Lara's room was small, damp, but a level up from what it was at the monastery. A small bed with a mattress and a table flanked by a chair was all that it had. But Lara was happy. She unpacked her bag, taking out another uniform, a chemise and a petticoat. She grabbed her gown and petticoat and rushed to take a bath. As she walked, she couldn't ignore the gurgle of a brook from somewhere behind the quarters. The whole building was sturdily erect as compared to the derelict place where she lived.
Unfortunately, there was not a single spot in the bathroom that was empty. She gritted her teeth and rushed to the right of the building where a brook flowed. Lara looked for a secluded spot where the brook disappeared in between thick trees. She used the opportunity to wash her hands and face in the cool water of the stream. She sat near the banks with her legs in water, trying to clear her mind of the worry and fear she had about the task. She had to finish her assignment successfully, she had to stay clear headed. But why was it that in the king's vicinity she felt threatened. As she splashed water over hands, the burn of her bruises were soothed.
"Calaman's horns! Look how blatantly she sits here!" A shrill female voice came from behind and Lara instinctively grabbed her gown to cover herself. She whipped her head back and saw two girls with sandy brown hair staring at her with rage in their hazel eyes. "Is this how the servants at Draka palace live? Is this how they try to seduce the king or other nobility?"
Lara started shivering. "N— no, m'lady!" she replied. The two girls looked like nobility. They were wearing fine dresses and had beautiful skin. How in the world did they find her? "There was no place for me to take a bath and so I came here," she added.
One of them narrowed her eyes. "You need to be punished. We are going to tell Morava."
"I swear!" the other one rolled her eyes. "Morava should punish her."
"First we need to punish her. Morava will be happy to see how we tackled her."
Lara panicked. Before she could pick her clothes, she was slapped and then punched in the eye. She fell back in the stream. She was punched so hard that she saw stars. This was getting to be too much. When she opened her eyes, she saw a girl sitting on the banks trying to pull her by her feet. As she was being pulled, her back was bruised by the pebbles on the bed of the brook. She groaned in pain and fury. The moment her feet were out of the water, with full force she kicked the girl in self-defense, causing the girl to fall on her ass.
"Giada!" The other girl cried out and darted to her. "What has this bitch done to you!"
"Catch her Orna!" Giada shouted.
Orna tried to catch Lara, but Lara kicked her too. She didn't even know these girls and they were suddenly beating on her? In the next moment, Lara collected her clothes and ran away from them without looking back. She threw on her gown as she ran and had only stopped when she reached her room. Panting heavily, she pressed her hand over her chest as she leaned against the door. She didn't know how she got the courage to kick those girls, but she was trembling. What if the two girls saw her again and complained to the king? They mentioned Morava was going to be his betrothed to him. "Oh gods! I am in a nightmare," she cried.
"Lara?" Glenn's soothing voice fell on her ears. "Did you take a bath?" He surveyed her from head to toe.
"I did," she blurted, panting heavily and smoothing her disheveled hair. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
He gave her a suspicious look looking at her bruises. He asked. "And how did you get those?"
Lara didn't want to reveal that she was taking a bath in the brook instead of the bathrooms because she was in a hurry to reach the library in an hour. "It's nothing!" she replied in a dismissive tone.
"Where would you like to go now?" He offered his assistance. "I can take you there."
She tied her hair up and said, "I'll find my way around." She had to stay hidden until she was sure that the girls had left and then she would leave. But what if they sniffed her all the way here. When Glenn started to leave, she called him. "Can you take me to the library without me getting noticed?"
---
Marcus had been waiting impatiently at the library which had only been half an hour after he took a bath and then skipped his breakfast and the ugly stares of his guests. He must have paced the room a hundred times going between the window and the fire hearth with his hands clasped at his back. Why hadn't she come yet? At one point, he had wanted to go to the servant quarters to see her, but that would mean unnecessary attention for her.
He went to stand next to the window, where his gaze swept across the manicured gardens and graveled pathways that led to the trees of the Eslam forest. Eslam was oddly beautiful, especially at dawn when the first golden rays of the sun fell on it. Not many people knew how vast the forest was. It encompassed the distance between Dwarka and the outskirts of Pegasii. Whenever he had run towards Pegasii, he had felt strange, wicked magic was on the borders. It was so malevolent that he would always turn around before checking it out.
Marcus was in deep thought when a soft knock at the door startled him. He crossed the room with a scowl and opened the door. He found Lara standing there in a disheveled state, her hair damp, wet mud on her and the blue mark around her eye had increased. There was an imprint of fingers on her cheek. A cold sensation skittered down his spine as he locked eyes with her. "Where the devil have you been?" he asked, panicky. He held her hand, pulled her inside and bolted the door. "And were you assaulted in my palace? Who did this to you?"
He examined her from top to bottom as he trembled with rage. Her face was covered in so many injuries that his wolf felt like going on a killing spree of all those who caused it, killing them painfully. He took his trembling hand to her cheek, eyes and then slid them to her hands. Every part in his body all at once was either jolted by the sparks that he felt from the bond from touching her, or was filled with rage.
He held her wrists and pulled her to a cushioned chair where he turned her so that her back faced him. She trembled at his touch and he could feel her increased heart rate. His hand came up to gently curl over her mouth and before she could react, he ripped her gown from the back.
Lara's squeal of surprise and shock was smothered in his palm. "Shh!" he whispered and Lara became quiet as she shuddered against his chest, her hands on his wrist.