Chapter 6 #2
Stepping into the bathroom, the princess turned to shut the door, only to encounter Jeeves standing at the threshold. “I can handle it from here,” was all she could think to say. She’d had servants when she was younger but they never bathed her.
From the look of indecision on the butler’s face, she could only imagine what instructions Adramelech had given him.
Turning to the side and motioning with her hand, Audrey added, “There’s no where I can go.
No windows. Only one door.” She knocked her fingers against the wood.
“You can sit right there,” she instructed, pointing to the chair against the wall between the door she held and the entrance to her closet.
Finally, Jeeves nodded and moved back enough for her to close the door.
Of course, there was no lock, but the princess figured she could move faster than the shuffling corpse.
Letting the robe drop to the clean, white tiled floor, Audrey stepped into the first hot bath she could remember and slid down until the soothing water touched her chin.
She had to compliment Jeeves on his choice of bath salts as lavender and vanilla filled her senses.
Bit by bit, her haggard muscles began to relax and soon, Audrey was floating on an herbal cloud working with all her might to think about anything but what fresh hell the Chancellor had up his sleeve.
All too soon, Jeeves knocked on the door. “The Master expects you in forty minutes, mum.”
Opening her mouth to tell the rotting butler to tell Adramelech to stuff it, Audrey sighed. “I don’t want to get the guy killed but he’s dead, so maybe it’s killed again? Anyway…” Raising her voice so Jeeves could hear, she answered, “Be right out.”
Regrettably, the princess exited the tub, wrapped herself and her hair in pink, fluffy towels, and made her way out of the bathroom.
The surprises just kept coming. She found Jeeves standing beside what Audrey had seen in the fashion magazines that the former-models-now-demons who serviced the Chancellor had left lying around.
All the fashionistas called it the perfect little black dress, and the dirty son of a whore had made sure there were black lace panties and a matching bra to go with it.
The princess thought about searching her new wardrobe for a pair of jeans and a T-shirt like she’d seen so many wearing, but then thought better of it.
Audrey knew if she made Adramelech too mad, she wouldn’t find out what he as up to until it was too late to stop whatever carnage he was planning.
No, she had to play the game, at least for the time being.
The Chancellor was good at scheming. Hades knew the jerk had been doing it since the beginning of time.
How the hell else would he have become the Chancellor of Hell, right hand to the Devil himself?
Sliding the dress over her head after putting on the elegant undergarments, that on any other occasion Audrey would’ve been thrilled to own, the princess turned toward the mirror and immediately wished for her petticoat and heavy gown.
The dress fit like a glove, emphasizing all her curves and highlighting a cleavage she didn’t know she had with its deep V-neck.
Looking at herself from all angles, the princess had to admit she liked what she saw, which was something she’d never thought before in her life.
In her day, many suitors had admired Audrey for her beauty.
The princes her father had tried to match her with all complimented her on her full figure and one even commented on her behind, saying he’d ‘like to take a bite out of that apple’ when he thought she was out of earshot.
Audrey had always wished she could be thin like the other princesses she’d met at court, but that had not been in the cards for the raven-haired girl.
It was all very flattering, mostly because she looked just like her mother, Bianca, who’d been brutally murdered when Audrey was only six years old.
The princess still missed her mother every day of her life.
There had been a time when she’d thought her father’s troops would find whatever enemy had chosen to strike out at the king by killing his wife and father-in-law and do to them what they’d done to Audrey’s loved ones.
Many days of Audrey’s childhood were spent trying to forget the image of Bianca and Gabriel’s heads on pikes in the courtyard of their castle.
She remembered crying until there were no more tears.
Breaking everything she could get her hands on and screaming until she could no longer speak before collapsing from exhaustion, only to wake up and have to face the people of their kingdom as they came to pay their respects to their dead queen.
Her father had helped her into the first black gown she’d ever worn and slid her tiny feet into the matching ballerina slippers.
He’d explained that it was going to be a difficult day and he would understand if she needed to step away to cry but warned her not to let the commoners see her tears.
They could never see, even while in mourning the loss of a loved one, any weakness in their monarchs.
It was just the way it had to be. He kissed her on the forehead, stood and took her hand, leading her to the ballroom where she’d gotten her first pony just a few months earlier.
But on that day, it served as a mortuary.
Audrey’s memory blinked out of existence as Jeeves wheezed, “Time to go, mum.”
One last look in the mirror and a pinch to both cheeks for color and the princess was out the door.
Jeeves insisted she take his arm on their slow trek to the formal dining room Adramelech only used for his fanciest parties.
The tiny heels of her bejeweled slippers tapped against the stone floor.
Audrey’s reminder that she had been teleported back to a happier time but was actually being coerced into only the devil knew what by a sadistic Demon Lord.
Entering the dining room, the smell of roast pork and vegetable invaded her sense. Audrey stomach growled and it was then she realized it had been over a month since she’d eaten.
“Damned black magic,” she growled under her breath, sure Adramelech had heard her comment from the way the tiny earflaps on the top of his grotesque head quivered. She was suspiciously surprised when he did not react.
Yeah, he’s up to something for sure.
Making a spectacle out of standing up, the Chancellor met Audrey halfway to the table and after bowing to her, took her hand, placed it on top of his, and escorted her to a rather ornate golden chair she’d never seen before.
After sitting, the princess smoothed the tablecloth and almost fell out of her chair.
The table, and after closer inspection, the chair, just like the furniture in her room was wooden, not bones and skulls as was the Demon Lord’s usual choice of medium for his interior décor.
Immediately noticing her reaction, Adramelech asked, “Do you like the improvements to our home, princess?”
The use of ‘our home’ was not lost on Audrey, but she decided to play dumb to see where the Chancellor was going with their conversation.
Using the voice her father had taught her to use when speaking with dignitaries from other kingdoms that she didn’t care for, Audrey responded, “I do. It is very nice. Thank you for my bedroom and all the clothes. They are beautiful.”
Appearing pleased with her reaction, Adramelech pointed to the huge silver dome in the middle of the table.
Jeeves shuffled over and, with a great deal of struggling, lifted the lid, revealing the roast pork and accompaniments Audrey had smelled upon her arrival.
Again, her stomach grumbled and her mouth watered.
It wasn’t that over the years the Chancellor hadn’t kept her well-nourished.
It was just that her meals, if they were food and not some magical concoction the Demon Lord made her drink, usually consisted of stale bread, mushy vegetables, and an unrecognizable meat-like substance with an origin Audrey refused to guess at.
So for her to be presented with real food after all these years, she had to figure whatever bomb Adramelech was about to drop on her was going to be huge.
Like Armageddon. But she would see it out to the end.
It was the only chance she had to stop whatever was coming.
Adramelech rang a small silver bell and out popped a leggy blonde demon dressed in a scant maid’s outfit, which began to serve their food. Right behind her entered a stringed quartet made up of a mixture of demons and ghouls, who sat right down and started to play Bach.
This just gets weirder and weirder.
Using every ounce of self-control she could muster, Audrey looked down at the Chancellor and smiled.
She wasn’t surprised to find him staring at her.
It was something he’d done all the time before what he now referred to as her fall from grace.
Now more than ever, her skin crawled and she wanted to poke out his eyes.
She’d always promised herself the day would come when she watched the fire dwindle in his yellow eyes but doubts had started to form lately.
Taking a bite of her dinner, Audrey wondered what the Chancellor was going to do with the huge plate of food before him.
She’d never in all her years in captivity seen him eat.
The princess didn’t even know if the part lizard, part wolf, part whatever else he was could eat real food.
Her questions were laid to rest when he slid a small piece of meat into his mouth.
Learn something new every day.