A Lady's Delights

Chapter 9

"Kasi! Wake up!"

Cassandra bolted awake, her body suddenly remembering to breathe as she bolted upright. She clutched her bedsheet to her breastbone, and looked around to find that she was in her room: small, simple, devoid of any furnishings beside the bed itself, a small table beside it, and a wardrobe hardly wider than she was. It was her room, though, and not Estelle's, and she was her normal size again, no longer small enough to fit within her mistress' mouth.

What happened last night? She looked down at herself, staring at the rise and fall of her chest as it slowed into a regular rhythm. For a moment, she wondered if she dreamed up the entire thing: Estelle teasing her, threatening to swallow her up alive, only to pull her captive free of her hungry mouth at the last moment. No; the memory, the sight of Estelle's throat, was too vividly burned into her mind. There was no way it was just some figment of her imagination, as she could remember it all so clearly!

"Kasi!"

Her bedroom door rattled on its hinges. She looked towards it, still covering herself despite her being alone in the room. "Kasi, I need to have you up, now! You are serving breakfast this morning!"

She grimaced. Estelle undoubtedly made sure that her duties would require her to be up at the earliest hour after keeping her up all night with her games. How long had she spent with the young woman's lips wrapped around her waist, her legs, toying with her as though she were some sugary confection? It was simply the two of them, alone in Estelle's bedroom, with nothing to indicate the time of night, or when she'd finally lost consciousness. Perhaps, she chided herself as she urged her body out of bed, it was all just a dream brought on by the stress of the past day. She'd simply imagined it.

No! She shook her head, shuffling barefoot and naked across the room to her wardrobe, where several tunics and skirts, all the same as the one she'd worn the day before, waited for her to wear. "Kasi, I am bringing some wash water in for you..."

Cassandra shrieked and grabbed for the bedsheet, holding it in front of herself as Salima entered the room. "I will never understand what you think the problem is," the elder woman said, shaking her head as she laid a bowl of water on the table at Cassandra's bedside. "Do you know how many of the other girls I've seen undressed in the baths?"

Cassandra's throat twitched. "It's... it's indecent. Just standing around in the nude like that, where everyone can see you."

"Like you've got anything to hide." Salima rolled her eyes and walked back to the door. "Hurry up and wash your face, feet, and hands. I'll be joining the other servants for the dawn prayer, but I expect you to be in the kitchen, waiting for me, by the time we finish."

"Yes, ma'am."

Salima pointed a finger at her, her other hand grabbing the door knob. "And don't make me come and fetch you out of bed like this again. It's not my fault if you were up all night. It'll be your fault, though, if you're late with your responsibilities."

Cassandra sighed, and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

It was only once the door closed again that Cassandra tossed her sheet back onto the bed. She rose and walked over to the bowl left on the table. What would happen now? She sat down, frowning at her reflection on the water's surface. She'd found her Estelle, but at this rate, she would never return back home with the other woman at her side.

There was no delaying it, though. She plunged her hand into the water, wincing at the cold,  before splashing the liquid against her eyes. She was a servant, now, and there was work to be done in her employer's home.

~ 

She was not first into the kitchen-- Zaiah managed to make it there first-- but she was, at least, there before Salima set foot in the room. The tall, strong-armed woman who'd loaded her plate the night before took in the circles under her eyes and pointed towards a complicated-looking coffee pot. "I think I can trust you to be awake enough to brew coffee. Just try not to burn yourself."