Training
1068 Words
Logan walked away from Getrude, confused at her behavior. She had never really paid him attention, so why now?
Most times it was as if she silently supported her mother's treatment of him because there seemed to be this right sickening smile on her face each time her mother commanded him.
Moreover, he disliked her behavior. She had a sense of self-entitlement and an air of arrogance, which Logan despised. Like her mother, she was quick to find faults in everything the servants did for her.
Most mornings, she would find something unpleasant to say about the meal, although in the past few weeks, she seemed content with it. Whenever she brushed her hand against something, there was always dust, and her mother punished the servant who had cleaned that place for it.
He has often heard some maidservants complain that she was never satisfied with the baths prepared for her. It was either too hot, too cold, or lukewarm.
She did not appreciate her seamstresses; she would either complain about her dresses being too bulky and heavy, too loose, too tight, suffocating, g and the like.
During her training in the evenings, Getrude would complain about the trainers being too easy on her because she was a woman and when they went hard on her, she complained that they were too brutal.
Logan could count a thousand and one things wrong with Getrude.
He went on to carry out the servant tasks assigned to him by the queen; clean the fountain and weed her garden. Once had cleaned the fountain in the queen's garden, he sighted her at a far end, sitting amongst the vines.
She was dressed in all black with dark lipstick and Kohl in her eyes unlike at breakfast where she wore bright colours. She held a book in her hand and did not look up at him but she seemed to sense his presence. “You need to weed!” She commanded in a surly tone, then she turned the page of the book.
“I am aware Your Majesty,” he called out, going over to the shed in which the tools were kept.
He got the things he needed and began to dig up the unwanted plants.
“You are making a mess!”
“It will be cleared, Your Majesty. There is nothing I can do to control the soil from coming up.”
“Find a better way to do it.”
He said nothing because there was no pleasing the queen.
“What was it that my daughter Getrude asked you to help her with this morning?” The Queen asked.
Logan did not know what to say. He groaned internally. “This and that… just a few tasks.”
“Those tasks do not have names?” she finally looked up at him and closed the book she was reading.
“It was nothing of great importance, Your Majesty,” Logan said. “She just needed help in lifting a few heavy items that her maids could not.”
“Is that so?” The Queen asked with a raise of her brows.
“Ye, sour majesty.”
“Very well then,” she muttered, yawning. “Go ahead and finish what you have to do.”
“As you wish your majesty.”
After about three hours, he was finally done, he headed towards the training ground. His body ached from all the weeding he did but it was his duty to be there. The king has made it compulsory for him to be a part of the army. If not for the queen's intervention, Logan would have been at the top ranks. He was however grateful he was in the shadows. Most people did not treat him like royalty but that did not matter. After a, all this was not his pack.
The only person that acknowledged him personally was the chief army commander.
“Logan,” a voice called out to him. It was Ghengis, the chief army commander. He was a man in his sixties still looking like he had just gotten to forty. “You are late. Three hours late at that! As you know, I do not appreciate tardiness.”
“I apologize my Lord. Unfortunately, I got up in activities the queen set me up to do.”
“It is not an excuse,” Ghengis replied. He was a no-nonsense person. “You could have woken up early, done what you had to do before breakfast, and head down here. Or better still, complete all your tasks before a meal.”
“It is compulsory I attend breakfast.”
“It does not concern me. This will go into your report. The king will hear that you are not being serious with the tasks he has put you in charge of.”
Logan said nothing. He was sure the king would be understanding if he said he had been helping the princess out with something. Then again, he did not want to use Getrude as an excuse.
“It shan't happen again.”
“This is the what time you have said it now?” Ghengis asked. “I shall let you off this time.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“We start with your regular drills,” Ghengis said. “But first, four laps around the field as punishment.”
“Of course,” Logan replied running off. Once he had finished with that, he returned to Ghengis and was surprised to see the princess standing beside him.
“Your highness,” he said giving a bow. She only harrumphed and gave a tight smile. Logan was not bothered, he had not expected much from her.
“The princess has just finished her lessons and is here for sword practice.”
“I see,” Logan said, although he was quite surprised. He knew that she usually had her training in the evening when the sun had gone down.
It was about noon and the sun was bright and slightly scorching so he did not expect her to be at the training ground.
“She asked me just a few minutes ago if you may train her,” Ghengis said. “I am certain she prefers someone younger and with more vigor than me.”
“What?” Logan asked a look of horror on his face.
- Writer
