Page 65 of Maid for the Alien Prince

When we left the lobby, Camila took me to one side. “It’s great they want to join us again but you’re giving them too much. You need to leave some options on the table. You need to decide what you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to pay. You can’t afford to hire everybody under the same rules you just gave them!”

“I’ve seen our income reports. I’m pretty sure I can afford to increase everyone’s pay a little.”

“If you keep giving days off, we’ll have to hire more staff. And more people means more cost. As for training, that’s a good idea, especially since we can get some of our current staff to be the teachers. They already have the skills. They just need to learn how to teach it.”

“I thought we were supposed to be getting them back at any cost?” I said.

Camila nodded. “Get them back… at any reasonable cost.”

I accepted her criticism. “Then what do you think is reasonable?”

Camila outlined the terms her father had always given the workers in the past. They seemed firm but fair. Now that I had some guidelines, it seemed much easier for me to negotiate.

“Who’s next?” I asked.

Camila checked the lobby was empty before leaning forward and pecking me on the cheek.

“Just remember,” she said, wagging a finger under my nose. “We’re here to get our workers back, not bankrupt the palace! And there should be only one female you should be working hard to impress…”

She gave me a wink and I felt the growl roll in the back of my throat.

Two of the other workers operated in the kitchens, the other in the housekeeping station. The housekeeper seemed brisk and sharp, shaking her head and waving her hand dismissively at our proposal.

Her hair was tied back into a tight bun, and she had the appearance of a school mistress about her. As I began my ‘truth story’ spiel, Camila touched me on the arm, silencing me.

She got to her feet, nodded respectfully, and said, “Thank you for your time. My father will be very sad to hear you won’t be rejoining him but I’m sure we’ll be able to train someone to replace you.”

We turned on our heels to leave when the housekeeper bolted upright. Before we even left the room she asked, “Will your father really be returning to the palace?”

When we confirmed that he would, she scratched her chin thoughtfully and drifted off into a world of her own. I didn’t know how Camila knew to use her father’s name like that, but it appeared to be the magic key to the lock.

The cooks told us how unhappy they were with working in the hotel kitchen and seemed very interested in returning to their previous palace stations—but only if they could take tutelage under the royal Chef.

Camila screwed up her face. “You know how difficult she can be, but I’ll see what I can do.”

We moved from one local business to another, even finding some former workers who’d been unaccounted for until that moment. It was like a giant network where each of the workers were in touch with at least a handful of the others.

It struck me just how intertwined the estate truly was, how many lives it touched and how many people I had to take responsibility for… and how I had let them down by not assuming my responsibilities earlier.

The day was another long one and we did our best to recruit everyone back.

“How successful do you think we were?” I asked Camila as we left the Ulsen boutique restaurant.

“We won’t know until tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

“That’s when they’ll decide whether or not to hand in their notices and join us.

“Is there anything else we can do?” I said, feeling a bit nervous.

“No. We’ve done everything we can.”

And with that, we returned to the palace, exhausted even more than we had been the day before.

* * *

Camila was slow and stiff as she got up from the dining table, almost seeming to collapse beneath her own weight.

---