Oriana lightly licked her dry lips, remembering she was supposed to head downstairs to get a drink. She tried to pull her hand, but even in his deep sleep, he had held it as if his life depended on it.
She sighed and was thinking what to do, when—
’What the!’
Arlan turned to his one side, pulling her body along with him. She ended up balancing herself over him, her other free arm supporting her body that hovered over his.
She was tempted to smack him awake in the face. ’I just pitied you and now you are taking advantage of my generosity, you brat!’
Remembering Arlan was her key to enter the palace, Oriana decisively swallowed the curses about to spill out from her mouth. She pressed her lips in a thin line and was about to pull her hand back when she heard him mumble.
"Don’t... leave me..."
He rolled back again to his original position, and though his expression was calm, something about his pleading voice made her stay. Perhaps it was a trick of moonlight, but Oriana noticed that under his eyes, there were pale shadows that hinted the man had not been sleeping well for days.
She signed helplessly. ’Fine. He looks so pitiful anyway.’
A servant, not to mention a lowly commoner, could not share the same table as his or her master, much less be on the same bed. This was a norm dictated by the difference of their social status, and breaking this would give way to a scandal, regardless of gender.
Nobles could perhaps get away with it with little damage, but commoners would not only suffer a ruined reputation, they would also lose their livelihood, be fired from their jobs for overstepping their boundaries or have trouble with ’insulting the dignity of nobility’.
The nobles in the capital were strict with silly rules like this, unlike the simpler way of living in a countryside village. If it was just the normal Oriana, she would not care, but her entry to the palace and her being Luke’s ’brother’ had to be put under consideration.
There was a chair a distance away, but since Arlan was not letting go, sitting on the floor was Oriana’s only option.
’Thankfully, it’s carpeted or my bottom would be frozen’
Letting out a tired yawn, she tried her best to sit comfortably on the carpeted floor, resting her chin at the edge of the bed with her other arm outstretched and her gaze observing his calm face.
For some reason, she found the warmth of his hand holding hers nice.
’This brat, what kind of nightmare did he have? He was calling for his mother. Is he missing his mother or calling for her to help him?’ She snickered. ’Who would have guessed this perverted lord is such a big baby? Well, in the first place, I am in no position to judge. I do not even remember his name. I do not know anything definite about him, much less his family circumstances. If I try to gossip with his knights, I wonder if they will tell me...’
Thinking about him, Oriana soon fell asleep in that awkward position, her hand still wrapped in his.
Early morning sunshine began to illuminate the room when Oriana’s eyes fluttered open. Her entire body felt stiff and numb. She was sitting on the floor, her head resting on the soft mattress...
Still groggy, she slowly raised her head, only for her gaze to meet a pair of beautiful blue eyes.
Her eyes widened at the shock.
"Ah! M-My—"
Her first reaction was to scamper away, but not only were her legs numb from sitting the entire night, but it also appeared that Arlan kept holding onto her hand for the same duration.
She panicked but forced a smile on her face. "M-My Lord, ha ha, good morning?"
"So you really want to take advantage of me," she heard him say in a voice deeper than usual. Oriana chalked it up to him just waking up.
"What!" she exclaimed. She wanted to stand up, but her legs were like dead wood. ’Damn it.’
"My Lord, can you please let go of my hand?"
"Taking advantage of me in the bath was not enough, you even dare lay a hand on me in my sleep as well," he chuckled before letting go of her hand. "How audacious."
"You misunderstand," she said as she stretched her right arm. She patted her legs with her other fist to bring back life to them. She was almost punching them at this point.
Arlan merely scoffed at her. "I won’t be surprised if I find you climbing to my bed next time."
"Climb your bed? I am a man, why would a man climb another man’s bed?"
"Why not? You find me handsome. You ogle at my body. Don’t deny it—you are a pervert."
Blood rushed to her face. "I am not like that! I am only interested in beautiful ladies. I-I stare at you sometimes because...because I wish I am tall and muscular like you! Yes, it’s like that!"
In response, he simply raised a brow as if questioning her words. Oriana wanted to punch that handsome face, but she knew she would land herself in prison for real if she did that..
’Talk about being ungrateful. Instead of thanking me, he is accusing me of indecency.’ She gritted her teeth, but she looked at him with a forced smile on her lips, "My Lord, I tried to wake you up last night. You were having a nightmare and seemed to miss your mother."
Hearing her words, Arlan lost his teasing mood. ’I talked in my sleep? How much did she hear?’
Oriana continued to explain, her tone somewhat chiding him at the end, "You wouldn’t wake up and even grabbed me. I’m sure when you woke up, you noticed it was your hand holding onto mine, not the other way around. My Lord caused me to sleep on the cold, hard floor for an entire night, yet blames me..."
Arlan observed her still massaging her legs, trying to ease the circulation of blood, and fell silent at her aggrieved expression.