Chapter 34

“My lord, your dinner” Desire placed the tray of food on the table and turned to start leaving the room. She wasn’t in the mood of talking or even looking at him tonight. She just wanted to cry herself to sleep and wake up tomorrow to see if things will get better.

“The healer didn’t see you today” Sylvester said, stopping her on her tracks.

“I thought I was supposed to start by tomorrow” Sylvester nodded and opened the food one by one to see what had been cooked for dinner.

“Sit and eat with me, Desire” he offered while already seated trying to sort her own food out.

“No, my lord” Desire replied.

“What did you just say?” Sylvester asked “I said no, my lord. I do not wish to dine with you” Desire replied firmly.

Sylvester stood up and walked towards her and as he did this, Desire walked back until she hit a table which made her stop.

“You know I hate that word especially when it is coming from you”

“I don't care. I just want to go back to my duties”

Sylvester was surprised at the words coming out of her mouth. When she left him this afternoon, she was happy and excited but now, she’s a different version of who he thought she was supposed to be.

“What happened, Dove?”

“Nothing happened and my name is Desire not Dove” she replied angrily.

“Look at me, dove”

“No! It is forbidden” she responded.

“Forbidden! You were moaning out my name in the early hours of the morning and now you think it is forbidden to look at him”

“It was a mistake”

“What?” Sylvester asked angrily.

“This morning was a mistake” She repeated, elaborating this time.

Her declaration sent a pang of pain through Sylvester’s chest. It was as if someone he trusted just stabbed him in the back.

“Look at me Desire” he yelled at her. She jumped a little in fear of his anger but she didn’t look up at him.

“No!”

Sylvester held her face and forced her head up, once their eyes met, he realized she was in pain. Her eyes weren't as bright as they used to be, she had been crying and her eyelashes were not covering up from her.

“What happened to you, Desire? I will kill anyone who dare hurt you” Sylvester threatened “Stop, you’re hurting me” Desire cried out while trying to remove his hard grip on her chin.

“Was it the court lady? or was it Fang?” Sylvester angrily, ready to kill “My neck hurts, please stop! Please! Please Sylvester, please! My neck hurts” Desire cried out using his name for the first time.

This brought Sylvester out of his senses and looked at her thoroughly, he checked her neck and saw that nothing was wrong so he turned her to her back, pushed her thick hair to the other side and almost died from what he saw.

“What happened to you Desire? Who did this?” He asked, already losing his patience.

“It doesn’t matter.” He removed the first button of her uniform and inspected the red mark in confusion.

“I’ll tell someone to get the healer so he could look at this and help reduce the pain” He suggested but Desire pushed him off her.

“Stop! Stop already!! I’m tired of this hellhole! I’m tired of this place! I’m tired of you! I’ve been trying to hold up so long but I can’t anymore, it is choking me to death. Why do I have to take so much insult just because you’re giving me attention? I can’t anymore!” Desire burst into tears for a second time and ran out of his room.

She didn’t go straight to her room because she knew he might come looking for her. She went straight to Lady Nor’s room. She collapsed on the bed and cried her eyes out.

Desire wanted an escape. Her outburst was as a result of finding out who hurt her. She had seen the shoe of the perpetrator before they could walk away from her line of vision and on her way to give Sylvester his dinner, she saw the same person again with the same shoes. She cried her eyes out before sleeping off.

Sylvester had wanted to run after her but Ying who had been by the door all through stopped him from going after her.

Instead, Ying went into the kitchen to ask for what happened to Desire and nobody had a clue yet nobody knew where she was as they all thought she was still with their master.

Every corner of the mansion was searched by Ying, even the maids and lady Nor tried searching for her in her room and every other maid’s room in the mansion but they couldn’t find her.

They all hoped she'd turn up by morning and each person retired to their room. Ying also went on to inform Sylvester of all he had found and how Desire was missing.

Sylvester corrected him that she was only hiding and he hoped she'd be fine even though he didn’t sleep a wink at night and ended up passing the aggression to his work.

Lady Nor entered her room to see Desire coiled like a rope on her bed, sleeping and snoring gently. She was frowning and the tears were still evident in her face.

Lady nor covered her with a cloth trying not to wake her up before she slept beside her, hugging her tightly like a mother would.

Before dawn, Desire awoke almost at the same time as Lady Nor. Trying not to scare her off, Lady Nor decided not to question what had happened the previous day and even gave her extra time to get her acts together and resume for her duties in the kitchen.

By the time Desire emerged from the room after taking her bath and assuring herself that she would be fine, Sylvester had already started having his breakfast.

Once she walked up to Lady Nor, Sylvester lifted his head to see her with her head down. He wanted her to look at him but she kept on staring hard at the floor.

“What an irresponsible servant! Is this the time you’re supposed to come to give your master his breakfast? She lacks all sort of manners, Sylvester, I still don’t know why you haven’t thrown her out” Fang lamented even though it wasn’t her business.

“I’m sorry my lady, but I think this is nothing of your concern. It’ll be rather good if you teach some of these manners you speak to your own maids, they seem to need them more than I do. Forgive me if I spoke too much, my lady”

Fang gasped out at her words, she questioned the audacity that a mere slave had to talk to her that way.

Fei wished she could walk over to her and give her a tight hug.

Lady Nor smiled.

The court lady smirked even though she’ll have to punish her later out of decency.

Ying laughed out loud, suddenly proud of her actions and glad that she was fine while Sylvester was indifferent about the matter.

“Did you hear your lowlife Maid, Sylvester? She just insulted me right in your presence. She has no respect for you or me” Fang complained

“What do you want me to do about it?” Sylvester asked, not seeing anything wrong with what she said.

“Punish her, Sylvester. Make her regret saying those words” Fang cajoled him.

“If you say so,”

“Court lady” Sylvester called out about giving his punishment while Fang looked at Desire and smirked.

“Get some of the servants and make them clear out the spare room in my suite and turn it into a regular bedroom and make sure Desire move in before nightfall”

Sylvester commanded and stood up, staring at Desire who wasn’t looking at him for a long time before walking out.