The King's Artist

Ch 24: A Person's True Nature

To say that Henry was upset and embarrassment would have been the understatement of a century. The Lord of the Tudor household almost went unnoticed as he stormed through the halls of Suscinio. He made sure to take bad corners and hidden hallways and avoided eye contact with anyone that he stumbled across. The servants jumped out of his way as he passed, immediately turning to one another to whisper in hushed voices about his beat red face and the hunch to his back; Henry rarely walked anywhere without his shoulders squared and his head high, especially in front of those who served him.

Henry had always prided himself in keeping up appearances around the castle. This was a first for anyone to see the young man so clearly disheveled. Of course, they all speculated it concerned his kidnapping and near-death encounter with the English king. In reality, however, Henry's mind couldn't be further from that experience.

Instead, his brain was stubborn and refused to focus on anything but the image of someone's unblemished and milky-white skin, their prominent shoulder blades, and slender, narrow waist. Her stunned, blue eyes had widened when she had noticed him, her face deepening into a deep red the color of sunset. Her hair had fallen into her face, still wet, dripping water onto her collar bones and down her spine.

There had been a moment of pause for Henry, where he wasn't sure what he was looking at, or more precisely who he was looking at. Whoever they were, Henry found them mind-numbingly pretty.

"Henry, look out!"

Confused, Henry's head snapped up at the voice, just as he ran into a door.

He fell heavily onto the ground; fairly positive, his nose was bleeding. His head was spinning like crazy and, in his puzzlement at what just happened, he just stared up at the ceiling with his arms and legs spread out like a starfish.

Henry could hear laughter and approaching steps, but he didn't bother moving. Now that his mind was refocusing on the present, Henry knew whose voice had called out to him. It was the only person Henry didn't entirely care about keeping up pretenses around.

"You alright?" Jasper asked. Henry's uncle had a hand over his mouth as he was leaning over him. Henry could tell he was doing his best not to laugh, but his shoulders were shaking, and his eyes were lit up like cannon fire. Jasper extended a hand to Henry, who took it reluctantly. "That's probably the first I've seen someone try to walk through a wall."

Henry shot his uncle a look as he dusted himself off.

"It was a door," Henry corrected unnecessarily. He checked his nose with a few dabs of his hand, but thankfully there wasn't any blood. The pain, however, was still sharp, and the sound of him hitting the wood seemed to be echoing loudly throughout his head. Combined with a new wave of embarrassment, Henry's face was both uncontrollably warm and blistering with pain.

"What's got you so distracted that you would just walk straight into something immovable like that?" Jasper inquired, still trying to hold back his laughter. Henry avoided his uncle's gaze as he shifted where he stood, rubbing the sore spot on his lower back.

"It's nothing," Henry brushed off. "I've just got a lot of things on my mind right now."

Jasper's eyes narrowed, and his laughter haltered. The smile on his face slowly fell away as a soft expression of concern, but understanding flooded his features. Jasper grabbed Henry's shoulder as he started walking away, turning his nephew back towards him. Henry raised his eyebrow at the action but allowed Jasper to direct him without any resistance into a spare room nearby. It was a simple sitting area with just a few chairs and a roaring fire in the corner. The heat was pleasant for Jasper but uncomfortable for Henry. Regardless, though, Henry sat without any complaints and watched his uncle move across the room to pour some water for both of them.