Page 114 of A Game of Veils

The maid greets me with a wide grin. “Your Highness—I timed things well. I’ll get everything ready for your usual bath.”

She bustles into the bathing room with a swish of her fawn-brown bob.

This is good, I tell myself as water hisses into the tub. I already decided I needed to show her I still value her service as much as possible. I can accept a little more company and tend to my leg with the salve after the bath. A soak might do it some good as well.

I wait in my gown for Melisse to return. Looking pleased, she loosens the adjustments Rochelle made this morning and peels it off over my head.

“Did you have the chance to talk with His Imperial Highness today?” she asks. “I know you’ve made a good impression so far.”

My stomach twists, but I brighten my voice. “Only a little, but I was glad to.”

“Maybe there’ll be more opportunity at dinner or after. Oh, I can’t imagine what it must be like to have a man like him courting you.”

I’m not sure anyone could say Marclinus is courting me—or his other potential brides—rather than very much the other way around. And something about Melisse’s tone niggles at me.

She ushers me into the bathing room and folds my undergarments as I remove them. “I suppose even so you must miss your old home after being away for so long.”

My uneasiness digs deeper. She’s prying for information, trying to judge how happy I am. Did Emperor Tarquin ask her to prod me?

Easing into the warm water, I try not to think about all the events I’ll have missed. Are my sister and her husband expecting their first child now? Has Lady Nica put on the play she was planning to bring more laughter into the city? Did Lady Cataline finally work up the courage to confess her feelings to the lord she’s been eyeing?

I push those questions aside. “Of course it’s difficult not seeing my family. But I’m so well taken care of here, it’s hard to be homesick.”

Melisse leans over to pick up the sponge. “If you are ever dissatisfied with anything, you can just let me know, and I’ll see that it’s made better for you.”

Or run straight to the emperor and tattle that I’ve dared to complain.

All at once, my whole chest constricts. I don’t know how much more jostling from Tarquin’s people I can take today before I crack.

I firm my voice so it doesn’t shake. “I don’t think that will be necessary. And I’m quite settled now, Melisse. I’d prefer to bathe alone.”

It’s far from the first time I’ve made that request, but the maid’s face falls. She sets the sponge by my shoulder.

“If it was Rochelle attending…” she mutters under her breath as she stalks out of the room.

I close my eyes against the pressure still welling up inside me.

Maybe I misjudged Melisse’s intentions and she was only trying to be friendly? I might have just made Rochelle’s new life here even more difficult.

And there’s nothing I can do to take back that possible misstep now.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Aurelia

The letter from Medic Tevio in the town of Garince arrives on the tray Rochelle brings with the hot water for my morning tea. She doesn’t comment on it as I set the leaves steeping, but her gaze keeps ticking toward it.

I’m not going to draw out her suspense. As soon as I’ve put away my tea box, I unseal the letter and scan the sparse contents inside.

Whatever he made of my careful letter to him, he obviously understood the need for discretion. He assures me that as far as he’s concerned, “all is well” with my newly hired maid, and he has no apprehensions at all about the position she’s taken. If I should want her health re-assessed, he’ll be right there in Garince whenever we might stop by.

A clever man as well as a kind one. My friend has good taste.

When I look up at her, her freckled face is so lit with hopeful anticipation that any twinge of envy I might feel melts away beneath the joy I can share with her. “He’s made it clear that his feelings for you remain the same and he’ll wait until I can return you to Garince.”

Rochelle’s cheeks flush alongside her sigh of relief. “Thank the gods.” She taps her fingers down her front to emphasize the remark of divine gratitude. “Knowing that, I can wait however long it takes too. I don’t want to leave in any way that’ll cause you trouble.”

“I’m sure we can find a reasonable excuse. Once Marclinus is married, there’ll necessarily be changes in the arrangement of the palace staff.”

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