Warrior Hearts

Someone To Watch Over Me

"Now although you may not agree with my words, Princess, I'd like for you to just this once play the part of a submissive boring wife." Manik says, pressing his fingers against my lower back as we near the side door that leads into the ballroom.

In response to Manik's words, my feet begin to drag against the floor, his fingers keeping me from coming to a complete halt altogether. Almost as if my husband was expecting such a reaction from me, his fingers increase their pressure against my body - searing their imprints into my back - to keep me moving in the forward direction, instead of retreating.

"W-What's going on in your head?" I ask, pinning my frightened gaze on Manik's face. In complete contrast to my emotions, he is carrying himself with an aura of concrete confidence, the ghost of a smile playing at the corners of his lips. Then again, Manik isn't the one who is being ridiculed in there. On the contrary, he's probably being praised for his male prowess which can seduce just about any lady, without him so much as even trying.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out," Manik replies, holding his finger up to stop the guards from opening the doors that will lead us into the ballroom. Without breaking stride, like he's about to share the gravest of secrets with me, Manik leans down to place his lips at my ear.

"You're going to walk in there alone with a smile, and lift your chin up like the proud, confident lady you are," he instructs in a whisper. "If you can source Alexis, or Rohit out, join them and wait for me to enter." Before I have the chance to open my mouth in protest, Manik nods at the guards, who pull open the doors for my passage. Offering me the gentlest, but firmest of nudges with his palm, my husband propels me towards the ballroom. When I glance over my shoulder to argue with Manik, I find that he's already disappeared from my side.

The click of the doors has already drawn enough eyes in my direction for me to stop now. Squaring my shoulders, and raising my chin ever so slightly - as instructed by my raging insane husband - I continue on my way into the ballroom. I'm unsure, however, if my smile is convincing enough for the gathered audience because truth be told, I don't have many reasons to truly feel the emotion from the inside at this given point of time. After all, Manik has just abandoned me, and left me to fend for myself amongst the wolves, who are currently watching me as if I'm an oddity with one eye in their midst.

Perhaps the only time that my pathetic excuse for a smile becomes real is when I catch sight of Alexis and Rohit, who are standing along the outskirts of the dance floor; the former desperately trying to wipe something off his jacket with the help of a white napkin, while Rohit stands beside him like a statue, merely watching - and I'm sure enjoying - the poor man's ordeal.

"What happened?" I ask Alexis, gratefully joining the men's duo. The man in question looks up at me for the briefest of seconds before diverting his gaze back towards his jacket.

"Your husband's lack of sight, that's what happened." Alexis says, expelling a frustrated rush of air through his lips as he increases the force with which his hand is swiping across his lapel. "I should've known he was blind the second he chose to overlook you for those other ladies." A laugh that would put shame to the one who recognises me as a lady falls from my lips as Alexis' words remind me of Manik's. 

"I'm sorry to break this unfortunate news to you, but that's going to stain." I say, eyeing his soiled jacket. Manik seems to have done quite a thorough job with this one. "Might I suggest you head upstairs to your chambers, and fetch another jacket for yourself?"

Alexis, however, is not listening to me. His gaze is fixated on something over my shoulder, his eyebrows furrowed together in annoyance. Shifting my position ever so slightly, I follow Alexis' line of sight, only to find Manik at the opposite end of it. With the slightest nod of his head, Manik beckons for his friend to join him.