Honestly, she was scared of the sternness she heard in his authoritative command. Her lower lip quivered, and she had to bite down on it to stop it from shaking uncontrollably. She wondered what more Darius wanted from her after all that she had already told him.
“Did they have sex?” Darius asked as she stared deeply into her eyes.
Her eyes automatically widened in shock at his blunt and forward question. For a mont, she forgot to breathe and all she could do was stared at the prince’s beautiful and clear grey eyes. She never thought that the prince would ask her sothing like this when he asked her to report to him about Mila and Prince Leonard. She was stunned into silence and then she had to look away in embarrassnt.
“Why are you so shocked? Surely, you understand what is expected of honorable maidens and your friend isn’t an exception. Tell , based on your best knowledge, has the two of them slept with each other?” Darius asked again.
It was her lack of experience in the matter that made her extrely shy and uncomfortable to even talk about it. Salena wasn’t sure how things were for the prince, but for her, talks about such intimate matters were not commonplace. She had never talked to discussed about such mattes with anyone before.
“Tell , Salena. You know sothing, don’t you?” Darius asked while still maintaining his patience.
“Yes...” Salena replied softly.
“Yes, what?” the prince asked.
“I...believe that the two of them has beco intimate...” she replied in a voice barely above a whisper.
Darius did not have any difficulty hearing her and her answer brought a small smile on his lips. It was the answer that he had longed hoped to hear from soone trustable since Leonard had been avoiding his questions and he didn’t think that asking Mila directly was going to be a good idea.
“Since when?” he asked.
“I-I don’t know...” she mumbled her response.
“Did he ever spend the night with her here?” he asked.
“I...don’t think so...” she replied.
“How did you find out? Does Mila tell you or discuss with you about her relationship with Leonard?” he asked with clear interest.
“No, she didn’t tell anything and we...don’t talk about...things like that...” she replied while fumbling to find the right words.
“Then how do you know that they’ve had sex?” Darius asked bluntly.
“Umm...I...I happened to hear them. It wasn’t intentional...” she replied shyly.
“I see. Well, I guess this was much better than I expected for your first report. I can give you a passing mark,” the prince said with a small nod of satisfaction.
Salena was visibly surprised at the prince’s words of complints. Although she still felt embarrassed from answering his direct questions, she was glad that it wasn’t all for naught. The way Darius smiled at her made her chest tighten even further.
“I will make sure that you have access to this library during your free ti. As long as it doesn’t affect your work, you should be able to spend ti reading here. If you need anything else, you can also let know,” Darius announced.
“Really?” she asked in a breathless whisper.
“Of course. This has been our deal all along and I always try my best to keep my words. You can spend ti here and we’ll continue to have our etings here as well,” he inford her.
“Thank you...” she whispered as she felt an unexplainable joy swept through her body.
“I’m glad that you seem happy about this. For your next report, I want to get more details and that ans that you have to work a little harder on your observations. Actually, passive observations alone may not suffice. I want you to slowly get Mila to talk about her relationship with Leonard. Anything at all will be very useful,” he instructed.
Salena looked down at her fists as she hesitated. Talking to Mila and bringing new topics of conversation was sothing that Jessie was very good at but it was sothing very challenging for her. Once again, she felt conflicted but she couldn’t quite give up on her dream now that it was so close even if it was just a small milestone forward. Her eyes darted around the room at the countless books that lined the tall bookshelves in admiration.
“I’ll...try my best...” she managed to say in the end.
“Excellent. I’m looking forward to your good work, Salena...” Darius said warmly.
“Umm...I am allowed to take books out of this library?” she dared to ask in a small voice.
“Of course. As long as you return them to their original place. Then again, I guess you already know all about that,” he replied with a small chuckle.
“Thank you very much,” she thanked him eagerly.
“What is that you like to read? Romantic novels? Fantasy stories, perhaps?” Darius asked.
“Sotis I do enjoy reading those...” she replied in a small voice.
“Then what is it that you really like to read?” he asked after having guessed that she was just saying that to sound polite.
“The truth is...I’m interested in scientific books especially those related to dicine...” she replied.
“You an, you want to study dicine? Do you want to beco a doctor?” Darius asked.
Her unexpected response had truly captured his interest. He had wondered for a mont why a young woman like her would be so desperate to get herself into the library to access books. Now it seed to make sense that it was all for more than for her to access romantic novels. Still, her dream did surprise him.
“It has always been a dream of mine. Of course, I don’t intend to pursue that right away...just maybe one day...” Salena quickly said before trailing off in a small voice.
Darius did not like the slightly guilty look that appeared on her face when she spoke of her dream because it clearly conflicted with the passion that she had to pursue it. It was unfortunate that he also realized just as she had realized that her dream wasn’t easy to achieve given the position that she was in.
“If that is really what you want, then I suggest you work hard for it. This is a good start, but I doubt that there are any proper dical textbooks here. After all, no one would have guessed that any honorable maiden or maid would want to beco a doctor,” he advised.
The serious look in Darius’s grey eyes as he stared at her scared her, but it also made a feeling of warmth bloom in her chest when she realized that he wasn’t at all mocking what everyone thought was just a silly dream of hers.
--To be continued...
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