The King's Mistress (Underconstruction/Editing)

Chapter Six: Discovery (EDITED)

(Wesley)

My heart races, blood boiling with each confident stride that takes me toward the quivering girl that awaits me. A trickle of sweat makes its way down the length of my spine. I do not recall a time when the presence of a woman did affect me so. The idea is practically laughable. Here I am, a King, and I practically stumble through the narrow passageways of my palace just for the chance to plunge myself between a woman's thighs.

I brush past several servants. Not one dares glance in my direction. They needn't ask what quickens my pace. I am sure word has already spread amongst them of the young and, hopefully, eager lass that waits in my chambers. I catch a pair of gossiping hens flocking in my direction. I ignore them. My attention cannot and will not be diverted.

As I round a corner, I collide with a most unsurpringing figure. Duchess Elena blinks, head lifting ever so slightly. Only she would have such audacity as to look the King in the eye without permission. A faint smile crosses her lips. She dips into a curtsey. This woman is utterly fearless.

"Your Grace." There is just the barest flicker of amusement in her voice.

"Duchess." I reply in turn. She's just left my bedchamber. My eyes travel from her pale complexion to the door just a few feet behind her.

If I inquire of what awaits me beyond that door, will she answer in honesty? Or will she lie to my face? "What brings you here?" I ask as if I do not already know the answer to this question.

"I wished to have a moment with your highness, before he enters his bedchamber." She folds her arms across her ample bosom.

"Oh? Well, on with it in. I have...other business to attend to."

Her smile broadens, "My niece, your Grace. She fears what is to come."

Heat coils in the pit of my stomach. To be perfectly frank, I'd expected a lie. Instead, she chooses the path of honesty. Given her rank, this is quite surprising, "Entering the King's bedchambers without permission is punishable by death, Elena." I warn, using her given name for the first time in many years.

A laugh escapes her, "We both know you do not intend on sending Aya to the gallows. You may be many things but you are not your father."

My jaw tightens at the mention of my father, "And what do you know of my father?" I surprise even myself with the amount of hostility that laces those words.

Elena takes no offense. Her gaze softens, "You forget, your Grace. I resided in the castle for a time. Your father...well, he was not a kind man. He was rather insistent that I become his mistress at one point in time, shortly after you were born if memory serves me correctly.

"You were but a child." Though this did not honestly surprise me. Father did many things whilst wearing the crown, much of which was kept secret. Elena was barely ten years older than myself. If he'd set his eyes upon her shortly after my birth, that would've put her around the age of ten or eleven depending on how old I was at the time.

Elena sees the utter look of disgust rippling across my face, "Do not fret. I was able to escape his grip when my own mother fell ill. I was summoned away from the court to care for her. By the time I returned, your father had set his attention on another."

Clearing my throat, I am quick to direct this conversation elsewhere, "Your niece...is she here on her own accord?"

The pause that follows paired with the flash of guilt across Elena's face confirms my suspicions, "If you know me as well as you claim to, you know I will not take an unwilling participant into my bed."

She nods, "I am aware, your majesty. I cannot force either of you into this but I can only plead with your highness to think of her well being."

I lift an eyebrow, "And forcing her into my bed helps her how exactly?"

"Her father will not allow her back into his house if the King rejects her. He thinks of her as his daughter no longer, now that she no longer withholds her purity."

"So, she has felt a man's touch before?"

She nods in agreement, "Aye. But, your majesty, there is something I fear I must tell you."

Duchess Elena proceeds to describe the circumstances of the young Aya's deflowering. My anger grows with each passing moment. The audacity of that man, the one that claims to be Aya's father, to insist she marry the very man that deflowered her by force. That man best pray he never steps foot within these castle walls. The outcome will be less than pleasant for him.

"She remembers very little of the incident." Elena insists as if that makes any difference.

"Good god woman! Have you lost your sanity?!" I can contain my anger no longer, "You speak as if that girl has not undergone a serious trauma."

Her lips press together in muted anger, "I think no such thing. I merely want what is best for Aya. I firmly believe that this is the best place for her. If you choose not to bed her, than she shall accompany me back to my estate. Though I love my brother dearly, he should never have had children. He is not the fatherly sort."

I pinch the bridge of my nose, "This man, the one that defiled her, what became of me?"

Again, she pauses. Her eyes lower. There is something she does not wish me to know. I do not believe in secrets.

"Out with it." I order. She knows better than to defy the order of a King.

"This has been spoken to no one since that awful day. I doubt even my brother knows the truth. The one that defiled her ...it is not the boy that confessed."

Confusion flutters in my breast. If it is not the boy that confessed to the crime, than who could have possibly committed such an atrocious act. I wait in silence for the Duchess to finish. Nothing could prepare me for the next words to leave her mouth.

"My husband was not an honorable man," She inhales sharply, "When I discovered the truth of what he had done, I sought to rectify the situation myself. I confronted him. He did not bother to deny it. I'd seen the way he looked at her but I never thought he could betray me is such a manner. And with someone of my own blood."

My blood runs cold. The Duke, her husband, is the one that took the girl's innocence? Bile rises in the back of my throat. I had not known the Duke well but even I had never suspected that the man could be capable of such an act.

"Your husband....he perished in a riding accident, did he not?"

Her lips twist into more of a grimace than a smile, "Aye. It was quite tragic. The strap on his saddle had become worn. He was quite an accomplished rider. They say the fall from the cliffs did not kill him upon impact. The doctor said he suffered, horribly."

She is the reason he is dead. She does not say it. There is no need. I see the glimmer in her eye, the faint yet distinct enjoyment in those dark eyes. Not only does she not mourn his passing, she relishes in it. Neither of us speaks, the silence echoing around us.

Finally, she chooses to break the silence. She dips into a low cursey once more, "Goodnight, your highness. May you sleep well." She offers me a knowing glance before sliding past me. It is time to face the girl that is to be mine.