Page 23 of Maid for the Alien Prince

I bumped into something behind me. The curve of a hand grasped my ass hard before I bounded away.

“Careful,” the figure said. “I wouldn’t want to be accused of sexual harassment in the workplace.”

I turned to find a thick-set Ulsen, his horns shining, bright and over-oiled. A broad grin was affixed to his face that never seemed to falter, and was all the more sinister for it. His eyes leered, making you feel like he was never really looking directly at you but appraising your body in his peripheries.

Emma instantly dropped her head, bowing as if addressing royalty. I wasn’t sure how to behave, so I followed her lead.

“This is the new maid?” he asked, looking me over. “There’s no need to lower your chin when I’m around. I like to look my servants in the eye.”

My servants. Not staff, coworkers, or equals, as my father had thought of them. But my servants.

He raised my chin with a finger and grinned down at me, his tongue poking at the corners of his lips as he spoke. “My, my. Well, you are a tasty little thing, aren’t you?”

I thought he was worried about being accused of sexual harassment? I wondered. Clearly not. Was everyone who worked for Prince Rayaw a creep?

“Yes,” he said, “I can see you will do quite well in your new position.”

“Yes,” I said demurely. “Thank you, sir.”

His attention shifted to Emma and his grin grew even wider. “How are you finding your time here, Emma?”

“Fine. Sir.”

“I hope you’ve learned not to be so insolent in future?”

“Yes. Sir. Thank you. Sir.”

Her voice trembled. The poor little thing was terrified. I looked between them and sensed something, but wasn’t entirely sure what.

Ges tore his eyes from her and returned to me. He turned on his heel and marched away. “Follow me. I’ll show you to your quarters.”

I glanced at Emma, who hastily motioned for me to follow Ges. I hurried after him, my hip complaining at the speed.

“You’ll find things are different here now,” he said, not checking if I was keeping up with him or not. “Things aren’t so stuffy, so… old-fashioned. You’ll find a more… relaxed atmosphere. I like to think of us as a family. Think of me as your father.”

Not likely!

He seemed to be waiting for a response, so I said, “Yes, sir.”

He turned a corner and headed directly toward the servants’ quarters located at the back of the house. “I recently had to fire the previous manager due to improper conduct. He had been caught stealing. He’d probably been stealing for years. But I put a stop to it.”

I wanted to shout at him, to tell him that my father was an honest and loyal man, but the complaint died on my lips. I had to tell myself that it didn’t matter what this idiot thought of my father. He didn’t know him.

The old palace staff did and none believed he’d been capable of stealing. He actually was guilty, but the fact that they refused to believe it belied the respect they had for him.

“If you have any problems, consult with the other servants. You’re not to come to me directly unless it is a life or death situation. Understood?”

Life or death? As a maid? I doubted there would be much call for that. Although, with how loose Ges ran the place, I suspected the odds of a tragedy happening were much higher.

“Here are the servants’ quarters. And here is your room.”

He shoved the plain door open, revealing a tiny room with a single cot and plain desk. When he opened the door, it struck my piled luggage.

“It’s not much, but more than enough for a servant.”

With the way Ges looked down his nose at me, I sensed he didn’t consider himself one of us.

Odd, I thought, that he should have such a short memory. It wasn’t so long ago that he was a regular guardsman. It had only been by turning on his former royal master that he’d gotten the position he now found himself in.

---