Chereads / The Purple Princess: Violetta's Crown / Chapter 3 - 3 Heath Arbutus Moyer

Chapter 3 - 3 Heath Arbutus Moyer

Violetta had remained angry for a day and a half before her curiosity about the boy won out. He was quiet, and sad. He sat around in corners, and obscure places. He never looked up, and remained quiet. He knew he couldn't cause trouble here in this new work place of his mother's. He had also felt bad because he could tell the relationships under this house were suffering under their arrival. Violetta carefully watched the boy, and knew from her father that the boy's dad had died.

She didn't know what she would do without her father. He was her everything. She loved her mother very much, but she was not as attached to her, because sometimes her mother would leave for long periods of time, and then It would just be Violetta and her father. She would sit on his lap, and sometimes she would find his secret book in the oddest places. He would always get a little upset when she would find it, and take it back. Violetta couldn't read it anyway. She didn't have her father's secret tattoo. The tattoo was something she didn't understand at all. It was a strange phenomenon that only she could see.

When her dad would read that book, he didn't read it to her, and he would stare at a single page for hours. But she would sit with him during those times, and sometimes he would read it in their workshop so she could work while he read. He knew she didn't like being apart from him for long. So if her dad meant that much to him, she didn't want to think of what it would mean to lose that.

She pitied the boy. It was not his fault at all. She saw him sitting behind a pillar fiddling with something. She went and sat by him silently. He didn't notice her at first. But she got closer to see what he was messing with. His shoulder jolted when he sensed her. It was a broken toy.

"Want to fix it?" She asked quietly. He knew she was spoiled, and he could tell she was throwing a fit these past few days, but it seemed she didn't have any bad intentions. He didn't like the way she looked at his mother though. "No." He said sullenly, as he side eyed her for her reaction.

"Ok," she whispered back. She stayed sitting next to him. He ignored her for a bit, still fiddling his toy. She should go away if he ignores her, but she …just...stayed...sitting there.

"What do you want?" he asked, exasperated with her staying there.

"Want to go see my robot?" She asked him in a dull manner. He had already seen plenty of robots, and plenty of androids. Most of them had the same wiring, but the intelligence level was waaaay different. Androids were almost human. They seemed to have emotions, and spoke in a way humans would. Robots generally didn't have any kind of EQ and did what they were programmed to do. Androids tended to be stationed in nursing homes, and areas that dealt with people. A good many of them worked at emergency centers. But robots were stationed in areas that they could enact a specific program. Even when the robot was human shaped, it would do its own work, and nothing else. Why did she want to show him something so boring? He narrowed his eyes at her and curled his upper lip. "Why?" he asked incredulously.

She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "This isn't an ordinary robot…."she paused for effect "I'm building it." She knew other kids her age didn't come close to doing what she could do. She knew it because the maids in the house all said so.

He rolled his eyes, so she had probably stacked together her stuffed animals, and called it a robot. "Not interested," He replied nonchalantly. Violetta pursed her lips. This kid was hard to deal with. The boy side eyed her as she puffed out air from her cheeks. She grabbed his shoulders and made sure they were now facing each other. Out of astonishment he let her move him. Eyes opened wide, he watched her adorable little face look confused as she asked "What is your name?"

He sat straight and looked extremely proud and raised his chin as he answered her, "Heath Arbutus Moyer." He squinted his eyes knowing full well that as the son of a maid he could be punished for acting like this. He had not realized he had given her his full name, and asked, "What's yours?"

It was now her turn to be proud. She stood up, curtsied as her etiquette classes had said to, and proudly stated, "Lady Violetta Dione Noblis; Honorable salutations Sir Heath." She declared the greeting which was meant for knights. Then immediately dropping the honorable lady like speech she asked, "Why do you have 3 names?" This was the strange thing about the boy, only nobility was to have 3 names. Lights could take on a third name in the rare case that the family they worked under deemed it so, this was why Violetta used the greeting for a knight. Royalty could have more, if they wanted, but commoners could only have 2 names. The First and Last names.

"It's my dad's last name," The boy said darkly. "Don't tell anyone, It's a secret I am only supposed to say my name is Heath Moyer." He quickly asked her to keep his secret. Arbutus was the second name his mother had given him; the name of his real father.

"I won't tell," She said. "I know how to keep a secret." Heath was still tense, How far could he trust this little kid. She was obviously a little younger than him.

"-But," She interjected into his thoughts, "in exchange you have to come see my robot that I'm building."

She took his silence as an affirmation and began to drag him toward the workroom. He was worried her stuffed toys had probably gotten dirty in there. What was going to happen to him if this little lady of the house threw a fit and blamed him for her dirty toys? He had almost been beaten at his mother's last place of employment for such a thing.

He still remembered those little brats Pricilla and Palmer Davis breaking each other's toys so they could get new ones, and then blaming him. Those twins were terrible. In order for him not to get beaten, the cost of the toys came out of his mother's salary. They almost starved that month. But luckily at that time Aurelius was still working, and his mother had stashed away some of the money he had earned. But Aurelius became addicted to that drug, and now this was where they landed. If his mother's wages got cut now, he didn't know how he could face her. He would rather take the beating.