Before I knew it, two weeks had gone by.
Fourteen days working at this estate. I’d gotten used to helping Nadir change, and still three days ago he’d scolded me harshly. I’d grown efficient! He had no right to be angry with me!
My hands had not trembled, and I had stayed perfectly calm as I helped him change. Nevertheless, he’d berated me for not being careful enough, for being rude to him. Why? He’d been so displeased he’d even tried to suddenly remove his bottoms. I’d fled, shrieking. The man was incomprehensible.
Also, my every task seemed to revolve around Nadir. Wake him up, help him change, see him off, welcome him home, clean his room, do his laundry. Nadir, Nadir, Nadir. I couldn’t help but think there was some sort of malicious intent behind his choice of duties.
To be fair, though, the work environment wasn’t that terrible, so I considered myself relatively lucky, I thought as I changed his bed linens.
And then Ben barged right in. How many times did he need to be told to knock?
“Brianna!” he said. “You have work to do!”
“I’m already working, if you haven’t noticed.” I glared at him. Was he going to add even more to my plate?
Ben shook his head. “No, no! Not as his maid! As his fiancée! Have you forgotten about that?!”
I had!
I’d gotten so used to life as a maid that in my mind, this was all my job entailed, despite the fact that originally the plan had been for me to be his pretend fiancée. This was the first time it’d come up at all.
“There’s a party tonight!” Ben said. “Finish up here and return to your room, please!”
“Okay...”
A party as his fiancée... Ugh, I was not in the mood. But what choice did I have?
I took as much time as I could to perfectly straighten his linens before leaving for my own chambers. Yes, it was a pointless bit of resistance, but I deserved a little pointless resistance, did I not?!
When I opened the door to my room, Nadir was right there.
“Why are you here?!” I asked.
“The party,” he replied, as if that explained anything. It didn’t! It explained nothing at all!
I’d expected to find a handmaiden, perhaps, waiting for me. Not Nadir! Didn’t he have work to do?
“Now, to pick out a dress,” he said. “Which color?”
“What’s with all these dresses?”
“I had them made in advance,” he explained casually.
“This many?!”
There had to be ten-odd dresses, each of them high quality. And he’d said he had them custom made, not bought at a store.
I considered asking him how he knew my size, but thought better of it. I didn’t want to know.
“Why this many when we’re only pretending to be engaged?” I asked. “What a massive waste of money!”
“It’s not a waste,” he said flatly. “They’ll all be used.”
How many parties was he planning on taking me to?!
“These are only a few,” he continued. “There are more.”
“How many did you order?!”
“The necessary number.”
That was absolutely not necessary! Ah, the cost of just one of these dresses would’ve been such a massive help back home...
Would he allow me to bring these back once our pretend engagement was over, I wondered? They were made in my size, after all. Perhaps I could negotiate having them act as my severance pay.
“Blue will do for today.” Nadir decided on a dress, then reached for the table full of accessories—which, of course, were all luxurious and dazzling.
“You bought those too?” I asked, incredulous.
“I did. You’ll need them.”
There were too many accessories for me to even count.
I couldn’t claim these as severance pay; they looked far too expensive. He should gift them to his future wife. The dresses were my size, though, and so they likely wouldn’t fit her—if they were just going to be discarded, I’d rather take them with me.
“The rich truly do spend their money in incomprehensible ways,” I mused.
“I don’t typically spend money like this,” Nadir countered.
“I wonder...”
Nadir held a few accessories up in front of me, trying to decide which would look best.
“I wanted to give these to you, that’s all.”
I froze at the unexpected statement.
Could he please not say things that would send my maiden heart into a tizzy? I wasn’t used to sweet words, so even the smallest things gave me butterflies!