The Destitute Queen || h.s. au

49. Lena

     "I'm so sorry this happened to you," Leonardo says to me as he gently wraps a white cloth around my hands.

     He found me a couple of hours ago, sitting on this bench in the hallway leading to the maids' room. He must have already known about what happened, because he arrived with two pieces of cloth and a bucket of water. My hands spent twenty minutes underneath the cold water, but it didn't hurt any less.

     I nod my head and look down at his leaning figure. "It's okay."

     "No, it's not okay," he responds, shaking his head. "This shouldn't have happened."

     "Well, I deserved it," I mumble, wincing when he ties the cloth a little too tightly.

     He furrows his brows. "I don't mean to pry, but what exactly did you do?"

     I sigh, wondering if I should tell Leonardo or not. I decide to tell him. "Prince Louis was saying some awful things to me and I just sort of snapped. I hit him in the face."

     "Wow," he responds, surprised. "What was he saying to you?"

     I shrug. "Just some things about my family that I didn't want to hear. He also called me a slut."

     "What?!" He exclaims. "Why the hell would he say that? That's not who you are, at all."

     I let out a shaky sigh. "You don't know that about me. But he was right."

     "It doesn't matter what you are or are not, no one deserves to have their hands burned nearly to a crisp," Leonardo says.

     "Leonardo?" I call his name.

     He warmly smiles. "You can call me Leo, you know."

     "Okay, Leo," I say. "I can trust you, right?"

     "Of course you can," he assures me. "I consider myself to be a trustworthy person, especially when it comes to my friends."

     "You consider us to be friends?" I ask, a small smile creeping up on my face, and he nods. "So, you wouldn't mind if I told you a secret?"

     He shakes his head. "I won't mind at all. I won't tell anybody your secret."

     "Well," I take a deep breath. Just thinking about what happened is nearly bringing tears in my eyes. "Prince Louis said I was a slut, because I kissed someone I wasn't supposed to. You see, I was to be married before I came here, but that obviously didn't happen. Last night, I kissed someone, even though my heart still belongs to the one I was to be married to."

     I wait in an awkward silence as he thinks about what I just told him, hoping I didn't make a mistake in telling him. Waiting for his response is making me anxious, and I begin to mindlessly play with the cloths wrapped around my hands.

     "That doesn't make you a slut," he says, getting off of his knees to take a seat next to me. "It sounds like you're just confused. It's only been a few weeks since you were brought here, so it's completely understandable to miss someone you love, but it's also okay to try and move on. I'm so sorry to say this, but this is a lifelong job."

     "I know it is," I sigh. "I'm just afraid I'm forgetting about him, when he could be worrying so much about me. It doesn't seem right to even think about being with someone else."

     I think back to what the Prince said, about me being careless. I do care about Niall, I really do. I don't want to lose that feeling.

     I push back the memory of him using Ben's condition to torture me, unable to come to terms with what may have happened to him during my absence.