Conquering His Cold Heart

She pulled her hand away from Tilla’s gown and asked in a sad tone, “Why were you trying to hide it from me?”

Tilla was still looking at the bad condition of her knees. Even she hadn’t expected that it would look this bad. She had just assumed that she might have slightly grazed the outer layer of her skin at most.

“I hadn’t checked… I didn’t know the bruises were this bad,” Tilla replied softly, still in disbelief.

Anastasia asked while pushing herself back on her feet, “Where did you fall anyway? To have bruises this bad, you must have hit yourself really hard on some tough surface.”

When Tilla heard that question from Anastasia, she had a flashback of what had really happened to her.

She was hurrying back to the Queen’s chambers after having her hot breakfast. While she was walking down the path beside the garden that was lined up with trees, she heard someone swooshing towards her from the back.

She even tried to get out of the way. However, before she could do so, she found herself on her fours on the ground. She was able to instantly get up on her feet as the pain hadn’t seeped in yet. And she looked around to see who she had collided with. She was expecting that person to apologize to her.

But when she didn’t find anyone in her vicinity, it dawned upon her that it might have been that maid who was jealous of her.

.....

Without wasting any more time by standing there where very few people walked, she ran for the main wing of the castle.

And when she climbed the stairs, she realized how much pain she was in. She slowly limped towards the Queen’s chambers. Before entering the chamber, she stretched her knees a little so that the Queen wouldn’t see her limping.

In the end, her plan didn’t work as the Queen noticed it right away.

“Tilla?” Anastasia furrowed her brows when Tilla looked lost instead of answering her. Thus, she asked again, “You didn’t topple down the stairs, did you?”

Before Tilla even answered her, Anastasia circled Tilla while carefully looking at the latter’s body to see if she had wounds in other places as well.

Tilla gave a nervous chuckle and lied, “No, I didn’t fall down the stairs. I tripped on a small branch in the garden and fell down. I happened to hit those decorative rocks. Maybe that’s why the bruises look blue and yellow already.”

“Oh, you poor thing…” Anastasia knitted her brows together in worry and sighed. “I think I have some ointment for bruises. Let me check the drawers.”

After saying that, Anastasia rushed towards her bedchamber.

Tilla didn’t want to trouble the Queen. So, she shouted from the antechamber, “No, it’s alright. I also have some medicine from the last time. I will put it on before sleeping.”

“That won’t do!” Anastasia shouted back at her. “You need to clean those bruises and treat it right away. The bruises might turn even worse if not treated right now.”

Seeing that the Queen wouldn’t budge until she found the ointment, Tilla tried pushing herself up. But when she pressed her palm on the floor to support herself, she instantly regretted it.

“Ssss…” she breathed in sharply and looked at her palm. She had badly grazed her palm as well. She checked the other palm. The condition of that palm was also similar to the other.

‘Did I get pushed that badly?’ she tried recalling the incident.

Someone had pushed her at her back using force that was more than what was necessary to make her fall down.

Tilla arched her back to check if her back was hurting as well. And she was right. She felt the pain right in the middle, alongside her backbone.

Tilla frowned and sighed. She wondered if she would keep on finding new places that hurt, and she also wondered if the pain would keep on increasing by the hour. ‘What if I can’t move my whole body by tomorrow? Who will serve the Queen?’

At the moment, she was more worried about Anastasia than herself.

‘Yes! I need to treat all the bruises right away. I don’t want them to get worse than they already are,’ Tilla then grabbed at the foot of the table that was right beside her and pulled herself up even when she felt excruciating pain in her knees.

“Mmm…” she grunted in pain and exclaimed in her mind, ‘The pain is already getting worse!’

She took in a deep breath and looked through the bedroom door. She saw Anastasia rummaging through her drawer. It seemed as if she was panicking because she was unable to find the ointment that she was looking for.

‘I think I kept it under that tin of coconut oil,’ Tilla thought to herself and then slowly dragged her feet towards the Queen’s bedchamber.

“Can’t find it?” Tilla asked after standing beside Anastasia.

Anastasia indeed was panicking at the moment. She looked at Tilla and vigorously nodded her head. “I think I saw it somewhere here, but I can’t find it.”

“Let me check.” Tilla held out her hand to reach inside the drawer.

She saw a notebook that was blocking the corner. She pulled it out and kept it in front of the mirror. She then bent down a little to see the tin of coconut oil. She took it out as well and there was the jar of ointment.

“I found it,” Tilla looked at Anastasia and smiled.

“Ah!” Anastasia hastily grabbed the jar and finally breathed in relief. She then pointed at the chair and asked her handmaid, “Take a seat. I will help you.”

Tilla hesitantly smiled and shook her head. “Umm… I think I can do it myself.” She held out her palm in front of the Queen and demanded the ointment.

However, Anastasia held Tilla’s wrist instead and made her sit down. She smiled at Tilla and said authoritatively, “Now, don’t move an inch until I say otherwise.”