Maid For You 3

Chapter 45

When I returned to the dining hall on Monday, it seemed that people had suddenly lost interest in the topic of their job safety and was focused on a more thrilling topic.

               Love triangles.

Specifically, the one I was apparently in with Coleman and Luke.

"I'm not in a love triangle!" I protested when a couple of people asked me. "I'm dating Luke."

"How could you date him when Prince Coleman likes you?" one girl asked.

"Coleman doesn't like me," I lied. "This is all a big misunderstanding!"

I was fairly heated by the time I got to Prince Coleman's door. Luke hadn't talked to me since our argument Saturday night, and now rumors were flying around about Coleman and I.

I opened the door to the room, and saw Coleman sitting on the side of his bed, resting his forearms in his lap. Luke was noticeably absent.

"Your breakfast, your highness," I said, giving him a lame curtsey.

"You can just set it on the table," Coleman said, turning to look at me with humbled green eyes. I nodded and placed his platter down.

I didn't say anything for a moment. "Where's Luke?" I asked.

"He asked for the day off," Coleman said. "I gave it to him."

I sighed. "Of course he did." I folded my arms. "You know, everyone's talking about you. About how you came to my room."

"I'm sorry," Coleman said.

"And now Luke's off to who-knows-where," I said, but quickly regretted saying it as emotion crept in my voice.

"Did you two fight?" Coleman asked.

I bit my lip. "He—he didn't want you to know," I said. "He thought it would cause drama, and I guess he was right."

Coleman stared blankly ahead. "I see."

"I probably shouldn't have told you that," I said. "You're not going to fire him, are you?"

"Of course not," he said. "He didn't do anything wrong. He's not required to tell me about his personal life."

Coleman's unusually calm and pensive demeanor caused my own frustration to sizzle. I decided I'd leave him to his breakfast and was about to leave when he spoke. "When..." he hesitated for a moment. "When Mr. Prescott retired, I must admit I was...I was very sad."

I rose my eyebrows. I had not expected him to say this.

"Of course, I understood that he wanted more time with his real family but—" He paused. "But I was going to miss him. It was, admittedly, a strange dynamic we had. Yes, he was my servant, but he also was someone I relied on. And not in the simple servant way. He didn't just manage my schedules and lay out my clothes. Mr. Prescott listened to me when I needed to talk something out. He taught me how to ride a bike and how to shave and how to drive a car. It's not that my parents didn't care or anything; I was very close to my mother, as you know. We spent a lot of time together." He chewed on his lip.

I took a couple of steps closer. I was close to my mother. "Did you spend much time with your father?" I asked.

"My father," he looked down at his lap and smiled sadly. "I loved him dearly and I looked up to him like no one else, and I know he loved me and cared about me, but he was the King. A very busy man. He didn't have very spend much time to spend with me." Coleman took a deep breath. "And so, when Mr. Prescott said he was retiring, I was sad. Because at the end of the day, he was just an employee that we paid to babysit me."