Page 19 of The Time Of Queens

“My apologies,” I said, which was so shocking that I ended up shaking my head at myself as I walked away. What in the Gods holy name was I doing, apologising to a maid! I was a fucking King, I didn’t apologise to anyone, let alone hired help!

I was losing my gods be damned mind.

“You need to have that maid of yours do something more constructive with her days here!” I barked at Pip the momentI joined them in the drawing room in hopes of finding Vincent there. My sister and Pip shared a tense look before Pip agreed.

“As you wish, my Lord, what would you have her do?”

“I do not know! Just something that takes her from lingering around the house all day!” I snapped, leaving as Vincent wasn’t to be found. However, I only made it a few steps before I found myself stopping. Then with a sigh of frustration I walked back inside the drawing room and told her,

“Nothing too strenuous, mind you… and nothing that takes her too far from the house. In fact, perhaps some dusting or such… unless she has allergies?” Pip looked as if she was trying not to laugh, and I suppose I had to commend her for not giving into the impulse as she was a daring type of soul. But being married to who she was, then she had to be.

“No allergies that I know of, my Lord,” she told me with a smirk.

“Good, then perhaps that would do her better. For it looks like rain,” I added, something that ended with me frowning at my sister, who snorted into her tea.

I left with a grit of my teeth and a barely restrained growl. Especially when I heard my sister and her friend burst into laughter at my expense.

Damn it, but I needed something to kill.

Or at the very least to pummel with my fists.

Now where the fuck was my brother?!

“Is that for the master’s lunch?” The second I heard her voice inside the dining room, I stopped my search and found myself getting closer, listening in.

“Yes, why, what is it to you?” one of the maids scorned, not sounding all too happy at being asked.

“Oh, nothing much, just that he hates cucumbers, is all,” she said in a blasé tone before walking from the room, and I found myself slipping behind the wall so as she wouldn’t see me.

“What are we hiding from?” My brother’s voice actually made me jolt in surprise, as he was right next to me. But then when he saw her walking past, he made a knowing sound.

“Ah.”

“She knows of my dislike for cucumbers,” I said for no other reason but the surprise I still felt.

“I must confess it is not wildly known,” he teased, and normally I would have taken the bait in the form of punching him in the gut. However, I found my mind elsewhere, asking myself why hearing such had made me… what was this emotion…touched?Satisfied, perhaps?

“Good lord, it is worse than I thought,” Vincent commented, finally enough to have me taking notice of him… or was it because she had now disappeared from sight?

“What?” I asked, giving him cause to raise a knowing brow. This before he turned away, shaking his head at me. “You have something to say, brother?” I prompted, folding my arms, my foul mood quickly returning.

“Oh, I have a lot to say, but none of it is what you would wish to hear,” Vincent replied with a scoff.

“Just speak your mind and save me the time wasted in getting it from you.”

“Fine, you wish to know what I’m thinking, here it is. Leave the maid alone.”

I rolled my eyes and walked to the decanter that was on a side table. I poured myself a large glass of port and downed it in one. Of course, it wouldn’t take effect, as I would need to consume a whole crate for that to happen. Perhaps it was time to chase the green fairy, for I had a few bottles of absinth in my office, despite it being banned.

“The maid is not a threat,” I finally told him.

“Are you sure about that?”

I slammed the glass down hard enough for it to crack but not shatter. “I am.”

“I have seen the way you look at her, brother,” he argued, making me grit my teeth.

“Yes, and how is that I look at her?” I asked, my tone nothing short of a sneer.

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