Rosalind’s POV
When I returned to the kitchens, I was still rattled by what Prince Killian had just told me. So much so that it wasn’t until Somei asked me the question for the second time that I heard her.
Her voice was uncharacteristically harsh. “Where were you?”
“I was making a delivery.”
“To the wrong room.”
She looked at me from head to toe and I suddenly patted my hair realizing how bedraggled I must look. My low ponytail was scattered from Prince Killian’s fingers and my clothes weren’t any better.
“You must think because you know Prince Cillian you are above the law here but that isn’t how it goes. You can’t just slack off and go to your room to rest whenever you are tired.”
Thank goodness she thought that was what I had been doing. If she knew the truth about what I had been doing during work hours then…
“Somei, I’m truly sorry and”
She interrupted my apology before I was finished, her face a mask of annoyance and indifference.
“You will work for an extra hour after everyone is done. That will deter you from making wrong deliveries and being lazy.”
An extra hour? I had been delayed for a few extra minutes tops.
“Somei”
Her gaze was harsh and firm.
“Two hours. Say one more word and I’ll make it three hours.”
I kept quiet. This punishment I had earned. If I had left the room immediately I saw Prince Killian this wouldn’t have happened but I had stayed and let him… let us… the thought was so embarrassing that I threw myself into my work.
Once the deliveries for the day ended, the dish cleaners were given an early day off so that I would wash dishes that took them two hours to wash.
Somei had planned this punishment a little too well.
The dishes were unending. I washed, rinsed and dried more dishes than I had ever done before.
By the time I was done, I was the only one left in the kitchen so I had to clean up after myself as well.
When I stood up to leave, I was more tired than I had ever been even while working the districts. And because it was so late that the food was long finished and all that was left was some stale bread that must have been there for at least two days.
I drank a full cup of water and began my walk to my room. Then I began to hear footsteps following me.
I felt it was just a passing servant only when I slowed, the pace slowed to match mine and when I moved fast so did the person.
I became afraid and walked faster. The hallways seemed too empty at this late hour.
“Hello, pretty.” A male voice called out.
“Why are you walking so fast? Do you have somewhere you are going to?”
With the pretence of not knowing someone was following me gone, I took to my heels and I heard him curse as he tried to meet my pace.
I was almost in the hallway that led to the servants’ quarters when an arm reached out from nowhere and pulled me into a dark corridor.
“Gotcha.” The person laughed and my panic skyrocketed when I saw that the man following me earlier had friends. They were four.
How would I be able to escape from these people?
The one who had pulled me in came close smacking his lips together obscenely as his hungry eyes moved my body.
“See word is out that anyone that messes with you gets a reward from Prince Killian.”
Oh, Goddess. What? Was this part of that mad Prince’s plan? He would send men to rape me to make a point?
I struggled against the hands that held me in place. “Let me go.”
The first man reached for the zipper on his pants.
“I intend to get a really large reward.”
“Let me go. You don’t want to do this, Prince Cil”
He slapped me so hard that only the hands holding me kept me from falling.
“Just stay still and take it. I’ll fuck you then my friends will take their turns and if you refuse to leave the palace then I guess we can have a little party every night.”
My blood chilled at his words and my struggles intensified as I screamed.
“Help! Somebody help me!”
The men holding me seemed to get nervous at my scream, so I increased the intensity of my scream. I didn’t care if he hit me again, I refused to lose my virginity like this.
“Let’s just gag her.” One suggested.
His zipper was already down and he was massaging himself as he spoke.
“No one will be passing this late anyway. Let her scream.”
Another of the others didn’t agree.
“Just fucking gag her. I can’t take any chances.”
I kicked against his hands that reached for my skirts and got another slap for my troubles. Dazed the world was a blur as I heard the rip of fabric and a scream following it.
Then suddenly the man was gone and the men holding me were scrambling away and I heard the sounds of pursuits and muffled curses.
Warm arms enveloped me lifting me from the floor and I inhaled a familiar scent of rowan and snow. I collapsed in Prince Cillian’s arms.
He had saved me once again.
“Rosalind, my Rosa. I’m here.”
I began to sob messily into his absurdly broad chest.
“Cillian, I can’t take this anymore, I want to go home.”
He didn’t say anything, his arms merely tightened around me as though he wanted to physically prevent me from leaving but he settled for rubbing circles on my back as I sobbed loudly.
*******
We were in Cillian’s hall and I wanted to be anywhere else. I wanted to go to my bed, wrap myself up and hide from the world.
I want to forget that for the second time in less than two weeks, I was almost raped and that if not for Cillian’s timely intervention it would have happened.
Cillian took my hand as his guards escorted the men in.
“I’ll make everything right, I swear.”
I looked at his steady hazel eyes and nodded. I believed him. Of course, I did. He had always been here for me.
He left me and stood at the centre of the hall, the men on their knees in front of him.
Several senior staff watched on having been summoned from their beds by Prince Cillian to bear witness to the punishment of these men.
Perhaps so that anyone planning something similar would have a rethink. I didn’t care. I just wanted to rest.
Cillian began to speak, addressing both the men and the onlookers. He looked like a vision in his blue and white colours.
“The following people have been found guilty of attempting to rape and defile a member of the palace staff. This is disgusting and imunacceoabke behaviour that isn’t allowed here in the palace.”
“My prince, have mercy. We were wrong!’ The man who had been prepared to rape me less than an hour ago begged.
Cillian ignored his pleas. “For this, each of you shall tender a public apology, receive two hundred lashes with a silver whip and immediate dismissal from”
The doors to Cillian’s receiving hall slammed open and Prince Killian walked in.
Prince Killian? What was he doing here?
Cillian looked at his approaching brother with parted lips as though about to ask him what he was doing here.
Prince Killian passed by him as though he weren’t there and came straight to me.
I took an involuntary step back scared of his intensity.
“Prince Killian.”
He held my chin tilting my head to the side so that he saw my swollen cheek courtesy of the slaps I had been given.
Prince Killian’s eyes dropped to my torn clothes and he inhaled deeply before he dropped my chin and walked away.
Not away. To his brother.
It happened so quickly that my shell-shocked mind couldn’t register it at first.
Prince Killian dragged one of the men up then as though the man’s body was made of paper and thrust his hand into his chest.
Killian’s hand came out bloody and clutching a heart and the man fell dead.
The other men scrambled away but it was too fast, too soon, too unexpected and Killian easily caught up with them rendering them as if he had the first like they were nothing and the reception hall was frozen.
No one dared breathe too loud for fear of incurring the wrath of his presence.
Cillian was unfrozen first.
“Brother what have you done?!”
Prince Killian wiped his hand with a handkerchief that was almost as dark as his heart.
“I punished them.”
Cillian shook his head aggressively.
“You shouldn’t take justice into your own hands. I was already”
Prince Killian looked at his brother over his shoulder.
“Sometimes you talk too much brother when you should act.”
He looked at the people gathered and addressed them.
“Tell your friends and coworkers what you have seen here today. Let them know what happens to those that cross their limits.”
Then he left the room without a backwards glance at me.
What the hell just happened? Did Killian just defend me?