The King's Lover
Chapter 77: A Hug

Chapter 77: A Hug

Lady Delphine wasn’t a stranger to the Masked Auction, not in the slightest. She frequented the auction, and she was known as a regular customer. She attended more for personal reasons than anything else, so it was no surprise that she was also at the Masked Auction the night Rose was to be sold off. f(r)eew(e)bnovel.(c)o(m)

Lady Delphine had let out an audible gasp when she saw Rose come out of the floor in that cage. At first, she didn’t believe her eyes and told herself over and over again that it was just a lookalike. However, the Masked Host’s confirmation was all she needed. It was Rose.

She couldn’t figure out how she would have gotten here. She didn’t even hear anything about her being away from the castle. Still, to end up at the Masked Auction was very bizarre.

The Masked Auction wasn’t completely disapproved of by the king, but they knew better than to put their business right under his nose. Delphine knew the royal family had almost nothing to do with the Masked Auction. It was mostly attended by lower nobles and very few high-ranking nobles.

She had never interacted with any of the guests at the auction, but she had come to know a few names. Lord Wolf was a very familiar name, he frequented the masked auction just as often as she did, if not more. His favorite to bid on were exotic animals but sometimes he would bid on people.

She had almost thought she would lose and had bid a little too much than she could afford, but she couldn’t risk anyone else getting Rose. She also considered that she might be taking a risk, but she didn’t want Rose to fall into the hands of anyone else, especially Lord Wolf. Something about that lord just didn’t seem right to her.

Still, her hunch wasn’t completely wrong. Rose had not been chased out of the castle. She had been abducted. Delphine wasn’t completely surprised, but she didn’t expect this to happen so soon.

"Do you have any idea who could have sent the hooded man?" Delphine asked as they rode in the carriage.

Rose shook her head. She wrapped her arms around herself as she looked toward the window, but like the door, it also had a curtain. Still, she just stared as though she could see through it.

"Nay," she whispered, still keeping her eyes on the curtain.

"Do you think His Highness wanted to get rid of you?" Delphine asked.

"I don’t know, but if ’e did, why like tis? ’E could ’ave just sent me back ’ome. I will be ’appy to go ’ome. I want to go ’ome," Rose whimpered, she sounded on the verge of tears.

"Come here," Delphine said and stretched out her hands.

Rose turned her gaze from the window. There were tears in her eyes, and her arms were tightly wrapped around herself. She stared at Delphine, who had her arms open and stretched out to her.

"Come on," Delphine pressed when Rose didn’t move.

"Dirty," she whispered, sniffing with each word. "I ’ave not cleaned in more than a day. I will make a mess of yer pretty dress."

"Eh, who cares? You look like you could use a hug, and I can clean up when we get to my manor," Delphine said with a smile on her face.

Rose swallowed, then slowly nodded as she moved closer to Lady Delphine. Delphine grabbed her into a bear hug and squeezed her against her chest.

"There, there," she said as she caressed Rose’s hair.

Rose tried to hold back the tears. She didn’t really want to make a mess of Delphine’s clothes. It was a really pretty dress. It had a corset and several layers at the bottom. It was also a bright color—the night made it seem a little darker, but Rose was sure it could easily stain.

However, as Lady Delphine wrapped her arms around her, she knew she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore and burst into a loud sob, sniffing and trying to wipe her tears that wouldn’t stop pouring down.

Delphine held her in that manner for the rest of the ride—not asking her questions, not saying anything. She just let her cry. Rose didn’t know what else to do. She was happy it was Lady Delphine, but she knew it wasn’t really that simple. There was still the money Lady Delphine had paid to buy her. Lady Delphine might have helped her because she was nice, but that was still a lot of money, and even the nicest person would want their money back.

Rose could feel her headache. She didn’t even know when she got one, but it was starting to hurt to think, especially when what she was thinking about were things she didn’t have answers to. She was tired now. She would deal with them when she could do that without crying. fr\(e)ew(e)b.(n)o (v)(e)l.com

Rose felt a hand run down her back. It was gentle, almost soothing. Rose sighed in relief but didn’t wake up. She didn’t want to. It felt so comfortable to just lay here and sleep.

Delphine giggled and tried to wake Rose again, tapping her back gently. "Rose," she called with a smile. "You can’t sleep here."

Rose grunted in reply, her eyes still tightly closed as she pressed her face against Delphine, which caused the lady to laugh out loud.

"I can get her off you, my lady," Slade said with a straight face as he stood by the open carriage door. The curtains had been moved to allow Lady Delphine an unrestricted exit out of the carriage.

"What are you talking about, Slade? I can get her off myself," she said and turned her attention to Rose. "You have to wake up now."

The tap on her back didn’t get harder, just more urgent. Rose groaned against it, but eventually, her eyes opened, and she jumped off Lady Delphine, almost hitting her head.

"Oh," she said. "I was afraid that would happen. That’s why I didn’t want to startle you."

"I am sorry, I didn’t mean to—"

"No need to apologize. If I didn’t want you to get comfortable, I wouldn’t have offered you a hug," she said with a smile. "You should get out. We are at my manor."