Sleeping Beauty (Not Quite the Fairy Tale Book 7)(13)

No doubt he believed she desired them to be wed. That she’d plotted to facilitate his return in order to seize something for herself. The very thought made her sick.

She helped him because no one else could. No one else had his trust.

“Anna has worked for me since I left university and she wasn’t hired by my family. Indeed, she quite hates most nobles, grumbling when she needs to come in contact with any of them. I’m confident she’s trustworthy.”

“But would a woman who ‘hate most nobles’ serve a King?” Rupert asked.

“It very much depends on whether you say ‘hello,’ ‘please,’ and the occasional ‘thank you’ to your staff when they go about executing your every desire. If you think you could manage that, she’ll be a fine head housekeeper. Besides, staff talk, and hear things that will never come to our attention. She’ll be able to keep on the employees that we want serving you and dismiss the rest.”

Rupert asked to see Anna. She came with a frown on her pretty face.

She then addressed the King, “I hope you’re not here about my nibbling at the miss’s dinner. Say what they will, until there’s no more talk of her being in danger, I shall certainly nibble anything that’s to be served up to you, Lady Aurora.”

“Do call her Rory if you please - in front of me, at least. Aurora, in my mind, is an eight-year-old bouncy thing and I can’t quite reconcile the two.”

“Rory, hey? What do you make of that name, miss?”

Aurora had to smile. “I like it quite well.”

She did. No one had ever given her a nickname at all - nicknames were for those you liked. Those who mattered in your life.

“So long as you let no man force you into anything you don’t like. So, then, what am I here for?”

Rupert sent her an amused glance.

“You’re here, Anna, because I need a new head housekeeper, and Rory recommended you.”

The brunette blanched. “That won’t do at all. There’re at least two hundred peeps higher than me. Servants who’ve been here for generations.”

“I see. And how many of them ‘nibble’ at things that they suspect might be poisoned, may I ask?”

Anna stilled. “I didn’t have no home, nor prospect, when Lady Ro took me in.”

‘Ro’ it was now? Aurora bit back a smile. “She went just like that, ‘well, how are you at making tea?’ when she saw me begging in the street. I told her I’d never made none and she said she’d show me how. Said I’d have fair work with her if I wanted it. So, I’m not leaving her, so long as I breathe.”

“I still live here for now, Anna.”

“For now. I don’t mind taking on a job but I want leave to go with you when you move.”

Rupert nodded slowly. “That’s a deal, then. You’ll stay on as long as your lady lives within these walls. Please take the rest of the week to run through the name of every maid, every cook, under you, and dismiss whomever you doubt.”

“Aye, sir. If I may, you’d do well to keep Bacchus as head butler.”

“Bacchus?” Aurora snorted. The name of the head butler was Henry, if she recalled it correctly.

“Well, doesn’t he just like his wine? But he loves this kingdom, and mark my words, each time he passes the room where you was all frozen, he’d bow his head. Never met a grayer fellow, nor a duller one, but he does his job just right.”

Bacchus stayed, many left, with recommendations and severance packages.

After two days of work, spent head down, absorbing reports, the King’s apartment was reopened. Rory stilled when she entered his office. Gone were the spiders and rats. The new blue curtains had been pulled and the windows cleaned so that the room was bathed in morning light. But she noticed none of that, her head snapping at the new element in the office; right in front of the King’s desk, another one - more refined, sculpted with gold rather than silver, but nonetheless imposing - had been installed.

This wasn’t just a matter of pulling a convenient desk. Monarchs didn’t do what was convenient, not when it issued a statement.

This office was the place where the fate of the realm was decided. And he’d given her a place there.

“Fuck.”

No such words crossed her lips, usually, but sometimes, for the entire compendium of words she knew, none fit quite so nicely.

“I hope you like it. I had it brought from storage; it used to be my mother’s.”

She closed her eyes, willing it to go away.

“You mean to marry me.” For it had to be said.

“I do.”

Dammit. She’d suspected as much, but having it said like that in the open was still a punch in the gut. Rupert stood next to his desk, leaning on it casually.

“I was engaged,” said she. “Twice. To men who also found it convenient. It didn’t work. I’m not doing this again.”

Her throat hurt, her head hurt, her fingers shook, as though her body was against her saying such things.

Rupert just smiled.

“Convenient?” he repeated. “Indeed, with all affairs of the Kingdom to learn within a few days, a popular election to set up, foreign relationships to build and our Councilmen and ministers wishing us ill - you believe that finding you is convenient?”