The Island (girlxgirl)

Chapter 11

I threw my hands up in frustration. I'd been searching for a hour, bursting in every maid's room, trying to find Ryder hiding out somewhere. Dozens of times I'd open the door on maids sleeping together; more than once I was bribed into keeping the knowledge of whom was bedding whom secret. At this rate, I'd make a decent Root or Leaf. For sure, I needed to deposit these golden doubloons somewhere safer than the coin-purse I wore under my dress, around and up my leg.

I was walking up to Hachi's room when I ran into her leading around Sugar by the hand. Hachi smiled with true joy when she saw me but Sugar's face instead held a poisonous scowl.

"Pet! Care to walk with us to dinner?" Hachi offered.

I bit my lip. "I only really eat one meal a day, I assume you wanted it to be breakfast..."

"W...what?" Hachi seemed very confused.

Sugar gave me a light glare of suspicion. "Back on the farm, only the rotten kids only got one meal a day so they'd end up runts; the rest of us ate three meals a day so we'd grow big and strong."

"Your parents didn't feed you breakfast and lunch, only dinner...?" Hachi guessed as she looked at me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Yes. My brothers ate three meals a day, my parents said they were too poor to feed seven children three meals a day and made me work while they ate."

Hachi looked horrified.

"It's not terrible, or whatever it is you're thinking! I like it this way. I'm not hungry and I can survive on one meal. I'm used to it." I smiled innocently.

Sugar looked to the ceiling in thought. "So that's why you're never seen at lunch or dinner..."

Hachi let go of Sugar's hands to hold me and guide me towards the dining hall.

"Come with me; you're getting your three meals a day from now on." Hachi told me.

I chuckled. "I don't see what the big deal is..."

"You are to eat three meals a day, Pet. And that's an order." Hachi played her trump argument.

I let out a deep breath as I conceded to her. "...yes, my princess."

"You may call me 'Miss,' or your 'mistress' as well, you realize?" Hachi's eyes waggled at me in a perverted manner.

I snorted. "But, I'm not sleeping with you as I would with a mistress."

Hachi merely winked and opened the doors for us in a dramatic entrance.

The hall shone brightly and the clamor was enormous. It looked just like it had at breakfast, yet seemed more alive with the increased noise. Hachi held my hand as we walked inside. Sugar, probably furious I'd taken her place, brushed by us rudely and she went to sit with the Favored.

"Where shall I sit...?" I murmured to Hachi.

Hachi whispered to me, "You may sit up with me at the royal table, as I was intending, or you may join any of the tables you wish. Some tables may be hostile to you though, so this is why I wish for you to sit with me at the safest possible table."

"The royal table is indeed hostile to me! Have you not noticed Cain's looks at us? Or the Queen's?!" I corrected Hachi under my breath.

Hachi chuckled harshly. "If you sit with the Favored, you will force Faun to sit somewhere else. If you sit with Pinky, your table mates will murder you with their looks. Where else can you sit?"

"I will sit with the Flowers." I declared quietly to her.

Hachi choked on her laughter to keep it as quiet as she could. "With anyone else, that would not work one bit. She would get thrown out. You are blessed, Pet."