Chapter 6
The next morning, after my midnight-to-mid-morning shift in the kitchen, I’m watering the roses growing in my window box and mulling the queen’s order to attend Kai’s welcome-home reception this evening.
Upon arriving home from work, I discovered a thick parchment envelope sealed with red wax and bearing the emblem of the royal family. I opened it, read the contents, and left it sitting on the table.
A dress will be delivered to my room an hour before I am to attend the royal family in the banquet hall. I am to return it when the event is over—undamaged. The queen was quite specific on that score. Apparently it is much finer than a scullery maid like me deserves to touch.
Lost in thought, I don’t notice the men traipsing into the courtyard below. If I had, I certainly wouldn’t have been hanging out the window in my shift and stays.
“Ho there,” a masculine voice calls out.
I jerk my head up. Embarrassment scorches my skin.
“Whore, indeed,” a second man scoffs. The second speaker is Kai. His mouth contorts into an ugly sneer. I freeze.
“Show us your tits, Gwen,” he taunts, making a rude gesture. His friend grins eagerly.
No. I am not going to show him and everyone else whose windows overlook this courtyard my breasts.
The servants’ dormitories are a casual place.
I’ve lived here for most of my life. Being glimpsed in one’s underthings while inside one’s own living quarters isn’t shocking among the lower classes, but flaunting one’s nakedness is unseemly.
Especially before a royal prince. What is he doing here? Kai never comes to this part of Montrace Castle unless it’s to see me.
“Come on, luv, show us your bubbies,” calls the unknown man, using a lewd and frankly ridiculous word for breasts.
I cast him a dismissive glare. Kai’s companion is the kind of rough character he once would have looked down upon.
If he can only see the ugliness in people, then he must feel compelled to surround himself with men who are willing to tolerate his newfound vileness.
I’m not sure what possesses me to do it.
An instinct. A long-suppressed rebellious streak.
I lock gazes with Kai and pour the contents of the watering can over my chest. The cool water puckers my nipples into stiff peaks.
Without looking down, I know the darker hue is visible through the threadbare fabric of my shift.
From the periphery of my vision, I see the Kai’s companion make a rude gesture and run his tongue over his lips.
Confirmation that yes, my body is fully on display in wet linen, even from two stories up.
Reason asserts itself abruptly. I pull myself back inside and slam the exterior shutters closed.
Even though the tiny two-room apartment will quickly turn stifling, I slam the window sash down hard enough to rattle the ancient, wavy glass.
The watering can drops from my boneless fingers and rolls hollowly on the floor beside my feet.
For a full minute, I stand there, my heart pounding. I don’t know what I expected—punishment for my brazenness seems likely, yet nothing happens.
When I regain sense, I peel off my wet clothes and hang them to dry with shaking hands.
I slip into my nightgown and crawl into bed.
It takes me a long time to fall asleep. I am awoken when Nana bustles in, rousing me from a fitful rest. The sun slants through the shutters creating a lattice on the rag rug.
“It’s stifling in here. Why did you close the window, Gwen?” she says.
Sweat clings to my skin. I feel unclean. Remembering the queen’s invitation, I bolt upright. “What time is it?”
“A little after four.”
Adrenaline leaches away. My limbs feel strangely weak and shaky in the aftermath. I have hours to prepare. “I need a bath. She’s sending a dress for me to wear.”
“Who is?”
In my sleep-addled state, I’m not making sense.
I pick up the brush and start dragging it through my tangled locks, hoping the soothing motion will help me organize my thoughts.
Nana takes the brush and wrangles it through the thick waves that fall to my mid-back.
That helps. I inhale a calming breath and start from the beginning.
“The queen has ordered me to attend Kai’s welcome-home banquet this evening.”
Nana’s mouth purses disapprovingly. “That will raise eyebrows. Has she no care for your reputation?”
I shake my head. The Queen Regent only cares about rescuing her son.
We both know that one pathetic scullery maid is unimportant compared to the future of the country.
Whatever “reward” she has in mind won’t be anywhere close to enough to compensate for the damage to my already-dented reputation.
Even before his accident, people whispered about my close friendship with a prince.
I can ask for Kai’s hand if I succeed in this quest. But even if the queen grants my request, he would be wiser to make a political match and repair one of the many alliances he’s broken.
Then what would I do?
In truth, my future was forfeit the day I played in the dirt in the garret window box with the roses my grandmother had just helped me plant. I didn’t know, then, what the boy’s friendship would cost me.
I still would have paid the price.
Besides, if I can’t get Kai to remember himself, Nana will lose the home she’s made for us here in Montrace. My resolve firms.
“You shouldn’t go.” Nana’s strokes speed up. “It won’t help you.”
“I cannot ignore a direct order from my sovereign.”
Her mouth pinches sourly. She knows I can’t.
A thump on the rooftop above brings our chins up.
Nana and I exchange glances. We both recognize the sound of boots on shingles.
I know that step, though it’s different from the halting way Kai used to climb the slanting surface.
This is heavier. Manlier. Aggressive. A quaver in my thighs as the footfalls thud closer.
I wait with bated breath. Maybe he’s come to his senses and wants to speak privately. I need to get dressed.
As if she reads my thoughts, Nana holds out a robe.
I shrug into it, twisting the belt into a knot, fumbling it when the first heavy thwack reverberates through the wooden sill.
Startled, we rush to the window, tripping over one another in our haste to open the latches.
The glass goes up. The wooden shutters push outward.
Metal glints in the sunlight seconds before splinters and dirt fly in our faces.
“What are you doing, Kai?” Nana cries out.
I can only stare in disbelief as my beloved roses crash to the courtyard below.
How could he? He destroyed the symbol of our friendship. Our origin story lies in pieces on the stones below.
Disheveled and breathing hard, he rests the handle of his axe on one shoulder and gloats.
“That ought to teach you a lesson, my wicked little liar.”
Nana gasps. My skin turns cold. He wouldn’t tell her what I did with the watering can, would he? I stare at him, torn between outrage and a strange pulse of desire at his possessiveness.
My wicked little liar. He claimed me, and part of me likes that. Too much. Immediately, he ruins it.
“Next time you hang your titties out the window for everyone to see, make sure the view isn’t obstructed.”
Humiliation scorches through me. He strides away, climbing the sloped roof with the ease and sure-footedness of a goat.
“Gwendolyn, what did you do?” Nana asks, aghast.
“Don’t ask.” I swallow my tears.
Nana is silent for a moment before she says softly, “Be careful, Gwen.”