Chapter 7
"My, Charles, you're looking ravishing as ever," purred a voice,
Charles huffed before turning around to face the man.
"Shaw. Always a pleasure."
"You always say that, but it feels particularly lacking in conviction today. Am I that unfortunate looking? Or perhaps you're just been lying to me all this time." Shaw playfully leaned in and pouted at Charles.
Charles couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You revel in making our interactions difficult. Should you be so shocked that I might feel a bit weathered from our last conversations?"
Shaw laughed lightly. "You have far more bite than usual today. Did the Baron put your father's villa on the market already and I just don't know it yet?"
"Not this week, I'm afraid," Charles quipped.
"No matter, we'll see what tomorrow brings." Shaw's smile was predatory. "I wonder, how quickly Marko would sell the place out from under you if I and my friends found someplace else to supply our kitchens? A month? Two at best. Where will you go, Charles, if your house is auctioned off thanks to Marko's poor accounting practices...
"Should it come to the worst for your dear ancestral home, do remember I have always thought rather..." Shaw's eyes dropped as he drank in the sight of Charles' collarbone just above his shirt and at his neck, as if ready to take a bite. "Fondly, of you. And I get rather lonely at my manor."
Charles' face twisted with disgust. "I'll try to remember that."
"You'd do well to," Shaw said smugly, as he pushed himself off the counter before walking away.
******
Charles was resting at the servant's table in the back house of the villa when Hank walked in for lunch. He greeted Charles and grabbed a bowl of stew that Jean had made for the midday's meal.
"You, uh, wanna explain why you threw a chicken at the Prince yesterday?" Hank asked as he pulled up a chair.
"When I went to buy back Logan, I ran into the Prince remember? The penalty for impersonating above your station is death in most cases."
"But you're the son of a Count! Even if he is deceased, you have a right to the title."
"With my lifestyle? I'm as good as a bastard and you know it. I haven't the slightest idea where my parent's marriage license is, and technically my mother lost her title when my father died.
"Besides... I gave him my mother's maiden name so the encounter couldn't get back to the Markos."
"Oh. Yeah that'll do it." Hank dropped the subject. "What was he like?"
"The Prince? A little arrogant, yet eager to please. Not what I expected... He's much more open mind than I pictured a royal."
"Open minded enough to consider bastards like us for his new fiance?" Hank joked*.
"Now you're just mocking me."
"You like him, don't you?"
"He's a prince. I'd be mad not to." Charles defended.
Hank smiled at him slyly. "Surely that's all there is to it."