Chapter 8 - Isn't Going Very Well

Lilith needed to get out of the house. She needed to get to her place and get her things, but there was not a moment to breathe when she was put to work in Raymond's manor. She was made to clean the halls and dust his office every day. That inhumane level of work was obviously just him trying to get answers out of her. But there was nothing Lilith could tell him.

She thought that going at night when she was done for the day would work, but she was too tired to even think at that time and just crashed in her bed. Not even having the energy to wash up or anything. Then she planned to leave in the early morning but there was no chance to leave because as soon as she woke up, she was made to work.

Every day, Raymond would question her, slipping something here and there. He was trying to catch her off guard but she would answer with the vague truth and he would have to settle with that. The thing he was obviously the most adamant about was where she got her information about him being a Prince. He had even threatened to starve her one time.

"Mr. Cavill, I don't understand why it is so hard to understand that I have done nothing wrong and that you are holding me on a very weak accusation. I have told you all that I know. Answer me this, where would I have been able to find out that you were a Prince? I have never been to the castle and know no one of noble status." she looked back at him sitting at his desk as she dusted the shelves.

He did not answer her and kept writing on the papers on his desk. Raymond would not admit that she did make a point. He could not, she was too suspicious of a person for him to just ignore. And he was too deep in this to just let her go. Even if she was telling the truth about the rumors, she still was in Creona illegally, whether or not she was a citizen.

"How did you enter Creona?" he asked suddenly, finally looking at her.

"I came here because I wanted a new life experience."

"That was not what I asked." his voice was tight.

Lilith rolled her eyes and looked back at the bookshelf, taking a book out to dust it. She had done the exact thing yesterday, and the day before that, but he made her dust every single book individually. But since she had dusted it the previous day, she just brushed the duster over the book before putting it back.

It had taken Lilith five hours the first day she did it. She did not really pay attention to what she was doing halfway through because of the exhaustion that took over her. So she decided that she would rotate and start on opposite ends every other day so that the half she did not do as vigorously as the first would get it the next day.

There was the slight screech of his chair. Raymond cringed slightly as he pushed it back. He usually did it gently but the more he talked with Lilith the more agitated he got.

"I don't know who you think you are, but you have no right to talk to me the way you are. I demand that you show me respect and answer the questions I ask you." he stopped right behind her.

Lilith could feel his presence behind her and refrained from turning around. But he stood there, breathing steady breaths down on her.

"Then you should have shown me respect first. You should have at least tried to see it from my point of view." Lilith said.

"You stole the dress."

Her jaw twitched. "I did not."

"Then where did you get it?"

"That does not concern you."

He would not believe her if she said she bought it. And she did not know where to tell him. She did not know if he was as crazy as to go to the place she would name to see if she was telling the truth. Lilith was stumped.

Raymond let out a heavy breath, his patience was fraying. He could have had her locked in one of the few cells he had at the bottom of his house but he wanted to give her a chance. But since she was making this hard and since she seemed to know that he was Prince and yet she still disrespected him, she left him no choice.

"If you do not tell me everything, I will be forced to take you down to the cells. And it will not be a nice experience there."

He looked down at the top of her head, she was busy dusting the shelves, acting like he had not just addressed her.

"Listen-"

"'The Stories of the History and Prestige Behind the Execution of the Monarchy' by Noland Glad, released in 1789." Lilith suddenly said cutting Raymond off, not paying attention to him to begin with. "This- this- this has to be the original, right?"

This was one of the books she had heard about when she was in university. There had been different editions but historians claimed that nothing was as good as the original and that a lot of the copies were lost and that only a few existed but were probably in people's attics collecting dust.

Excitement built in her stomach as she flipped through the book, momentarily forgetting about Raymond behind her. The book was about how the monarchy came to be and how the government was built out of it. It also detailed how the three states were divided, why it happened in the first place, and who the people leading the changes were. The ones who eventually ended up in high places.

"I am talking to you," Raymond said, but he quickly realized that she was not listening to a word she said.

Right there, she rested the duster on the shelf and started to read the book. Her feet shook a bit as she tried to read it as fast as possible.

Losing his last bit of patience he snatched the book out of her hand. "What the hell is your problem?" he snapped at her harshly.

Whipping her head around, Lilith gaped at Raymond, not believing that he took the book from her and that he actually raised his voice.

"My problem? My problem, is that you are keeping me here against my will and making me work long back-breaking hours without even the smallest break and yet you expect me to be nice to you and tell you everything you want. I have told you everything and unless you want me to start lying, there is nothing else you will get out of me. So maybe you should ask yourself that question? What the hell is wrong with you?!"