Zaldizko - Chapter 37 Charlese

Leinard stood before me, a solid human being. The space behind him was an unpainted canvas of white.

“F-Famine, what are you doing here?” His voice quivered.

Something felt off about his presence. He was small, not in the sense of size, but I felt that the white around him was devouring him.

“Colonel, I’m here to save you.” I held back my cringe at saying a cheesy line.

“No, no, you can’t be here!” He insisted, his eyes darting about the space like he was seeing something that I couldn’t.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me along at a dead run.

When we stopped for breath, I gasped at his image. The Leinard panting for breath next to me was a younger version about my age.

“The attendants won’t find us here, we can be alone for the moment.” He assumed his usual stoic expression, but his arms wrapped my waist with too much caress.

“I missed you Charlese-sama.” He kissed my forehead, cheeks and lips.

Charlese-sama?! Who the hell was that?! Didn’t he call me Famine moments ago?

I struggled out of his hold and almost screamed when I saw my reflection in a cracked mirror, dangling from the edge of hanging black pot hooked to the ceiling trim.

I was a girl! A gorgeous one with dainty blonde curls bundled up in a neat bun held in place by delicate silver pins. Rouge highlighted soft pale cheeks, a wine-red colour covered my full lips. The selling point of my angelic face was my glistening green eyes, drawn out with black eye-liner. I was caked in a bottle-green satin dress that belled out from the waist by under-layers of wired petticoats that rubbed the cloth of the pantyhose sheathing my slim legs.

“I’m a Velvet Rose model,” I mumbled in awe as I remembered those watercolour drawings of pretty women in Bulldog’s secret fashion magazines.

No, hell no! No freaking way I was a girl!

Both my hands cradled and felt up my bouncy bosoms to be sure. I groaned at the killer tightness around my waist, which was making it hard to breathe. I was wearing a corset a size too small for my voluptuous curves. My admiration for women who went to the effort to showcase their beauty had increased tenfold.

“Charlese-sama. You must be careful not to come here again. These halls are too dangerous for you,” Leinard scolded me with a low whisper, oblivious to my gender dilemma.

I glanced in my surroundings and saw us taking shelter in a shallow alcove entrance of a white wall corridor. Morning light from the large window panesdotted along the opposite wallwarmed our faces. Light threw gentle yellow hues over the hanging cast-iron pots lining the bland stone wall on our side, shallow ceiling lanterns and faded-grey painted window shutters. The place reminded me of the Kuri basement hallways. So, I was in a servant’s corridor?

The feeling of hands on my waist pulled my attention back to Leinard.

“Look, Colonel, um, Lei… yeah. I’m not who you think I am.”

Leinard’s persistent touches made me feel flustered. He reeled me closer and pressed his lips to mine. I reacted with a curt slap to his face.

“Now, here, young’un! You do not put your lips on a lady!” I stood back, wagging my finger austerely before his surprised face.

“Charlese-sama? What’s the matter? Did I offend you?” He startled me when he dropped to the floor with a bowed apology.

“Oh, no, Colonel, get up!” My flustered hands gestured for him to rise.

“Leinard! What are you doing?!” A stranger interrupted our conversation.

My eyes went wide when I saw that the stranger was a younger version of Commander Miles Appleton. He was dressed in a black and white penguin suit with a black bow tie, large polished shoes and pristine white-gloved hands. His blond hair was slicked back off his baby-face. Did he just come from a glitzy party?

His blue eyes widened with a pleasant surprise when he saw my face. They narrowed again with vehemence towards Leinard standing before him.

“You’re accosting our fair lady! I’ll report you to the attendants.” Miles accused Leinard.

“I wasn’t.” Leinard shyly defended himself with his head bowed toward his feet.

It was the first time I noticed his modest workman’s jeans, white cotton shirt, practical suspenders, scuffed tan boots and a tweed flat cap covering his brown hair.

This wasn’t making sense. Leinard was a son of a high prince. Why was he dressed as a lowly servant and acting like one? I frowned at his pitiful sight.

“He was helping me with my, um,” I looked down and saw my perfectly shaped ankles and bottle-green slipper heels. “He was helping me refit my shoe, which had slipped off when I tripped on the carpet.”

Both boys looked at me with raised brows; their stare lingered on the scrubbed stone floor that was absent of carpet.

“I mean, crack in the floor, whatever the term for these things are,” I awkwardly laughed off, mentally praying to Buddha for a change of scenery.

“To have you in these halls is not fitting for your status Lady Charlese. These lowly servant mongrels will not hesitate to violate you.” Miles’s condescending voice was grating on my nerves.

“I will escort you back to where our kind are.” His voice almost spat out the differences of their status at Leinard. “You will do well not to mingle with these fleabags again.”

I gulped when Miles held out his gloved hand toward me.

“Please, Charlese-sama, allow Monsieur Appleton to escort you back to your kind,” Leinard said with an expressionless tone to his voice.

He was a far contrast from the earlier boy with the passionate touches.

“My Lady.” Miles prompted, betraying a slight tone of impatience.

I looked to Leinard and sighed. I knew him well enough to know his ‘do as you’re told’ expression.

I grabbed Miles’ hand with a manly grip from my own white-lace gloved hand. I swallowed a chuckle at his surprise.

“Charlese-sama, please advise Your Highness that all is well.” Leinard formally bowed, turned and walked away from me.

“Leinard,” his name escaped my mouth.

I gulped at Miles’s glare.

His expression resumed his polite formality.

There was no other option but to follow his lead out of the corridor.

He led me down a hallway adorned with lavish red carpet, gleaming gold and silver vein marble walls with bronze candle sconces lining our path with subdued light. Soft light beamed over our heads from rose-gold chandelier trees with three tiers holding pillar candles.

Evenly spaced between the sconces were gold figurine framed portraits glorifying a stout and balding military man with his wartime merits saturating the right side of stiff navy jacket.

I held back my laughter at the portrait’s obvious attempts to make the man taller by stretching out his legs near the bottom of the frame. The artists should’ve spent more of the time making his face handsome by doing away with his pug nose, beady eyes and tight lips.

“Lady Charlese, you must not associate with that Leinard boy anymore.” Mile’s spoke without taking his eyes away from the way ahead of him.

“Why?” I frowned, my mind back to my present situation.

“Why?” He stopped and faced me with clear exasperation. “Your Highness disgraced him. He is a pariah to this kingdom. I understand you had past relations being siblings by marriage. That relationship is now null and void by His Majesty’s law.”

He sighed and turned to one of the portraits, taking in deep breaths like the image was offering him affirmations. “If not for the good graces or our patron Marlo, he would be within a prison system.”

He faced me again, his blue eyes aglow with a set expression. “Shall we move on?”

I gulped and nodded. He opened the elaborately decorated floral doors at the end. We stepped into an atmosphere of high society and exaggerated wealth. It was almost blinding.

Rows of shining white diamond and silver five-tier candle chandeliers hung over our heads. Their party light was reflected across a vast area of polished floor boards and plaster white walls bearing twelve animal crest flags. At the head of the flags was a mighty black and white eagle that represented Sol’s main deityExacles. This was the High King’s crest. It seemed it also represented Charlese’s family from eavesdropped conversations between dance partners.

Tapping heels and shuffling shoes squeaked across the floor. Dancing bodies moved graciously around the multi-coloured fairy balls, which whizzed about in time with the merry music being played by an orchestra on the stage. Bright lights were making the ballroom glamour go to my head with an ache.

Miles ditched me for his familiar boys’ club toward a seedy spot near the back of the ballroom where we had entered.

I found myself dancing in a killer corset and numbing heels for ages. Every time I had tried to call it quits, some pompous pretty-boy would take my hand and lead me into another dancing merry-go-round. I hated this twosome activity. However, the body I had unwittingly invaded loved it. Especially the Five-Step Waltz. I was amazed at how many boys in black and white penguin suits were keen to dance this routine with me. It was to the point that all their faces became one big blur.

The dancing experience was not all fruitless. Further, eavesdropping had me learning more about myself. I was a scion from a wealthy and politically influential unit family to the king. It explained the reason for the potential suitors wanting to claim my hand with a dance.

So, Leinard getting friendly with me was something that I, meaning Charlese, had wanted, right? Why run off into the servant’s quarters if not to have forbidden nookie? My face blushed a deep red at the thought of Leinard and me making out beyond a kiss.

“Gaah! What am I thinking?” I thought aloud and tensed when I remembered where I was.

“Charlese-sama? Is everything okay?” asked a sweet-face boy.

“Oh, well, I’ve been dancing non-stop. My heels are a tad painful.” I flippantly answered.

I grabbed a finely dressed girl who was leaving the floor and crudely paired her up with my dance partner; leaving the scene before either of them had time to protest.

I pushed and weaved my way through other strapping young men in black-white penguin suits and women in sequence ball gowns of green, blue and gold-white; their hands, necks, ears and other exposed body parts glimmering with strings of diamonds or other precious stone. Sparkling headdresses held together with tight curls and stylish hairdos. The aroma of rose water, fragrant powder and musk overpowered my senses.

The glitz and glamour felt like I was in a circus. My head needed fresh air.

“I imagine this is what a Velvet Rose party would be like.” I groaned as I stepped out onto a wide terrace and gaped at the sparkling wonder before my eyes.

Moonlight bathed the terrace’s moonstone, making it twinkle like stars on a night sky. A refreshing scent of lavender and pine uplifted my senses and cleared my head. A gentle breeze cooled my flushed skin as I leaned against the stone railing. The way beyond the balcony was covered with night, turning the landscape into an amorphous mystery.

“Beautiful night.”

I turned to the sound of Leinard’s voice. Thoughts of being held by him rushed to my mind. Charlese was in love with him. My heart pounded with confirmation of the fact. Underneath these emotions, I was feeling peeved.

“Colonel.”

He’s face was almost in the shadows as he loitered near the balcony’s steps. I spied the vague outline of hedge gardens to his back.

I glanced about to see if anyone had noticed him, when I felt certain no one was paying us attention, I grabbed his hand and dragged him into a sprint down the steps.

We entered the amorphous darkness, fumbling our way down gravel paths toward more outlines of hedges and bushes. I guessed we were headed for the entrance of a garden maze.

Leinard took control or our direction with confidence. He led me through a corridor of dense hedge walls smelling of gardenia and rose.

Our run led into a private sitting area, which was out of view of the party. The music and merriment were vague noises in the distance.

My heart beat with a burning ache. I admit most of the pain was from running in heels.

Leinard called upon a small ball of light no bigger than a marble. It floated in the air before our faces, so we could see each other’s eyes.

His grey eyes showed a tenderness and earnest, his staring was making my heart beat faster.

Those earlier thoughts of wanting to be wrapped in his arms pestered my brain. Damn it. I couldn’t fight the feeling nor did I have the urge of wanting to.

I tenderly stroked his cheek.

“I’m sorry about before. I’m not myself,” I whispered.

“I know. This is not right, yet…” He continued his conversation with a kiss, which turned into passionate tonguing, sucking, stroking and skilful undressing.

My body tingled from where he necked. He was making me swoon from his teasing pinches and tender touches to my naked skin. I wanted more of him; I needed more.

He carried me to a stone bench and had me straddle his lap, kissing my breasts as he exposed them to the cool, night air.

We removed the clothes that stopped us from becoming one. I moaned his name when he lowered my hips, so his long member could enter me. We moved, synchronising with each other’s pace; kissing passionately, so we were breathing each other’s air. His mouth tenderly marked me in many places to stake his claim. I was his and he was mine.

Our love making eventually reached a climax and sweet comedown. I relished the moment of being held in his arms.

“I think we better return.” Leinard suggested.

I could tell from his eyes that he wanted more time, but we both realised that would be troublesome. He helped me redress and fix up my makeup.

It was at this moment I realised that my brothers and Brystagg had seen something of me that I had refused to see for myself. Seething with annoyance was an understatement.

“Hey, Colonel. You know, one day you’ll meet this genius boy with black eyes. This boy will have the satisfaction of knocking your ass to the ground because of this moment,” I declared with a cocky grin and pressed a kiss to his forehead to seal the promise.

My forehead scrunched with a frown, noticing his coolness to the fact.

“Looking forward to it,” Leinard said, going along with my comment.

He finger-flicked my forehead with a self-satisfied attitude. These Aueralius Brothers were really something.

We made it out of the garden maze where we were greeted with an unfriendly reception.