Please read the author's note at the end!
Thank you to @Stillwith24k and @GirlofMiracles for helping me with the German in this chapter!
I waited for a shrill laugh accompanied by a jovial "just kidding, you silly peasant!"
It didn't come.
I watched Queen Klara carefully as she leaned back and analyzed me in turn.
"Well?" The Queen finally asked. "What do you say?"
"You're serious?" I gawked. "Um, you—your majesty?"
"Of course I'm serious. I wouldn't be so cruel as to taunt you like that."
I couldn't understand why. I was just her son's maid. Even if she was right and he did "fancy" me, there really wasn't anything going on between us. We weren't dating, or even close to that! Moreover, wouldn't she discourage a relationship anyways? Wasn't she supposed to go on a tirade about how I was only a peasant and I needed to back away from His Royal Highness?!
But perhaps she was taking a craftier route. Perhaps instead of banishing me, she was more subtly trying to get me away from Prince Coleman. Something could go wrong at the Autumn Festival and I could be framed and engulfed in scandal! I already knew that there was no way that my souvenir-shop parents had offered some grand incentive to the Queen of Aregano. Whatever her game, I was fairly certain that she wasn't just offering the queen maiden honor out of the goodness of her heart. Queen Klara had a plan of some sort—I could practically see the scheming wheels turning behind her emerald eyes.
And yet...
"Thank you so much for this opportunity!" I exclaimed. "I'd love to be your queen maiden." I already knew that it could be a great opportunity for myself, and I wasn't going to spoil it. Besides, I rather liked the idea of wearing pretty dresses and going to a ball and garnering all sorts of attention.
Sue me.
"Excellent." Her emerald eyes narrowed slightly and a smile grew on her face, giving me the distinct impression that I was like a naïve doe walking into a cunning hunter's trap.
I heard the whoosh of the huge golden doors behind me brushing against the carpet, and turned my head to find Prince Coleman entering the room. He wore a crisp red blazer over a white collared shirt with a few top buttons undone. His eyebrows lifted when he spotted me, and I suddenly remembered my poor appearance. I whipped my face forward, partly because of my looks, but mostly because I was unsure of what to do or say. Suddenly, memories of my rescue in the forest flashed through my mind—the feeling of his warm, strong arms around me, the rhythm of his heartbeat, and the tickle of his soft voice vibrating in my ear.
Don't think of such things! I chastised myself.
"Cassie?" Prince Coleman sounded surprised.
"Ah, Coleman. You're just in time to hear the good news!" His mother beamed, turning her gaze from me to her son.
Prince Coleman stepped forward into my viewpoint. "Good news?" He folded his arms and looked at the Queen with what I could guess was a skeptical eye.
"I've selected the queen maiden for the year."
"That's wonderful," he deadpanned. He swiveled around to look at me, his features soft, and I offered him a small smile. His green eyes gazed into mine before his mother spoke again.
"Don't you want to know who it is?" the Queen pushed him.
"Of course, Mama," he sighed, turning his attention back to her.
"Well, you were just looking at her." She said calmly, as Coleman whipped around to look at me once more. His eyes were wide, and his mouth had dropped open.
He turned back to his mother. "Cassie?" He certainly sounded surprised. "You made Cassie the queen maiden?"
"Indeed." She said.
I couldn't see the Prince's face, but his voice darkened. "Warum Mutti? Was hast du vor?"
"Vertraust du mir nicht, Mäuschen?" she answered. Once again, I regretted taking Spanish when I could have learnt German.
"Nein." He answered.
Halleluiah! Finally a word I knew.
"Du schließt dein Liebes aus, Coleman." She retorted. My brief moment of victory had ended, and I was back to a state of cluelessness. The Queen continued. "Deine kostbare Dienerin spricht kein Deutsch."
"Weder ist sie mein Liebes noch meine kostbare Dienerin." The Prince scowled.
"Ach, wirklich?" Queen Klara's eyes sparkled.
"Warum ist sie die königliche Magd?" He demanded.
The queen didn't answer, and the Prince looked frustrated.
"Die ist eine bürgerliche, eine Dienerin! Die ist nicht mal Areganisch!" He continued.
Boy, he sure seemed upset about me becoming the queen maiden.
"Well," Queen Klara said, turning her attention towards me and ignoring her son. "He seems rather surprised, no?"
"Well, I couldn't say for sure. I can't speak German," I answered, to which she chuckled.
"I told him that myself!" She said.
Prince Coleman rolled his eyes. "I am surprised," he said. "Cassie is a peasant."
I grimaced. I hated being called that.
His mother cast him a sharp eye. "That a rather rude connotation, Coleman. Besides, previous queen maidens, like Miss Carmichael, have held no title."
"Never has she been my maid."
"You didn't have a personal maid until last year, Coleman, when you took on Marstella."
"You know what I mean. She's a servant for the castle, for heaven's sake!"
"So what?!" I interjected. I would have stood to make my point, but it would have been anti-climactic with my crutches. "The Queen said that part of the point of the queen maiden was to emphasize that anybody could be the queen maiden! Who better to emphasize that than me?"
He let out an exasperated sigh. "Whatever."
"Miss Carmichael," the Queen began. "Thank you for your time. I will confer with you again soon as we draw closer to the Autumn Festival. You are excused now."
I picked up my crutches and helped myself up on them. "Thank you very much, your majesty." I caught Coleman's eye looking down at me, and his frustrated expression melted into one much softer.
"Coleman," his mother said. "I know she is your servant, but why don't you help her out by grabbing the door? It's rather heavy."
"Of course," he answered quickly, to my surprise. He swiftly headed to the large golden door and pushed it open for me. He held it until I was outside the room, and let the door shut.
"Thank you," I said as we stood in the hall. "And I'm sorry you are unhappy with my being the queen maiden. I didn't try to get the position or whatever, your mother just--"
"It's not your fault," he said abruptly. "And it's not you, per say." He sighed. "Look, I'm quite close to my mother. We do get along quite well. However, I know that she is very crafty. And again, no offense to you, but I don't think even you are so charming that she decided to up and make you her queen maiden."
"I don't think even you are so charming..." Was that an indirect compliment from him?
"I mean, that's fair," I said.
Prince Coleman's eyes settled on my sprained ankle. "How are you doing?" He asked softly. "I mean, with your foot and everything."
"I'm alright," I said. "Though I could do for a shower or a bath!" I laughed. Behind Prince Coleman I noticed Luke heading down the hall in our direction.
"I'm sure," the Prince said with a smile. He seemed hesitant. "Look, Cassie, about what happened..." he slowly lifted his hand to place on my shoulder, but I recoiled and thrust my shoulder away from his touch, hyperaware of Luke approaching. I watched a flash of pain dart through the Prince's face as he took a step back. I felt my heart thud uncomfortably.
"Right." His voice was clipped. "Well I'll leave you be, then."
I didn't know how to respond, or what to say. The Prince veered off to his right down a short hallway before disappearing around the corner. Meanwhile, Luke took the remaining few steps to stand before me.
"Where's he off to?" he asked, looking at the direction the Prince had gone.
"I don't know." I felt rather bad for responding so negatively to the Prince's touch, but I chose to ignore that for now. I leaned forward towards Luke the best I could on my crutches. "How about you, Mr. Prescott? Where did you go?"
"Alexandria exited the room and asked me to take her to the Prince. Apparently Queen Klara summoned him as well."
"Ah."
"Speaking of summonings with the Queen, how did yours go?"
I took a deep breath and lowered my head. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," I told him.
"What?" A tenor of surprise and distress reached his voice.
I looked up at him and stuck out a pouty lip. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me awhile longer."
His face split into a gorgeous grin, and since apparently we had advanced to hugs now, he drew me into one and laughed. "Cass, you shouldn't scare me like that," he said. I wrapped my arms around his waist tightly.
"I know. I just couldn't help myself, Luke."
Our hug was interrupted by a voice from off to the side. "Luke?"
We jumped apart and turned to see Prince Coleman gawking at us from the corridor that he SHOULD HAVE left from. His eyes locked with mine. "You call him Luke?"
Author's note
First off, I want to thank you all for the support. Maid For You is almost at 100,000 reads, which is super exciting for me!
When I started writing MFY, I really had no outline. I essentially had a premise and an idea of who she would end up with (which may or may not have since changed). As you may have noticed, this story's plot it kind of all over the place! This is because as soon as I wrote a chapter, I would read it through once or twice and then post it. Many ideas and concepts introduced later were something that I had not thought about in earlier chapters.
Anyways, because I had no outline, I didn't really know how long MFY would be. I anticipated that it would be one cute little book and then I would move onto the next project. However, the development of the various relationships has taken much longer than I anticipated, and the span of time was much shorter than I thought it would be. I thought about slapping on an ending and throwing Cassie with somebody, but I didn't think it would be fair to the characters or, quite frankly, the readers. In my opinion, she just isn't there yet with any of the relationships and it would feel rushed if she was thrown in with someone.
This book is already around 65,000 words. I finally sketched out a plot, and I realized that the story cannot be told in one book. And so, this chapter is the end of book one. Yes, I know that that kind of sucks--I've honestly been dreading telling you this. This summer, I am going to take some time to rework the first book--it needs some serious work!--and start on the next book.
If you would like to keep up with MFY and know when the second book comes out, you can follow my Wattpad profile or my social media (@Kayla_LaFroth on insta). On my Instagram, I'll try to post some behind the scenes stuff of MFY and excerpts of what I'm working on, etc. However, if you don't want to follow me (which I get haha), keep this book in your library; I'm planning to post when I add the sequel to Wattpad.
Thank you guys so much for putting up with my sporadic writing style!
-Kayla LaFroth
(Little Friend)