Maid For You 3

Chapter 20

Madeline slipped a ponytail off her wrist. "I'll just pull my hair up first and then we'll walk over there."

"And I'll return my phone," I said. I held up my hand and snapped twice. When the servant came to my side, I told them my name and asked them to take my phone.

"You're learning," Madeline said as she finished wrapping her thick hair into a bun. "I expected you to go running around looking for a locker to put it in."    

I smirked. "I'm not that hopeless."

Madeline stood up. "Glad to hear it." As I followed Lady Madeline as we walked over to the hot tubs, I caught Prince Coleman's eye for a second and immediately regretted looking at him with his arms thrown around two girls with two or three more also itching to draw closer.

I hate him.

I decided to ignore Prince Coleman and work on the very important task at hand—matchmaking. If Madeline could get past Coleman and move on to someone new, I had a feeling she'd be much happier than clawing for the Player Prince's affection. Madeline and I took the few steps required to get into the hot tub before entering the warm, welcoming waters. A chorus of hellos were exchanged, and Madeline sat next to Roiben and I next to her with empty space on my left.

"This is Cassie Carmichael," Madeline said, smiling politely. "She was the Queen Maiden at the Autumn Festival two weeks ago."

There were three other guys in the hot tub—two of them looked familiar.

"Cassie, this is Lord Roiben, who you already know, and then Lords Oliver, Harry, and George." Oliver and George were the ones that looked familiar, and I realized that they were at that debacle of a banquet from the Queen Maiden day.

I nodded at them. "It's nice to meet you all."

"What about me?" A voice said from behind. I turned around to see a grinning Mercucio climbing up into our hot tub. He got in and sank into the seat between me and George.

"I've already met you," I told Mercucio, smiling. "But it's good to see you again." Mercucio made me feel at ease—like I wasn't so out of place.

"Ah, but Ollie and Georgie were at the banquet at the festival as well," Merc said, grinning. "Or did you not remember?"

I noticed that Roiben and Madeline had started their own conversation separate from ours, to which I was glad. I decided to engage Mercucio and make things a bit more interesting.

"Of course I remember them," I said, crossing my arms and leaning back smugly. "However, if memory serves correctly, they weren't too keen on conversing with me at said party, so I might as well have not met them."

  Merc laughed joyously as Oliver and George suddenly looked very uncomfortable—Oliver's face turning red.

"I-I'm sorry!" Oliver stuttered. Brown hair, freckles, thin. "I promise—it—I was just, um—"

"That's alright," I said, smiling at an embarrassed Oliver. "I get it. Prince Coleman went around telling everyone I was a maid, and what sort of advantageous alliance could be formed with a servant?" I mused.

"Regardless, you truly were very cruel to poor Cassie," Merc said, swinging an arm around me and patting my shoulder.

"Well, it's complicated," George said. Blonde, round face. "But—but that was wrong of me and I do apologize."

"I appreciate it," I said. "But hey, it could have been worse. You could have been like Prince Alejandro."

"Oh goodness," Oliver shook his head.

"Prince Alejandro?" the remaining noble—Harry—piped in to ask. Dark hair, medium build. "What did he do?"

"He was being very patronizing to me and my admittedly lower station in life," I started, but Mercucio interrupted.

"Oh man, that was the craziest thing I've ever seen at one of those banquets! Well, the second craziest!" Merc said.

"What, Alejandro?" Harry asked.

"No. Prince Nikolas Nikotovich of all people stepped in and shut Alejandro down," Merc said.

"Really?" Harry asked, wide-eyed.

"I actually felt sorry for the Spanish Prince," George said. "That Nikotan brat didn't mince words."

"It was something else," Oliver said.

"What happened exactly?" Harry pestered.

"Well," I said. "Prince Alejandro comes up to me and is all like 'wow you're a maid haha you're so inferior' or whatever, and I'm sitting there with no idea what to say, because I am Prince Coleman's maid, so, I mean sue me or whatever."

They chuckled.

"But also, I don't know anything about Prince Alejandro. I have no idea what to say. And then Prince Nikolas, who was kind of the last person I expected to do this, walks up and just rips into Alejandro, verbally of course."

"It was vicious," Merc said. "He attacked his lifestyle, his family, his country. I mean, Alejandro was kind of crying."

Harry's jaw swung open. "I can't believe I missed this banquet!" He looked at me. "They're normally so boring! Of course I was out of town!"

I laughed.

"Oh but wasn't the best part," Mercucio said. "I mean, obviously you know that Prince Nikolas was the Autumn Prince."

"Oh yes!" Harry exclaimed. "That's right. You chose Prince Nikolas, Cassie, right?"

I smiled. "Of course I did. Best decision I ever made!"

"I was shocked when you chose him," Oliver said. "I thought you would have chosen Coleman for sure."

"Prince Coleman looked pretty angry when you chose Nikolas," George said.

"Aw, did he?" Harry was practically bouncing. "I'm so upset I didn't go!"

Mercucio was laughing. "It was hilarious! Oh—but the Queen!"

"The Queen!" George said.

"What about her?" Harry said.

"I thought she was going to faint!" Oliver said.

"Oh no," Merc sniggered. "Honestly I couldn't tell who was angrier, Coleman or his mother."

"Definitely Coleman," George suggested.

"I don't know—the Queen's really pushing for Nikolas and Calista to get married," Mercucio countered.

Oliver looked over his shoulder at the hot tub where Coleman resided. "Coleman certainly wasn't happy," he admitted. Of course, all of us (except Madeline and Roiben) turned to look at Coleman, which caught his eye.