Chapter 14- Promise of tomorrow
EDITED.
"They started the fire; I'll burn their world."
~
A HAND decked with ring on index finger and little finger slammed on the hard surface table.
"Where is he!!" The enraged man yelled. The tremor of his voice shook the wall of the house as he fumed.
The surrounding servants shook in their form, as all they could do was watch their master tussle and tumble. They watched as the once clean and arranged room turned into something else out of a war ground.
"WHERE IN HELL DID OZED GO TO!!!" He barked his question once again.
Stepping forward, the butler took courage from deep within his belly to answer his question.
"The young lord went to a banquet celebration"
Suddenly, the enraged man's emotion flipped from anger to cynical laughter. "Banquet celebration? Banquet celebration, you say?"
The Butler bit his lips, not wanting to repeat his statement again. "What was his foolish reason!! What foolish reason did he have to disobey my orders?"
Clenching his fist, "He went to see her"
"Her?" He asked, and the butler nodded. As if the light bulbs lit in his head. The man began laughing again.
"The audacity of that child! The audacity of that kid!! THE AUDACITY OF THAT BOY!!!" With every curse word that fell from his lips, he slammed his fist into the wall.
Each hit that was created caused more and more cracks to the wall. "Ah! I see because… because he went to war and came back, he feels he has grown wings to disobey his own father. Huh?"
"I don't think that is the case, Your grace" The maid said, stepping forward to stand side by side with the butler.
"I told him he wasn't ready"
"I know Your grace!"
"I told him he wasn't permitted"
"I know Your grace!"
"And he still disobeyed my orders and went to see Luella Van-Rensselaer?!"
The maid bit her lip and nodded. She understood the Young Lord Ozed's plight. He has been back from war for almost half a year, but has being barred from meeting the love of his life.
Ozed could only watch her from behind, and that banquet was one of the few times he did so. This was the first time his father, the grand duke, had found out he stepped out of the dukedom.
"Ah! I see. That war that he went to didn't break him enough. Shall I complete it?" He asked. The question was rhetorical, so the servants didn't open their mouth to respond to him.
"But my lord. He has missed her so desperately," The head maid yelled in defense of Ozed.
Glaring at the maid, responded. "Do I look like I care about a comical reason as such?"
Standing her ground, the head maid was adamant and continued to defend Ozed. "I admit he did wrong by leaving without asking you, but he is a grown man and not a child or kid or boy. He has every reason under the sun to see the woman he loves after living her for ten years"
"And besides!!" She continued to argue, "You had interceded with all the letters they sent to each other, leaving them not knowing if the other was still alive and well. If I say so myself, I believe the young lord had every reason to see her."
Bowing her head, she concluded her rebuttal. "And besides, he will still come back tonight"
Biting his teeth, The man walked past them and left the room. He paused by the entrance and turned back to them. "He better. And his punishment would be according to the damages he had caused"
The head maid opened her mouth to refute his order again, but the butler immediately placed his hands over her mouth and silenced her.
The maid bit down hard on his hand. Her sharp fangs drew out blood till she tore a large chuck of his flesh. The butler groaned in silent pain as he watched his flesh grow back.
"Why did you stop me!! You know I was right in what I said."
"Yes, but his grace is in a foul mood and didn't want to hear it from you. It was better you stopped there"
"Hmph! It is not as if he would kill me." She said, folding her arms as she walked out of the room.
"I will go get people to clean off the place"
"And I will sort out the bills for it. At this point we use more bills to pay for damages than food, salary, and basic needs put together"
"Tell me about it"
#Van-Rensselaer dukedom#
"Luella. We need to talk! And we are going to have it right now!!" Ser. Chandler ordered as soon as they had reached the estate.
"I don't really feel like conversing with you this night. I am tired and going to bed," Luella said, not turning to even spare him a glance as she walked up the stairs to her room.
Filled with anger from the night's humiliation he faced, he grabbed her arm, completely shocking her in the process as he pulled her a couple of stairs down.
This completely caught her off guard as she stared at him, flabbergasted.
"I said I want to talk to you and I demand to do it now as your husband"
Luella stared up and down at the level they were on. Unlike at the banquet, he was taller than her, but now they were both almost leveled in height because of the stairs.
The slap she was itching to give him began to resonate within her. With full consciousness and confidence, she lifted her right palm wide and pumped it with all the energy she could muster.
She slapped him dead across the face on both sides of his cheeks. The aftermath stung her palm, both front and back.
"Ah! You have no idea how badly I wanted to do that since the banquet when I saw you in bed with my sister." Her actions stunned everyone present in the room.
But the ones who were shocked the most were Ser. Chandler, Louisa, and Nanette, their mother.