Chapter 81: Chapter 81"Would I be able to see the inside of the palace or must I stay outside while you are there?" Asked Rose.

    It was one of her dreams to see how the royals lived. Everyone always spoke of the balls held in the palace. Rose wouldn’t mind seeing one even if she had to be among the maids working.

    "You are not suited for a palace, Rose. Dangerous games are played there every day. Just the outside of the palace is beautiful. You will get close enough to see its beauty but that is all," Zayne answered. "Many in the palace care about status and it is not something you seem interested in."

    "I am not. I guess once it is known that I am just your maid, I will be judged. I also don’t have anything pretty to wear inside the palace. If I could go inside the palace, how would it look if I had to greet the king in these dresses?" Rose asked, trying to find many reasons to lose interest in the palace.

    "What is wrong with the dress that you are wearing now? You look pretty," Zayne said and then reached out to grab Rose when she tripped. "You are also pretty clumsy. There is nothing before you for you to trip on or did you trip over my words?"

    "Thank you for catching me. I lost my footing for a second," Rose said, looking down at the floor. "I will put the basket away."

    "There is nothing wrong if you feel something after being called pretty. I would hate to think that there was someone who made you believe you were anything but pretty. Rose," Zayne called as she made a quick escape from his side.

    Zayne enjoyed Rose’s embarrassment. He only disliked that she hid her face from him.

    As wary as Rose was of men, she could still react to a genuine compliment better than he expected.

    "That was something," Finn said from where he leaned on a wall. "I’ve never seen a woman run away from you after you complimented them. This is going to be hard for you. Out of all women in the world, the big bad wolf just had to go after the shy little lamb." Sёarch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Watch your mouth," Zayne warned as Rose could be near to hear Finn.

    "I would bet my armour that she has gone to lock herself in a room to think about your compliment. She won’t hear what I have to say. This is going to be hard for you and I am going to enjoy every second of it. Now, let me go off and get close to her," Finn said, pushing himself off the wall to follow Rose.

    "What the fuck Zayne?" He yelled as something was thrown in his direction. "You big jealous bastard. I already know that... this town is lovely," Finn said, changing what he wanted to say as Rose ran back to them.

    "Did someone get hurt?" Rose asked, going to Finn’s side. He sounded to be the one who yelled. "I heard someone scream."

    "No one got hurt. I thought I saw something flying. Silly me," said Finn, trying to avoid death by Zayne’s hands. She was far closer that Finn assumed that she was. Hopefully, Rose had not heard anything he said.

    "Oh, I have not seen any bugs. I will get rid of all of them so you are not afraid," Rose decided.

    She would look in all the rooms and all the corners to check if there were any bugs so Finn wouldn’t scream again. Rose wasn’t afraid of bugs since she had gotten used to how dirty the brothel could get sometimes.

    "I am not afraid of bugs. I am to be your guard so I should protect you from them. If there is anything you want to kill, allow me to do it. Let’s better introduce ourselves. I am Finn," Finn said, holding out his right hand to Rose.

    Zayne wanted to throw something at Finn again for asking Rose to shake his hand.

    Rose stared at Finn’s hand. He wasn’t Zayne so she didn’t feel the same comfort. She was stuck in a place of having to decide whether to get it over with and shake his hand or find another way to greet Finn.

    Before she could overthink a simple interaction, Zayne stepped in to save Rose. Part of him liked that he was the only one she wouldn’t find hard to touch from now on.

    "She is Rose and you are Finn. The introductions are over again so come with me," Zayne said, walking in between the two as he passed by to put space between them.

    Finn slowly moved his hand away from Rose. "Excuse me. I will be back for you to ask me any questions."

    "Okay," Rose replied, watching the two walk away from her. "I should have just shaken his hand," Rose said, looking down at her hands.

    She had given Zayne permission to touch her as long as it wasn’t too much that would scare her. After shaking Zayne’s hand, why was it still so hard to touch another man’s hand?

    Rose shook her head, not wanting to overthink it as Zayne said she did. Being comfortable to hold Zayne’s hand was better than nothing. "I should see if Janice needs help."

    In another room, Finn was worried that he had made a mistake he wasn’t aware of.

    "I informed you before coming here that she is not comfortable with touching anyone and you still offered your hand to her for her to shake. Do you have any sense?" Zayne asked, wanting a genuine answer from Finn.

    "I forgot about that but you must excuse me for having manners where I offer to shake hands with someone. I won’t do it again but why didn’t you let her decide whether she wanted to shake my hand or not? She looked like she was moving to shake my hand. Are you so jealous that-"

    "It has nothing to do with jealousy, you fool. It took some time before she felt comfortable to touch me. That is why I brought you here to be near her so she can be comfortable with you. Try not to do anything that would make her have to overthink what to do," said Zayne.

    "Fine. Remember that I am new to this not touching someone even when doing a greeting so give me a break if it slips my mind. Did you get to tell her that you are going to the town guards to find a missing person with the name Rose?" Finn asked.

    The more Finn heard about Rose, the more he wanted to know what happened to her. He wasn’t used to seeing someone who was sold into slavery and then to a brothel. He wanted to see the person who did it to her and hear the reasons.

    "I have not and I will not tell her of it today. I don’t want to get her hopes up. You’ve seen for yourself that the town guards are a little useless. Do not mention anything to her or I will have you on a boat back home. Understood?" Zayne asked.

    "Yes sir!" Finn saluted Zayne which only caused the latter to be more annoyed.