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GARDEN OF POISON
Fairness no one needed( Chapter 84)
Anastasia felt his warm fingers drop from her cheek while she stared at him with a stunned expression.
It finally dawned on her that he had apologised for the kiss he had stolen from her, her face flushing with embarrassment, and she quickly hid her lips behind her hand. She saw how he looked at her, his expression calm while his midnight eyes sparkled with newfound intensity.
Her heart began to beat out of control, not expecting things to change like this. She shook her head and whispered,
"No."
She wanted to go home; she wanted to be home. She knew this entanglement was not what she desired.
Dante's eyes subtly narrowed while his face held the same composed expression. It wasn't as if he was expecting her to agree, knowing what was running through her mind right now. He could read her like an open book. She looked even more aware of him than she previously was, her mind disregarding the pain she had endured only to become consumed by thoughts of him.
"I can't let you go, Anastasia," Dante responded, his voice holding the same tenderness from a few minutes before.
"Can't or won't?" Anastasia asked him, leaning her upper body back so the prince wouldn't take her by surprise with another unexpected kiss.
Dante's lips twitched slightly in response to her action and words, as if wanting to curl into a smile.
"Won't."
Anastasia was lost in her thoughts, not realising that Dante had leaned towards her. She said,
"Prince Dante, I don't want to be kept… I want to be freed. Let me go." She had told him this before, then why?
"You will be free when you are mine," Dante responded, watching her brown eyes holding questions and doubts. "It is true that I won't let you go, but it is also true that I cannot let you flee from the kingdom. You saw how it goes down when someone attempts to escape. They get captured."
"I don't want to be anyone's concubine!" Anastasia voiced her objection with a sense of urgency, feeling like she was losing time, while Prince Dante's decision solidified with every second that passed between them. A prince could take a woman as his wife only if she were a woman of status, and any other partner would be relegated to the position of a concubine. "You know I don't want to," she pleaded in a whisper.
Dante's eyes hardened before he said, "I am not my father, so I won't take more than one woman for my partner. You have my word on it." He said, "I believe it will ensure your safety and prevent incidents like the one that occurred today. Of course, I won't force you because I want you to willingly agree. And for you to willingly come to me."
"Your brother… King Maxwell said something similar to my sister. But in the end, she had no choice, Prince Dante," Anastasia's eyes turned moist. "And she died."
"Then you should know that I am nothing like my family," Dante paused before he added, "In those matters," knowing she would voice her need to leave. He reached out for her hand, which was still positioned near her face, holding it in his.
Anastasia preferred the Dante that would have been pointing his dagger at her right now. Things had only gotten more difficult for her to escape.
Instead of glaring at her or being irritated, he watched her patiently. She pursed her lips before saying,
"I don't feel like that towards you."
Prince Dante might have a reputation for being ruthless to the ones that needed to be punished, but he also had the reputation of being a moral man. There was a possibility that she could sway his mind with her words. Instead of being deterred, he stated,
"You care enough to sacrifice your sleep and leave your bed to come to me at night. You're brave enough to step into the cave to tend to my wounds. I can work with that, to bring you to where I am and beyond."
Anastasia clenched her hands and ended up unintentionally squeezing Dante's hand as he held onto one of hers. She asked him, "And what if I don't get there?"
"We have plenty of time," Dante remarked, but he was determined to make her his. When a tear slipped from her eye, Dante leaned forward and kissed it away. He said, "Don't be sad, Anastasia. It isn't my intention to trap you."
"It is a tear of frustration," Anastasia whispered, and she wanted to glare at him, but she had no energy left for the day.
"How about this, one day in the future, I will take you to your home so that you can visit your family?" Dante asked her, not wanting to push her too much, and he pulled away from her to give her space.
Anastasia's eyebrows furrowed, and she asked, "Will I get to stay there?"
"Sure. When the desert turns into a sea," Dante answered with a straight face that could fool one into believing for a moment that there was a chance of such a thing happening.
"You should lie down and let your back rest," he advised her.
Anastasia nodded as she felt overwhelmed by the events of the day, and when she went to lie down on the bed, Dante's hand reached for the front of her shoulder to offer support. She finally laid on her front, and the room became quiet, yet her thoughts were loud and busy.
She watched Dante get up from the edge of the bed and put the first aid box away, along with the other things like the used cloth and cotton. Curious now, she asked him,
"What happened at the scaffold?" She didn't know what had happened between her falling unconscious and waking up in this room.
"Emily drafted a royal order calling for the release of the ones who were being unjustly punished and put our grandmother's seal on it. Then I brought you here."
"Thank you," Anastasia murmured, noticing him pull a chair near the bed and take a seat. Coincidentally, it was also the same direction she had turned her head. She heard him say,
"I will be here just in case you need something."
She nodded and then closed her eyes. Several minutes passed in silence, but she didn't fall asleep, as Dante's words played in the back of her mind.
Today marked one of the three worst days she had experienced in the royal palace. The first was when she and her sister were forced apart, and the second was finding Marianne's lifeless body on the ground. As for today… she didn't even realise when she lost consciousness thanks to the youngest princess. Thinking about it sent shivers down her body, leaving her filled with fear, as she realised her fate inched closer to death than the freedom she desired.
Anastasia wondered what Prince Dante saw in her to decide she would be his concubine. There were concubines and courtesans who wanted to capture his attention, and they would be happy if he chose them. Slowly, she opened her eyes and felt her heart skip a beat upon meeting his gaze.
Her first kiss… was gone.
She could still feel his soft lips press against hers, and her eyes lowered from his.
"Stop thinking about the kiss and get some sleep," Dante commented, and this only made Anastasia want to burrow her face into the pillow.
"I wasn't thinking about it," Anastasia replied.
Dante's eyes captured the never-ending blush that adorned her cheeks, but she didn't meet his gaze and quickly closed her eyes. He stayed there until she fell asleep, her breathing calm, and her body relaxed.
Dante took out a blanket from one of the cupboards. He then covered her up to her waist, letting the wounds on her back heal without being obstructed. Sitting down on his heels, he watched her softly snore, with pieces of her hair hovering in front of her face.
"Fall for me quickly, so that I can protect you properly," Dante murmured without waking her. "Just don't run away."
Getting up from where he sat, he made his way to the door. Stepping out of the room, he pulled the door closed before locking it behind him.
He made his way down the stairs and reached the door on the ground floor. He locked it with the same key before heading toward the kitchen's back door. Upon entering through it, he caught the servants whispering and murmuring as they worked.
"All these years, she hasn't spoken a word. I never saw her talk to Theresa either. Why do you think she kept silent?"
"Maybe she went into shock and turned mute," one of the servants whispered.
"Did you hear that she was the one who drew those things and not Charlotte? She's lucky her tongue wasn't cut out."
"Yours will be if you don't stop talking about it," Dante's words were curt as he glared at the servants who hadn't noticed him, prompting them to quickly bow at him. He then looked around the room, before his eyes fell on a slightly plump woman. He walked to where the older woman stood and said,
"You can leave the work here to the ones gossiping. There's somewhere else where your assistance is required."
The royal courtroom, devoid of the presence of the ministers, now contained only the Blackthorn royal family members. Despite the doors being closed, Dante could hear the voices of his family emitting from within the room as he approached it. Opening the door, he offered a slight bow before making his way towards where his family stood before King Maxwell, who sat on the throne.
Queen Maya stood on the left side of the throne with her daughter, Niyasa, and she demanded,
"I was very clear about punishing the servants, wasn't I, Emily? Or did you fail to pay heed to my words, purposely going against my orders?"
"As I said before, I was the one who interfered," the Mother Queen responded, standing on the opposite side along with Emily and Aiden, who stood one step behind her. "I think it is quite harsh to punish the servants whom I had rewarded with a gold coin due to their remarkable loyalty to myself and others."
"Your generosity cost us two servants who fled," Queen Maya stated, her eyes furious. "Yaretzi, who served you for the briefest of mo—"
"A moment, Queen Maya," the Mother Queen raised her hand, and the former concubine narrowed her eyes at the interruption. "I never asked for the maid to come and pay attention to me. It was my lovely granddaughter Niyasa who did. I believed that by sending her maid to me, she wanted to make sure I didn't fall or do something that would bring harm. And as for the servant, she stole Niyasa's necklace. Not mine."
Niyasa turned to look at her brother and complained, "King Maxwell, Emily wrote the royal order and halted the execution of the punishment."
"What does it matter whose writing it was when it was done under Grandmother's orders?" Emily questioned her younger sister. She added, "There was nothing left to punish when they weren't conscious."
"She and the others stole the gold coins! It wasn't even hers to keep. And she can speak!" Niyasa informed the king. "She has been lying to everyone."
"And she didn't cause any harm!" Emily retaliated in anger, not knowing why her sister was so hell-bent on hurting her maid. "Are you jealous that you don't have her serving you because she's talented?"
"I don't need a thief as a maid, Sister," Niyasa huffed, but Emily responded by saying,
"No, you don't. Because you have plenty of them already." This had Niyasa flare in anger, but before she could utter another word, King Maxwell stopped them,
"That's enough!"
Silence fell upon the royal courtroom. Queens and sisters glared at each other, their eyes sparking and their tongues firmly held in check until they were allowed to speak. Plagued by his thoughts, the king was losing patience while listening to his sisters bicker with each other. He turned to Dante and questioned,
"Where are the thieves who stole and ran away from the palace?"
"They have been caught and are being held in the dungeon," Dante answered promptly.
"Have them brought here now," King Maxwell ordered, wanting to see the thieves himself.
Aiden was the one to respond before Dante could, saying, "I will go tell the guards," and he quickly exited the room.
"How dare you go against my mother's order, Emily?" King Maxwell demanded of his first sister. "The Mother Queen might be a queen, but the queen who holds the highest power is my mother, which means her word rules supreme over any others. Yet you defied such simple orders. You will be punished for it."
"King Maxwell," the Mother Queen began, but the king raised his hand, preventing her from uttering a word.
Emily clenched her hands and replied, "I don't think my maid made any mistakes that she had to be punished for in the first place. It was Niyasa's actions that resulted in the gold coin being in her possession. Although she presented herself as being unable to speak, her actions didn't hurt anyone." She added, "I will take my punishment gladly, but Niyasa should be punished along with me."
"What?!" Niyasa snapped back.
"For punishing people for being in possession of the gold coins, when it was our own family members that bestowed them. I believe what they went through was unjust. Being whipped and humiliated in public," Emily's words were firm.
"And what are your thoughts on it, Brother?" King Maxwell noticed Dante didn't bother to participate in the discussion. "Do you think our sisters should be punished? Or the Mother Queen for defying orders? I heard that you were the one to halt the execution of the punishment," his blue eyes stared keenly at his elder brother.
Dante knew that if he showed the slightest interest in the matter, Maxwell would only do the opposite and make things harder, so he had only been quietly listening. He felt all eyes shift to look at him.
"Niyasa's anger was directed at the wrong target, but it is understandable. Considering her bad luck with maids, which is as bad as Emily's," Dante spoke, his voice loud and clear. He continued, "But to punish a servant for possessing a gold coin when our father gave it to them is disrespectful. It should have been handled with more care."
"So you're telling me that my decision to search for additional thieves was wrong," King Maxwell smiled at his brother. "However, since you, my brother, are the embodiment of adherence to rules, I will let it pass just this once. But Mother Queen," he addressed his grandmother, "You will be handing over your seal so that you cannot issue any other royal orders."
The Mother Queen was displeased by the king's decision, but she replied, "Consider it done, King Maxwell," she smiled.
"Unfortunately, I cannot punish Niyasa, because what she did was carried out on my orders with the intention of finding more thieves," King Maxwell stated, and turned to look at his first sister, saying, "In the interest of fairness, Emily, I will not punish you and instead will grant a promotion to your maid. One that only a servant can dream of, by appointing her as a royal palace courtesan."
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