The Courtier

3

THE COURTIER
♡ Ugene ♡

"Go clean yourself, soldier." Ordering the guard does not hesitate to run from me with a bloody hand holding his arm. Looking at the other guards of mine, they all shake, but try so hard to hide from my lurking gaze. "Get out of my sights."

They all scramble, and I wipe the blood from my knife. I can feel eyes burning the back of my head from behind, and when I twirl on my heels to find the person, I find Beth Castings whom does not contain my attention for no longer than a second and I am already bored.

Josephine Castings though. She is another story. Her back is to me, but that doesn't stop her from casting a look behind her to glimpse at me. We catch eyes, but it doesn't stay for long.

They were gossiping about me, and I wondered what they had to say? Was Josephine in on it as well? Did I finally catch the attention of the ghost girl?

The ghost girl. The girl with her head in a book, never catching the attention of anyone. No one, for that matter. She was an outsider of the world, and all she could was get lost in those books of hers.

No one paid her any mind, let her fall behind in the dark- away from suitors to notice. She had no friends, because all everyone ever wished to be is near Beth Castings.

They all treat her like the dirt on their shoes, but they were no better. No, she shined like the diamond she is.

She may not gather anybody's attention, but she surely has mine. All of me.

A sudden cough catches my attention and causes me to turn my head to glare at the person, but it is the Princess of Lockwood. Serena Houstings, the doll and talks of ruin of Lockwood.

She has caught me. Caught me staring at the little Castings lady and all I could do was walk up to her and look down in shame. Her and I play a little mouse game, I catch her, she catches me but neither of us say a word, until she speaks first.

"Are you always going to live in the shadows and watch her or are you going to finally become a man and speak to her?" Serena tilts her head, a smirk is plastered on her face and I begin to wonder why Bridger has let go of her, until she opens her mouth and then it explains it all.

He needed a break from her mouth.

"Princess, I can assure you that I am just doing my job in taking care of the palace and its people." I am sly with my remark and it has her eyes squinting at me, trying to read me. I stand with my arms behind my back, aside from the Princess as we watch the maids reach the finish line of their break.

They all are huddled together, gossiping and Beth Castings is the leader in it.

"I will never push you, Ugene. Perhaps, if you did speak to her, she might share the same affection." My head turns slowly, sharing a bored look and she laughs. She continues. "You are not an unlikable character. You just do not speak to anyone. Perhaps, she is afraid of you."

"And why would she be afraid of me?" I tense, not liking the idea of her not wishing to speak to me because she is scared of me.

She eyes me, moving against her heels. "Smile for once in your life."

I do not smile nor speak, which has her scoffing. Before we can both utter another word, Bridger is calling for his soon to be wife, and carries himself down the hill to us. Bridger shares a nod in greeting, as I do the same, and he wraps his arm around his lady.

"I was wondering where you took off to," Bridger teases.

Serena eyes me before falling into the embrace of him. "I thought some fresh air would be good, and I happened to bump into my little friend Ugene here."

"Friend?" Bridger scoffs with laughter. "Does he utter anything over a sentence?"

Looking forward, I don't take offense. Serena takes the offense, she hits Bridger's chest and escapes out of his touch.

"You shall apologize to Ugene this instance or-"

"Or what?" Bridger bickers.

Serena glares at him, daring him to speak to her like that again and travels back up the hill to her sister's palace. Bridger blows out a tired breath and follows into line beside me. He looks out to the open view which is a few trees and all beautiful spring grass.

"I apologize for my words, Ugene. I didn't mean to cause any offense." He starts actually genuine until his laughter comes after, I share a smirk to him, letting him know I did not have a care in the world of what he thought of me.

"None taken, Cunningham."

His smile fades until he comes certainly serious. An awkward cough follows after, and he spits words. "I wish to thank you for telling me how pathetic my actions were before. You are a man of honest words, and when I finally listened to my heart and fought for Serena as I should have, I finally had her. Thank you."

I did not do a thing. Bridger took the leap of faith in fighting for the one he wished to marry, to love. I simply stood back and watched their love story unfold, and here we are prepping for their wedding soon to come.

I nod my head to his words, I was grateful for his gratitude, but I could never accept what he had worked for. So instead of speaking, we stay silent until one of us breaks and walks away from each other.

Bridger broke first. My heavy footsteps follow up the hill and into the palace. I find comfort in my room, alone, but I do not spend much time alone anymore when I have an important job to do.

Getting out my sketch book, I take my stencil, moving along the round face that I am thinking of. Closing my eyes, memories flashback, invading my vision and my hand moves along the paper to draw what I see in my vision.