The Servant Queen

The White Rose Garden

Ani

"What are you going to do when you find the Servant Army?"

"I'm going to join them of course, Mother!" I said.

"Ani, do you know what an army is? People will fight people. People will get killed. Are you willing to join that type of organization?" Mother said.

I opened the window. What have I been searching for all my life? Freedom has a price: human lives. And even from the start, I wasn't ever willing to pay for it.

"Who was the intruder?" I asked.

I turned around from looking out the window and looked at Walter. He was standing silently in the middle of my room. He scratched his head and walked up to me.

"An ex-hitman. He was sentenced to be executed, but was pardoned by Prince Charles himself and hired be his bodyguard."

"Prince Charles? Then, what are we going to do?!" I asked.

Walter saw my seriousness and burst out laughing.

"Since he's the Prince's bodyguard, nothing. I don't want to risk anything. We'll just have to see how this is going to play out," Walter said. He saw my heavy dress hanging on the chair. "Was the dress uncomfortable?"

"Very. The dress looked like a dream, but it definitely did not feel like it," I said, lifting my eyebrows in distaste. I was already in my night gown even though the sun hadn't set yet. I held onto the sides of my nightgown and stretched it out. "But this here, is amazing."

"Then you can just follow me in that to the other side of the mansion." He walked out the door. "Come on, Reddie."

I slipped in my heels and hurried after him. Strangely, he walked slower than usual. I was glad because it was difficult walking. I'm also glad that he wasn't angry like last night. After a few minutes, we approached a large door, similar to the dining room's door.

"How was Officer Raine's training?" Walter said.

"It was great," I lied.

"I told her not to teach you something specific. I hope that crazy, muscle woman listened," Walter said. He pulled the door opened.

Was it fighting?

We entered a large, empty room that had the high ceiling with a enormous chandelier in the center. One wall was entirely made out of glass that displayed Walter's white rose garden. Walter saw me looking around.

"This is a ballroom," Walter said.

"What?"

"Yeah. I wanted to be the one who teaches you how to dance."

He held out his hand. Bodies pressing together... I don't want touch like that.

"It's hard to move with my heels. It hurts," I said to make an excuse.

"Then, take them off," he said as if it was common sense.

I watched him as he slipped out of his shoes. I slowly stepped out of mines and touched the cold tiled floor.

His hand was still out for me to grab.

"What are you waiting for? Take it," Walter said, haughtily. "There's no better teacher than me in this field."

I was startled when he immediately grabbed both of my hands and pulled me close to his body.

"Is this how you pick up all your women?" I said, with a laugh.

I couldn't help, but feel uncomfortable. He scoffed with a smile.

"What do you mean? I don't know any woman that doesn't know how to dance," he said.

"Except me, correct?"

"You, a woman? You're so funny, reddie."

I pressed my lips together.

"You said you're the best teacher, but you never taught anyone, did you?"

"Whoa there. You want to test that? Follow my steps. I'll lead you in this dance with my perfect teaching skills."

At first, we slowly moved back and forth around the large white tiles, in silence. I tried matching my feet with his long strides. As I gradually became better, he gradually moved faster and faster until we were swinging and spinning across the room, laughing. All of my feelings of awkwardness being close to him was forgotten.

"You got it already!" Walter said, spinning us.

"Because it's fun!"

"No, because I'm a hell of a teacher!"

The natural light coming from outside of the large window slowly started to dim down as the sun was setting. Before it became entirely dark in the ballroom, the chandelier gradually became glowed brighter. After a while, we stopped. I wiped my sweaty hands on my nightgown.

"I can't believe nobles really dance like this. It's absolutely tiring!"

He laughed. It matched him perfectly.

"It'll be amazing if they did. In reality, they dance only for a few minutes at a time. How long did we dance? Two hours?" Walter said as he looked at the white rose garden.

A sweat droplet slid down the side of his face. He turned back to me and grinned.

"I apologize for going off on you yesterday. None of this should be personal. You're only doing a job for me, so that you don't need to live like a servant. We're both using each other, right?"

I brushed my hair away from my face and smiled faintly back with a nod.

"Yeah..." Walter said, placing his shoes back on. "I thought so."

I did the same. He walked towards the door, and I hurried beside him.

"Tomorrow, would you like to go out into the town with me before going to the meeting?"

"Sure!"

A/N: Thank you readers. (TOT) I have 700 reads! I thought it was impossible for someone like me to get that many views!