Maid For You 4

Chapter 11

We returned to the palace several hours later, with servants dashing up to our car as we arrived to help Ivan and Melaniya bring in the parcels and bags full of luxury, designer clothing. I had told Nikolas it was all too much, but he got frustrated with me for, in his words, 'complaining'. He told me to accept the gifts, as he was the one who had chosen to give them. We entered in through the main doors of the palace, bringing in a gust of freezing air with us.

"It's so cold outside!" I cried with an almost shriek.

Nikolas chuckled. "It is fortunate, then, that we do have a central heating system."

"Nikolay," a clear voice cut through the air, somehow making the hallway seem colder than it already was. I raised my eyes and looked ahead toward a woman standing before us, elevated by the stairs that she stood on. It took me only a second to decipher who the woman was.

Nikolas's Mother. I thought. She wore a high-collared power blue dress accompanied with matching heels that stood at attention right by each other. I'd only seen one other Queen in person, being, of course, Queen Klara. The Queen before me looked a little older than Queen Klara, though perhaps her thin face and pale, white skin made her seem older than she was. She had long, sharp features, with long, almost bony legs showing from under her skirt. Her pale hair was pulled back into a severe bun. She clasped her gaunt fingers in front of her, looking down at us with a slight flair to her thin nostrils. She was not beautiful, at least, not like Queen Klara. Perhaps she had been, once upon a time, and perhaps I was drawing unfair comparisons. Maybe it was Klara's warm skin tone, or the softness in her features that Nikolas's mother lacked, or her admittedly thick black hair that she had styled in much prettier ways.

Nikolas straightened himself a little more, though his posture was already excellent. I watched the smile fall from his face, and he drew a sharp breath.

"Maht," he said, nodding at his mother. He looked at me, his movements rather stiff. "Cassie, this is my mother, Queen Irina." He turned again to his mother, who still stood perched above us on the marble staircase. "Mother, this is Cassie. She is my friend, and as you know, the woman accompanying me to the Winter Ball."

She didn't look at me, as though I weren't worth the glance, but kept her eyes locked on her son. Nikolas did quite resemble his mother, in several ways, even in her cold gaze which he himself had seemed to perfect. There were the obvious similarities, such as their pale skin and hair, though that seemed to be a rather common commodity in Nikoto as a whole. But it went beyond coloring—it was her long, slender nose, her elongated legs. Nikolas wasn't nearly as skinny as his Mom, and had fairly broad shoulders, but I'd noticed his nimble, and yes, long, slender fingers. He didn't have the classic chiseled jawline like Coleman, nor was his face as wide.

Queen Irina spoke in Russian to her son, her voice high and clear. I didn't know what she was saying, but she wasn't exactly all smiles. I thought about Nikolas's awkwardness when speaking of matter of love and girls, and it suddenly made so much more sense. I couldn't imagine this woman pestering her child about his latest crush, as my own mom had always done with Calvin and I.

Nikolas crossed his arms, leveling his mom with a frosty stare to match her own, and answered her in equally incomprehensible Russian. I didn't know where to look, exactly, but Queen Irina made me deeply uncomfortable, so I looked to Nikolas instead, his eyebrows straight, his eyes cold. I knew I was the problem, of course. I didn't need to know Russian to know that I was most likely the issue being discussed so coldly.

Whatever he said upset her, because her lips pursed even more tightly, and she finally descended her perch from the marble staircase, her high little voice somehow scathing. I wished I could somehow come to Nikolas's defense, wished that God would strike me with sudden Russian fluency and I could shock the Queen with some epic Russian comeback.

But alas, God left me hanging.

BAM! My heart suddenly jumped out of my chest as Queen Irina's irate eyes whipped to me, staring me into what I was sure to be wide, horrified brown eyes.

Please don't kill me, I thought. Hopefully Nikolas would save me. But the Queen didn't say anything, which almost made it scarier. She turned around swiftly and walked up the stairs, her heels echoing in the hall. My mouth felt very dry, despite having said nothing and not having understood the conversation. I wished that Melaniya had been there so I could have asked her what transpired. A silent chill seemed to settle upon us. It seemed my rosy, carefree time in Nikoto had found it's first obstacle.

Nikolas released a puff of air through his nose.

"What uh..."I started quietly. "What was that about?" As if I didn't have a clue.

He sighed, and didn't speak for a moment. "Let us head elsewhere, Cassie." He put his hand on the small of my back, and led me through the palace until we found ourselves in the room with all the puppies.

Great idea, I thought. The servant attending to them was dismissed, and Nikolas lowered himself to the ground and scooped up one of the husky puppies in his hands. I sank down next to him and took another puppy into my arms.

"It's about me, isn't it?" I asked him. "Your conversation with your mom?"

"It was," Nikolas said. "And I shan't hide from you what it is that she said." He held his puppy up in front of his face, and despite its complete cuteness, he didn't smile. "She was angry that I was spending such time with you, especially since, as she believed, I am courting Esmerelda." He had lowered the puppy onto his lap and was scratching behind its ears. "Of course, I informed her that Esmerelda had ended our courtship, so I am in no way beholden to her. She didn't find that answer satisfactory. In fact, I think it made her angrier."

I stroked the fur of the puppy in my own lap. "I see," I said quietly.

"She finds it completely inappropriate that you are accompanying me to the Winter Ball. Absolute madness. I have never spent much time with a person of common birth, unless he or she is my servant, and it is greatly distressing to everyone."

"Everyone?" I asked.

He blanched. "Well...not quite everyone. But...there are many individuals who are not pleased with the situation."

I didn't say anything for a moment, unsure of what to say. "I'm sorry."

"Do not apologize, Cassie." He turned his head to look at me, his blue eyes bright. "I chose to invite you, did I not? You must not think me as so foolish to presume that I did not consider the implications. I know Nikoto quite well. We are quite traditional, and such a selection has ruffled many feathers."

I looked back into his eyes. "Then, if you knew all that, why did you invite me to come with you?" 

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