The Crown's Obsession (WN)

Upon hearing the King's words, the courtroom that was already silent with just some slight rustling turned dead. Madeline wanted the ground to swallow her so that she would never be seen here again because of the King's demands regarding the garter which he had asked James to stitch. Her face had turned utterly red, and if one were to look at her, they would know that Calhoun was making such a demand to the tailor for not anyone but her.

He was being scandalous!

Madeline only stared at the ground, not daring to look at either James or Calhoun right now. She had come here so that the King wouldn't kill him off without any reason, but she didn't know he had plans of mortifying her indirectly in front of everyone in the room. It was only Calhoun who appeared calm as he was the one who had given the order and Theodore being the right-hand man of the King, barely changed his expressions from the polite demeanour as if he were unaffected by the King's words.

"Did you get the description?" asked Calhoun when James didn't reply to the King's previous words.

Madeline softly gulped and moved her eyes from the ground to look at James who looked startled, and she didn't blame him. No man would speak about a woman's intimate garment so atrociously, and to James, it was a first time aside from the requests he had received from the women themselves.

"Make sure it is light peach in colour and you can make use of satin if needed," Calhoun continued to speak to James, "The girl I want to gift it to, she has soft and milky pale legs. I wouldn't want marks on her skin unless I gave it myself to her," blood had rushed all across Madeline's face by Calhoun's words and by the look James had on his face, she could tell that James knew who the King was speaking about.

James was dumbfounded with the King's forwardness, and his mouth was left agape before closing them. Though the King had put his demands forward, there was no saying if the girl he was talking about was Madeline or if it was another woman. Though the villagers and the other town folks didn't get the chance to see the King, many rumours surrounded him and it was hard to say which was right and false.

To confirm, the tailorman said, "I might need to see the lady's thigh to make sure about the elasticity and the circumference that it needs to be stitched with." There was a high possibility that the King was talking about Madeline, James thought to himself.

He noticed how King Calhoun smiled down at him, his eyes crinkling with amusement when he spoke the words.

"And what if I say you will need to imagine a petite woman because it's quite scandalous for you to ask to look at the girl's thigh. Unless what you're saying is that every time you have made garters with other articles of clothing for women, you have looked at their bodies to measure," asked Calhoun to James.

James bit his tongue over the King's words. He had only wanted to make sure that the person, the King was talking about was Madeline or not but instead, his highness had turned it around in such a way that it could paint him in a different light in Madeline's eyes. And James could feel her eyes on him.

He put up a brave smile and said, "I am a tailorman, it is only right that I take the measurement from the women so that they are satisfied with what I make for them. Every lady has different sizes, even if they don't appear to look much different," he kept his words to be polite to the King who didn't nod or utter a word at him.

If it was really Madeline to whom he was getting a garter for and from what he had described, it meant the King had seen Madeline's legs, or maybe more which he didn't like. He frowned at that thought. Did the King do something to her? Or did he see her bare? His hands clenched together.

"Customer satisfaction must be your number one point, isn't it, Mr. Heathcliff," commented Calhoun, looking down at the tailorman who appeared slightly ruffled after his previous words, "You don't have to worry about the size. I will make sure it fits when I help the person to wear it," he smiled at James.

Madeline snapped her eyes at Calhoun. Was he really thinking of making her wear it, and did he expect her to sit doll-like and let him do what he pleased?

In the courtroom, apart from them, there was also the vampiress who looked utterly shocked. At first, she had thought it was for her and if it was true, Calhoun would have asked the tailor to get her measurements but somewhere along the lines, she felt the King's gift was not for her but to the other girl in the room.

James continued to take Theodore's measurements, his eyes quietly darting towards Madeline who stood there in the courtroom with both her hands holding each other in front of her. A worried look on her face that made him happy, only because he felt she was worried about him. But he knew nothing would happen to him, not when there were so many people in the room.

But James didn't know that the King didn't care about how many people were there in the room. He wouldn't mind snapping his fingers to kill someone even if there were hundreds of people around them.

Sophie took a few steps towards Calhoun, and said, "Brother Calhoun?"

"Hm?" came the short reply as the King was looking at the tailor.

"Who is that for?" she asked, behaving shy to not take the word 'garter' in front of him.

Sophie's words were not a whisper while she asked the King, everyone in the room heard the question loud and clear to give their ears to hear what the King had to say.

Madeline prayed that Calhoun would not embarrass her any further than what he had already done. She wouldn't be able to live with it if he confirmed that it was her, who he wanted to help wear the garter. Her eyes moved from James to look at Calhoun, her heart thudding in her chest as she waited. In the spare second, she noticed how Calhoun's eyes met hers before he looked back at Sophie. A wicked yet sinful smile played on his lips.

"Who do you think it is for?" Calhoun asked the question back to Sophie, "For you of course," and his words brought a broad smile on Sophie's lips. The vampiress had had her doubts, but with him telling it out loud, she could only confirm her position of being closer to the King compared to this new human toy who was living in his quarters. Sophie blushed at his words, and James appeared to look relieved, but it was only Madeline who knew that Calhoun was playing with his words.

Because Madeline noticed the look Calhoun gave her when Sophie turned her head away.