15. Ash
Chapter 15
Ash
Priority number one: get my leg better. The throbbing pain hurt like hell, but the bath made the ache dull slightly, enough for me to get around the room.
Two: figure out what my grandfather wanted. I was sure I wasn’t safe here—I needed to know how unsafe I was.
Number three: find out more about my father, my mother, and where I was hidden away all those years before Nan and Pop.
I blew out a frustrated breath from inside the giant white bathtub. Hot water surrounded me, burning my skin until it turned bright red, but I relished in the feeling. The best part was if this water got cold, I could just refill it with more. I cursed this place and the stupid, amazing bathtub and the lights that flickered overhead that never seemed to die out like a candle or fire. Nan would love this. Sorrow filled my chest and loneliness crept into my mind.
Without warning, tears started streaming down my face. They rolled into the soapy water and disappeared. I closed my eyes and let it all out for once. All my doubts, confusion, and fear that I had been harboring in the weeks of traveling—it all bubbled to the surface, and my quiet sobs filled the room.
I don’t know how long I stayed that way before I heard a knock on my bedroom door. I pulled the plug in the bathtub, and water gurgled after it, leaving me sitting in a bathtub of dirty, soapy water, feeling embarrassed. I hurried and wiped myself off with the plushest towel I’d ever felt and pulled on soft, gray shorts and a shirt from the closet.
A knock sounded again from the outer door. I pulled it open a crack and peeked out into the hallway. Davis kept guard off to the side, and a woman around my age stood in front of the door, holding a tray of food. A bowl of soup and some kind of flatbread with creamy white cheese and bits of lettuce lay in the middle. My stomach growled in approval.
She looked at me expectantly and gave me a kind smile. “Your dinner, Princess.” Ugh. Why did everyone keep calling me that? I pulled the door open and let her in quickly, shutting it behind her.
She sauntered over to the small table in front of a large window that I hadn’t had the chance to inspect yet. Though, we were on the second floor, so there was probably no way I could jump out. I studied her. A familiar, gray dress like Della’s covered her body, reaching the floor. Her curly, black hair barely reached past her ears, and she had an assortment of shiny rings covering one of them. She turned and looked at me, and I studied her face. She was beautiful in every sense of the word. Full lips, dark skin, bright brown eyes, and long lashes that she gazed at me under .
This was all so foreign—the lavish room, interacting with new people. Rarely, if ever, had I been forced to talk to new people.
“My name is Ryan. I’m assigned to your room. I’ll be your maid and bring your food. Just let me know if you need anything, Princess.” Her voice sounded not at all the shy, quiet kind that I would have expected out of a maid. In fact, she looked utterly out of place and unphased by my blonde hair dripping water all over the floor.
Princess. If one more person called me that, I would rip off their head.
“You okay? You look like you’re about ready to have a stroke,” she mused.
My eyes widened in surprise.
“Shit, sorry…” Her hands flew over her mouth. “Della’s going to kill me.” She schooled her features again and dipped her head. “Excuse me Princess, I didn’t mean to speak out of turn.”
I snorted—literally snorted as a laugh came bubbling out. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with a swearing problem. She probably thought I was psychotic, with my red-rimmed eyes and cackling laugh, but it was the funniest thing I had heard in a while. Ryan’s lips tugged up into a smirk that I was sure could make any man fall to his knees. She seemed older than me, maybe not in years, but in experience—like she had seen some things. So had I, but with her, it seemed worse somehow.
“I’m sorry.” I laughed. “Just call me Ash, please… If one more person calls me Princess, I’m going to impale myself on the bedpost.”
Her eyes turned wary, like she began searching the room for weapons. Well, there went my one shot at a friend—she now thought of me as a suicidal lunatic .
“Joking,” I clarified. Or at least, mostly joking.
Her shoulders relaxed again, and she rolled her eyes. “You better be, because I hate cleaning up blood.” What? Was cleaning up blood a recurring experience around here? I looked at her in shock—she spoke to me like a real person.
“What?” she asked.
“Sorry…I’m used to “Princess, this” and “Princess, that”—no one has actually spoken to me like I’m an actual human being in a while.” Besides Jerek, but our conversations seemed to annoy me more than anything.
“Well, if I have permission to speak freely around you…?”
I nodded. It would be nice for someone to tell me something for a change, and I liked her.
“Sometimes my mouth runs away from me, and I don’t know when to shut up. You can tell me anything, I won’t tell anyone. Secrets between a maid and her charge are to the death—as long as you don’t tell Della. She would gladly put me in front of the firing squad.” She winked and looked me in the eye, and I felt like she was really trying to tell me something—like I could trust her without question. But that would never happen again. I trusted her enough to have a conversation, but that might be as far as it went. She kept dropping these things so casually—blood, firing squad. Was it real?
“I won’t tell Della,” I promised. “Besides, I’m pretty sure she already hates me. I think she even referred to me as a pig earlier.”
Ryan chuckled. “Della hates everyone… Well, except for Maximus. She likes to kiss his ass.”
I snickered at the comment. I could totally see it. How did Ryan end up in a place like this as a maid, of all things? She seemed like she had so much more to offer the world.
She must have noticed my red eyes. “Cheer up, Ash. You’re here now. At least you won’t die of malnutrition.” Did I really look that destitute for food? Her eyes raked over my thin form that had only gotten smaller the last month. “And you have a place to sleep. Maybe things aren’t looking as bad as you think.”
For now, at least, I was safe. I needed to make the most of it and figure out where I went from here. “Thank you,” I told her, and I meant it.
“You’re welcome. It was good to meet you, Ash. Tell Davis if you need anything, and he’ll let me know.” I forgot about the man posted outside my door.
She walked over to the door and pulled it open, only to almost collide with Jerek, who stood outside, looking a bit suspicious. Something passed between their eyes before Ryan ducked her head, mumbled her apologies, and left, ducking past Davis as she went. She left the door wide open in her wake.
“What?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Jerek leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed. “Just thought I would let you know that the King has assigned me as your guard for the time being.”
I raised my eyebrows. That was really all he wanted to tell me? “Good for you… Go to hell.”
I reached out to slam the door in his face, and his hand stopped the door from closing all the way, jarring his arm. “Wait,” he said.
“Why is your hand on my fiancé‘s door, Wavern?” Diesel strode down the hall like a man ready to murder until he loomed in front of Jerek, stepping between us.
Something flared in Jerek’s eyes, and he didn’t submit to Diesel’s commands like before. “Good luck. We both know who the better fighter is.” Whoa—there was some history here that I wasn’t aware of. Too bad I couldn’t find it in myself to care tonight. I shut the door, turning the lock so that no one could get back in. They could have their pissing match out in the hall by themselves. All I wanted to do was get off my leg and sleep until it hurt less. My leg…and my heart.
I limped over to the large window and peeked out into the night. Small snowflakes fell onto the dark ground outside, twinkling down past my window and clear to the damp earth. There were soldiers posted outside the mansion on the ground level. No climbing out the window then. Further out stood more clusters of buildings—the King’s estate was way larger than I originally thought. A small city above the real city . What were all the buildings used for? Jerek had mentioned a school for all the boys that would be soldiers. Was this where they all trained?
Tomorrow’s problem. Tiredness pulled at my eyes, and I ignored the hunger in my belly when I fell into the soft bed with a thud and didn’t move.