The King's Lover

Lady Delphine wasn’t a stranger to the Masked Auction, not in the slightest. She frequented the auction, and she was known as a regular customer. She attended more for personal reasons than anything else, so it was no surprise that she was also at the Masked Auction the night Rose was to be sold off.

f(r)eew(e)bnovel.(c)o(m)

Lady Delphine had let out an audible gasp when she saw Rose come out of the floor in that cage. At first, she didn’t believe her eyes and told herself over and over again that it was just a lookalike. However, the Masked Host’s confirmation was all she needed. It was Rose.

She couldn’t figure out how she would have gotten here. She didn’t even hear anything about her being away from the castle. Still, to end up at the Masked Auction was very bizarre.

The Masked Auction wasn’t completely disapproved of by the king, but they knew better than to put their business right under his nose. Delphine knew the royal family had almost nothing to do with the Masked Auction. It was mostly attended by lower nobles and very few high-ranking nobles.

She had never interacted with any of the guests at the auction, but she had come to know a few names. Lord Wolf was a very familiar name, he frequented the masked auction just as often as she did, if not more. His favorite to bid on were exotic animals but sometimes he would bid on people.

She had almost thought she would lose and had bid a little too much than she could afford, but she couldn’t risk anyone else getting Rose. She also considered that she might be taking a risk, but she didn’t want Rose to fall into the hands of anyone else, especially Lord Wolf. Something about that lord just didn’t seem right to her.

Still, her hunch wasn’t completely wrong. Rose had not been chased out of the castle. She had been abducted. Delphine wasn’t completely surprised, but she didn’t expect this to happen so soon.

"Do you have any idea who could have sent the hooded man?" Delphine asked as they rode in the carriage.

Rose shook her head. She wrapped her arms around herself as she looked toward the window, but like the door, it also had a curtain. Still, she just stared as though she could see through it.

"Nay," she whispered, still keeping her eyes on the curtain.