Chapter Seventeen: Carmen

At the palace, everybody was very nice.

Guards offered me things, swearing up and down that they will serve me and protect me with their lives, telling me how happy they are that I will be their queen. It was quite overwhelming. I was escorted to the room where this whole mess started.

The ballroom.

"I waited for I couple of minutes wondering how I was going to get myself out of this mess, when three young women, barely older than me.

"Hello, Your Highness. I'm Camille, and these are Emely, Léa. We have the pleasure to be your personal maids," she said. she looked older than Léa but younger than Emely

"Oh no, I don't need personal maids. I don't need maids at all," I explain.

"His Majesty was very clear," Léa whimpers, "we are to make sure you are taken care of. If we fail to do this, we lose our jobs and our homes."

"Why would you lose your homes?" I ask. The royal family wouldn't take away their homes because they couldn't take of me. Right?

"We live in the palace," Emely explained, slightly annoyed that I didn't know this. "So if we don't do our jobs, we are no longer needed and we go back to being homeless."

I was conflicted. I didn't want maids, but I don't want to be the reason that they, and several other girls, lose their homes.

"What would you be doing as my personal maids?" I asked, getting Léa and Camille excited, Emely was still very annoyed.

"We will escort you," Léa excitedly began but was interrupted by Camille who was equally excited.

"Make your gowns and clothing by hand."

This went on and on, one would say one thing, the other interrupts her adding another thing that they would do for me as my personal maids.

"We will also wash you every morning," Emely grimly as if it was the last thing she wanted to do for me.

Although I found it weird how they had to do that for me, I didn't say anything. I would just shower before they got to my room or something and when they would tell me they were going to wash me, I would just say I already showered.

"May we show you to your suite now, Your Highness?" Léa asked.

"You don't have to call me that," I laughed, "but yes, you may show me to my 'suite'," I say with hand quotation marks. She gave me a weird look, but they escorted me to where I would be staying. When Léa said I would be staying in a suite, I thought she was exaggerating because all the rooms are so grand in the palace, that is why I made quotation marks with my fingers. But she wasn't kidding, I was escorted to what they called the couples' suite and since I would be marrying the prince, we would be living together in this suite. And let me tell you, my jaw dropped.

This suite was like a small penthouse. It seemed to be bigger on the inside than it was outside. There were two floors, the bottom floor had a giant bed in the middle with a 325" TV that covered a part of the blue and black marbled wall in front of it. There were two doors on the wall behind the bed, one on the left side of the bed and the right. the door on the right was the same colour as the dress I wore to the ball, a deep royal blue. The other door was black, as black as Christophe's hair. The maids told me that the blue door was mine.

"What's on the other side?" I ask.

"Something amazing!"Léa said holding my hands in hers before suddenly letting go. She and the others paled. "I-I'm s-sorry Y-y-your H-h-h-highness. P-please d-don't make me leave, I don't have anywhere to go." she pleaded on her knees, crying.

"No, don't cry," I try to comfort her, getting off her knees. "Of course, I won't make you leave. You didn't do anything wrong, I'm not mad you held my hand. I wouldn't be mad if any of you held my hands."

Except maybe Emely, I add in my mind.

I give her my hand and she hesitantly takes it and leads me to the door. The door had my name carved into it. I opened my door, and my jaw dropped for the second time. It was another bedroom?

"Why do I have another bedroom? isn't that the room?"

"His Highness thought it would be a good idea if you guys slept separately until you guys were comfortable," Emely said. She was being nicer, I think she's still shaken from the hand-holding incident and realized the power I had but didn't want. The room was very similar to my old room, except that it was ten times bigger, there was no stone, I had a big fridge, the walls were a darker tone of blue, and instead of two doors in my room, I had three. They led me to the first door and it was a bathroom, it was huge, the walls were white, on one side there was a glass shower, which was clear so you could see everything in it, a few feet away, was a huge pool with a waterfall!

"What in the world!" I exclaimed.

"That's where we'll be washing you," Camille said, but all I could think about was swimming in there. I had a three-step ladder, a low diving board, a middle diving board, and a high diving board. there was also a vanity full of makeup, hair products, and fancy perfume, but I wasn't paying attention to it. We went back to my room and opened the next door, which was my walk-in closet. The entire closet could be controlled by two remotes and had tons of mirrors. Emely caressed the remotes and joked about being jealous of me and we laughed before she pressed one of the buttons. A drawer opened and it was full of diamond and gem necklaces.

"These were custom made," she happily sighed, running her fingers over every gem and diamond on the biggest necklace.

"Anyway," Camille said awkwardly as she pressed another button and a closet opened, full of oversized hoodies. They showed me all the combinations and I was fascinated. We left and headed to the last door which led to a hallway. They told me that from here, I could get to the rest of the suite. They showed me to the kitchen, it looked grand, yet cozy. Next, they showed me a bathroom.

"Why is there another bathroom?"

"When you and the prince are comfortable around each other, we will stop washing you. instead, you shall shower together, isn't that romantic," Camille and Léa sighed dreamily while Emely looked disgusted and… jealous? I brushed off both that and the fact that there is a possibility that I might share a bathroom with a prince.

Finally, they showed me the upper floor of our bedroom, we took the short case of winding stairs and I fell in love. It was a mini living room, there was a TV and a snack bar. It was my favourite part of the suite. When the tour ended, They gave me a tour of the entire palace. Well, except the last two floors. When they saw my face ale, they informed me that the castle had elevators and I was extremely grateful. When we got to the elevator in the suite, I asked how many floors were in the castle.

"573. the elevators were put in only two months ago, before then, we had to use the stairs," Camille said shuddering. My feet hurt just thinking about it. They showed me every nook and cranny of the palace, but my favourite place was the main kitchen-one of the 47, the walls were a blinding white with glass cupboards and marble counters. My favourite part was the chefs, Edna and Paul. They told me about themselves as they served me spaghetti and meatballs and the maids oatmeal, I kind of felt bad for them. Edna told me that she and Paul were from France, and have 3 children. They moved to Aldovea when their youngest child turned 20. They found a job here and love it, they say Christophe is like their fourth child. I like them very much.

By the end of the tour, I felt exhausted.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," I yawn as we reach the suite.

"Should we get your bath ready?" Léa asked.

"No, thank you," I say and they curtsy before leaving.

I wash up in my huge pool bathtub before wearing just a bra and underwear and lie in the main bedroom because I wanted to watch Disney+ on the huge TV. Around midnight, I felt tired so I decided to turn off the TV and sleep.