The Lycan King's Puppet-Chapter 114: Mere Servant
She stood there blinking in confusion for a while after he left.
He seemed angry.
How dare he be angry! She deserved to marry as well as he did.
It was now clear that he wasn’t going to let her go.
And she didn’t even want to go either, a pathetic voice in her head said.
She stomped back to her room, completely forgetting about the voice that had startled her into her guard’s arms.
When her eyes cracked open, it was dawn.
Dawn?
There was to be a council meeting that very morning.
Another day of embarrassment.
She rubbed her eyes and slid off the bed. A strong breeze blew in through the open windows, taking the curtains on a swirl.
It would rain. Soon.
Lara and her girls arrived to assist her with her bath.
"Welcome back, my Lady." Lara said with an impish smile as she stirred her oils into the steaming water.
The freckled one and the pale one pretended to sort through her pressed garments while casting curious glances at her.
Then, Lara finally broke the silence by saying, "Were you able to seduce the King in your short... outing?"
Claire blinked.
What?
What was she to say?
"No... No I was not."
Lara moved closer, her sharp eyes searching Claire’s.
"I saw the way he watched you leave at the carriage yesterday evening - exactly the way a man looks at a woman he-"
"Enough, Lara... please." Claire held up her hand.
"So... it did happen." The woman pieced together by herself.
"Are you going to help me with my bath or you’re going to ask me questions till infinity?"
The freckled one laid a dress on the bed and moved to stand behind Lara.
"The battle is half-won if he wants you. You can win the rest of the hurdle with a little effort on your part."
Claire threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.
"I’m not interested in wooing a man that thinks it’s fine to have intimate relations with one woman and marry another. And on top of that, he is forbidding me from marrying another man. Can you believe that?" At that point, she was speaking to herself rather than them.
The women just stared at her with wide eyes as she vented.
"If he forbade you from marrying another man, it means that you’re important to him."
"I will not be any man’s whore. My father would turn in his grave if he ever heard of such."
"Then why did you let him touch you in the first place?"
She was about to answer, but stopped when she realized that she actually didn’t know what to say.
It had just happened - and she had wanted it to happen for a long time before that, but she just never admitted it aloud. Not even to herself. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
The only thing that had stopped her was her hatred for him. And that hatred was based on his crimes against her family - crimes he never actually committed.
"I don’t know." She sighed, stepping into the sweet-scented water after discarding her night gown. "I have to be at the council meeting before the King, ladies." She said without meeting any of their gazes.
Lara was about to say something else, but stopped at the dismissal.
She was cleaned and clothed in a leaf-green dress with a southern cut. Her hair was brushed and pinned atop her head.
Claire left the room as the maids were packing their things out of her room. She paused outside Aurora’s door, but decided against going in.
She told herself that she was allowing the girl to sleep - but deep down, she knew she wasn’t ready to face her sister. Her marriage to Aldrich would have changed things - and she had foolishly thrown it away.
The stairs loomed in front of her, daunting as always.
Just as she was about to descend the second landing, she heard someone call out her name. It was the same voice that called out to her the previous night.
She froze, pressing her hand against the stone wall to support herself.
She listened again. Nothing.
Her head was swirling. She touched the fingers of her free hand to her temples.
Was she having a fever?
"Claire."
She looked behind her, in front of her, everywhere. There was no one around.
Claire tried to move forward, but the head-swirling sensation only seemed to become worse.
The voice didn’t call again. Was she running mad?
She rubbed her temples gently.
"I can’t become insane, please. Aurora still needs me."
She moved forward, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back the pain. Surprisingly, it disappeared just as it had come.
Descending the rest of the steps was a chore, but she didn’t have a choice.
At the bottom, she was hearing voices. A man’s voice.
She recognized that voice from somewhere.
As she reached the bottom, she caught sight of a man with a reddish beard.
Lord Redmare - the man with a terrible and depressing voice.
He was talking to a maid at a corner. The man just kept nodding her head continuously before taking her leave.
He gave the maid’s derriere a small playful spank as she made to leave. The poor maid didn’t even glance over her shoulder - as if it was a usual occurrence.
Claire felt her eyes harden.
The man glanced around to see if anyone was watching.
And his eyes fell on her.
"The Cupbearer." He sketched a mocking bow.
"Lord Redmare." She imitated his salutation by skirting a mocking curtsey.
"I expected to find you at the servants’ quarters, not in a Wing reserved for esteemed guests."
She averted her gaze to hide the bitter look she knew resided there.
"Do you have something you wish to say to me?" She asked, her tone dismissing.
The man’s lips thinned.
He nodded at her and left the way he had come.
She heaved a sigh as soon as he walked away.
She went in the opposite direction.
The doors of the council chambers were closed when she arrived. There were no guards at the door - which meant the King hadn’t arrived.
She was early for once.
A slow grin curved her lips.
As she opened the door, she saw the same made that had been speaking to Lord Redmare setting the tray of drinks. Then, the girl curtsied at the council members and left the room.
Claire inched closer to where the drinks were, not paying the men any heed.
She could feel their eyes on her as she picked up the pitcher.
Nothing seemed out of place, but her instincts told her something else.
