Saving The Pirate (Book Two)

54. Dinner With The Royals

"How long have you been 'working' for this man, anyway?"

"I told you, we don't have that kind of relationship, and I've been working for him for a month now."

"What were you doing before that?"

I was silent for a moment considering my answer. Should I tell her about our relationship? Or would that only fuel the fire?

"Uh...well, I sorta just...was on the ship. I didn't ask him for a job until the thought occurred to me, really."

"What about your parents? What do they think of this?"

More silence, more dead silence that made something in me hurt.

"I'm getting out now. Is there a towel somewhere?" I asked, looking around.

"Yeah, on the sink." Which was across the room. Great.

Sighing, I stood up and got out of the tub, careful not to slip, and grabbed the towel. I wrapped it around myself and looked around for my clothes, but of course, they were nowhere in sight.

"Uh, Cora, where are my clothes?" I asked, trying to dry myself off while still looking around.

There was a little chuckle from outside the door. "You see, that's the thing, princess. I'm your maid. I clean you, and I dress you. I have your clothes."

Silence and then, "well, can you give it here?"

"You need a corset. I have to dress you."

"Can I at least put on my undergarments first?"

"Sure." The door opened, and a hand extended with my garments. Once I grabbed them, the hand disappeared, and the door closed.

After drying off, I threw the towel down and began the process of getting dressed.

"So this man that you work for," Cora said, "is he handsome?"

"Relatively, yes."

"How much would you say?"

"What?"

"From one to ten, how would you rate his attractiveness?"

After slipping on my last garment, I gathered my clothes and towel in my arms and opened the door.

"Why?"

Cora stood with the same bored expression as before; only she seemed more relaxed. She grabbed the stuff from my arms and threw them on the ground, not giving it another look.

"Because it determines what dress you're wearing to impress him."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not trying to impress him. I could care less if he looks at me or not."

For the most part.

A small smile appeared at the corner of Cora's lips. "Fine, but let me do this. It's not every day that I get to play dress-up here. How can I from all the arses I have to wipe?"

"Didn't we just meet?"

"Yes. And already you're like a sister to me. Now come on," she said with an eye roll and grabbed my arm, pulling me to the wardrobe and throwing it open to reveal a bunch of dresses.

"The wardrobes were stocked when you all were gone," Cora explained, grabbing a pink dress off a hanger. "How about this one?"

"Do I have to do this? Can't I just throw something on? Only because I'm too tired from today's events."

"No. You are meeting royalty. Even if you don't want to impress this captain of yours, you need to look good for royalty, so shut it and choose a dress, or I will for you."