Desire (On Hold)

Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Asteria sat on a wooden desk with a wrinkled man standing in front of her. He started talking to her in a foreign language and she hesitantly responded, stumbling over her words. The man sighed and corrected her. The man was obviously her tutor.

Henry walked in the room, a bounce in his step. He looked excited of sorts, but bored to be in Asteria’s company.

Asteria scowled. “What do you want?”

“Now, now, zat is no way to talk to ze ‘eir of ze throne,” the tutor scolded in a French accent. Asteria shot him a look of loathing.

“You are dismissed,” Henry ordered, waving the tutor out of the room.

“I saw you kill him,” Asteria stated in an icy tone. “Arthur, I mean. How could you kill your own brother?”

“You saw that?” Henry asked. “That won’t do… come with me.” Henry began walking out of the room and Asteria ran to keep up.

“I don’t care if you kill me, you know,” she huffed. “I have to life anyway.”

“Shut up you stupid girl!” Henry hissed, covering her mouth as some servants walked passed, watching them curiously. “I need to organise something, go back to your chambers and stay there. Make sure you tell nobody. I will come and get you in a few hours and we can discuss things.” Henry stalked off in the other direction and Asteria drifted back into her chambers.

She threw herself on her bed and looked at the ceiling. She saw an engraving on the wood above her, so she leaned closer to see what it was. Her eyes began to tear when she recognised it as Arthur’s handwriting. He had carved that on her bed one night when Henry had been bullying her something terrible, to cheer her up a bit.

Asteria let out a massive sob, which led to another one and then another one. Soon she was hysterically crying tears for the brother she woul never see again and for her parents. Henry would surely kill her like he did to Arthur. It would kill her parents to lose two children in such a small time frame. She didn’t want to put them through losing two of their children.