A Beast's Tale

Chapter 2

“You didn’t tell me she was such a looker, Chev,” Clavis said, bursting into my office with a wide grin the next day.

I looked up from the document I’d been skimming, the annoyance I usually felt whenever Clavis appeared tempered by an unexpected satisfaction. So, she had returned.

“Who are you talking about?” Nokto asked, his crimson eyes immediately intrigued as he looked up from his stack of paperwork.

“Chev’s new maid. Well, she’s actually not assigned to him at all, just the library. I checked,” Clavis replied, taking a seat on a corner of my large white desk instead of one of the various chairs. Fortunately for him, his news had me in a good mood. The irony of it all was that this maid was the only one I’d come across so far suitable to attend to me personally.

“King Highness, you didn’t mention a new maid,” Nokto said with a sly smile, his messy silver hair brushing the shoulder of his white jacket as he tilted his head slightly to the side.

“It’s not pertinent to your work,” I said coolly, surveying his careless appearance with distaste. His dark blue tie was barely hanging on, a sharp contrast to Clavis’ perfectly knotted rich blue tie. But this was their normal. Clavis, meticulously groomed, and Nokto, always looking like he just got out of bed. Which he usually had.

“Her name is Ivetta,” Clavis continued. “I think she’s going to be quite entertaining.” The light from the two large windows behind me emphasized the mischievous sparkle in his golden eyes.

“How so?” Nokto asked, ignoring my pointed glare. At least his white shirt was clean today, but he’d neglected the top button and hadn’t tucked his shirtsleeves into his dark gray pants.

“She was in Chev’s library when I found her. Jumpy little thing. I suppose you gave her a fright yesterday, huh, Chev?” Clavis laughed. “And she had the audacity to shoo me away so she could get back to work!”

Nokto chuckled with amusement, crossing his arms over his light blue vest. She was brazen, daring to enter my library without my permission. And while Clavis was far less intimidating than me, he was very clearly a prince. She had no business ordering him around. More discipline would be necessary.

For the maid, and the prince.

“What about your work?” I snapped, turning to the built-in bookcase that separated the windows behind me and selecting a heavy reference textbook.

Clavis groaned dramatically. “You’re no fun, Chev,” he said, vacating his spot on the desk just as I dropped the large book where he’d been sitting. He sat in the chair directly in front of the desk, opening the book and pulling a stack of paperwork toward himself.

“So, what does she look like?” Nokto asked, leaning back and stretching his long legs in front of him, his white boots kicking Clavis’ chair to keep him talking.

Clavis grinned. “She’s a pretty little thing. Short, can’t be much over five feet. Long, straight black hair, bright green eyes, slim build, with all the right curves in all the right places.”

An accurate description, worded specifically to pique Nokto’s interest further. He straightened in his chair, the sword belted at his side bumping the wall behind him. “Hm, I may have to pay a visit to the library,” he mused.

“Try not to drool on official documents, Clown,” I said dryly.

“Surely, even you noticed what an attractive little dove she is, Chev,” Clavis teased.

“I leave the pointless womanizing to those with lesser ambitions.”

“So, she’s fair game?” he asked slyly.

“What you do in your spare time is none of my affair.”

This may be problematic. Clavis would tell the rest of my brothers about her, and they would no doubt flock to the library to flirt. So much for peace and quiet. The gardens might be a better location for me to read in solitude over the next week or so while they got their hormones out of their systems.

As usual, I finished my work well before Clavis and Nokto, and I stood to go, glancing at the clock. Almost two-thirty, the same time I’d visited the library yesterday. This wouldn’t last, of course. Most of the time, I didn’t get to escape there until the evening. But I’d been planning on going earlier today, anyway. There was the matter of her hours, and her disrespectful attitude toward Clavis. The tear-drop shaped crystals hanging from the chandelier above bumped each other lightly in the breeze left by the wake of my exit. Clavis and Nokto didn’t even glance up from their paperwork, used as they were to my brusque nature.

She was perched on a ladder when I arrived in the library, humming as she washed the tops of the windows, but she stopped and turned to look at me when she heard the door open. Not a wise move for somebody in such a precarious position. She didn’t lose her balance, though, nor did her green eyes show any evidence of fear as they met mine. I walked over to her as she turned her back on me, finishing her self-assigned task. This wasn’t something she should be doing alone, especially when she looked to be so fragile. Ivetta, wasn’t it?

“Would you like me to bring you some tea, Prince Chevalier?” she asked, descending the ladder gracefully.

Anticipating my needs. She was quickly outpacing any maid I’d ever had before, even with her faults. I smirked at her. “So you can be trained. A single cup will suffice.” I went back to my private library, glancing back to see her already heading toward the door. She was quick to obey, too. I chuckled to myself and sat down, imagining her encounter with Clavis. He would have been teasing her, and she very much wanted to be taken seriously. Little dove, he’d called her. The nickname suited her.

The back room smelled of wood polish and soap. She’d put in quite a bit of work here before I arrived, but nothing appeared to be disturbed. Even the lamp sat in exactly the same location on the end table as it had occupied yesterday. It was as if the dust had simply disappeared. She was careful and thorough.

I was in my chair, reading, when she returned. She set the teacup on the end table next to me and stepped back. “Is there anything else you need from me, your highness?”

I looked up at her coolly. “The head maid does not set your hours. I do. You will stay as late as is necessary.”

She frowned slightly, but did not waver. “It would seem there was a lot she didn’t tell me. I regret to inform you that I can’t stay past five o’clock, your highness.”

I took a sip of tea, surveying her posture. Tense, wary. Clavis had said she was jumpy. How jumpy, exactly, I had yet to determine.

“Are you refusing my direct order?” I asked threateningly. There was a flicker of fear in her green eyes, but she didn’t back down.

“Perhaps you don’t understand, your highness. I don’t live here in the palace, and there are certain circumstances that don’t allow me to stay late. I’m happy to do whatever you like during the hours I’d agreed to with the head maid.”

I set the tea down and stood up, walking over to her and taking her chin in my hand. She flinched, but otherwise didn’t move. “Perhaps you don’t understand. It is in your best interest to do as I say.”

Her eyes flashed angrily, but she kept her voice calm and controlled. “I realize that, your highness, but as I said, I cannot comply regarding this particular matter.”

“And why is that?” I asked, sliding my finger down her neck. The bounding pulse in the vein at the side of her neck betrayed the fear she was working very hard to hide.

“It’s not really any of your business, your highness, but my mother is very ill and requires a lot of care. As her only family member, that responsibility falls to me.” She flinched again as my finger traced up and down her neck.

“I see. You have explained your reason for defying me, but you have not yet explained what benefit it is to me if I consent to your demands,” I said, smirking tauntingly and adding more fingers to the dance across her smooth skin. Her thoughts were racing behind her eyes, but she didn’t take even a single step backwards.

“Prince Chevalier, do you have a personal attendant?” she asked quietly.

“I have a palace full of servants, all of whom will do as I say at a moment’s notice. Is that all you have to offer me?” I asked, knowing full well it was.

“I know of nothing else, your highness. If that isn’t suitable, perhaps you should name your terms,” she said without so much as a tremor in her voice. A dangerous thing to say, and she knew it. Fortunately for her, I had no intention of taking advantage of her. I’d already decided to have her put away the new books overflowing from the heavy wooden boxes scattered across the floor. Still, I was curious to test the strength of her resolve.

“You really are a foolish little dove,” I said quietly, sliding my finger back up to her chin and running my thumb across her soft, pink lips. She shivered, but she otherwise didn’t move. Her situation must be desperate for her to risk such an open invitation. She was brave, and she was clever, but she was still a fragile little woman, all too easy for the wrong man to overpower. It was lucky for her to have ended up here. I released her and took a step back, lightly poking her in the forehead. “Start with these boxes,” I said, smirking. “We’ll see how useful you can be.”

“Yes, your highness,” she said, a touch of relief in her eyes as she turned away from me and immediately got to work. I returned to my chair and book, though I made no pretense of reading. My intention upon arrival had been to discipline her for entering my library without my permission, but she’d clearly handled my private sanctuary with such care that I had no reason to do so. Any concern regarding her lack of respect for Clavis was now secondary to my curiosity to see how she would approach this challenge. She would have to learn my specific organizational system if she were to complete this task to my satisfaction. The shelves were divided into different genres, and, within those genres, the books were alphabetized, first, by author’s last name, and, second, by title. I watched with interest as she began removing the books from the first box and stacked them into piles based on genre, categorizing them the same way I did with little more than a glance at the title and maybe the first page of each volume to guide her. Then she checked the shelf nearest to her, running her finger along the spines as she worked out the rest of my system, before she turned back to the stacks and sorted them accordingly.

“You are familiar with literature,” I commented as she carried the first stack to its corresponding shelf and started integrating the new books.

“Yes, I am, your highness,” she said. “I enjoy reading when I can.”

It was clear that she needed no further supervision. I opened my book to read, glancing over at her occasionally as the afternoon went on. She worked steadily, stacking the empty boxes in a corner and moving on to the next without so much as a moment’s pause. The hours flew by, and she slid the last book into place a few minutes before five o’clock.

“I can take one box as I go, but I’ll have to get the rest tomorrow, if that’s okay, Prince Chevalier,” she said, surveying the large, heavy wooden boxes.

“You say that as though I have a choice in the matter,” I said bemusedly, propping one elbow up on the arm of my chair and resting my chin in my hand. She turned to look at me, her green eyes nervous, though she was able to meet my gaze.

“My apologies, your highness. It’s a force of habit to ask for permission or approval. What I mean to say is, I’ll get the rest tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. There was a meeting early tomorrow morning, and I’d been intending to let Clavis or Nokto handle it, but I could get up early to attend. Though I loathed mornings, it would be another interesting test for her. And Nokto would undoubtedly be looking for her, using her as an excuse to avoid his work while simultaneously keeping her from her own.

“What time do you arrive in the morning?”

“Eight o’clock, your highness.”

“I’ll have breakfast in my room,” I said, daring her to argue with a mocking smirk. She had no sharp retort to swallow down this time. Instead, she bit her lip nervously. I wasn’t expecting that. She was more scared of what I may ask of her than she was of me.

“Yes, your highness. Will that be all?”

And yet, she was willing to do whatever I demanded to maintain her position. As easy as her expressions were to read, she was also masterfully hiding quite a lot. She’d said her mother was ill and required a lot of care. Her work did not end when she left here, and she’d put in a great deal of effort over the past two days without showing any evidence of exhaustion. She was stronger than she looked, physically and mentally. There was no reason for me to show leniency toward her, but, then again, there was also no reason for me to work her into the ground immediately, either.

I tapped my empty teacup. “Take this when you go. Leave the boxes for tomorrow.”

She picked it up and offered her polite curtsey again, the porcelain in her hand not even tilting in the slightest with her movement. “Goodnight, your highness.”

I kept my chin in my hand for a while after she left, staring at the door and puzzling through her actions and reactions. If I was going to have her working for me, I needed to know more about her. I already had Clavis on the trail of one informant in the palace. The last thing I needed was another, and it was entirely possible that this new maid was too good to be true. I sighed and got up, leaving the book on the end table. It was time to pay a visit to the head maid. The woman was easily three times the age of Ivetta, but she was also easily three times as scared of me.

Ivetta. Her name suited her.