Maid For You 3

Chapter 5

The next few days passed without much further incident. Each day it got easier to see Prince Coleman, though it wasn't by any means normal or good. I found out that Prince Duarte would be staying until Christmas in Aregano, but fortunately he hadn't tried to force any more awkward encounters between Coleman and I.

However, on Friday afternoon as I stood outside Prince Coleman's door, I saw none-other than Lady Madeline Rylin walking down the hall towards me. I'd never seen her coming to Prince Coleman's room before, and I bristled myself to prepare for her inevitable rudeness—especially when I told her than Coleman wasn't there at the moment.

Or, maybe she'd be decent to me? Maybe? Please?

She stopped just short of the door and looked me over. Lady Madeline wore pink stilettos with a white jumper and large gold hoop earrings, and she absolutely towered over me. She was probably 6'2" in those heels.

"Cassie," she sniffed as she looked down at me.

"Hello Lady Madeline," I straightened my back, though that did little to bridge the gap between our heights. "I'm afraid Prince Coleman isn't here right now."

She didn't see anything for a moment, and began playing with the watch on her wrist. "Well," she started, suddenly looking a bit awkward. "I never said I was here to see Coleman, did I?"

I blinked slowly. "Um...I guess not. Why are you here then?"

She looked at me sharply with her bright blue eyes. "Well, if you must know..." she didn't say anything for like three seconds. "If you must know, I'm here to see you."

I grimaced. Somehow this was even worse than her coming to see an absent Coleman.

"Me?" I sighed. "Look, I don't know how many times I have to tell you, and everybody else, but I'm not after your man or whatever. At this point I ought to tattoo it on my forehead—'I'm not dating Prince Coleman!' So if everyone could just leave me be, that'd be fantastic."

Madeline didn't say anything, nor did she move. She was now playing with a ring on her finger.

"I'm not..." she started slowly. "I'm not here to talk about Prince Coleman."

I blinked again. "You're...not?" Then why the heck would she want to talk to me?

"At the ball...you mentioned," she bit her lip. "You said that Roiben was half in love with me." She wasn't looking at me, but if she had she would have seen my eyes widen. "What made you say that?"

I felt rather dumbstruck. Madeline didn't want to talk about Coleman, but about Roiben?

"Well, I just know that he likes you," I said at last.

"How do you know?" she asked me, suddenly staring at me fiercely. "What makes you think that?"

I started searching my brain for what Roiben had said exactly up on Mount Lakyard, when he'd so longingly looked at Madeline snuggled next to Coleman. "I mean, he basically told me that he did," I said. "Honestly, it's been a few weeks so I can't remember all the details that well."

"He told you?" She pestered. "When? Why?"

"It was when you all went on that hike up Mount Lakyard and I came with as a servant. One night, Roiben was looking at you and I just knew that he liked you."

"How did you know that?"

"Well, he looked, I don't know, I guess kind of heartbroken when he looked at you and Coleman."

Madeline's eyes widened.

"So I just called him out on it, I guess," I shrugged. "And he basically admitted that he liked you. He had a lot of nice things to say about you—"

"Like what?" Madeline's eyes were wide, she was hanging onto every word I said.

"Well, I think he said that you were beautiful and powerful." I scratched my head. "He also said that you forget you are around Coleman."

Madeline was speechless for a moment. "Did he really say that?"

I nodded. "You know, I think he really cares about you."

Again, she didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Well, thanks for telling me," she said at last. "I, uh, I heard you're invited to Mercucio's Pool Party?"

"Yeah, I am," I answered. "I got my invitation yesterday."

"I see," she nodded slowly. "Well, I suppose I'll see you there."

I rose my eyebrows. Could this be the beginning of a...well, friendship seemed too strong of a word but the beginning of an amicable acquaintanceship? My eyes then caught on someone approaching us—Prince Coleman and Luke were back.

"Madeline?" Coleman questioned as he got closer. She whipped around with wide eyes.

"Oh, Coleman!"

"What are you doing here?" He crossed his arms, and his eyes flitted over to me for a second. "You aren't harassing my maid, are you?"

"No, I'm not. I just—"

"And you can't just show up without any warning, Maddie, I've told you. I'm a busy person."

She bit her lip and looked down at the floor shamefully.

"Lady Madeline wasn't here to see you, your highness," I interrupted, taking a step forward. "She was here to see me."

Luke, standing behind Coleman, cast me a quizzical look, and his royal highness looked at me. "Was she now?" he asked almost patronizingly.

"She was," I said, folding my arms likewise.

"And what was she here to see you about?" he asked me.

"Ah," I smiled at him for the first time in a week, and I knew that a mischievous sparkle in my eye that had lain dormant had sprung back to life. "I'm afraid, dear Prince Coleman, that that's confidential. Girl-talk, you know?"

Coleman swallowed, and took in a deep breath. "Well," he started, a soft smile starting to touch his lips. "You ought to tell me the topic of your conversation, though I can guess what it might have been. I am your prince, after all."

I'd missed his little smile, I'd missed our little boughts of banter. But I wasn't going to fall back into that whole mess again.

"Your highness," I said, once again drawing the line of professionalism between myself and him. "You are my employer, but you aren't my prince." The words didn't come out cocky and hilarious like I'd thought they would be. They held a tone of sadness, a tone that I had hoped would be gone by now.

Coleman didn't say anything.

"But we weren't talking about you," I added. "So no need to worry."

Madeline finally spoke up and looked at me. "Well, Cassie, as I was saying, I'll see you next week. Have a good day."

"You too, Lady Madeline," I responded.

"Next week?" Coleman asked.

Madeline faced Coleman. "Yes, I'll see her at Merc's party." And she started to walk away.

"You're invited to Lord Mercucio's Pool Party?!" Luke suddenly asked me, his face wearing the same surprised expression as Coleman's.

"He invited me when we danced at the Autumn Festival," I shrugged.

"And you're going to go?" Coleman asked, his face unreadable.

I looked into his emerald eyes. "Yes, your highness. I am."