The Courtier

11

THE COURTIER
♡ Josephine ♡

"Repeat after me," Ugene utters underneath the tree we sit under. The shade of the tree covers us from the beaming sun, we can hear commotion from the village all the way up here and it has me breathing in wonder at what is going on.

Ugene has my attention though, we sit thigh to thigh and I bring my knees against my chest as he teaches me more words.

"Willkommen im Palast von Lockwood," he says.

Welcome to the palace of Lockwood.

I repeat his words, and he nods in approval. "You are getting so good at this. You are starting to sound natural."

Being around Ugene started to feel natural. I was no longer afraid of his presence, I was no longer stuttering, and speaking to him felt like speaking to a good friend of mine.

The wind breaks through the air, and it has my fallen hair whisking over my face and Ugene pulls it back suddenly, his hand lingers over my cheek before I take control and place the hair behind my ear.

I smile, teeth and all to him. "Good, I was beginning to think I was getting nowhere."

"You are exceptional," he murmurs, his eyes holding a longing look that I have never seen before on him. "Ihre Schönheit kann dazu führen, dass ein erwachsener Mann eine böse Obsession mit Ihnen entwickelt."

I giggle out at how his words came together as he quickly pronounces his language to me, but I have no clue on what he just had spoken. Growing confused by the minute, my brow furrows with wonder and he just stares, not wishing to translate.

"What? What did you say?" I suddenly question.

"I asked you to tell me more about yourself. I wish to know all the things you love, and that does not include reading because I already know that of you,"  he translates, and I nod.

"I love my family." I shrug, batting my eyelashes up at him. His jaw clenches and he had to look away from my stare. "My mother is the strength of our family, she holds so much courage. She is quite ill, which is why I started working for Arabella's family to gather anything so my mother never had to worry about money."

Ugene is now sitting up, I have his full attention. "Will she be alright?"

"She is strong, I know she will push through..." I trail, my mind going to another place besides this moment. My mother's last doctor won't show back up at our cottage since we have not paid for the last treatment she had. We had to gain another doctor who would take payments. He is kind, but he can only have so much patience before he snaps about his payment.

He licks his bottom lip, his eyes soften at my frown. I smile through the pain anyway, ignoring the way my heart tugs when he stares at me the way he is. "How is your family? Where are they?"

"I have no family," he says so quickly and sharply. His shoulders tense at the mention of his family, and I take note to never push that subject on him.

"I apologize," I say lightly.

He shakes his head. "Do not ever apologize to me."

Noted.

"Your sister..." He trails and I perk up at the mention of her. I nod for him to continue. "Are you two working for the palace only because of your mother?"

"At first, yes, but I grew close with Arabella and Serena. I could not imagine working for anyone else," I explain. "My sister, on the other hand, wishes for a husband. She wishes for love. I believe it is time for her to marry anyway. A good gentleman, I hope."

"And what about you?"

"What about me?" My eyes widened.

"You did not speak of yourself when you were talking of marriage. You are nineteen, should you not want to marry?" He leans back against the tree, and picks at his nail.

"No, no marriage is not even in my category right now," I disagree.

"Aw, come on. You do not have someone you look to, to be smitten by?" He teases, nudging his shoulder with mine.

"No, just my sister. I mean, if a gentleman perhaps is interested and I fall for him, then of course. I do not think it is my time, if that makes sense?" I squint my eyes when I look at him, and he just gazes.

A longing gaze that has me gulping down the fear that tries to crawl its way into my bones once again.

"How old are you?" I changed the topic in wonder just how old Ugene was. I knew he was a man, he was no boy that was for sure, but I had wondered how much older he was against me.

"Twenty six," he answers swiftly.

Oh.

Oh.

A grown man.

Beth is twenty one, a perfect fit for the two.

"Have you ever spoken to my sister?" I then ask, he shakes his head, answering. "You two should. I can see similarities between the two of you."

"Here is a lot about me; I do not like people. I do not like to speak to people so I try not to go out of my way and find new people to befriend."

"You befriended me, you speak to me," I remind.

"You are different," he replies swiftly. He holds my stare and we stay silent for a while.

You are different.