The King & the Stable Boy

XVIII: Tailors, Smiths, and Jewelers

Noah

"Love, it's time for you to get up." William shakes me lightly.

"Just a while longer," I respond, rolling over, away from him.

"When you're announced to this kingdom and wearing an outdated toga remember this."

I raise my head off the pillow to peer at him.

"They're here already?" I question.

"Arrived last night. Now come. It's time for you to meet your personal tailors, smiths, and jewelers."

An hour later I found myself in the fitting room, four women surrounding me taking my measurements, as a fifth one, presumably the designer, barked out orders and discussed outfit plans with Nana and William.

"For his announcement, I was thinking something bolder, more noticeable. Something to highlight his best features," she says.

"What did you have in mind?" Nana questions.

"A long-tailed jacket, fit to his forearms, with warm accent colors to bring out his eyes. A dark gray silk fabric for it all, maybe the vest in a lighter shade. I would have to get together with his jewelers, but I was thinking some gold rings to balance it, maybe even a gold earpiece."

"My ears aren't pierced," I tell her.

"Regan! Jot down his eye color and take a look at the needed spacing for the snake earpiece I showed you earlier."

Suddenly the girl at my feet flew to action, grabbing my jaw, turning my head to and from the light, writing her findings down, before she looked at my ear, and stabbed at it with the point of her quill to mark the places I would need to lose flesh in order to fit this designers needs. Chandler remembered Vanessa all too well. Hated her more than I did after she made me shift and jump into the lake in the dead of winter to check if a charm from her necklace fell in while she was riding. She found it while I was still searching and rather than getting someone to go get me, she left me to search for a found item for another hour.

"How rude of me. You are comfortable with your ear getting pierced, right, Your Majesty?"

"Yes," I yelp, moving my hand to my ear when Regan stab was particularly harder than usual.

"Regan!" the designer scolds.

"Sorry, You Majesty." the assistant replies meekly.

Nana and William didn't seem phased by the way the designer treated her assistants. It kind of unsettled me, but I was in a completely different world here. I didn't know if it was proper for me to interject or not.

The more time passed in this stuffy fitting room the more I decided I didn't like her. She reminded me too much of Vanessa, the former head of stables. She was a bitch to everyone and made it known that she wasn't there to make friends, which is strange when you live where you work. She would give us all extra work and threaten to punish my group with a whip back when we were training to take care of the horses.

"My King, I'm so happy you chose me to be your mate's lifetime designer." the woman says.

"Lifetime? With that wench designing us?" Chandler questions.

"Tell me about it. Hopefully, her designs don't reflect her personality. Gods help whoever her mate is."

"She must be mated to her work. No one with a good connection in their life behaves like that." the wolf agrees, causing me to snicker aloud.

William turns his attention to me, raising a brow.

"What's so funny?"

"Your hair's out of place, and I thought I saw a snake head in it," I reply.