Warnings for: Rape/Non Con, Rape Recovery, Abuse, Sex, Consensual Sex, Older Man/Younger Woman, Past Slavery, Sexual Slavery, Kidnapping, Murder, Anxiety, Insecurity (None of the abuse is performed by Tony and is all pre-fic)
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Hot golden sun shone down on Candor Castle heating the grey stone, a beautiful day in the Fourth Kingdom. Some days Tony still couldn't believe that Wendell had given him a castle let alone such a large and beautiful one, King Wendell had provided him rooms at his own home so he'd been mighty surprised to be given an entire castle. Tall towers capped with royal blue hexagonal roofs and large ornate windows that stayed on the right side of ostentatious. It had taken him almost a month to get to grips with his new home, so many long hallways and rooms that he'd gotten lost in more than once much to the amusement of his servants. Having servants took some time to get used to as well, Tony couldn't quite decide if he liked it or not, yes they waited on him hand and foot but they were constantly there. Occasionally Duke Lewis would just stand on the hill not far to the west of his home and just look at the castle, at its stunning beauty and detailed architecture; or on the days when he had time he did.
Since Virginia and Wolf had left for the Tenth Kingdom – or New York as Tony called it still – a little over three months ago Tony had been attempting to bring about the industrial revolution that King Wendell had asked for, finding substitutes for resources he'd easily find in New York were the hardest part. He'd originally thought the King just wanted a bouncy castle, that had soon expanded into a full on revolution in the blink of an eye. Tony knew he'd figure it out though, he might have been a janitor back in America but he hadn't always been, he'd done some stupid things in his life but Tony was actually a very intelligent man.
In the far east of the castle Tony had found a gargantuan room that rounded at the far end and held little square windows decorated with red glass, the walls were grey but without being dirty or dusty. Dark flagstones made the floor and two large oak supports held up the ceiling that seemed to go on forever. Tony had taken an instant liking to the room as soon as he'd come across it and had asked for the place to be cleaned from top to bottom. The room seemed older than the rest of his castle, in fact most of the far south-east castle did, almost as though Candor Castle's builders had come across this one little section of standing stone and had simply added on to it.
Soon after its discovery Tony had turned it into his engineer's workroom, though all his servants and everyone he'd ever allowed in there called it his laboratory since they had no real idea what an engineer was. Duke Lewis wasn't overly bothered by that though, he liked the Victor Frankenstein vibe he got from laboratory. Tony's servants – his House Steward being Orson Jessony, that man always kept a close eye on everything – had easily kitted the place out and turned it into somewhere he could really get things done, he even had a very beautiful desk with detailed carvings of Griffins.
Tony spent most of his time in there working away, so much time that the Butler – Tennysyn Cranven, who everyone only called by his last name – had given up on coaxing him to the west of the castle and into the dining room, instead Cranven simply had the servants take him a silver tray around noon for lunch and again at about eight-thirty in the evening. His cook – Margaret Salter – made a truly fantastic venison strew that Tony had become rather partial to, especially when she paired it with some of that crusty brown bread she made.
Tony could smell his lunch before Cranven knocked on the and he entered followed by a young girl carrying his lunch, the Duke didn't really notice her since he was much too busy correcting yet another mistake made by Aage, it wasn't exactly the blonde boy's fault, he had no real experience with the type of work Tony was performing but he also didn't seem to learn. The young girl – certainly no more than twenty – moved into the room slowly as though she were a scared little rabbit and kept her eyes firmly on Tony's carved desk where she intended to leave the tray until without warning she tripped over the tools Aage had left on the flagstones. The tray and food went everywhere and the girl hit the ground hard, a painful shock vibrated up through her knees but she said nothing, didn't let the pain show.
"You stupid girl!" Growled Cranven, that got Tony's attention while Aage's eyes went wide.
The teenager quickly started to gather up the remnants and pile them back up on the tray, her eyes stayed locked on the floor and Tony could see how tense her shoulders were. The Duke set down the papers he'd been painstakingly correcting and rose to his feet, Tony didn't particularly like Tennysyn but he did his job well and he'd never had any real problems with the redhead so most of the time Tony just left him to his work. Cranven was the butler though, not head of the house and if anyone had the right to yell at her it was Tony; not that he ever would.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Duke Lewis." She said almost like a mantra, scared and quiet.
"I apologise for her incompetence, I'll have another tray brought post-haste. The stupid girl has always been clumsy, doesn't have enough brain power to do as she's told or follow simple instructions."
"Enough." Said Tony in a deep voice, brow furrowed. "Apologise to the girl, it was an accident."
He hated that he'd not learnt her name, there were so many staff some with very strange names. He only knew three of his maids names, Merula, Tatsu and Elsa; then there was Hettie the Under Cook of course.
Reluctantly Cranven obeyed but not before grinding his teeth as the girl stood up again with the messy tray clutched tightly in her arms.
"I apologise."
"Good, you're dismissed." Tony told him in a strong tone.
Tony had expected for the teenager to trail off with the butler but she didn't, Aage went to the tiny desk in the corner and Tony would have gone back to his work had he not been to entranced with the young girl who'd found herself looking at some of the mathematical notes he'd pinned up on the stone wall; papers pretty much coated the walls at this point. He watched the way her head tilted as she pondered until she finally noticed him, skittish eyes – impossibly green like polished emeralds – met his for only a second before darting away almost as though she'd been burnt.
"I'm sorry, Duke Lewis." She sounded so damaged. "I'll leave you in peace."
The young auburn haired girl turned to leave but Tony raced over and verbally brought her to a halt.
"Hey, hey, hey, no need to run from me." He turned to his assistant. "Aage, go and get yourself something to eat." He looked back to the young maid once Aage had excused himself but her eyes remained downcast; shame, they're so beautiful. "What's your name?"
"... You don't have to trouble yourself with my name, My Lord, I'm just a servant." She told him after a time and Tony hated how self-loathing she sounded.
"Isn't that my decision? What's your name?" He asked again, the girl was about five-foot-eight and had porcelain skin purer than sparked inside him and all Tony wanted to do was wrap her up and keep her safe.
"... Adrianna."
"That's a beautiful name."
He'd not intended to say that, it had simply slipped out without his permission but he couldn't deny it, the name was beautiful and it suited her.
"What do you think to this?" Tony questioned softly as he gestured to the wall of papers. "You seem pretty interested."
Adrianna was silent for a long time, bordering on staying or running away. What has this girl been through to be this way? It went far beyond a servant talking to her Lord. The emerald eyed girl opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out and she quickly closed it again, Tony knew he'd have to prompt her.
"Please, you can tell me, I want to know. What do you think?"
"You... you forgot to carry the two, My Lord."
Adrianna's voice was so very quiet and sounded almost as though she regretted speaking in the first place. He'd not expected to be corrected but he was pleased she had, his work wouldn't have turned out well for anyone had it not been spotted. The Duke leaned in to get a better look at his scrawled notes to find she was indeed right; clever girl.
"You're right. Thank you, I hadn't noticed." He flashed her a smile.
"I'm sorry, My Lord. I should not interfere." Said Adrianna quickly before fleeing the room tray in hand.
Tony just stood there gazing at the door she'd closed carefully behind her, he remembered seeing Adrianna once or twice around Candor Castle cleaning the rooms or carrying things back and forth. He'd never really paid much attention to her but now he'd truly looked at Adrianna he couldn't stop thinking about her, servants weren't often educated with mathematics so her ability to notice his mistake had surprised him. Then there was the fact that Adrianna was stunningly beautiful with impossible green eyes and long auburn hair loosely braided over her left shoulder, Tony had never seen someone so utterly gorgeous in all his life, not even Christine. Despite her beauty and clear intelligence there was something shattered and pained inside her, some horror in her past. Someone had done terrible things to that girl and Tony wished he could take it all away but he knew he couldn't. One thing was for certain though, Adrianna was the most thought provoking person he'd met in all the ten kingdoms.
