The Dragonlady

Chapter Fifteen

Rin bathed in scented water. Kitty washed her long hair and swept it up on top of her head, allowing the curls to fall down her neck and back, threading tiny blue flowers through the flattened kinks close to her head. Completely nude, Rin stepped into the dress and allowed Kitty to ease it up, commenting all the time on her mistress' trim form and dusky skin tone.

"This dress is simply gorgeous!" Kitty remarked. "It fits you perfectly, so snug, almost as if it had been made just for you. You're so slim; Lord Parmer has certainly picked his mistress well. I can hardly believe he intends to make you his wife! It's unheard of. The whole staff downstairs is in such a commotion about you."

"Why?"

"It's...well, as I said, it's unheard of...a young lord wedding a member of staff's family...not unless she's loaded or exceptional in bed sports...begging pardon, my lady, but it's true." Kitty blushed, but kept on arranging the bodice of the dress.

"I'm neither." Rin said, blushing equally as red as Kitty. "I keep saying it won't work, but he insists."

"He's not bedded you?" Kitty asked in astonishment, her hands stilling on the material of the dress and looking up into Rin's face.

"No." Rin said.

"He's never looked at any other the way he looks at you, my lady. I just assumed...."

"I've never bedded anyone." Rin said sharply, and then softened her voice. "I wouldn't want any man on those terms anyway. He says he loves me."

"There's fire in his eyes certainly." Kitty said, continuing to fit the dress again, buttoning up the back. "I've seen that look before...in Lord Tobias when he looks at Lady Clara. It's no secret that he loves her, and now she's moved back into his bedchamber...well, he positively glows."

"She has?"

"Yes! She's changed so much these last few days. It's been wonderful to see. Miss Shella is happier too, and it's good to see Miss Kay-Leh and Miss Sayrah laughing for once. They were always so serious before. It's something Lord Tobias has done, but we're not too sure what."

"Lord Tobias is a good man." Rin said. "I like him."

"He's a fair Principal too. He's been rearranging the council, getting rid of 'bad wood', he calls it, to make for a decent city government. He wants to give everyone 'equal opportunities', whatever that might mean."

"City government is not something I've ever needed to understand." Rin said. "I only needed to know what food to eat, how to get it and cook it, to sew and to keep everything clean."

"I've heard you have a dragon too?" Kitty asked. "Like Lord Parmer."

"I did...Blue." Rin sighed. "Raised him from a hatchling, but I've lost him now, since he's discovered Seafoam and got his own family coming."

"Then you're a Dragonlady – someone very special. Almost all dragonmasters are men because dragons can be very fierce. You're almost too beautiful to be a dragonlady."

"Thank you, Kitty. You're like a sister I never had. I felt awkward having you take me to toilet when you first came, and it seems ages ago, but I've come to trust you, regardless of what Parmer says. I like hearing the gossip; it gives me knowledge of how people act. I'm afraid of disappointing or annoying Parmer. I'm not used to his way of life."

"If he's not bedded you, and still insists he loves you, you must be very special to him." Kitty sighed dreamily. "For him to give up all the lovely highborn ladies...it gives me hope, you know, that maybe I could have a chance with an upstairs man...well, a life with one, not just as a bed partner occasionally."