I wanted to yell at him that my clothes wouldn’t be in this state if he didn’t pull and tore at them. However, I couldn’t reply to him. Just looking into his cold blue eyes scared me like never before. Although it seemed like the prince had regained control of himself, the kindness about him was completely gone. Instead, I let extremely cornered and intimidated by him. “Are you just like the rest of them?” he asked as his eyes narrowed at me. I had no idea what he was talking about or whom he was referring to. “What are you…saying?” I asked blankly. Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist and yanked roughly on my arm. I cried out in shock at his sudden action. The prince got up from the bed while dragging me along with him. I found myself on my feet next to the bed with the prince glaring down at me. His hold on my wrist tightened and it started to hurt. “Please…let me go…” I whimpered as I tried to pull my arm away from his grip. My attempt to break away was nowhere near successful. Instead of letting me go, the prince backed me against the wall. I felt the hardness of the wall against my back and then he was right in front of me. His much larger frame trapped me between him and the wall like some cornered prey as his eyes stared mercilessly down into my face. His blue eyes seemed several shades darker than usual, and it felt like there was a storm raging in the depth of his ocean-blue eyes. “Prince Leonard…” I whimpered his name as my fear started to take over. The prince pinned my wrist above my head with ease before he brought his face down closer to mine. He was so close that his forehead almost touched mine. It felt like I could feel his anger emanating from his body. “Climbing into my bed. Do you want me to fuck you that badly?” he hissed furiously into my face. I didn’t choose to drag myself in here to start with. Then when I saw that he was sick, I got worried for him and decided to help him. Is this what I get for trying to help him out? Suddenly, he wasn’t the only angry one in the room. My emotions started to boil over as well. “No…” I retorted. “Did they send you here?” he asked as if he was interrogating me. “Please let go, Prince Leonard…” I whimpered his name as I felt tears of frustration stinging the back of my eyes. Why is he doing this? Why is he saying these things to me? “You pretend to be nice and innocent, but in the end, you’re just like the rest of them. Sneaking into my bed, trying to seduce me, just so you can have my child…” he hissed through clenched teeth. “No, that’s not…” I denied as I shook my head from side to side.Why would I want to climb into his bed? Why would I want to have his child? None of the things he was saying made any sense to me. I was confused about everything apart from the fact that I didn’t like how he was treating me. Even if I am just a lowly maid, I didn’t expect him to treat me this way. For a time, I had thought that he was kind… “Get out! Get out now!” he yelled loudly at me. “Ahh!” I let out a cry when he yanked on my wrist again. This time, he dragged me after him before pushing me out of his bedroom. I stood in the empty hallway as his bedroom door slammed loudly in my face. Once the door closed and I was alone, the shock of everything that had happened since I stepped foot into his bedroom consumed me and my legs lost all its strength. Slowly, I sank down onto the floor and that was when I looked down and realized again the messy state that I was in. My dress was torn, and many parts of my body was exposed. I tried desperately to cover my body with my hands and arms while I wondered what I should do next. How am I supposed to walk around like this? Just when I started to realize how hopeless my situation was, I heard the sound of footsteps and then a lone figure emerged in the hallway and began heading for me right away. The familiar figure and face of Madame Cassandra quickly approached me as she almost ran to close the distance between us. There was a shocked and then a worried look on her face. “Oh dear…” she whispered as her face morphed into a look of pity. At that moment, I was so thankful that she showed up when she did. Perhaps she had been waiting for me to merge from the prince’s room. Regardless of the reason, I was just so grateful that she was there for me. “Can you stand? Let’s get your cleaned and dressed up…” she said as she wrapped an arm around my shoulder. She began trying to support me, but I resisted. She was already quite old, and I didn’t want to burden her. I knew that I was in a pretty bad condition; however, I wasn’t about to resort to burdening this old woman for helping me stand up on my own two feet. “I can stand. Don’t worry…thank you for coming for me…” I thanked her as I began standing up on my own. She watched me as the skin between her brows creased with clear concern. I turned to smiled reassuringly at her to tell her that I was fine. Well, I wasn’t entirely fine, but I didn’t want her to get overly worried about me. It was quite unexpected of her to be so worried about me like this and I started to think that deep down Madame Cassandra might be a very caring person. “Please follow me this way. I have clothes for you,” she said as she led the way. I obediently followed after her while feeling glad to be get away from the prince and the mess that I had found myself in. Prince Leonard was right. What I did wasn’t what I was hired to do as a maid. I should just go back to sweeping and picking up dried and fallen leaves…--To be continued…