BXBX NOVEL Chapter 102 Eadweard
Struggling to remain standing, and wobbling on his feet like a piece of paper in the wind, Eadweard saw that the governor's children and Xzavier seemed to know each other. Infuriated, he shrieked at Xzavier;
"You! What are you doing with them?! Don't you know they are nobles? "
Cadence, who at this point might as well be a worshipper of Xzavier, saw his opportunity to get in Xzavier's good books, and answered Eadweard;
"Back off Ed. This is the new tutor my father hired for I and my sister."
Xzavier didn't fully understand the cover up that Cadence had covered for him. Here, there were draconian laws that had been put in place to keep the commoners away from the nobles. Hence, the law that completely forbade commoners from offending nobles. Xzavier was oblivious of this law.
By placing Xzavier under the protective banner of the Quincy name, in one statement, Cadence had absolved Xzavier of any transgression of this particular law. Otherwise, Xzavier would have been subject to the harshest kind of punishments. This was one of the reasons why Adalia had warned Xzavier not to go wandering about when they first arrived in Victoria city. Laws like this were the bulwark of this time, and they enforced the barriers between the classes.
At this point, Earlene was the only other legit member of the family who could back Cadence's claim, so Eadweard shot Earlene a questioning look, asking if it were true. As one who was willful and exceedingly stubborn, Earlene recognized the condescending look on Eadweard's face. The young lady did not appreciate it at all. And for this very reason, she decided to back her brother on this.
"Yes…" she echoed coldly as she glared at Eadweard with narrowed eyes.
"It is true."
The young girl had to bite down on her caustic tongue from saying something acidic, which could have potentially escalated the situation.
Eadweard looked at them deeply for some time as he deliberated on what course of action to take. His was an ordinary mind of a simple disposition. So, when he tried to contemplate complex issues, he usually went overboard with his theories.
As he stared at the members of the governor's household standing solidly behind Xzavier, feeling alienated, the playboy prince began to see a whole different picture. His wild thoughts, fanned by the flames of his bruised ego, invoked the morbid thoughts of suspicious of a planned gang up.
Eadweard began to think that maybe, this wasn't a coincidence at all. He began to think and dwell on the fact that this had in fact been a deliberate plan by the Princy family to mess with him. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. The dent in his bruised ego began to swell as Eadweard feasted on the lies he was telling himself.
Even though he was a playboy who loved the pleasures of the flesh more than he loved the responsibility that came with his position in his family, Eadweard wasn't completely ignorant of the silent battle and the politicking between nobles. He knew that among the nobles, this kind of mutual suppression wasn't uncommon. So, Eadweard pacified his own raging thoughts and assuaged himself thinking; maybe this wasn't s big deal after all.
Willing to put all this behind him, he shrugged it off and turned his back to leave.
He might have been done. But Xzavier clearly wasn't. Just as Eadweard was about to take his first step towards the land of more wanton pleasure that awaited him ahead, Xzavier called out to him in a crude and brash tone;
"You!"
Thinking Xzavier wanted to embarrass him further, Eadweard turned back to glare at Xzavier. But he ended up getting another dose of surprise;
."You're not anywhere until you tender an apology to the lady!"
Eadweard was a bit confused. He hadn't offended Earlene in any way, so what was the stranger rambling on about?
"What Lady? I haven't even as spoken a word to the governor's daughter. Mind your business and let me be on my way."
"I am not talking about Earlene. I am referring to the lady whom you offended."
Now Eadweard thought Xzavier was messing with him.
"Oh for heaven's sake! What are you talking about?"
Eadweard wasn't playing dumb. It was simply the fact that he had never thought it possible for anyone to ask him to apologize to a mere servant.
So, when the stranger in the black vest looked past Earlene and pointed at the blonde servant girl draped in plain clothes, Eadweard scoffed in disbelief. Thinking how this must be a sick prank, he threw cocked his head to one side in a jeering manner and roared in laughter. Shaking like a leaf in the wind, and vibrating like an industrial engine, the young playboy laughed with all of his being till tears formed in his eyes.
"Haha ahah ahaha!!! You're indeed a funny one! You want...me to....haha!"
His heavy mocking laughter couldn't let him speak. That was just how hilarious he found the whole. When he finally managed to suppress his laughter, he roared at Xzavier.
"HOW CAN I APOLOGIZE TO A MERE SERVANT?! What a joke!!"
Of course nobles usually looked down on regular people, but Eadweard, being the condescending privileged spoiled brat, didn't even see servants as people, he thought of them as animals, beasts of burden even.
So, asking an affluent noble like him to apologize to an ordinary servant girl, (and in the presence of his own servants and other regular people) was a task he viewed as so debasing and so repugnant, Xzavier might have as well asked him to walk naked and dance in the marketplace as a lunatic! This was a young man who had known nothing but affluence all his young life.
To him, the pleasure of command was his birth right. If he had his way, he literally wouldn't have the servants breathe the same air as him. This was just how much he looked down on the lower class, and the servants in particular.
When Eadweard finally stopped laughing, he noted for the very first time that he was the only one who was laughing. Clearly, the others didn't find anything funny. If he had stopped laughing hysterically like a hyena much earlier, he would have been able to discern this fact. Xzavier's stern face met his own weak expression. And in that instant, Eadweard knew that Xzavier meant business, he was not joking. The smirk on his face, along with the dying flame of his violent laughter melted away like snow before the glare of a hot summer sun.
To show that he wasn't joking, and to establish the fact that he was very much serious about this. Xzavier stepped forward menacingly with a stern expression. And before Eadweard could say jack, Xzavier quickly grabbed him by the wrist and stared him down with the crazy look of a homicidal maniac.
"Did I stutter? You are going to apologize to the lady for being a mean jerk. You are going to apologize, and you're going to mean it."
Xzavier's tone wasn't forceful, neither was it in anyway patronizing. He spoke as if Eadweard had no choice in this matter. He spoke as if he was going to do it whether he liked it or not. No one said anything. They all watched calmly, and with mild tension as Xzavier handled the notorious playboy.
The full weight of what he was asking might have been lost on Xzavier, but for the other young man, it was an abomination not just to even ask him to do it, but to even think about it in the first place. It wasn't even a question, a noble like Eadweard would never apologize to a mere servant. To do so would go against everything that he and his values ever stood for. He wasn't particularly a brave individual, but in this case, he stood his ground and stubbornly flared back at his assailaint.
"It would be a cold day in hell before I apologize to a servant dog!"
Like the drama queen that he was, Eadweard gathered spittle in his mouth and spat on the ground to show his contempt.
"What can you do anyway if I refuse?! I am the son of—"
Sensing that Eadweard was about to embark on an endless monologue just to make himself look bigger than he actually was, Xzavier applied more pressure to his grip on Eadweard's hand and squeezed very tightly. Eadweard was a man who had known very little pain since he had been born. Consequently, his endurance for pain was very close to being non existent. So, he whimpered like a little puppy and turned to look at Cadence and Earlene.
"Do something! This has gone on far enough!"
But Xzavier used his body to block his gaze before he could even get any of them to intercede for him.
"Don't look at them, no one can save you from my hand..."