Knightly in Shining Armor

Lukas

I blinked my eyes in surprise. Earnest was shaking in my grasp, so I released his collar. He looked at me with wide eyes.

Earnest is 13. He is the only one in the family to need hearing aids because he was born with sensorineural hearing loss. Which means there was damage to his ears passed genetically, causing him to have partial hearing loss. He doesn't often leave the house.

As of now, Earnest was looking at me in fear. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"Was all that you?" I asked calmly. He shook his head. "Then why are you out here?" I glanced over at Lourdes, who was sitting on the clean patch of floor, quite clearly upset.

"I was... Lucy was... I..." He went quiet again, trying to pick his words.

"Lucy?" I asked. He nodded.

"I was coming to see what she was doing and I saw her in the doorway so I went in and saw... that... and she pushed me out to the balcony and locked it and... I don't know what happened, honest." He was rubbing his hands together.

"Okay," I breathed. "Can you go find Patty or mum or someone? I need to have a... talk with Lucy. Tell them exactly what you told me, okay?" He nodded and scurried out of the room.

I walked out and knelt beside Lourdes. She was picking paint off the cover of the book, trying to see if the rest was salvageable. I frowned as she thumbed over the torn writing. She wiped her eyes and looked up at me with puffy eyes.

"Who..." She trailed off, a fresh wave of tears filling her eyes. She looked away, furiously rubbing at them.

Not knowing what else to do, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me. She clutched at my shirt and sobbed into my chest. I rocked us back and forth, letting her cry. I wasn't sure what that book was, but it was clearly important to her. I hoped we could get it back together, or at least copy it somewhere else.

After a while, her breathing became less ragged and she calmed down. She looked up with red-rimmed eyes and a sad smile.

"Sorry about your sweater," She joked, tracing the tear stains with her finger. I shrugged.

"Don't worry about it. It's perfectly fine." I wiped a stray tear off her cheek with my thumb. She sighed and stood up. She examined the carnage. "I'll pay to have it all replaced. Or, what we can replace at least." She nodded with a deep breath.

"Who did this?" She whispered. "I've done nothing to any of you."

"I have a pretty good idea, and I'm going to go confront them about it right now. My mum or housekeeper should be on their way to help you out. I'll be back in a moment." I squeezed her shoulder and stalked out into the hall.

I walked to Lucy's room and slammed the door open. She was at her vanity trying to wipe red paint off her face and hands. I crossed my arms with a glare as she turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Lucille?" I exploded. "You had no right to do that to her! She's done nothing to you! And trying to pin it all on Earnest, real smooth. Are you proud of yourself?" She smirked lazily.

"I'm not gonna have some bitchy brown girl ruin our image," She said, turning back to the paint. "You can't be seeing her. She's nothing. She'll ruin this family, just like you have." My jaw fell open at her hateful words.

"You racist little bitch," I scowled. "You have no right to say that about her. The only one ruining our image is you, entitled little brat."

"Must run in the family," She retorted. "I'm trying to save our image since no one else seems to care about it. I won't have us tainted by the likes of her." She continued wiping paint off her hands,