Dressing His Wound

Back at the palace...

The moment the maidservants saw him, their steps halted and their heads lowered until the Princess's Knight was no longer in sight. Seeing that the man seemed to be in a hurry, the maidservants began to speculate that the Knight had come to see the Princess for an important matter.

However, before they could start and gossip about this, their supervisor had appeared to stop them from talking.

Laif approached the Princess's quarters and was greeted by the maidservants at the door. When he entered the study, the two knights, Mori and Iris were inside as they were on duty. He nodded towards the two knights and signaled for the Princess's maidservants to leave him and the Princess alone.

"What's wrong?" Princess Amelia asked as she watched her maidservants retreating. She turned to Laif and did not miss his anxiousness.

"Your Highness," Laif greeted. "Kain, and your maidservant, Rae had returned from their task in the village," he reported.

Her gaze softened upon knowing that the villagers were well taken of.

"Kain reported that Lady Evans had a few men tailing after her," Laif continued. "I suspected that your enemies are beginning to suspect that we are up to something. They wanted to keep their eyes on Lady Evans and see if she will try to contact His Majesty."

Amelia let out a gasp. Her hands clutched at her breast as she thought of Lady Evans and her brother. She was supposed to meet her brother and Lady Evans was supposed to accompany her. Now that people were keeping their eyes on her friend, she could no longer ask her to go with her.

"And how's Lady Evans? Is she safe?"

"Don't worry, Your Highness. Lady Evans is safe," Laif assured her. "Those men would not dare to pull something dangerous as harming the daughter of Maxwell Evans. Your enemy might be desperate to know what you are up to, but they are no fool."

Amelia heaved a breath of relief. "I hope so." A deep frown appeared on her face as she tried to think of her next step. She looked up again in a while and spoke, "Will you ask the maidservant to summon Lady Evans to the palace?"

Laif nodded. "Certainly."

"No. Wait!" Amelia said abruptly. She hesitated as she began to rethink her decision. "Laif, I have a request."

...

In the courtyard...

Eileen Cloud set down the sack she was carrying when she finally found that the King was sitting on the porch. She looked around to look for his guard, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

"It's time to change your dressing, your majesty," Eileen announced when the King lifted his head to look at her.

Without saying anything, Asher took off his clothes slowly to make it easier for the physician to do her job. He watched the woman changed the dressing in silence and frowned when she began to apply some medicine powder to his wound.

At this time, the wound around his stomach had stopped bleeding. The wound was supposed to heal, but after that swordfight with his sister's knight, the wound had reopened and would need some time before it can fully recover.

"Will you tell me what's on your mind?"

Her soft voice snapped him out of his trance.

Asher let out a long sigh as he gazed upon the Dianthus flower in his hand.

A while ago, Finn had handed him a bag of medicine and told him that the bag came from Lady Miria Evans. The moment Asher saw the flower, he immediately knew that Lady Evans was trying to send him a message. Something came up and it was possible that his sister would not be showing up to meet him when the night falls.

"I'm worried about my sister," Asher said.

Eileen looked up and met the King's gaze briefly before she continued to do her job.

Previously, Eileen was surprised when the King had announced that he had no intention of going back to the palace. He was determined to continue his investigation and find out the people who wanted to harm the royal family. Surprisingly, the Princess agreed with his plan.

"The Princess's strong and brave," Eileen said. "She did not give in even after Daren had claimed that the charred body was you." She glanced at the King and noticed that his worry had not gone away. Eileen took some clean clothes and began to wrap them around the King's injured stomach. "Didn't you mention that the Princess had an excellent knight around her?"

His expression changed the moment he thought of the knight who stayed by his sister's side.

Asher knew well that Laif was capable to protect his sister from danger. He has seen and tested his skills. But, his intuition warned him that there was something about this knight, and he did not like the feeling.

It might sound outrageous, but the first time he saw his sister and that knight together, Asher had a hunch that someday, that knight will take his sister away from him.

Eileen saw the change in his expression and raised a brow. Suddenly, she was interested to know more about this knight. "I heard you have a swordfight against him. How is he?"

"He had excellent fighting skills." Asher had to admit this fact.

"I heard that he fought against you and Leo, at the same time. Even with your injury, to fight against you and your guard, one against two should prove that he got skills."

Asher groaned in annoyance. "I don't like him."

Eileen looked up and chuckled. "You always have been an overprotective brother to the Princess."

Asher narrowed his eyes but refrained to say anything. He watched as she finished dressing his wound and inspected her neat work. "Thank you."

The physician nodded. "You're welcome." Slowly, Eileen began to pack her stuff and put them back into her sack.

"Eileen, thank you for choosing to stay with me this time."

Her movement halted. Eileen turned to Asher and flashed a smile. "I would do anything for you, Your Majesty."

His expression changed at the way the physician had addressed her. Although she had chosen to stay with him, somehow, Asher could detect that the woman wanted to keep her distance from him. His thought went back to the year when they parted.

When Eileen had left the palace, Asher was very sure that he will never meet her again. He understood that she was someone with dreams, and he could not stop her from going after her dreams.

"You know... you never tell me where you have been to after you left the palace."