Enchantingly Different

Chapter 6

I reach my hand out to her face to bring her closer so I might taste her lips, but she pulls away from me, quickly turning her back on me and going to sit down at the table once more. I watch her go, feeling somewhat rejected and confused. Woman have never resisted, especially when they hear who I am.

“Did I offend you in some way?” My voice echoes around the small room and she slumps her shoulders slightly.

“No, but it’s just better this way,” she responds, lifting the spoon to her lips. She purses her lips and blows on the liquid, which seems to do strange things to me. The spoon enters her mouth and she wraps her lips around it, pulling it out slowly, taking every drop of soup from it. The act seems so erotic. I feel like I shouldn’t be looking, but I can’t seem to pull my gaze away.

After a couple of seconds, I close my eyes and rub my thumb and forefinger against the bridge of my nose, hoping to gain back some of my straight thinking. When I open them again, she is staring at me, her eyes full of something. Longing or perhaps lust? I can’t be sure, but it’s a look I’ve seen in the past. I stare back with a look of contempt. Why is she giving off all these mixed signals? If she didn’t want me, why is she giving me the same look that so many other girls give me back in the town?

As she sees my expression, she looks down at hands, abandoning her soup and playing with her fingers instead. I see a dull blush rise into her cheeks and she clears her throat before rising to clean the dishes. It’s then that I realize that I’m still on the floor, the stone beneath me spreading cold through my flesh.

Using a stool for support, I pull myself to my feet and take things a little slower this time, hobbling back to the rack to retrieve my clothes. I frown as I see they're wrinkled, but decide not to say anything. Intead, I pull them on swiftly, taking care not to look at Shae, even though I can feel her eyes burning into my back. Probably hoping I fall, I think sourly to myself.

“I should probably get going. My family will be wondering where I am and I still need to find my sister,” I speak up, finally turning to look at her. She stops what she’s doing and her face whips up to look at me, a frantic look overcoming her. It’s only there for a moment, but she manages to pull herself together quickly. She looks down to smooth her skirt down her legs carefully for a moment.

“I advise against it. You are still weak and it is unseasonably cold outside. You wouldn’t be able to make it back to the town, even if you were on a horse,” she replies in a small voice, picking up the dishes to dry them with a small cloth.

“All the more reason to get out there and find my sister,” I snap back. How dare she tell me what to do and who is she to decide what I'm capable of? Does she not know who I am? Yes, she does. I think back to what she’d told me. She mentioned my ‘royal blood’ before, so she definitely knows I’m a prince. She certainly has no excuse for her behavior.

“Your sister, Juliette, is fine.”

I stare at her with an incredulous look. She must know where she is, yet never mentioned anything about it before. How could she not tell me of her before? Surely she would know that I was worried for her.

“And how do you know that?”

She doesn’t answer straight away. Perhaps it’s because I’m staring at her with a look of loathing and I’m breathing heavily from the exertion after many days sleeping. I start to feel light headed so I sit back down on the edge of the bed. When I’ve done so, she gives me a small smile.

“She passed through here not too long before you and your men did. She was alone and frightened. I took her in and gave her some food,” she says softly, coming over and sitting beside me. The bed dips down and her gown brushes my leg making me suck in air slightly at her closeness.