so he can wake. But something very astonishing happens when I lay my hand on his right shoulder.

The dark dots on his skin starts to disappear and the pale skin begins to gain back it's healthy colour and a beautiful glow.

The boy is no longer writhing or sleep talking. But shock has got me frozen in place.

I watch with wide eyes and quivering limbs as all the dark dots and paleness disappears from the boy's skin.

The boy stirs and I literally bolt. I run out of the room, picking up the bucket and the rug in the process. I close the door and hurry to get away from the room as possible.

If I wasn't hallucinating, I think I just touched the boy and his skin healed. I have never witnessed magic, but that did seem scarier than anything magic can do. Whatever happened, it's literally out of this world.

"Hannah!" I hear mother's voice call out as I run down a hallway, the bucket and rug still in hand. I don't really know where I am headed. All I wanted was to get away from that scene.

I turn to see her hurrying up towards me. There is anger in her eyes.

"Have you gone mad or what?!" She snaps.

I don't think she will believe me even if I tell her what exactly happened. She will be so disappointed in me! What's the best way of handling this?

"I am sorry, I was looking for you!" I stupidly say.

"With a bucket and rug still in hand?" She questions.

I feel embarrassed and I don't know what to tell her. She will think I am mad if I tell her the truth.

I shrug my shoulders.

"You're such an i***t Hannah!" She snorts. "Look at your clothes, did you fall or what?"

I nod my head slowly. This is one legendary bad day, I really hope it ends soon.

She takes the bucket and rug from my hands. "I will take these to where they are supposed to be. Go home before you embarrass yourself some more!"

"How do I get to the ground floor?" I ask.

"The staircase is at the end of the hallway." She answers as she turns and to walk away.

I am always the child who disappoints her. The one that is always looking like a fat mess.