Chapter 16 #2
“I would pay actual money to find out what my brother will say when he hears I’ve got pants now.
And more on the way,” Ashley said, but she knew that it was probably for the best that she didn’t hear anything from her brother that day.
After all, she needed to convince him that she was in her room, sulking at the fact that he had yelled at her the night before.
But, as she didn’t exactly have magic, she was short of options.
Instead, what Ashley had was a pair of pants that were practically begging to be worn and places to go, people to deceive.
In this case, a pair of conniving men who very obviously had been consulting with her lady’s maid, of all things.
She was pretty sure that if she’d been raised in this high society, she would have been annoyed by that, perhaps even insulted.
But, as she wasn’t, and she was just a girl at the end of the day, she pulled on her pants and nodded to Emma, gesturing for her to take her to the men. Emma did so without complaint.
Emma moved through the halls with the sort of beauty and grace that Ashley knew she lacked.
Emma knew exactly what to do and what was expected of her as a lady’s maid, one that just so happened to be accompanying her lady.
It turned out that just about anything could be done if you looked confident enough, something that Ashley had to store away for future reference.
It wasn’t like she would always be with Emma.
But she could always remember how Emma held herself and the ease with which she moved, the way that she dominated the space and seemed to know exactly what to do.
Ashley swallowed hard, realizing the same was expected of her, and she had failed to be the person everyone hoped she would be in the end.
But just because she had initially failed didn’t mean there was no hope.
Ashley looked towards the ends of the hallway with glee, knowing that the closer she got to the door, the closer she got to the truth.
Soon, she would know exactly what was going on, and the moment she did, well, that would probably be when she knew more about herself.
Just when Ashley was about to convince herself that she would get out of there, something unexpected happened, and someone unexpected appeared.
Suddenly, all the servants jumped out of the way as the flow of traffic began going in the opposite direction.
It was almost as if she was fighting the tide.
“Oh, fuck me,” Ashley breathed, not having the same amount of decorum as Emma.
She was pretty sure that if her brother had heard her use such words, he likely would have paled, realizing how well and truly fucked he was when it came to sending her off.
But, as he wasn’t there, Ashley continued to swear.
“More fucking guests,” she muttered, immediately recognizing what was going on and putting two and two together. In front of her, the maid was pale, and Emma was reverting to the stiff, shuddering girl she had first encountered.
“They’re here,” Emma said, and there was something about how she said it that made it more than clear that she was caught off guard.
Obviously, she hadn’t expected everyone to show up all at once.
It was clear that the whole dragon nobility was there days ahead of time, yet there was nothing that Ashley could do to get rid of them.
They had decided to surprise her brother, undoubtedly wanting a peek at her, and there they were.
And there Ashley was, standing in the middle of the hallway, undoubtedly expected to do something. Still, before she could question what exactly she was expected to do then, Emma shined a little light on the situation for her.
“They’re not supposed to see you,” Emma said, and with those words, Emma offered Ashley a way out.
“Oh fuck,” Ashley gasped in surprise as Emma yanked her away from the hallway.
Despite all of Jack and Elliot’s scheming, the maid had to think fast on her feet.
Now, she was stuck looking back at Ashley, her face betraying her surprise.
It turned out that Emma wasn’t the only one with secrets up her sleeve.
Ashley knew very well how to sneak around.
It was practically a sport in Tennessee.
The one thing that Ashley did not know, however, was the current layout of the entire castle. Though she tried time and time again, she couldn’t exactly figure out where she was going. She would have paid to have a map made. But instead, she had something better. A Map Maid.
“You know exactly all of the passageways in these halls,” Ashley reminded Emma when she looked at her blankly, willing Emma to show them the way out.
“More than that, you just so happen to know where Jack and Elliot are hoping to meet us, which is a good thing,” Ashley reminded Emma, wrapping her hand around the other woman’s as she tugged her along with a determined look on her face.
“Now, if you’re going to have all these secrets about everything, then you need to start being useful. ”
Emma nodded sharply in reply, obviously knowing that Ashley was right.
“This way,” Emma said with a tone of decisiveness as she decided to follow Ashley’s demands.
As she found one of these tiny doorways leading into the servants’ hallways, her fingers tightened around Ashley’s as she led her into them, having the common sense to open the door and peek either way before vanishing behind it and Ashley with her.
“We’re going a bit out of the way, so we’re going to have to walk a bit,” Emma said with a shrug, “but it won’t be too long of a walk. Rumor has it that you got to the ceremonial room yesterday, which is a fairly good distance from the ball room.”
Before Ashley could open her mouth to ask what the fucking ceremonial room was, Emma shook her head, signaling to the other girl that she couldn’t answer.
This wasn’t the time for questions. Today, they had a mission.