You prepared a bath for the boy behind the house. "Boy, follow me." You gesture him and take him to the back. "The clothes are set aside. After your bath come to the front and call me." Your voice only held irritation, he simply nodded and you walked in.

You look at the horse, "Now you, I have no idea where I can place you." You sigh with troubling thoughts. "Have you treated your wounds?" A voice spoke. "Your highness, I beg you not to startle me when I feel I am all alone." You turn. "You have not treated your wounds yet. They will get infected, and then it will take a long time to heal. Later it may even lead to your death." He spoke looking at the horse. "Your highness, please do not scare me anymore. Do not walk out of this house without notifying me. Do you know how scared I was when I could not find you? What could be more near death experience than that?" You spew your thoughts and look at the prince. He simply looked at you in silence not knowing how to react to your response. It took a while for you to reciprocate what you said and clutch your mouth in terror.

"Your highness, I did not mean it that way." You try to take back what you said. "I only wanted to help you Y/n, after all it is my fault that we have ended up here. No one to help us. From your state in one month I could understand that you were loosing your sanity. I can not afford to loose you as well." His voice gently filled the silent atmosphere. You wanted to speak more, yet your alert mind did not wanted, acknowledging the presence of the boy around.

"Your highness, I will treat my wounds now. Please be seated in your room. If the boy comes to the front, ask him to sit on the ground." You spoke not looking at the prince and walked to in the bath area to prepare a bath.

Prince Jimin stood there staring at your back as you walk away. Neither of you ever wondered to be in this situation. Deep in his heart he apologized and accused himself for being born in to this world, which is cruel and crooked as well as burdened to all his kin. He wished that someone could end his life and have you and other maids in the palace who know him be left free. "Sir?" Jimin heard a meek voice. He turned and saw the boy wearing his clothes, keeping his eye level to the ground and waiting to receive command from his new master. "Wait here, let Y/n come and treat your wounds." He spoke and returned to his room. The boy sat on the dusty ground, waiting for you. He looked at the horse and spoke to it, "From now on let's live together." He greeted and so did the horse.

The wait was long. You came to the front door and saw the boy staring at the orange sky. "Boy come here." You called him and he responded your call through his actions. He winces once a while from the pain caused due to the application of the medicine and bandaging his wounds. "How did you get hurt?" You ask him as if you were not interested to know. "The landlord beat me up." he monotonously replied. "What did you do get beaten up like this?" 

"My father borrowed money from him to gamble. He never went to search for any work and then the landlord came asking for the money. Mother did not have any money, so his goons beat us. He sold my mother and two sisters to village head while his men dragged me to the village market to sell me." Tears poured out from the poor being. You held his hands in yours, "I guess you are lucky my lord took you from that evil landlord." a small and comforting smile on your lips. He nodded and wiped his tears. "How old are you?" You ask as you stand up. "Sixteen, miss." "Why do you stay here miss?" He suddenly questioned you. For a moment your heart jumped. You look at him a bit stern. "It seems that someone is interested to know what he mustn't." One of you brows cocked making him realize his mistake. "Forgive miss." He bowed his head and took a step back. "What is you name?" You asked as you stood up, dusting your clothes. "Hansoo." He lowly mumbled. "Sit here, I will get you some food after serving my lord."

That night after having dinner, you prepared a bed for the boy in your room. Prince Jimin did not have knowledge about this. When you were done preparing prince Jimin's bed, you called the boy and told him to sleep in your room. While the two of you were talking, prince Jimin had a hunch that you would share the room with the boy. Not sparing another moment, he walked in between your talk and told you that he wanted a private chat with you. He said how he was not interested with you sharing a room with the boy and insisted that you sleep in his room. Seeing how persistent he was, you shifted your futon to his room and started to accompany his sleep. 

Days with the addition moved forward much easier. You and prince Jimin had someone who could be relied, him knowing everything about the village helped you a lot to get things you wanted for the working of the house. The new comers helped you in the gathering and assembling twigs and woods, which would be useful for the coming winter. 

Meanwhile in the palace, Prince Taehyung had recovered from his wounds and all the preparation for his marriage was taking place with felicity. After Prince Jimin was sent to exile, he gained consciousness. The first thing he did was ask the physicians about the health of Prince Jimin, only to be shocked to hear that his brother was sent to exile for the charge of attacking the royal member. He approached his mother to tell her the truth about that night, she quietly listened everything he had to say, and said that it was his majesty who ordered to send prince Jimin to exile. She explained how everything was perceived by everyone in the palace especially the ministers. Prince Taehyung tried his best to make his mother understand but she and her support ministers were headstrong. Weeks later when his wounds had healed, the preparations for his wedding began. 

The atmosphere of the palace did not feel pleasing and homely after the attack for prince Taehyung. He felt suffocated even when he should enjoy the joy and cheer blessed upon him by everyone in the capital. Not much later did his majesty return, to find wedding preparation being carried on. Prince Taehyung approached him and narrated the incident. The palace turned upside down and all the preparation were ceased. He was aghast to hear his son sent to exile and the real assassin. His heart pained heavily, recollecting how Prince Jimin cried for help and tried to say that he was not the culprit. It was hard for him to believe that his minister used his absence as an excuse to dispose the prince, since no one ever wanted to handle a weak prince. He rushed to his throne, his guards announcing an immediate assemblance of the minister in the throne room. He lashed out on everyone for taking such an irrational decision without consulting him. 

It is then, that the ministers who supported the queen began to pull strings and confuse his majesty. His majesty understood where the ministers were taking the matter. They explained how prince has to be hidden from the new addition to the royal family and to be introduced later, to protect Prince Jimin from the assassins, how a weak prince will have a hard time in ruling, how no girls in or out of the kingdom would approve to marry him, unable to produce an heir. His majesty moving all that aside, he ordered an immediate inspection on this matter and to report him. Before anything could be said further, his minister moved the topic to Prince's marriage. The strained king has to give in to the discussion and later so did the preparations proceeded. 

His majesty rushed to his queen to discuss on the matter. According to her, she only did what was told to her by the ministers as per the law of the land. He was furious to see how deliberately she answered as if the prince were only a burden or someone who needed to be hidden. They fought and his majesty decided to not visit the queen. He appointed a couple of guards to start their search for Prince Jimin and to be brought to the palace immediately. The appointed guards began to find the possible places and found your place. They reported back to his majesty that prince Jimin and you were doing fine. Hearing it made his majesty so relieved. He commanded the guards to find the assassins and to be brought to him and they began their work. 

Weeks passed and the whole capital roared with joy and blessings for the newly married couple. prince Taehyung and his princess Areum. She was beautiful and lovely princess. The new royal couple smiled, citizens blessed them as they rode past them towards the palace.

Winter soon arrived. It was very difficult for you to keep the whole house warm, as it did not have system for warming. Everyone would gather around the fire that you put in the heating canal to warm the house. You would write letters to queen mother requesting further provisions and would personally hand the letters to the governing head of the village who is a sub minister in the palace. The minister would the personally hand them to the queen mother who would simply throw it away.  Whenever you visited the market, you would stop at the village head's house to enquire about any letter from queen mother to which he would reply no. 

At one point you began to feel that queen mother was neglecting Prince Jimin even then you would scold yourself for having such insolent thoughts. The supplies began to fall such as rice, tea leaves, spices and so on but you did have enough vegetables that you farmed in the backyard. The surplus of it was sold to the market which earned a little money for you to buy rice, oil and some species. Prince Jimin saw you struggling to meet the ends and asked Hansoo to sell his books in the market without your knowledge. Hansoo not knowing important the books for Prince Jimin took the books to sell and returned with three sachet of silver coins, handing it to prince Jimin. In the evening when you walked into Prince's room and saw one fourth of the books not there and she called Hansoo to enquire about it. He spilled the truth and you scolded him for doing that. He tried to defend saying prince Jimin asked him to do so. But you didn't buy it. Hearing the commotion going prince Jimin walked in and you question if he really sold the books. Prince Jimin hesitated to reply and you understood that he indeed ask Hansoo to sell the books. 

You sent Hansoo back to his room and enquire him for the purpose of the sale. He was reticent but then you pushed him to tell the truth and he says that he wanted to help you run the house till the palace sends help. You could only sigh when he handed over the coin sachet to you. "Your highness everything is going well. You don't have to sell the books that you treasure. I have sent letters and queen mother will soon help us." You comfort him with a smile. He knew that things were not going the way he thought would go and deep in his heart he continued to blame himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey Guys

I apologize for such a long wait. I had to deal with my college and mental distress. It took long for me to write this chap. I almost had 3/4th of the chap written but I had his writer's block due to my distress. I hope you all understand me. Thank you so much for patiently waiting for this book and supporting it. I don't know when i wil be able to upload the next chap. I am getting closer to my final years of college and internship and stuff. So if I upload the chaps it will be cut short to only imp scenes that i feel is imp. Once again I thank you all who reached out to me and wished me well. 

With Love,

Anny.😘