2 A Pair of Bastards.

CHAPTER TWO

Rain was only eight years old when her mother returned her to her father, the Duke of Elderslot, and his wife, the Duchess, Rebecca Roni, who is also in a way related to the royal family. Her father the duke has three other children with his legitimate wife; a son and two other daughters.

 Rain took her time to study her new family since she had nothing else to do with the free time she had. Iris Roni is the oldest daughter of the household, she is very identical to her mother, Duchess Rebecca, she has the same white hair and light purple eyes that look like the starry evening, on the first day of Rain's arrival, the pompous princess had threw a tantrum. She professed she would rather die than accept the daughter of a harlot as a member of the Roni family, and her sister. She advised the Duke to take her away from the Duchy or make her a slave if he was truly going to protect her mother's honor… The Duke refused to, but it wasn't out of his affection for the girl.

 Izekiel Roni, the second son of the Roni family and the legitimate heir of the Roni family and the Duchy; was identical to his father, being seven years older than Rain, and at the perks of his adulthood, he was already being trained as the head of the Duchy, he wields even more authority than his mother in the Duchy. Izekiel is also said to be quite smart, and is his father's favorite child, it was obviously because he was the only heir.

 Lily Roni, is the last and youngest daughter of the Roni family, she is seven months younger than Rain, and she is the kindest of all the siblings. Just as her name implies, Lily is very kind to Rain, despite the striking resemblance to her mother and father, she remains pure and balanced. She had emerald green eyes like a gemstone was buried deep into them.

Rain groaned slightly in her uncomfortable slumber, she could still taste the salt from the tip of her lips, she had cried herself to sleep the previous night, and now what she tastes is her own dried tears.

"A bastard deserves no less than what she is getting." She frowned slightly and her eyes pried open, the servants were quite bold, they would usually gossip like this when she was around, and they didn't even have the decency to be discreet. "No matter how you look at this, this is the master's fault, for having an illegitimate child with a whore; this is a big disrespect to madam."

"Yeah, I agree." Another servant chirped in, as she folded the clothes in her laundry basket. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, she took that literally."

"But you should see the courtesan that is the mother of the girl." The first servant said as she cleared out the table, not that any food had been on it, Rain loved to explore the other side of her father's estate, in her free time she loved to go outside to gather flowers, but since she had no vase to keep them in, she just allowed them dried on the table. "She is quite a beauty, a woman like that can't have given birth to such daredevil."

Rain folded herself in her bed, even though she was now awake and listening to the conversations of the servants who cleared her room, she pretended to be asleep. She wasn't ready to face the criticism, if they knew she was awake they would yell at her for her bad manners.

"Barbara, did you see her too?" The other woman asked and the servant whose name was Barbara gathered around the ladies.

"Yes, I did." She answered in a small whisper. "And in my opinion, she is more beautiful than the Duchess."

They all gasped at the shocking information, the other lady who claimed to have been present during the drama added.

"If the Duchess is a goddess, then that harlot would be an enchantress."

Tired of their nonsense, Rain wiped the tears from her eyes and got out of bed, she staggered towards the bathhouse in her room; she had only been in the Duchy for eight months, and those eight months already felt like eight years of her life.

"Such shamelessness," One of the servants snickered as she stopped arranging the room. "I heard daughters of Courtesans are usually this brazen, maybe she thinks she is something now that she knows her father." 

The doors to her room suddenly burst open and Lily dashed in, her lady-in-waiting chasing after her, as soon as her green eyes found Rain's own they widened in admiration, and then a happy girl grew on her face.

"Rain, you are awake?" She ran towards her to hold her hands. "Let's go play."

"Princess Lily," One of the oldest servants in the room ran in between them before Lily could drag Rain out of the room. "You shouldn't associate yourself with someone like her, she would be nothing but a bad influence."

"What is this?" Lily's voice turned darker and a bit colder, which made the servant step backward slightly. "Do you have something to say about my sister?"

"No, Your Highness." The frightened serving girl squeaked her head dropping down slightly.

"On my way to Rain's chambers, I heard some pretty interesting things about her, I know Mother wouldn't care for whatever you say about Rain, but what do you think she would do if you compared her beauty to someone else." Lily's upper lip curved slightly, and the servants in the room stopped what they were doing and they dropped to the ground. "There is no way you would escape the blows of the punisher's whips."

"Please have mercy on us, your highness." They chorused. "It was a mistake, we would never make fun of the Duchess."

"But you dared to make fun of my sister." She yelled, Rain was unable to say any word, she was terrified of this new side of her half-sister, most of the time, Lily was quiet, and due to her kind nature, she got along with all the workers in the estate. "In her presence? How bold have you all become to forget your place?"

"Please…" Rain muttered interrupting them, "Please pardon them, Lily."

There was a small silence in the room, angrily Lily grabbed Rain's hands and dragged her out of the room, wordlessly, and Rain just followed her.

"Why do you just let them do whatever they like?" Lily asked, they were now sitting on the small clothes on the valley, from where they were seated, they could see the wide spread of the estate's land. Lily's small thumb wiped the tears away from Rain's swollen eyes, she could easily tell that she cried herself to sleep. "I can't always be there to protect you, stop crying, you big baby."

"I am not crying because I am sad." Rain sniffed removing Lily's fingers from her face, a small stiff smile hanging on her lips. "I am crying because this is the first time someone has ever stood up for me."

"Still," Lily muttered calmly. "You shouldn't rely on others all the time, try to be bolder."

Rain nods her head, but there was no way she could be bold, or rely on her strength, even though she had been given the title of the Duke's daughter as a lady of the household, she had no power to back it up.

She was just a walking dead person, an irrelevant daughter of the household.

"Gold" Rain muttered getting attention from Lily who arranged the picnic dishes on the cloth they were sitting down on.

"Gold? Where?" Lily asked, raising her face in search of the gold, but there was nothing in sight, nothing except the golden-haired boy who walked a black horse towards them. "Oh, do you mean Doni?"

"Doni?" Rain's eyes widened as she repeated the name of the beautiful boy that was walking towards them, even though he wore rags and was covered in bruises his hair radiated with a kingly aura, sighting the little girls, a frown crossed his face.

"Princesses, you shouldn't be sitting out here." He said in a stiff growl, "The horses can't run around with you here."

"Ah…" Lily mouthed. "I apologize, I was too tired to walk towards the river bank today, so I told Rain to let us camp here. Shall we spend just enough time for breakfast and we will leave."

There was a brief silence between them, which ended with Doni pulling the horses away from them, and he headed back in the direction he came from.

"Doni?" Rain repeated, her cheeks were covered in a deep shade of crimson, she found herself interested in the stables boy, his eyes could cut through even the thickest of any material, but what she didn't understand was why he was glaring at them.

He should know about their status and he didn't even pay his respect to Lily who was a high-ranking lady of the estate.

"Is Doni okay?"

"Oh pardon his manners, he is not from here." Lily pulled the teacup to her lips. "He comes from a fifth generations of foreign slaves."

"Is that why his name sounds so familiar?" Rain's eyes widened when she realized that… "Doni means dog, doesn't it?"