The Guard

16

THE GUARD
• Serena's pov •

I am making my mother happy. I am making my mother happy. I am making my mother happy. I am making my mother happy.

Chanting those words into my head at tea with a gentleman while my mother and Princess Lockwood sits across the room at another table lurking from afar.

Bridger stands by the glass door where I can find his eyes, and I lock mine with his- hoping he could sense my discomfort.

Not that the gentleman I was having tea with made me feel it, but the fact that I came here unwillingly was the reasoning.

My hair was still in its braids from Josephine's lovely fingers working her magic in my long hair. My mother wished for my hair to be pinned back, spraying water and hoping the little hairs would hide in with my others.

The gentleman I forgot the name of coughs awkwardly as he intakes a sip of his tea. "Are you enjoying this evening, Princess Houstings?"

"Yes, of course." I now am taking a sip of my own, ignoring the disgusting improper made tea.

"I have been waiting to meet you properly. You are a hard lady to persuade." He smiles, and I do not feel the butterflies.

Though, it was not me that he spoke.

"Your letters...they were very..."

"They were what?" I slipped out.

He blushes. "Well, let us not repeat so people will not hear."

Oh no. No, mother. Please.

My face reddens with embarrassment, and I wipe my mouth with my napkin to hide my face.

He leans forward, his eyes full of lust. "Did you let Sir Kingsley have it too?"

"Excuse me?" I cough out, accident swallowing the tea wrongly. Shall I make him repeat it again even when I heard him the first time?! How dare he?

Why does my mother pick the wrong men?

"You heard me, Princess." He juts his chin, smirking. He had an evil glint in his eyes. "If I offered, would you get up first to go to the ladies room and I would follow you there. I pay a fair share."

"I-I am not a prostitute," I stutter, ignoring my mother's happy gestures to lift my shoulders and smile. My brows furrow, anger is written across my face. "How dare you speak to me as such?"

"Will you run away again? You are good at that, aren't you?"

Tears invade my vision. I shake my head, but he does not stop there. He has a teasing pout, mocking me. "I will say this once...No matter how many gentlemen you meet, you will never find the proper husband because they will always be afraid of what you are, Serena Houstings. Every gentleman that you come across from now on is not present in your favor for your heart..."

Why does this hurt so badly? Why can I feel my heart breaking in two at his words?

"They are present for what is underneath that corset and that clothing, Princess." The way he speaks to me with such mockery has me baffled. He dares to disrespect me and he has no shame in the world from it. Even if I ordered guards to behead him, there are plenty of men who think the same as him.

I was nothing but a joke to these men.

He leans back, now smiling softly. "Now, where were we?"

How can he sit there and act like nothing has happened? As if he just didn't offend me incredibly.