Holding his laughter Roy followed the now limping woman who stopped after reaching the end of the room. Still holding her pride she calmly- or tried to seem calm, stood at the corner and looked away from him to the wall as though the wall was responsible for her ill-fated luck. Stomping her good-feet at the corner, he sighed and decided to just get this night done with in order to prevent himself from any untimely attacks from her. He held his hand out for her. Ella did see something close to her in the dark but pretended not to; Roy narrowed his eyes, grabbed her butt and squeezed. The sudden intrusion gave out a gasp from Ella which sounded loud in the silent dark room.
"Behave Roy!" Ella warned him which came out more as a moan. She was standing close enough to him now that she heard his grin in her over-sensitive ears in the dark.
"I apologize milady. I was just looking for your hand. Too dark to place my fingers at right places," he said sweetly which only made Ella aware of his hand still present on the wrong place. She squirmed from his hold while trying not to touch him anymore, but it was proving difficult to not use him as a support to let go of him. Finally he loosened his hold from there to move his hand upwards to her waist, not stopping there and pulling her to him where she couldn't let go of the gaze even in stark darkness. She gulped thinking of what would happen next, felt relieved and disappointed when he let go of her waist and skidded his hands on her arm.
He bent close to her ear and whispered, "Your heart is beating too loud." Did that statement make her heart beat slower? Nah, complete opposite. He grabbed her shoulder and moved ahead.
Though the temperature was hot now, Ella complained, "We'll crash in..." The wall, she wanted to complete the sentence but her mouth was left hanging after she found herself inside a wall. She suddenly took lungful of air feeling suffocated.
"Relax Elle. You can breathe. Calm down. Take slow breaths. Yes, exactly, slowly. You are fine," he petted her head while bringing her beating heart close to his and willing her to calm down.
Composing after a minute she whispered, "You bought me inside a wall!" in astonishment.
"It's not exactly a wall. It's a door to enter here," he consoled and switched something while holding her. The sudden brightness made Ella flinch and she covered her eyes in his shirt; then slowly opened her eyes while finding herself clutching his shirt tightly turning her knuckles white. Looking up from her eyesight to drag it up, she found that he was still dressed in his shirt and hadn't changed since the end of the day. Looking up to his eyes which were already looking at her, she let go of his shirt and him while wavering her eyes from him. Distracting herself from being exposed in front of his dressed demeanor, she looked around the room they were in. Or should she say the secret room, which she was never aware of up until now.
Looking at her scowling expression Roy inquired, "What is it?"
"There was a secret room in here and I was unaware of! How is it that I missed this?" She poured out her feelings devastated.
"You would have known had you stayed," he replied coldly. The sudden changes in his moods would make anyone believe that he has mood swings worse than a teenage girl.
"Don't put this on me. It wasn't like I betrayed you or the corporation or father. I-I would never do that." She justified and continued, "Why wasn't I told about this, Roy?" She looked into his eyes turning to him completely, ignoring the fact that she was not properly dressed but looked more like a sultry woman. One look of Roy in her eyes said million other thoughts where he was gazing at the angry, proud woman he had fallen for since the very start. Looking at her now, he doubted she would listen to any of his lovely thoughts.
He answered, "I just stumbled upon this place one day." She narrowed her eyes in anger.
"You are lying."
"Elle, we can discuss this later," he said while moving ahead inside the room but she grabbed his arm and pulled him to where he was standing, only a little too close to her because she pulled him without maintaining her balance to withstand his weight.
"Answer me now. The truth." Ella thought that her father to be showing something this unlikely only to him and not her was not possible, as he had always ensured that they both fared equally in order to prevent fights among ourselves.
"Why do you think I'm lying? I get it we have decided to be partners but we have been allies for long enough of you to question my every step. You didn't seem to have done the same with the Brooks guy."
"Yes, I wasn't careful around the 'Brooks guy', that is the lesson enough for me to question every move of yours. Being your partner, I have every right to inquire before involving in a commitment." Their voices seemed too loud in this empty dimly-lit room. He wasn't saying anything so she persuaded, "Papa always ensured we both have equal knowledge about everything. It is hard to believe of you 'stumbling' in this place when you were the one to never like books much." Yes, he studied a lot and was knowledgeable, but he never found that piece of knowledge in books. He would rather watch every interview, newspaper, roam around the places to confirm what the books are saying, but he never actually believed books.
"So tell me Mr. Knight, how is it that the man who said 'I don't believe books. They are just figment of one's imagination', happened to have stumbled upon the room here," she mimicked his words clearly. It wasn't hard to forget since she never forgot what he said.
"Alright, if you take more angry breaths now, there would be no oxygen left for us." She silently indicated him to talk. He then continued, "I wasn't lying I stumbled upon here. I followed your father one day when he was usually entering the Records Room at odd hours like midnight or late night. He was doing something in the end of the wall, which I didn't get it but I searched it the next day. There were four symmetrical nails immersed on the end wall on either side of the top, as you saw me doing," Roy took out that shiny thing out of his pocket to show her.
"A screwdriver?"
"Not just any screwdriver. It was made for the very purpose of unlocking this room. By loosening the nails outside, the wall separates in the inside and the secret room is entered. I wasn't very surprised to find a secret room in the parlor, as it was expected that the rulers before used to make such secret rooms for escapes or safe hiding."
"And he didn't seem it necessary to let me know about it," she said after a while, trying to hide the hurt in her voice thinking that he didn't trust her then, but Roy noticed it.
"He would have eventually. I wasn't supposed to have found out. After he died, along with you gone, I claimed this room where I was confirmed about the Faceless being an actual entity."
She looked at him questioningly at his last sentence where he explained, "Because your father was one of them. He was planning to bring the throne in Faceless."
Surprise would be a short emotion to describe the moment that she was feeling. Because she was feeling many emotions one after another from surprise to shock to denial to anger to realization to disappointment and finally disbelief. Disbelief for believing that the person you had loved and cherished all life was actually having a different character hidden altogether. That was what Ella feeling with Roy being on edge to be for her if she needed him. However she showed no indication of needing any consolation from anyone, moreover she wanted to be left alone.
Not sparing another glance at the room, Ella said, "I want to go to my room."
Roy didn't say anything and held her shoulders to exit from their left side by pushing the door-cum-wall and leading her slowly in the darkness. Leaving the room with her in his arms, she felt stiff to not hold him back but he understood it. Whenever she would be deep in her thoughts, she would ignore her surroundings like a plague. She had built her concentration and focus better than him through this merit of hers. What he was also anticipating was her theory after she overcame from this stage, he would have to wait a little more to hear her solution for the matter in hand.
He didn't hurry but waited for his woman taking her in his arms, swelled in the advantage of having her close to him but laid her back in her room tucking her in her blanket while telling himself to wait a little more until she was ready to be his.
Exiting her room and entering his he pulled the bedside drawer which contained nothing but a lone paper and sat on the bed holding it, he chuckled and said, "This was the first step for you to be away from her," while staring at the man in the photograph posing Mark, Ella and him.