The Lady's Butler

The Proposal Arc {Part 8}

(Part 8)

"How is he?" The worried question was asked by the lady, but equally worried eyes of the men tagged on the doctor.

"We have given Mr Reyes an injection to get his vitamin levels back to normal and dressed his wounds. Other than the scars, there shouldn't be anything permanent. However, I will advise for him to attend some counselling as part of his recovery process. The cuts on his arm are evenly spaced and with increasing depth –a methodical way to increase the pain."

"We understand. Thank you very much." Louise Crawford bowed in gratitude to the doctor who bowed back in greeting, giving instructions to not disturb the sleeping man before leaving.

"I'll be going back to the academy, Miss Louise, to sort out things out on our behalf. Please pardon me. I will be back to visit Kyrano soon." Keyron offered humbly, a sincere hand placed over his heart as he bowed low.

Unable to bear charging into the ward to disturb her peacefully sleeping butler, Louise hung close to the door, peeking through the window restlessly at the face of the resting patient. A sigh of relief escaped her now that Kyrano's face no longer hung the pained expression, but looked at peace with the world instead. The same paleness was there, but at least it appeared that her butler was no longer suffering.

The tension that had worked their way through to her shoulders leaked a little, but Louise could feel the stiffness of her back as she stood at the door.

"He seems fine. We were right; it was anaemia." Brandon said quietly from behind her, careful not to shock the rankled woman more than she already was. Louise nodded to show that she acknowledged the man's words, but didn't offer a reply as she finally gave up looking at her sleeping butler, and went instead back to sit at the chairs lined outside the ward for visitors.

"Thank you for your and Keyron's help, Brandon." Louise started the conversation after a long pause in which Brandon took over Louise's place at the door, looking through the window to watch over the patient in the ward.

"No problem. I've taken a shine to your butler as well. He's not Keyron, but he is still interesting." Brandon answered easily, briefly turning his eyes away from the sleeping man to the stressed-out mistress sitting outside, looking –for the first time since he knew her –flustered and completely lost.

"I thank you for his behalf as well. I would not have known what to do back in the classroom if not for the two of you."

"There were other butlers on scene. Any one of them would have been able to step in. It simply happened that Keyron and I were nearest to Kyrano." Brandon answered, but he knew that the words that he was speaking –none of them were the actual words that he wanted to say.

He regretted that he had to ask to clear his doubts, but they were words that had to be spoken.

Brandon walked away from the door and chose to sit on the set of seats on the other side of the hallway, directly opposite from Louise's seat. Leaning forwards so that his elbows rested on both his knees, Brandon did his best to give off the aura of compassion and concern. He didn't want his fiancée to think that his questions were accusative or angry in any sense. It was a simply need-to-know thing –even though Brandon was more or less already convinced of his own assumed answer.

"Before Kyrano passed out, you told me that I cannot expect you to love me wholeheartedly, because you already have shared your love with someone else." Brandon started, taking a jump right into the deep end of the pool. But there was no point in trying to wade in from the safe end, because his fiancée was not the type of woman who would care for skittish preambles.