These Gilded Seas

Chapter Nineteen: Smothered in Testosterone

The rest of the day passes uneventfully. I follow Eero's schedule to the letter, alone and unbothered by the rest of the palace. While he eats lunch in the back gardens, I clean his study and try not to touch the books. Then, he leaves for the city, and I clean his bedroom. Not that it really needs cleaning. The man is meticulous about making his bed and picking up his clothes. All I have to do is switch out the bedsheets and pull the heavy velvet curtains closed again.

While I wait for the prince to come back, I help Madam Amaia wash clothes and polish some of the statues that line the hallway of the second floor.

Above all, I hope and pray that Eero was kidding about needing me at the training grounds after dinner. Between him and a horde of guards is the last place I want to be. I'm supposed to be finding him alone, not surrounded by his armed friends.

Dinner rolls around, Eero returns, and I start to think I've dodged an arrow. Surely he would have called for me as soon as he finished eating. By now, he's already down at the training grounds. I help myself to some of the stew Josef prepared for our dinner and sit at one of the tables in the room adjacent to the kitchen, where we always eat our meals.

"How did it go today?" Madam Amaia asks as she joins me with her own dinner.

"Well, I'm not quitting," I tease.

She laughs. "And Prince Eero didn't find me to complain. So you must've done alright."

"I followed the schedule and did everything I was supposed to," I say with a nod. "The only big issue I had was when I ran into King Soren at breakfast, but I haven't seen either of them since."

Madam Amaia hums a little as she lifts a spoonful of stew to her mouth. She blows on it for a second, eyes glued on me. "Best you stay away from the king," she mumbles before eating the bite. "He's never bothered any of the maids, but... his comments have been edging towards improper, and with Master Ursus around." She pauses and sighs. "It wouldn't surprise me anymore if the king tried something."

That's the second warning I've gotten today about the king and his advisor. I start to ask her why she doesn't like the man, but the door swings open behind me. I expect to hear the soft footsteps of Britta, who sometimes joins us to eat, but heavy boot steps greet my ears instead. My heart sinks.

"I'm looking for the maid named Ari?" the guard says gruffly, proposing it as a confused question. He's probably wondering why in the world he's here.

Me, too.

Madam Amaia looks at me with narrow, warning eyes. I purse my lips closed and duck my head. Maybe I can avoid it. Maybe he'll leave if no one answers.

"Why?" the matron says, pushing up from the table. "What business do you have with her?"

She swells up like a pufferfish as she places her hands on her hips. The guard looks down at her with a soft smile, the softest I've seen from one of the men in armor. That's when I recognize him—the blond guard who was with Eero the first night I met him and then at his study door this morning. He's one of the prince's inner circle.

"Don't worry, Mama Bear, I'm not going to hurt her," he says with a laugh. "The prince is asking for her. I'm just here to escort her down to the training grounds."

Madam Amaia whips her head around so fast that I'm surprised I don't hear the bones snap. Her eyes darken as she glares down at me. Like I've invited myself down there. Like I've committed a sin.

I want to tell her that I've done nothing of the sort, but there isn't time. As the guard steps around her, he's able to follow her line of sight straight to me. Recognition flashes across his face.