Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“What about your hair?”
“It’s fine. I like to do it myself,” I said quickly. Part of me wanted to fly in my hairstylist, but that might have been a bit much.
She looked me over. “Miss, I am here to assist you in any and everything. If I cannot do it, then I will find someone who can.”
“You can find someone to do my hair?” Here? I had only a few people I trusted with my hair, and when I said a few meant, my stylist, my mother, and me.
“And makeup if you wish,” she said confidently. “You simply have to tell me what you need. So please, later in the evening or tomorrow, provide me with a list of anything you need or prefer—soaps, creams, shampoos, bath salts, or scents you prefer, anything.”
I smiled. “Okay.”
Let’s see how this worked out.
The doors opened, and standing there, waiting and dressed in a dark-blue suit and a white collared shirt with no tie was Gale. He looked me up and down with a small smile on his face.
“Dear heavenly beauty, would you honor this mere prince and accompany me to dinner?” he asked, outstretching his hand. I couldn’t help but giggle, stepping out into the hall.
“I suppose so though I cannot promise to take you back to heaven with me,” I replied, taking his hand.
His fingers interlocked with mine, and I got close, smelling the spice of his cologne.
“Then I shall just have to hold you captive here with me,” he said, cupping my face. “How are you? You survived day one intact?”
I nodded. “Learned a lot about the palace. Like how many fireplaces there are.”
“Good, your day was just as boring as mine was.” He laughed. “I missed you.”
“Me too.”
It felt like days and not hours. Gale brought his lips to mine, and I kissed him back until I remembered Gelula and broke away, quickly looking around, only she wasn’t behind me. In fact, no one was there. For the first time since I had entered, we were alone in the hall.
“Our staff is not with us twenty-four hours a day,” he explained, guessing what I was wondering. “Especially when we are home. Secretaries are only around when we have work or scheduled events. Assistants are to help us prepare for those events. Personal guards usually only follow us when we are to be around company or outside.”
“But Iskandar is almost always attached to you.” It was odd not to see him or Wolfgang around Gale. I had gotten used to it.
“Now that you have said that, I just realized you have never seen me without them around.” He paused as we reached the staircase where a large portrait of a woman in white hung overhead.
“I don’t think I have,” I said, walking down the stairs hand in hand with him.
“It may not look like it with all the gold, portraits, and finery, but this is home. It takes a while to get used to, but at night, it is much less palace-like. The help has finished most of their duties and do not come up unless needed, and others have gone to their homes. So, it is like this,” he said when we got to the bottom floor, and the whole place was empty, like everyone I had seen this morning had just vanished.
“It’s so quiet,” I whispered.
“It is. When we were younger, Arty, Eliza, and I snuck out of bed at night in our pajamas to run and play.” He grinned, leading the way again. “Eliza and I would make Arty be ‘it’ and then change our hiding spots as fast as we could if we heard him coming. It would take him hours to find us.”
“Just like younger siblings. You little cheaters,” I said with fake annoyance.
“We are cheaters?’ He gasped. “Arty was the biggest cheater, and to make it worse, he tortured us. He knew where we were each time and would come close then leave, so we would have to run and find a new place to hide as quickly as possible.”
“How did he know?”
He paused and pointed up to the corner ceiling at a small, black glass dot. “We weren’t supposed to be out of bed or running around without any of our nannies. One of us could have gotten hurt. The palace is not exactly childproof. But we never were. Why? Because Arty went and told our parents and said if they told us not to, we would just keep trying. So it was better to let us get tired running around. He would go to the security room, find out where we were on the cameras, then go make us move around.”
“He did that? That is so smart.”
“That was Arty.” He snickered, shaking his head. “I mean, who would have thought of that? I got so mad at him when I found out and asked why he did not want to have fun with us. Do you know what he told me?”