Command From The Crown

Ghostly-silence filled the drawing room of the Montgomery Manor as the Count and Countess had their afternoon tea.

Lonan's eyes followed Rhea's graceful movements as she measured two spoonfuls of sugar and poured them into his teacup, not once meeting his burning gaze.

"You're distracted, wife-dearest," came the mocking taunt as he received the cup she handed to him.

"Am I?" Rhea hummed distractedly as she went about preparing her own cup of tea.

His hand clenched around the delicate cup and his mute annoyance seemed to take physical form -a little angry man who poked her in the ribs until she gave his creator attention.

"My mind is burdened by trivial matters, nothing you have to worry about."

"I doubt that," Lonan hissed with a scowl and took an angry gulp from his tea, followed by a hiss as the liquid burned his lip, some of it spilling on him

He slammed the cup on the little trolley and Rhea dutifully passed him a napkin, that was snatched angrily, and went back to making her tea.

"Jealousy has never been a good look on you..."

"I find it difficult not to be when my wife putters around and coddles our guest day and night while I am left to beg for crumbs of her attention!"

Being raised to one day be a Lady sheltered Rhea from a lot of impropriety, but somehow she found herself fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

"He is our guest..."

Lonan's scoff interrupted her, his dark eyes glaring ahead like his one-sided enemy was in the room with them.

"Our," he mumbled with a bitter curl of his lip that quickly disappeared when one of the Grand Duke's personal guards walked past the window, with a small bow to the couple.

Now more than ever, when fingers and wagging tongues were searching for who could be responsible for the beloved Duke's near demise, Lonan had to stifle whatever animosity he had towards Augustus, and he was enraged at becoming a 'prisoner under surveillance in his own home'.

"We need to show solidarity with the Grand Duke in a time as murky as this, especially because he was attacked in our territory," she lectured, steadily as she raised her prepared cup of tea from the saucer.

"Do not lecture me like I am your bloody child! I have been a noble longer than you could ever dream to be!"

She nodded in apology, silently praying to the Holy Mother for patience to get through the tiresome afternoon.

With a small sigh through her nose Rhea took a sip of her tea and froze when the liquid flowed into her mouth, dampening her tongue.

Like a woman electrocuted, she pulled the cup away from her lips, the sip she had taken still seated warmly on her tongue.

Cautiously, she swallowed and turned to face Lonan, who was watching her with a brow raised in bored curiosity.

"What is the matter?"

"My tea tastes different from the brews of the last few days, yet similar to what I've been drinking for the last few years."

She had not noticed it while talking to Lonan, but it's yellow colour was of a darker hue than it had been the last few days, yet the same shade as the tea she had been for the last few years.

Her favourite tea was back to normal after so long of lamenting the change, and yet, rather than joy, she felt perturbed.

Rhea was a creature of habit; being served the same tea with a slight difference in taste, colour, and texture that she could not identify a cause for was enough to drive her insane.

"You obsess over the pettiest of things..."

"Do not dismiss the fact that I have been drinking this tea for the last seven years. For all I know, I could have been drinking a bad batch, for the last few days!"

She slammed her cup down on the saucer with a loud bang that rattled the delicate ceramic and echoed in the room.

Remembering herself, Rhea steeled herself for his reprimand but was met with silence as Lonan stared at her cup with a scrunch of his brows and distress in his eyes.

"It is just tea," he pronounced with finality, then rose to his feet with a suddenness that alarmed her.

"Alice asked that I spend the afternoon with her, so I will take my leave. You may return to the Grand Duke's side."

He gave one last glance at her tea, then made his way out of the room, leaving Rhea to follow his fleeing figure with wide eyes and raised brows.

Not only had he not reprimanded her for her outburst, but he had, without notice, encouraged her to go to Augustus when the whole purpose of insisting on afternoon tea was to keep Rhea away from Augustus.

She lifted her cup higher, silently contemplating if what she assumed was usual paranoia had some truth to it. And if it did, was her husband aware of it? It was too heavy and damning of a subject to think about, so she simply pushed it to the back of her mind and got to doing what she did best: serve.

The guards stationed at Augustus' bedroom door greeted her with a bow when she arrived and they promptly let her in, used to her timely visits.

Rhea always wondered if they ever judged her for being alone with another man, as a married woman. But, confronted with nothing but smiles and the occasional joke about their Lord's snoring, they had never given any indication of their dissaproval

Augustus was stood by the large windows when her heels clicked against the floor of his bedroom, looking out into the distance with what appeared to be letters gripped in a tight fist.

He was shirtless, baring the bandages wound around his torso and left arm, but that was not what caught her attention.

It was the scars stretched across his broad back that had her walking towards him, entranced.

They were long and paler than his tanned skin, some stretching longer than others and curling with his ribs while a few littered the back of his arms.

Rhea was no expert, but she could swear they were whip marks, vicious enough to have scarred so deeply, and she wondered how a Grand Duke could get such marks on himself.

"I have been sent a command," Augustus began, his gaze unwavering from whatever he saw on the horizon. "From the very head that wears the crown."

"The King?!" Rhea exclaimed with uncontained excitement, and she hurried over to his side.

That caught his attention, and Augustus turned to face her, his face tight with muted anger.

"It seems that our righteous ruler is not only a leader but a physician as well, for he has decided being in my Dukedom would encourage my quick healing."

Rhea bit into the soft flesh of her cheek until she tasted blood. "How soon are you to leave?"

"By evening tomorrow," he squeezed the letter until it was nothing but a ball and then tossed it into the corner.

Rhea could not fathom why Augustus was so angry at the King, but finding out he would be leaving so soon after the trauma of his first departure had her sharing his rage towards their exalted ruler.

"Is that too soon, my Lady," he made her eyes meet his with a gentle hand under her chin and then stroked her cheek. "I know you still have your reservations about leaving..."

She opened her mouth to argue, but he cut her short.

"...though you hide it well." He conceded with a small smile. "The last thing I wish is for you to feel coerced into moving to Ravenholm, so far from the only home you know."

"I was born here, and once upon a time, I was so sure I would die here too." Rhea sighed tiredly and she glanced out into the sprawling fields of the Manor that had once been her little kingdom.

"Then stay for as long as you need. I will have some of my men stay back also, and when you are ready, I will travel down here to sweep you off your feet and personally escort you to Ravenholm."

A bashful smile bloomed on Rhea's face, and she bit her lower lip, still tasting the sweetness of her tea tinged with blood.

"Alright," agreed Rhea with a small nod, refusing to meet his eyes for fear that she would see disappointment in them. "All I need is a week or perhaps longer to sort out the..." her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat before continuing, "...separation, and then I will call for you."

"As you wish," he answered, his voice carefully blank, and then pressed a soft kiss to her head. "I have to pen a response to the King, a rather tedious matter when trying not to curse him to hell and back, so I will see you during dinner."

It was a dismissal, polite yes, but a dismissal nonetheless, and it left a sour taste in Rhea's mouth.

Nevertheless, she nodded her head obediently then made her way towards the door.

Hand on the doorknob, she gave Augustus, who was still standing by the window staring out, one last glance, an apology on the tip of her tongue, then exited the room with a soft click of the door.

A maid walked by her with a polite bow and 'My Lady,' a title that had been returned to her by Lonan's sudden change of mind.

In her hands was a large tray bearing half-eaten desserts, as if the eater had tasted each one and quickly dismissed it.

Enough indication not take that Alice's cravings were acting up, and it soured her mood even further.

She glanced down the hall to her left, where her bedroom was located then down the right that led to the kitchens.

A voice at the back of her head whispered non-stop until Rhea could no longer ignore her suspicions and, like a woman on a mission, followed after the maid turning the corner.