Marcellus eyed I-da as she entered the room, giving her a glance over before turning his attention back to the man seated across from him. He looked relaxed as he leaned back into his chair, as if he was the owner of this house and Marcellus was the visiting guest.
"It has been awhile since we last spoke, Marquess Williams."
"Indeed it has."
"I see the king has you on your toes… as usual"
"It is my duty."
"I would have have thought the king would be a little more lenient with you, seeing that you're his nephew…"
"The king is not biassed."
"A magnificent ruler he is then… isn't he?"
Marcellus didn't answer, instead he asked, "would you like some tea, Lord Javier?"
Lord Javier smiled, "tea would be lovely."
Marcellus signals to I-da and she nodded before exiting the room to talk to the servant stationed out front before reentering shortly after.
A couple minutes later there was a knock on the door and I-da opened it to allow three servants to enter with tea and refreshments. The servants gave a polite bow before placing the trays of goods on the little table that was stationed between both lords. Yasmin's hands shook slightly as she poured two cups of tea, feeling both sets of the lord's eyes on her, she felt slightly nervous. She had managed to get the job done without spilling a drop before quickly standing off to the side where Ida and Isabelle were. They were soon quickly joined by Nitta who had finished dishing out pastries for the lords.
Lord Javier leaned forward in his seat to take up his cup of tea, carefully he took a sip before leaning back in the chair with a pleased hum. "I see some new faces among your servants…how long have they been here?"
Marcellus was in the middle of sipping his tea when he heard Lord Javier's question. After a second sip he answered, "It's recent, a week perhaps."
"Hmm I see…" Lord Javier hummed softly, letting his eyes trail over both girls. "They are quite lovely to look at, I especially like that one–" he points to Yasmin, "-she reminds me of home."
Yasmin's nerves spiked a little, why did she have to be the one to gain his attention. 'Was this some kind of punishment for creating the psychopath?' she thought.
Marcellus was silent for a moment before speaking, "how's lady Amari?"
Javier smiled at the mention of his sister, "she's doing wonderful, actually she is the main reason why i'm here"
"Her upcoming birthday I presume?"
"Ah! You remembered!" Lord Javier's face lit up with a bright smile, "That's fantastic."
Marcellus sighed softly, "How could I not, you come here to invite me personally every time…"
Lord Javier gave a sheepish laugh, "well you are an important friend of mine."
"I see."
The room went silent as both lords focused on sipping their tea and lord Javier occasionally munching on the pastries provided. He was also the one to break the silence yet again.
"I have a presumptuous request to make, Lord Williams…"
Marcellus paused briefly before looking up to meet his eyes, "...go on?"
"I would like to request a gift for Amari," he glanced to his right, looking at the servants from his peripheral, "a very specific one…"
Yasmin side eyed Lord Javier at his statement, she had a bad feeling about this and could only cross her fingers and start chanting in her mind that nothing goes wrong.
Marcellus followed Javier's line of sight before looking at him with raised eyebrows.
"And what might this…'specific' gift be?"
"Well you know about Amari's preferences…"
"Yes, I am aware of her….odd tastes."
"Well I think that one of your servants would make a lovely gift for her. Don't you think so?"
Yasmin, 'please please please please-'
"And which one of my servants has caught your eyes?"
Lord Javier smirked, "I'm sure you know, lord Williams."
As if on cue, both men turned their heads to look at Yasmin.
Yasmin, 'Fuck.'
Both lords continued their afternoon tea talking about random things, when they got bored of such activities they decided to take a walk around the compound.
Before leaving the room Marcellus turned to Yasmin, "pack what you need and wait in the waiting room until Lord Javier returns, you now belong to him. Understand?"
"Yes, Master Williams"
With a pleased hum he left the room, leaving four servants to ponder to themselves. The room was dead silent with Yasmin staring at the door as if her master was going to return and change his mind, but no matter how long she stared, the door never once opened.
"What the fuck just happened." Ofcourse it was Nitta who broke the silence. She was staring wide eyed at Yasmin as if she couldn't believe what had just transpired.
"Language" I-da scolded but she too had a bewildered look on her face.
"Well sorry, but how do you expect me to react to our master pimping Yasmin out to some psycho!"
"He didn't pimp-" Nitta raised her eyebrow at I-da and she quickly retract her statement- "okay maybe he did–"
"--right"
"--but, but she's meant for the Lady Amari"
"--she's the sister of the psycho, do you really expect her to be any better? Besides you know how much she likes to play with wo–"
"Enough," I-da sighed, "Yasmin, how do you feel about this?"
"…."
"Yasmin?"
Noticing that the subject of their discussion hasn't spoken a word since both lords left the room, Nitta and I-da turned towards Yasmin only to see her still looking at the door with a blank stare and Isabelle standing close behind her with a look of concern.
"Um, Yasmin?" Nitta called as she walked to her and tapped her shoulder, "you okay?"
"....ed to lea..ve…" Yasmin mumbled, eyes still focused on the door.
Nitta didn't hear her clearly and asked, "what was that?"
"I need to leave."
"Oh right, I'll help you pack a bag. I still can't believe you have to–"
"No." Yasmin said, finally looking away from the door. "I need to leave right now, before he comes back."
Nitta looked at Yasmin confused before her eyes widened in realisation.
"You mean to run away?"
Yasmin nodded.
I-da gasped, "Are you crazy?!"
"Do you know what happens to runaway slaves if they catch them?" She hissed quietly then walked over to Yasmin and grabbed her arms. "Look, I get that you're scared but what you might or might not experience at the Augusta estate will never compare to what will happen if you try to run away."
Yasmin looked deep into I-da's eyes and saw how concerned she was for her. Of Course she knew the risk and punishments for runaway slaves, she made them, just like how she made lord Javier and knew perfectly of his cruelty. Though, she's meant as a gift for his sister and not him, she couldn't help but panic. She didn't remember much about Amari from the book, barely even mentioned her to he honest. So, she was basically going in blind to meet this woman. Was she as cruel has her brother?
With a deep sigh, Yasmin nodded at I-da, "I won't do anything stupid….I promise."
20 minutes later…
"What happened to not doing anything stupid?!" Ida whispered angrily as they hurriedly walked down the halls.
"My fingers were crossed."
"Unbelievable–"
"Shhhhhhh, someone's coming." Nitta hushed and everyone stopped in their tracks to brace against the wall. A few servants walked by, just going about their day and the girls released a breath of relief.
"Phew my heart stopped for a minute."
"What's even the plan?" I-da asked.
"I don't know," Yasmin shrugged.
"What do you mean you don't know? Are we just gonna run around like headless chickens?"
Yasmin didn't respond as they continued to walk briskly down the hallways. She didn't think this through, she just panicked and started looking for a way out. Maybe she could run away to another kingdom, it would take a while to find her seeing that she wasn't branded like other slaves…
Then she remembered the contract. It was signed with her blood and they could always use that to track her.
All of this was pointless.
With a resolute sigh, Yasmin stopped in her tracks. "Let's go to the waiting room…"
"Yasmin…"
"It's fine, we all knew it was pointless from the beginning anyways."
They all looked at Yasmin with pity, wishing there was something they could do to help. The walk back to the waiting room was a quiet one, when the girls arrived, Yasmin was shocked to see that Master Williams and Lord Javier were already there sitting and waiting.
"Didn't I tell you to wait here?"
Yasmin couldn't help but gulp, "I'm sorry Master Williams…"
Marcellus said nothing but turned his attention to Lord Javier, "Here," he handed him a roll up paper carefully tied with a purple ribbon, "as promised, she's yours."
It was after those words that Yasmin realised what that paper was, it was her contract. She knew that Marcellus was basically giving her away to the Augusta estate but she hadn't expected that it was to this extent of even giving up her slave contract. He was relinquishing his ownership and control over her and pasting it on to this psycho.
Yasmin's little hope vanished in a puff of smoke. She had managed to calm herself on the little walk over to the waiting room, telling herself that even though she was being handed over to Lord Javier he still didn't have complete ownership over her and therefore couldn't really do to her as he pleased, but this changed everything.
She was officially fucked.