Beautiful

She'd had stitches a few times before and was used to seeing such things on her father's training grounds so it didn't particularly bother her to see it anymore but before the doctor poked her the first time the lantern bobbed again and a hand lifted her chin up and away and she found her self staring again into the dark hood. Suddenly his suffocating kindness was just too much, she wasn't sure if he was purposely goading her by treating her like a fragile kitten or if it was just that he was far too annoyingly thoughtful and kind towards people he should be mad at but it was getting on her nerves.

"This is completely unnecessary" she shot at him glaring at the hand that disappeared under her chin then back up at him to make her point.

"A distraction can help," he muttered sounding confused and taken aback by her tone.

"I had a distraction in watching the doctor work, now I'm just staring up into a black hole with nothing to distract me from my guilt, and your suffocating kindness doesn't help!" she hissed at his invisible face. The doctor was so startled he dropped the needle and fussed around for a moment trying to gather it and his composiour. She'd stuck her foot in her mouth again and made things worse damn it all. How dare she yell at him, a Duke, and for being nice at that! She bit her lip to keep from uttering more verbal vomit and pretended to find the process of sterilizing a needle fascinating.

When the doctor was ready to start again her chin was once again lifted away from the view of her wound and she was about to yank it out of his fingers when she caught the light from the lantern illuminating his golden brown skin.

His mismatched eyes studied her worriedly and she didn't know what to say. There was a self-consciousness about him that caught her completely off guard, how could he be self-conscious? He was the Great Duke of Kalmar a war hero and the youngest to take control of one of the great families in generations and was second only to the king in terms of power. How could someone like him ever be self-conscious?

His eyes searched hers for a reaction and it was only then that she realized he wasn't wearing the eye patch he was known for, if she hadn't met him when she was younger she might have wondered if it was truly him since it was said he wore the patch because his eye had been completely gouged out and it was an unsightly mess, but other than some discoloration on the side of his eye there appeared to be nothing wrong with it.

A large pink scar ran from over his left eyebrow down to his high cheekbone but it hadn't gone deep enough to cause severe damage to his one pale blue eye, at least it looked like he could still see out of it judging from the way his pupils were focused on her. If his expression wasn't one of worry, the scar would make him look fearsome and tough. As it was, his gentle personality clashed in a slightly comical way.

He reminded her of her father's retired hunting dog, who became the family's overly pampered pet after he got injured protecting her father from wolves, he scared a lot of the guests when they first saw him in the house but the way he would just sit in front of her begging for pets was just too cute for her to ever think of him as scary.

She grinned at the thought. Had she just compared the grand duke to a four-legged mass of fluff in her mind? It was a good thing people couldn't read minds or he'd have been greatly insulted and she was in enough trouble already.

"Ok, the stitches are done, this last part may burn for a second." the doctor warned. She tried to look to see what he was doing but strong fingers held her chin in place and she glanced back up at him a small grin tugged his lips and she remembered she was still mad at him for being too nice and she narrowed her eyes at him. His grin grew as humor-filled his expression at her annoyance. Suddenly searing hot pain flooded her arm and she clamped her eyes and jaw tight against the pain. A few breaths later and the pain began to subside as the thick sticky wax slowly hardened over her arm.

A thumb brushed a tear from beneath her eye and her eyes snapped open in surprise, the worried expression was back on his face. Embarrassed by the tear she'd let escape she turned her head away and gladly took the bottle the doctor offered as a distraction and took a swallow forgetting to only take a small sip. She managed to get it all down despite a bit of embarrassing coughing.

"Thank you, doctor, for your help. I'm going to retire to my room now if that's alright," she asked not sure if she was telling the doctor or the Duke but not willing to face him directly quite yet.

"Yes, thank you, doctor, you are dismissed." the duke said and the doctor hurriedly began packing his things. "I'll escort the lady to her room as promised," he said leaving the lantern on the ground by the doctor's bag. Then he grabbed her hand and led her threw the garden in the dark.

Taking courage from the fact he likely wouldn't be able to see her face in the dark she said "I was the one at fault, doing something I knew I shouldn't, then failed to be aware of my surroundings. It was in no way your fault so why would you let people assume such horrible things about you to help, me? Why risk your life for me in the first place? And above all why are you being so nice to me instead of punishing me?" None of it made sense.

"You offered a life debt, and while a chivalrous or kind man would simply refuse I'm more apt to be a mean and opportunistic man so I'm taking my time trying to figure out how best to use you to my advantage."

"Even if that were true that doesn't explain why you'd go out of your way to help me after what I did."

"I find it odd that you're so quick to dismiss all the rumors about me. There is usually at least some truth to every rumor."

"Or so the saying goes, but I'm not convinced that's true as I know of girls who have started false rumors just to manipulate a situation. As for why I don't believe the ones about you, my brother was under your command and we wrote often. He said you were a good and fair commander who valued even the opinions of those far below you in station.

My brother was a good judge of character and if he trusted you with his life, then I feel I can too. You saved me when you really shouldn't have bothered and I've seen no sign of anger or resentment since, though I don't understand why, it's not something that would be easy to hide nor would you have any reason to in this case. Also, the rumors about your hideous face were completely unfounded so why believe the others."

"They may have been exaggerated a bit but there was truth to it."

"Scars don't make people ugly, selfishness does. Scars often tell a story of self-sacrifice and bravery and so hold a beauty that can sometimes be too overwhelming for the weak of heart to look upon directly."

Silence stretched again making her nervous, it had sounded wise when her father had explained why people often didn't like to look at him or their favorite dog but when she said it, she just sounded self-righteous or worse, that she found him far more gorgeous than other people. How utterly embarrassing, when was she going to stop putting her foot in her mouth?

"At least that's what my father said and he was rarely ever wrong, but of course, there could also be selfish people with scars too, and sometimes they only tell stories of stupidity, not to say yours do. I'm not calling you stupid or selfish… just…" she grappled for words that could save her from this spiraling disaster.

"Beautiful?" The Duke supplied and began to chuckle quietly ending her train of thought and her rambling. Would she ever be able to speak in front of this man without making a complete fool of herself?

"That's a refreshing point of view, and it does sound like something he would have said."