Nadine

61. Disclosures

I make it to dinner one time and Tre pulls the chair out for me. "Thank you sir."

"My pleasure princess." Wow we're being formal tonight. I guess we're pretending I didn't threaten to have his man parts cut off.

"Are you still mad?"

"A little. But I'm calming down. I think some dancing and shopping will fix that. How did you guys find the festival?"

"Yea that was kind of tricky. But we knew we had to show up with something more than food."

Momma and Asa are watching me and Tre. They are both smiling. Daddy has an eyebrow up and Dipak is giving his plate a dirty look. I want that damn kiss Dipak.

Daddy stands up. "Thank you for chasing Advisors Dipak and Tre around with a sword today princess. I really enjoyed watching that." Everyone starts laughing. "You have no idea how nice that was for me. And you really do take after your mother."

"I'm sorry guys. I was so mad at you both for dropping that on me."

Dipak smiles. "We're sorry too princess. We should have talked to you about it first."

Tre shakes his head. "And so everyone knows. There is a nurse in the medical area who wants nothing more than to cut off everyone's man parts."

Everyone completely loses it.

My dad eventually starts talking. "Well I guess I'll be sending a couple of you there more often then."

I laugh so hard I start crying. Tre hands me napkin and watches me smiling.

After dinner me and Mary get the human dresses on.

"Mary there is not much here."

"No not much fabric at all. You better be careful who you're rubbing on little miss." We head to the carriage together.

Gunner is driving. Tre and Dipak are both in the back with us. I get in the carriage and take off the veil and gloves. My arms are almost all the way uncovered. The dress goes to between my ankles and knees. I don't think they've ever seen me in this little of a dress. Even the neck on it is showing my collar bone. Gunner takes off.

They are staring at me and I am playing with the hem on the bottom of the dress. "For the safety of Princess Hypatia Nadine Sandu, there is something I must disclose to you."

"Mary don't please. It's not a big deal. Nothing will happen."

Tre hits is sword twice on the seat beside him.

Gunner yells, "I can hear her."

"You know I have to. I am sworn to protect you and these men are all here as your guards tonight. They need to know."

She's not going to change her mind. "FINE."

Tre and Dipak stare at her.

She starts off. "Well," she glances at me again. Then them. I peek over at her then to the boys. Dipak has an eyebrow up. "You see."

"Well tell them, Mary."

"I'm trying to think how to word it little miss."

A minute later...

"You see these dresses. There's barely anything here. Two layers is all they have. Humans apparently don't wear much clothing."

Both boys look right at my chest.

"Well you could have did better than that Mary."

Gunner busts out laughing up front.

"Sorry little miss. Let me try again. She will possibly be dancing with..." She stares out the window for a second and back to the boys. "LOTS of men."

The boys put a hand on their swords.

"Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Mary you didn't have to do that. It's only dancing a bit. And probably not LOTS. Maybe a couple.

"Little Miss, I know how men think. They know how men think. It was necessary. And also, the dress is only held together by 4 buttons."

"MARY!"

"Sorry little miss but if those buttons pop there will be no reason to ever look at a veil again."

I bust out laughing. "Yea that's true."

Then Mary laughs.

Tre shakes his head. "This is not funny."

Dipak shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair. Neither one of them seem happy now.

We get there and Me and Mary run to the music. It's quite upbeat and fun. We both get asked to dance right away. The boys are never far. I can always see at least one of them. I dance with LOTS of men. I never get to close to them and the music is fast mostly.

The music slows down for a song and a man grabs me right away. He puts his arms around my waist. "Can I have this dance miss?"

I smile at him and nod. I see Mary get asked too.

I put my arms around his neck and we start to dance. I cuddle right into his warm chest. He gives me a smile and holds me tighter. It's going well until he starts to rub my back. Tre is suddenly standing there with a sword shaking his head at me. I know by the contract that I have to stop. But I am not happy about it.

"Yea I'm thirsty anyways Tre."

"I'll get you a drink pretty girl." He kisses my hand and smiles at me before he walks off.

I raise my eyebrows. "I stopped. But why?"

"I don't like it when they rub on you."

I sit there for a second trying to understand him. "Oh my back. Ok ok. I won't let them do that anymore. But I really can't help it either. Not like I can control their arms."

He leaves as the man comes back with a drink. "Oh thank you sir." I turn my back to the boys. They are all at 1 table now. I take a drink and YAY it's alcohol. I suck it down so fast.

The man laughs. "I'll get you another one in a little bit."

I smile and nod my head as the fast music comes back on. I run back over to Mary and we start dancing together. She goes and gets us a couple of drinks and hands me hers at first. I take a drink and make a face. She grabs it, "oops that one was mine princess."

Guess Mary is drinking too. After a couple of songs the man brings me another drink and swallow it at once. He laughs at me again.

I glance at the boys and Dipak hits Tre with the side of his sword and then points at the man giving me alcohol. He says something but I don't know what it is.

"Mary, let's walk through the stalls. Maybe we can get dresses for Elkie and Dorseti too. Or new ones for us, that have more than no fabric."

There are no dresses at these stalls but we do find some hair clips. But they are really expensive. "Let's skip these. I don't know when daddy will give me more money Mary."

I see the man standing beside a stall and I smile at him. He waves at me. He's so friendly.

We go back out to the dancing and the boys sit back down at their table. I roam to the other side of the dance floor where I see the man standing with another cup. I down this one too. "Thank you so much. You are so friendly and fun."

"My pleasure miss." He takes the empty cup. "You think you can get away from your security detail for awhile? We can take a walk."

"I can try." I am so happy I can't stop smiling.

I go back over to Mary and a slow song starts. She gets asked right away and a boy my age asks me to dance. I smile and jump in his arms. "Thank you. I love to dance."

We manage to dance a whole song holding each other and none of the boys even stand up.

Then I see the man with another cup. I bounce over to him and take it. I drink about half and Mary grabs it and takes a drink.

All it takes is 1 look from her to the table and all 3 boys are on me. Dipak punches the man and breaks his face open. People start screaming and backing away.

"Dipak no. He's my friend."

"That man is not your friend princess. Was he trying to get you away from us?"

My eyes tear up and I start to nod. "I didn't go."

Dipak hugs me as a man in uniform comes to arrest him. He looks at the man trying to take him away. "He was giving this girl alcohol all night and trying to get her away from her guards. I just found out about it."

The guard picks up the other man off the ground and takes him away instead. "We'll deal with him sir."

The music starts playing again and I try to run onto the dance floor.

Tre grabs me by the waist. "That's enough for tonight."

"But."

"No." Tre says it.

"But."

"No." Dipak says it.

"Fine."

We get in the carriage.

"For a second there I thought Dipak was going to spend another night in jail because of me." We all start to laugh. Then I start to cry. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok princess it's not your fault. But don't take alcohol from strange men."

I wipe the tears off my face. "Can we make a fire and cook something?"

Gunner yells from the front. "I could eat."

I get a big smile. He pulls off and when I try to get out I nearly fall. Then I trip into Mary who trips over nothing and we both hit the ground and start laughing. Once we stop laughing I stand back up. "I'll make the fire guys."

"I'll help you so you don't fall over or get lost."

"I'm not going far Tre. We're by the trees already." I run over to the trees and one of those damn cats jumps out. "AAAAHHHH!" I try to run back to the boys and I slip. Gunner gets to it so damn fast. He chops it in 3 parts before I can even look up.

"There you go princess."

"Tre, I'm going to let you make the fire." We all laugh.

He has a fire going after a couple minutes and Dipak gets us some meat. We all cook and eat. Then I lay down and watch the stars. I lay beside Mary so it doesn't cause any issues with the boys. But it doesn't matter. I feel myself falling asleep about 3 seconds later.