Page 10 of Deadwood
Accepting my fate, I let my ivory slip fall to the ground, opting for a clean one, as I’d been wearing the other throughout the day. I’d taken a short nap in it after my time in the cellar this morning, and if Heidi found out I’d been wearing something from this morning to such an important dinner, she’d only use it as an excuse to chastise me.
After I’d situated myself into the dress, I peaked out the door, holding the corset to my chest.
“Katie,” I whispered.
My guard turned my way but quickly averted his eyes once he saw the state of my dress. The floor suddenly became very intriguing to him.
Katie unfolded her hands where she stood across the hall, her faded red and white dress hanging limp on her petite form. She stepped forward, following me back into my room, and closed the door behind her.
I turned to face the mirror, giving my maid access to my back so she could tie the strings.
“Please, not as tight as the night of the dance,” I instructed.
In the reflection, she gave a quick nod as her fingers worked. Her light brown hair was tied back in a ponytail as it always was, shorter hairs of gray springing out around her round face.
I changed alone in my room to avoid any eyes on the bruises, burns, or cuts that littered my body under my clothing. Typically, I could sneak a bit of a healing vial in the cellar when I was down there working, but if I didn’t have the time, I didn’t want anyone, even my maid, seeing my body and the things my stepmother had done to it.
There was little I could do alone when it came to the strings on my corset, though. If Katie ever glanced a wound, she never spoke of it.
As she tied the corset together, my mind wandered back to the night of the masquerade ball, when I’d assumed the stranger outside was offering to loosen the binds of my dress.
Heat crawled up my neck at the memory.
I’d been so quick to assume he’d wanted to undress me, which not only had to have shocked him—and annoyed him further—but my forwardness also surprised me. Given the events of the night, my mind was a blur of emotions, and he’d said just the right things to set me off.
His mockery of calling me Princess was what grated my nerves the most. I was no such thing. A princess was treated like royalty, pampered and expected to marry and have children and sit on a throne one day. I was none of that, least of all cosseted as one typically was. But after the announcement of my engagement, I wondered if that somehow made me more of one than I was before.
Even so, I didn’t think I’d ever see myself as a princess, whether the title was appointed to me or not.
Not with the way my father used me like a tool for his own benefit rather than love me like the daughter I was to him. How he possibly knew of the way my stepmother treated me and made no moves to change the behavior would never be forgotten by me.
So long as I could work, the treatment was presumably acceptable in his eyes.
“All done,” Katie said, stepping back.
I took a full breath to test the limits of the bodice, satisfied that I was able to at least breathe.
“Thank you, Katie.” Despite my hatred for how tight she could tie a corset, I appreciated her. Aside from Taylin, she was one person I could talk to a bit more personally than the guards. As a child, she’d told me stories of the dragons that hid around our world, how when the moon exploded, they’d come to Serpentine and rid the land of fae. She never agreed with my father choosing to keep me uneducated on such topics, so she told me what she could in secret—though I was sure there was plenty more to learn. I was sure my father tried to keep me clueless purposefully. If I knew nothing of the world outside these walls, he hoped I’d have no desire to venture past them.
Katie wasn’t around me as often as the guards, only coming to clean my room or help me dress, which meant she never had the chance to catch on to any of my magic. Because of that, she didn’t have to be rotated like the guards did, so we knew a bit more about each other than the basic pleasantries.
“Of course, Lady Auria.”
I pressed my lips together at the formality.
“I’ve told you countless times before you can call me Auria.” I didn’t like the way the titles felt. They were too formal. Katie and I were well past the stage of being proper with one another.
Her wrinkled cheek moved as she gnawed on it, like she was debating telling me something.
My forehead creased in concern. “What is it?”
“Have you met Lander?” she asked hesitantly.
“No. But how bad could he possibly be?” I wasn’t sure how well she might know him, or the things she could have overheard, but I hoped that whatever it might be that he wasn’t a horrid person.
“You haven’t heard the stories?”
I frowned. “Who would be telling me these stories other than you or Taylin?”
