The Grand Mistress

Feather was in a dilemma of finding the right word to save herself from the disgrace that Hawk proposed. She held onto the ends of her dress as she looked down on her poor feet.

Hawk saw Feather's face turn red and he smiled as he thought that until then, she really didn't believe that he was not at all bothered if she chose to take off her shoes. ​​

The Feather he used to know was a very carefree child who loves to walk barefoot but one time he chided her not to because it's very unlady-like. Perhaps that was the reason why Feather was having second thoughts about what he proposed. Knowing that she was conflicted, Hawk took the initiative to take her shoes off so he bent down in front of her and carefully raised one of her feet to pull one shoe away.

"Hey wait!" Hawk was surprised to hear her protest.

"My heiress, you need not be shy with me,"

"No please," Feather was desperate. She will never ever walk with bare feet no matter what. "I mean I would like to keep my shoes on President Hawk please."

When she uttered those words, Hawk immediately looked up to her and the expression that flashed on his face made Feather aware that she needed to have a good reason for it. "President Hawk, my feet just recently had an injury. I can't take the risk of hurting them once more. I'm afraid that if I'll walk barefoot, I might accidentally stumble on something sharp and cut myself again,"

It was evident from Hawk's face that he was not at all satisfied with her answer. However, a pang of guilt somehow made its way to his face when he was reminded of Feather's injury and so he didn't give her protest much of importance but rather stood back beside her and escorted her once again.

"I'm sorry I should have been more cautious of your injury," Hawk apologized. The truth was he kind of forgot the girl had an injury because while he was escorting her at the hospital, she walked pretty fine and so he thought the injury was nothing. Nevertheless, it still was an injury and he was somehow responsible for it so he did not argue anymore.

"No need," Feather was relieved of how things went on. Good thing her brain was sharp today, if not Hawk would have probably taken notice. Her next dilemma was how to convince her fiancee to call his driver and fetch them both or they will end up going to their reservation with no ride. That's sure was more awful than strolling on a public street.

While she was busy thinking of ways, Hawk suddenly halted his steps and started checking out his pockets looking for something until he found some coins he intentionally kept for Feather. When he had found some, he gave them to her fiancee that only made Feather's head formed lines.

Why was Hawk giving her some coins?

"I'm sorry my love I only have three coins to spare," Hawk smiled bitterly that only made Feather more confused. What on earth was Hawk doing?

"I think there will be a few more of him as we go along, better kept the other two for the rest," He instructed her but she had no idea what he was talking about.

She was about to ask him when someone grabbed the hem of her dress. She immediately looked down and found a child, more like a beggar in front of her. To her shock, Feather screamed.

"Ahhhhh! Get away from me! Get away from me!" Feather was disgusted and she almost wanted to vomit, "You filthy child, how dare you touch my dress!"

The child's face grimaced and his eyes teared up. He had asked a lot of passersby for coins and none of them acted more disgusted than Feather. He almost thought that the girl would give her a lot of coins for she was well dressed. Turns out she was not at all interested in giving him some.

"Dirty kid! Oh my God!" Feather was hysterical and seeing how she acted up, Hawk immediately grabbed her body as if protecting her.

"It's only a kid my love," Hawk whispered, aware of how the child's expression became pitiful.

"Have him go away, please. Please, President Hawk!" Feather was sobbing already. Hawk, who was confused and helpless right then freed Feather up and bent down to level the child's gaze. "Here this is for you. Go and buy some food,"

Immediately the kid ran away as soon as Hawk gave him his coins. Good thing he was not able to hand them completely to Feather earlier or she could have thrown them away while she was hysterical.

Hawk then turned his attention back to Feather. However, unlike a few minutes ago, he did not attempt to comfort nor embrace her but just looked at her as if there was something he wanted to ask desperately.

Knowing that Hawks' expression changed, Feather became aware that he was not pleased with how she treated the child. Immediately, her mind was stuck with something and she instantly panics knowing she might have ruined everything.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry President Hawk," She had crocodile tears then. "I just….I just had some bad experiences with someone like them and it traumatized me. Oh God, I should have not treated that poor child like that, I was just caught off guard and really surprised. Poor child, he must have felt I was disgusted with him,"

"You had a bad experience with them?" Hawk's curiosity was shifted to something else.

"Yes, abroad. I was once robbed by someone, street children, and…" She sobbed as if she did not want to recall such a memory, although such memories do not exist, "They had a knife. They were children yet they know how to use a knife,"

Hearing her explanation. Hawk's expression softened and in just a second, Feather was back on his arms again.