Maid For You 3

Chapter 50

How could I politely say 'heck no'?

So, she wanted me to go from being Prince Coleman's servant—where I got to see Luke—to being Calista's servant. Sure, we had a nice time on the carriage at the Autumn Festival together and when I'd seen her in the halls she didn't treat me with hostility anymore, but that wasn't enough to tempt me to be her servant.

"Queen Klara," I did my best to smile. "I, um, I really appreciate the offer."

She narrowed her eyes for a split second, before plastering on a wide smile. "Of course," she said. "Why don't I give you some time to think about it? You can talk to some of your friends and get their opinion on the matter, and you can give me your decision tomorrow?"

"Uh, sure," I said. "That works." Perfect. That will give me time to come up with a nice way of saying 'absolutely not.'

"Thank you for meeting with me," Queen Klara said. "You are dismissed now."

I stood and curtseyed. "Thank you, your majesty."

The freaking nerve of her, I thought. Why in the world would I want to be one of Calista's 'ladies-in-waiting' or whatever that is? That sounds like how 'sanitation worker' is a nice way of saying 'garbage man.' No way am I going to go from my easy gig as Coleman's maid to being Calista's slave.

That night when I got to my room, I called Nikolas and was relieved when he answered.

"Nikolas!" I cried into the receiver. "Guess what?"

"What?" he asked.

"So you know how I'm quitting my job, right?"

"Yes..."

"So, I guess Queen Klara heard about it, because she invited me to her room to talk to her or whatever so that she could offer me some freaking dumb counter-offer."

"Cassie," Nikolas began. "You really do need to stop saying 'freaking' so much. It is very uncouth."

"What?" I asked. "Would you rather me say the real thing?"

"No, but both are not very classy. I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but it would be best if you tried to refrain from such a way of speaking."

I pursed my lips bitterly.

"Are you upset?" he asked.

"No," I lied.

"I am only trying to be helpful," Nikolas responded. "And I would like to hear the continuation of your story. I believe you were saying the Queen Klara responded with some sort of counter-offer?"

"Right," I said, shaking his critique of my language out of my head. "So, basically, instead of Prince Coleman's maid, I get to be Calista's maid!"

"Queen Klara asked you to be Princess Calista's maid?" Nikolas asked disdainfully.

"Basically. She's like 'oh, you can be one of my daughter's ladies-in-waiting' or whatever."

"What?!" he cried.

"I know right!" I said. "So fre—so not very great, huh?"

Nikolas didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Queen Klara...she asked you to be one of her daughter's ladies-in-waiting?" he asked.

"Yes, she really did."

"You didn't say no, did you?" he asked.

"Um, she said to give her an answer tomorrow. Why?"

"Cassie, a lady-in-waiting is in no way, shape, or form equivalent to that of a maid. To be a lady-in-waiting is a very respected and honorable position."