The Queen's Maid

eight

"Have you ever slept with a man, Seul-Ki?"

The Queen broke the silence with the strangest question I had ever been asked.

I snapped my head up. My wild, puzzled eyes met her dark, intense ones before they darted to the rest of her body. The Queen was draped across the floor bed; her robe slid sideways, revealing her collarbones. My cheeks heated and I quickly averted my head away.

"N- No, Your Majesty, I- I am a maiden." And, theoretically, so was everyone in the servants' quarters.

"Would you like to, one day?"

"Not... Not at all, Your Majesty."

"Why not?"

"Um..." I cleared my throat. "I'm- I'm not particularly... interested..." I forced a small smile and added, "I- I am happy being a maiden forever, Your Majesty. To serve you."

"I see." The mattress rustled under the Queen. "Good choice. I preferred being a maiden too."

My face was still maddeningly flushed, but I dared a glance at the Queen. She stared back at me, a hand on the pillow, the other stroking her neck. I gulped. "Then... why... did you marry the King, Your Majesty?"

There was a small jut in her cheeks. "I didn't have a choice."

Panic filled me. "Oh, I'm..." I lowered myself into a bow. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I didn't... I didn't know... I shouldn't have asked..."

The more I stuttered, the more my blood boiled. Why was it that the more I knew about the King, the angrier I became? The Queen never wanted to be with him. She did not even want him to visit tonight. I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from shaking.

"It's okay," the Queen said softly. "It's not something to complain about. I was chosen out of a hundred and three girls. I am... honored."

"The King chose you, Your Majesty?"

"No. The Queen Dowager did."

I pursed my lips. So neither of them wanted each other.

The Queen chuckled. "Don't look like that, Seul-Ki."

My lips protrude into a pout. That order was difficult to follow. "I don't like him, Your Majesty," I declared.

The Queen lifted her eyebrows. Her eyelids flicked downwards momentarily. "Be careful, Seul-Ki. That is not something you should say lightly in the palace."

Maybe it was the anger muddling my mind, or maybe it was the fact that I was alone with the Queen, but I did not care about that. The King could threaten to execute me, to kill me in cold blood like the Kang family, and I would not care. I felt my jaw harden as I pressed on, "He makes you upset. I don't like him. I don't want him to visit you."

My ire subsided when the Queen let out a few more chuckles. "Are you perhaps jealous of him, Seul-Ki?" she asked, amusement painting her face.

I did not know how to answer that.

The Queen lifted her hand—the one that was trailing along her neck—and gestured. "Come here."

I shuffled closer to her. She beckoned again, and I moved again.

The slender hand reached out to grab mine. Before I could react, I was tugged on the arm—and tumbled onto the mattress. The Queen's mattress.

"Y- Your Majesty?" I exclaimed.

When I refocused my vision, I froze.

My palms were pressed into the cushion, with the Queen's head between them; my own was mere inches above. I was too afraid to look at what my hips were pressing against, and what my legs were touching. I was too afraid to even breathe. Meanwhile, the Queen's every breath tickled my nose.