The Consort

Chapter 7: Guests

"What are your plans after work?" Emma questions, glancing up at me from her seat on the floor.

Her thick brown hair is thrown up into a tight bun, the edges gelled into small waves. She's sitting on the floor cross-legged, eating some oats for breakfast. We haven't spoken to one another too much, but I've seen her in the servant's kitchen after work quite a few times.

"After I'm finished with the King's quarters I need to clean all the furniture in the courtyard." I answer, rolling my eyes as I speak.

Gwen was displeased by the whole three hours of spare time I have at night, and as a form of punishment has been assigning me extra tasks to do each day. They take me hours to complete, and for the past couple of days I've been lucky to get even four hours of sleep at night. I've developed some dark bags under my eyes, and when paired with my bony frame makes me look sickly.

Emma sighs, standing up and dusting off her dress. "Sorry about that! Gwen's a real hardass on you. I think it's because she wanted to be the one tasked with cleaning the King's chambers."

"I didn't realize that." I reply, happy to finally understand where some of her dislike is coming from. Generally speaking, cleaning the King or Second's chambers is a pretty easy job, and as such is typically favored among the humans. You get to spend most of the day alone and there isn't any crazy hard manual labor involved.

"Yeah, but don't tell anybody I told you." Emma points a finger at me, pursing her lips before transforming them into an exaggerated frown.

Laughing, I put my hand over my heart. "I promise!"

Emma laughs back, shaking her head as she sets her bowl in the sink and heads to the doorway.

"I should get going. Don't want to be late." She says, giving me a short wave before leaving the room.

Sighing, I push off of the wall and follow her out of the room. It's time for me to get to work as well. Thankfully the King hasn't spoken to me since he gave me his food, and I'm starting to feel a bit more at ease around him.

I'm still careful to keep quiet and be respectful while in his presence, but I don't worry that he's going to rip out my throat at any minute anymore.

John's already waiting near the end of the servant's hallway, and I give him a smile as I approach.

"Morning!" I greet him. "I need to head to the courtyard after work, so you don't need to wait around for me today."

John frowns at my statement, clearly unhappy with it, but doesn't immediately respond. I can practically see the cogs turning in his head as he takes in the information and thinks over his response.

"I'll still wait and walk you down to the courtyard." He answers, finality in his tone.

I shrug. "Suit yourself. Just know that I won't be offended if you go down early."

Without another word, I walk past John and out into the main hallways. I can hear him following behind, and seconds later I can feel his body heat to my right. We both keep our heads tilted downwards as we walk throughout the halls, trying to stay out of trouble.

The guards have a pretty regular schedule, and John and I have been taking different routes every morning to find the best one. If we get heckled or grabbed at we will attempt a different route the next day. The goal is to find the safest way to work in the mornings, and so far our plan has been successful.

It's a slightly longer walk, but we've found that if we go around the main hall instead of cutting through we will avoid the man who always grabs and lifts my skirts as I pass. And after the main hall, if we go up the staircase further down the hallway, we will avoid the guard who loudly jokes about taking John and me to his chambers. We do have to leave about 5 minutes earlier in the morning to get to work on time, but it's well worth it.