Shaan

Shaan had been made Henry's equerry by his late father the year that Henry turned thirteen and went off to Eton. Shaan was required to live nearby and check in daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Arthur had wanted Henry to have an equerry that he could trust, not someone ordered by the Crown and not someone who would run back to the Queen and tell her everything. Arthur wanted Henry to have the security of discretion.

While Henry attended Eton, Shaan was to control his schedule, remind him about doing homework, ensure that he was matriculating and socializing with the right sort of students. He was to also handle his security and schedule of any public appearances on behalf of the Crown.

At first, Henry resented being sent away from home to attend Eton. As such he was sullen and moody, much like any other young teen. He couldn't see the bigger picture when it came to the reason he couldn't keep being educated by private tutors, like he had for the first twelve years of his life.

Shaan knew that an unwritten part of his job would be preparing and enforcing any of the prince's friends or dates NDAs that were expected to be signed. Shaan knew that if anyone resisted, he was to strongly suggest or even outright threaten them until they signed. Thankfully for him, Prince Henry was an introvert and he mostly kept to himself.

Halfway through the first semester at Eton, Henry made friends with a young Nigerian lad named Percy. Percy who instantly preferred to be known as Pez. Like the sweets, he would tell everyone he met. He was Henry's only friend and although he was an extrovert, he seemed to draw Henry out and steal his shine. He took all the focus onto him, allowing Henry to stay comfortably in the shadows. Which was good for the shy, awkward, bumbling royal.

As the year past, Henry accepted Shaan's role in his life and took his presence as a calming one. Especially when he was so far away from home. Pez also became a constant in his life too.

It wasn't until just before the end of the school year, when Henry appeared in the doorway of the small office that Shaan kept on campus one afternoon. Henry was now fifteen, having turned fifteen just two and a half months before hand. "Sir." Shaan greeted him, unsure why he was seeing Henry. He had held his daily morning briefing with Henry, and nothing had been raised then. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Sorry to disturb you, yes." Henry whispered, keeping his voice low. He didn't walk into the office, and he didn't take a chair. He had been trained not to sit until invited to do so, by his grandmother. "Those NDAs you mention from time to time, c... can...I ge... have one, p..pl... please?" He stammered. Shaan was really good at reading people. Henry was nervous.

"It is better, if I come along and force the young lady to sign, Sir." Shaan answered him. He had wanted to make sure that nothing happened between the young lady and the prince before she had signed on the dotted line.

"It's ah ... not for a young lady." Henry blushed. "It's for ... Daniel Stoddingham. He and I, we made some plans."

"Oh, it's for a new friend." Shaan said, excitedly. He had been relieved. Within his correspondence with the young royal's parent, they had expressed concerns that Henry only seemed to have one friend and that Shaan should be encouraging him to make more friends.

"Yes. A new friend." Henry paused and looked Shaan in the eye, not backing down.

"Ok." Shaan said softly.

He didn't think much more of his strange encounter with the young prince, that day, or the next. The signed NDA had been produced by Henry two morning's later and Shaan had asked no follow up questions of him.

Daniel Stoddingham did not show up, but Andrew Stoddingham did. Daniel's older brother. Andrew was a friend of Pip's and always been kind and caring to Henry. He told Henry that he had uncovered that Daniel's budding friendship had been a ruse to separate him from Pez, so Daniel and his friends could try to jump Pez.

Shaan seemed curious as to why a twenty-three-year-old would bother with the politics of his younger brother's social life. But he didn't vocalize his opinions. It wasn't in his job description.

Over the next three weeks, Andrew was hanging around with Henry quite often and soon Shaan noticed that Percy had begun to distance himself from Henry when Andrew was around. Percy is a larger-than-life personality that Percy making new friends didn't seem unreasonable to Shaan, so he didn't think nothing of it.

It was another four weeks later, when he was in his office, early one morning, preparing for his meeting with Henry when he realised Henry was late. Henry was never late. Not without an explanation. He went to Henry's dorm room immediately. Henry was not there. He went to Percy's dorm room and Percy told him he hadn't seen Henry since they parted so Percy could go to the party on Saturday night. That wasn't unusual. Henry wasn't the partying type.

Shaan wasn't about to panic, not until he checked the library. That was the only other place he could think that Henry might be. Being very early morning, the campus library was deserted. Shaan slipped inside with making any more noise than absolutely necessary. Stepping over to the classical literature section, Henry's most likely location, Shaan braced himself to find Henry, as he expected, curled up, lost in a book.

He did find Henry. But not curled up in a book, lost into another world. He found Henry in the far back corner of the stacks. His chin resting on his knees, his arms cradling his legs in place. His whole body was shaking. Shaan looked at the young prince and he was a world away from the prince that Shaan knew Henry usually was.

He approached Henry carefully. He did not want to frighten or scare the young man. He hadn't seen Henry this upset since the announcement of his father's diagnosis. When Henry lifted his head and looked at his equerry, Shaan fought every instinct of his body not to react to his appearance. Henry had a large scrap down the side of his left cheek, a reddening contusion turning purple beneath his left eye socket. There was dried blood beneath his nostrils, and he had a split lip. Shaan took a small step closer to him, tentatively. He didn't want to startle Henry, who looked like a skittish foal, ready to take off at a moment's notice.

As Shaan neared closer, Henry seemed to relax slightly in his presence. Seeing Henry lower his knees slightly allowed Shaan to see the scratch marks around his neck and his ripped oxford shirt was missing its buttons. Shaan's face grimaced at the sight of the literal human teeth bites, broken skin and more contusions that adorned the skin across the sliver of skin between his front shirt panels. "Henry?" Shaan whispered, softly as he got into a crouch in front of the young prince. "Can I ... help you?"

Shaan tried hard not to let anger colour him or shade his voice. He wasn't angry at Henry. He was angry at whomever had done this to him. "I ... I ..." That was all Henry managed to get out before he broke down and there were tears were streaming down his face.

"Let's go back to your room." Shaan offered, softly. He knew when this day was done, he would be taking his frustrations out on the punching bag that he had in his own room. Possibly even having a stiff drink. He offered Henry a hand up and watched as Henry gingerly moved to his feet. Henry winced as he moved and Shaan fought the urge to break his professionalism and hug the young man. He had clearly gone through something very traumatic. "I can telephone your parents or the Princess to come, if you'd prefer."

"No one can know, Shaan." Henry whispered.

As Henry stepped in front of Shaan to make their way back to the prince's dorm room, Shaan noticed a dark staining on the back of his pants. Shaan closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Blood. Shaan slipped his overcoat off and covered the prince's shoulders with it. "Button it up, Sir. All the way up." He didn't explain to his young charge that he had seen the blood on his pants. He didn't explain that offering his coat to the young man was his way of protecting him from the prying eyes of any of his classmates or dorm mates, should they bump into anyone.

Once safely in Henry's dorm room, Shaan gently asked his burning questions a little more forceful than he had in the library. "WHO?" Shaan all but demanded to know.

Henry had told him about his new friend Daniel, who had been interested in spending time with him. They had liked one another. Only for his older brother Andrew to arrive instead. Andrew had pretended to be interested in being Henry's friend. Only for his actions to turn suggestive, then overtly sexual. When Henry had been uncomfortable, he'd asked Andrew to stop, before demanding to stop. Andrew had managed to slip Henry onto the bed and restrain him with rope. Andrew was the same age as Philip and twice Henry's size, physically. Henry could not overpower him.

There was nothing that Henry could have done. He had been bound and gagged with Andrew's dirty underpants, before Andrew had taken his anger out on the young prince. Apparently, he had been to school with Philip. Philip had treated him like dirt, before ruining Andrew's reputation with lies. Philip had bullied and belittled him, and Andrew had made it clear that Henry would be the one paying for his brother's sins.

He had kicked and punched Henry, every time he had tried to fight back against the binds. The rope was natural fiber and he had friction burns on his wrists. He had forced himself on Henry and Henry's body. He hadn't used a condom and he had not used any lubricant, leaving henry a bloodied mess.

He had only released henry when henry had promised to stay away from his brother. That his brother Daniel was not allowed to be gay. That if he ever approached Daniel again, Andrew would release the photos he had of Henry to the media to destroy him.

"Your Highness, please let me call a doctor. We need to call you a doctor. I cannot fix some of these injuries." Shaan pleaded. "The grazes I can fix, but the bleeding, I am afraid I cannot fix. I do not have the knowledge."

"No one can know." Henry said, adamantly. "No one can know."

"Henry, please." Shaan tried once more.

"Shaan, I am gay. No one can know. No one." Henry admitted. "If anyone finds out about this ... h ... he tt ... took p .. p.. pictures. He said he would give them to the mm... media."

"We will find a doctor with the strictest of confidences, I promise. But you need medical attention."

"I need a shower." Henry sighed. He felt dirty and Shaan couldn't blame the young prince for needing a shower.

Shaan's medical training kicked in. "I am afraid that will have to wait until after you see a physician."

No matter what happened from here, Shaan made himself a promise. He was going to find the (so called) man that did this to Henry and make him pay, dearly. He would be getting the doctor on board in the discussion, he wanted Henry to press charges.

Shaan had retreated to his off-campus apartment and taken Henry with him for safety concerns. Once Henry had been seen to by a physician and treated. He had been stitched up, swabbed and swathed in bandages, lotions and medical ointments, Shaan had helped Henry into a shower and into some fresh clothes. He had administered the young prince with the sedative, as ordered by the doctor and allowed the young man to get some peaceful rest.

Once Henry was resting peacefully, Shaan took himself off to his home office and closed the door behind him. He wiped furiously at his eyes and cursed to himself in several languages. He was angry. Not at Henry. At the man who had done this. At the PPOs that were supposed to be watching Henry. They had screwed up and now, Henry had to live with the consequences of their stuff up for the rest of his life.

Once Shaan had mentally dealt with his anger, he settled down behind his desk, before doing something he really did not want to do.

He called the prince's parents and informed them of what had happened to their son.