The guard remembered his boss' order to protect the young master's life with his own life and immediately call for help if anything goes wrong. The young master was always carefree.
He had being in the family for only a few years after his training. He started his training at a young age making it easy for him to finish earlier than most of the others.
He glanced at his hand held by young master Jace and could not help but smile. This was a privilege he doubt any of Young master Liam's guards might be privileged enough to enjoy. To hold or shake the hand of anyone from the Hart family was a very great honor among his fellow guards.
It was a honor for him to protect Young Master Jace and he was ready to do his best.
"Beautiful please what is your name?" Jace asked as soon as he caught up with them and released his guard's hand.
Anna and Rose ignored him but Rose gave him a smile.
"What is your sister's name?" Jace asked walking beside Rose since she smiled at him.
"Anna," Rose replied after hesitating for a while.
"That is a very beautiful name. My name is Jace," he introduced himself to Anna now walking beside her with a cheeky smile.
Anna scoffed and tried to walk faster but Jace was right behind her determined to make her answer all the questions he had to ask.
Rose sighed hoping Anna won't snap and get angry. She was really expecting the boy to get a punch on his face from Anna's fist. Anna was not easily provoked to the point she was at the moment and she would definitely do something out of the line to the source of her provocation.
"Ouch!!!," it was Jace's scream. He looked at the small lady beside him and wondered where she got the strength she got to step on his foot as though she wanted to crush every single bone in his foot. His guard would have stopped her but he gave the guard a signal with the slight wave of his hand. If he knew it would have been so painful, he would have let the guard protect him.
Rose ran to his side while looking around if anyone saw what just happened and to her disappointment a few people saw Anna step on the boy's foot in a not too lady-like manner. If rumors begin spread among the kids to their parents, then it will leave Anna with a bad reputation among the upper class society.
The guy crunched down and from the misty look in his eyes, she could tell that Anna had done a good job with just a single step. She had witnessed the communication between the boy, Jace and his supposed friend. She glanced at the friend who was very expressionless and she could easily guess his identity.
The boy, Jace dressed very simple but then she noticed the gold wrist watch with a popular family crest on his wrist and it immediately gave up his identity. The Hart family, one of the most influential family if not the most influential except for the fact there was a royal family. They ruled the business world and had more companies and buildings in the world than the royal family.
"Are you a member of the hart family?" she had to ask as she fixed her gaze on the wristwatch on his wrist.
"Yes," he answered with a nod.
"Are you Mr. Hart's son?" Anna asked bending to ask the guy who was still trying to massage his hurting foot through his shoes. She could easily remember the stone faced man her father once introduced to her as a friend when she was younger. The uncle appeared scary till he got a box of candy from his secretary and gave her and most importantly, he told her she was beautiful.
She could not see a single sign of resemblance between the man who looked so powerful and the boy who was almost allowing tears to flow from his eyes only because she, a girl stepped on his foot.
"No way," she refused to believe as she watched him closely for any sign that he was lying. She really hoped he was lying because she might not be able to face that stone-faced man to apologize for crushing his son's foot.
"I am Jace. The second son of Mr. Damon Hart," he replied feeling frustrated unbelief. Does that mean he does not look worthy enough to be from the Hart family? When his brother was capable of making people shake in fear at his presence. He stood up to make a powerful stance but his face became distorted due to the pain he felt from his foot.
"I think you should see the school doctor," Anna suggested when she saw the ugly expression he made.
"No, I am fine," he refused immediately but he had to limp back to the class building.
Rose watched him go back with pity while Anna stared at her feet worried about his identity. If she knew he was a son of the hart family, she would have never offended him right from the beginning. She could only pray that her father does not hear about what just happened.
***
"What happened to your leg?" Mr. Damon had to ask when his youngest son limped into the dining room for dinner.
Jace had tried to not limp but the pain was too much he could not hold back. He had to wince at every slight pain her felt or even cry out in his room. He hated pain as much as he hated the sight of blood. But he did not want his father to know who did it to prevent Anna from getting hurt.
"A beautiful bulldozer crushed my foot," that was the silly answer he gave his father making his father, a man who hardly wear any facial expression, now wear a puzzled look.
After careful thought, Mr. Damon could finally understand what Jace was referring to. The love struck smile on Jace's face also said it all. However, no matter how love struck he was by a girl, no girl had the right whatsoever, to hurt his son. He might not say or do a thing if Liam gets hurt by a certain person but no one had the right to hurt Jace.
After dinner, he invited the guard he placed by Jace's side in school to his study. "Who hurt Jace?" he was visibly angry as he stared at the guy ready to have him removed from his son's side if he could not give him a proper answer.
"Miss Anna the first adopted daughter of Mr. Justin Whitfred," the guard answered immediately with his head bowed and his hands held behind his back.
Mr. Damon had to pause at that information. Justin was his friend and he certainly could not hurt the Whitfred family because of his friend and a particular person. He relaxed his back against the back rest of his big black leather chair. "Why did you let her hurt him?" If the guard was wise enough, he would not be in this situation.
"Young master warned me to stay back," the guard answered.
"Who placed you by Jace's side? You won't get to see the next sun rise if Jace ever gets hurt again."
"Yes sir," the guard answered his heart breaking at the thought of him dying if the young master gets hurt again.
"Come up with a reason to protect Jace without condition and without hurting Miss Anna," he ordered hoping the guard's intelligence would not disappoint him.
"Yes Sir," the guard accepted the new order happy in his heart that he got luck to improvise a means.
While the guard was coming up with a method, Rose sat down cross-legged on Anna's bed while Anna sat on the rugged floor as she gave Anna a serious lecture playing the role of a parent since their parents knew nothing about what happened. "You know what you did was dangerous right?" she had to ask.
"Yes."
"You said Mr. Hart is dad's friend what if dad finds out? It is going to get us into trouble."
"It won't happen," Anna said persuasive as she could when she could not even persuade herself.
"The boy you saw behind him was his body guard. He stopped his body guard from hurting you. I guess he really likes you a lot. Do you know what it means to be a friend of someone from the Hart family?"
"I do. They are richer than the royal family and I heard dad say when I was young that the royal family was scared of them."
The royal family was scared of the hart family? That was news to Rose but it was good news. If you are too short to be as tall as someone, you can as well climb something taller than that person and be the tallest. In order to beat the royal family, you had to be taller than them.
"Hey," Anna said waving her hand in front of Rose's face. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing. I just want you to stay as far as you can from trouble. I will also do my best to avoid getting into any kind of trouble."