Chapter 74 - The Personal Meet

It had been two days since I was serving Noah. In the early morning he call me to serve him. And i had to do that till late night. Today he asked me to wash his horses. 

Surprisingly even when he had such a small quarter, his horse collection was very expensive. It took me the whole day to wash them.

As much as I love horses and am always fascinated by them, I did not want to waste my day like that. I should have been at the field, practicing while all I was doing was!

'Darn' I cursed him again as I looked at the knights who were looking at me with pity.

Finally when I was done and thought that I would go and do something fruitful, Noah called me.

"Are you done with washing horses?" he asked and I nodded as his aide who had come to check on me.

"Good, now go with him and check all the weapons. I want a report on the number of weapons that had caught rust and needed to be changed." he ordered, making me furious.

"But master Noah, I have not practiced at all. Shall I do that tomorrow so that I can do some practice today?" i asked him tired. I wanted to teach him more lessons but right now practice was more important." 

"How could that be. It is more important than that." he said, shaking his head and I could only sigh.

"But first go and have lunch.. You look tired," he asked, surprising me. I was not expecting him to think about my welfare when all he was doing was irritating me since morning.

I nodded my head and turned when I saw Nicholas coming towards us.

"Is there anything you need brother?" I asked as he was looking angry.

"Can I talk with your master for a while, Abi? As I'm going to see him anyway, I think I have to make friends with him."

"Oh, yes. Please." I said as I did not know how to reply to his formal request. I know that Nicholas didn't like Noah.

But since both were working under father, it would be nice if they could be friends.

"Thank you, Abigail. Noah, shall we move to another place?" though he was asking he had already started moving in another direction

"… Well, good. " 

After replying reluctantly, Noah left the training field with Nickolas. I was a bit worried. 'Nickolas, would he be okay?' What if Noah kept being rude to him? I'm sure he would be hurt. I know he's generous and mature, but I was still worried. They both are hot headed but the way Noah could insult anyone, Nickolas lacked in those skills.

I returned to my chamber with a heavy heart and took a shower. When I sat in the parlor and opened a book, Beth came in shortly with some refreshments.

"Thanks, as always, Beth." i said, this was the first time i was thanking her. I had always thought that her work was simple. But after working for Noah, I realised I have been habitual of working with gadgets and working here is not easy at all.

"You're welcome, my lady." she replied with a surprised but bashful look

"Sit down. Let's have a snack together. ``I offered again and this time she was scared, thinking that I was testing her., but I gave her an assured smile to ease her worries.

"With you, my lady?"

"It is fine, since I am the one who is offering and there is no one else who would see and mind. You need to learn to be relaxed too.'' I encouraged her as I passed a plate towards her.

Beth kept hesitating, but reluctantly sat down across the table. She felt awkward only briefly. When I broke the ice, she quickly began to chat with me excitedly. Tilting my mug, I was listening while she was chatting, and at one point she clapped her hands as if she suddenly recalled something. 

"You know my lady, there is a man from the royal palace who keeps visiting his highness these days. I wonder if he came here for you" she told me and i wondered if he was here to complain about Josephine or for my appointment as knight. Father had not discussed it from that day.

"Oh, my lady. I accidently looked out the window, bringing refreshments here. I saw Lord Nickolas and Noah together. Did you know that?" she said and my reverie broke

"Yes, they said they had something to say between themselves. Why, what happened? "

"Well, the atmosphere didn't look good. Lord  was telling him something, but Noah was frowning a lot as if he wanted to hit lord Nickolas."

"Really? Where are they?"

I thought as Nickolas was always kind and calm, he would not cause any trouble. I wish I had stopped them going out. When I was about to stand up hurriedly, Beth, who was very excited, shook her hand and said, "It must be because of his jealousy. They both are worried about you a lot" 

"Jealousy?" 'What? Why would they be jealous?' did father gave one of them the position that was supposed to go to other, then it could be disaster.

Did anything really happen between them? Nickolas was too calm for that. If something bad had happened like Beth said, Noah would not have sat on his hands. Well, it was not a big deal, I thought. They could ignore any slight differences in opinion.

I stopped getting lost in idle thoughts like that when I saw both of them coming in. Beth brought other snacks with a teapot and a mug of hot water. I took out well dried leaves and brewed the tea. They both were sitting there silently and said nothing but i knew there was something the matter or else Noah would not have come to the parlor. Nickolas was reading the book I took out while Noah was staring at him in frustration. i just kept my mouth shut, since they did not want to tell me, i will ignore it like nothing happened.