by Emma Merrell
She took off at a run and Luce began anxiously imagining who Little Mother was. She assumed that it was the madam, or the den mother, of the girl’s court. She hoped that she would be less frightening than the queen. Her hopes were dashed when she saw the wrinkled woman making her way to the gate. She was old but stood erect, and she had the look of a hardened woman. Her hawk-like eyes snapped with impatience and her step was sure. She looked like a person who didn't suffer fools gladly, and in fact, her expression reminded Luce of her grandmother exactly. If she was anything like Luce's grandmother, then Luce knew she was in for a difficult ride with a person who was next to impossible to please. Things just kept getting better, didn't they?
The woman took out a large key from the folds of her heavy robes. She opened the gate and stepped through, "So this is the new girl, is it?"
The guards said nothing, but the woman seemed to have been speaking to herself more than anyone else anyway. She stepped up to Luce and put a strong hand on her jaw, Luce wanted to pull away, but the grip was like a vice. She felt her head turned to the left and the right, being inspected from all angles. Luce almost gasped when one of the woman's thumbs skinned her lips back to check her teeth. Luce had never felt more like a piece of meat, or like an animal at auction, until that moment.
"You're a pretty one, aren't you? But of course, you are, all the girls are pretty. Once you're cleaned up though..."
The woman paused and seemed to realize that the guards were waiting to be dismissed, she waved them off with a sharp gesture and tugged Luce into the inner sanctum with an abrupt motion. Luce barely noticed the gate clanging shut behind her with a very final sound, she didn't give a thought for the fact that she could very well not walk through the gate again for the rest of her life, instead, she could only stare in wonder.
She had thought that the rest of the complex was stunning, but this was beyond anything that she could have ever imagined. A broad pathway led through a set of symmetrically arranged gardens to what appeared to be a large statue of the queen. There were arched wooden doorways running all along the courtyard. Everywhere Luce looked there was smooth gray stone and greenery. The sound of running water was pervasive but broken up by the occasional song of a bird.
It wasn't any of that that was causing Luce to stare though, it was the girls walking through the setting that made her jaw hit the ground. She could see a handful walking to and from. They were all insanely gorgeous from what Luce could see. There was long, unbound hair of every shade, the skin was of every color, and there were eyes that ran from ice blue to mahogany brown. They were all clothed in gorgeous gowns that looked flowing, feminine, and sexy all at the same time. Luce knew that she was attractive enough, but she wasn't quite sure why she had been chosen to round out this group of stunners. They were like exotic peacocks and Luce felt more like a plain brown sparrow.
A strong hand closing on her arm broke her out of her trance, and Luce turned to regard the old woman. "Ma'am, I-,"
"You will call me 'Little Mother', nothing else. Do you understand?"
Luce nodded mutely.
"Good. I am the mistress of the girls’ court. I am here to educate all of you girls in the ways of our kingdom and to groom you for the prince's enjoyment. I am also here to keep order, and I will hand out discipline freely. Do not look so scared, I am also fair, I will only punish those that I feel truly deserve it."
She looked at Luce to make sure that everything had sunk in and then went on, "This is the courtyard, these four walls now contain everything that you will ever need. The left side of the courtyard holds my bedroom, the reading room, and the bathhouse. The back is where all of you girls have bedrooms. There are six in total, with five beds to each. The right side consists of the dining room, the wardrobe, the slave quarters, and the classroom.
"Behind this courtyard lie two more. The first one is the area where the prince is entertained when he visits, and the second is reserved for the future mother of his child and their offspring. If you are extremely fortunate you will one day see it. Any questions?"
Only about a million and a half, Luce thought. That had been quite a lot of information and her head was reeling from it all. All Luce wanted was a nice quiet place to lie down and think or cry or both. Her answer was apparently too long in the coming for Little Mother because she again began speaking in her brisk way. "All right then, you will follow me to the bathhouse and get cleaned up. You are to meet the prince tonight, and you are completely unsuitable for that in your current state. You are fortunate, it is your rooms turn in the bathhouse, you will be able to meet your roommates."
"How many do I have? Little Mother?" she added hastily.
"You are one of four. There are now twenty-four girls in our little world."
So many. And if all of them were slaves just as Luce had been, it was horrifying. Luce wondered if a single one of them was happy here, or if they were all as upset as she was. They had to be. Luce couldn't imagine that a single-one had their position in life improved by being sold into sexual slavery.
Little Mother led her through a carved wooden doorway, that Luce assumed led into the bathhouse. They entered a dressing room with little booths outfitted with slippers and linen towels. Luce expected to stop, but Little Mother kept going straight through, leading Luce into a large marble sanctuary, Washbasins rimmed the outer wall, while the center of the room was overtaken by a large sunken pool. Overhead, a dome arced gracefully, painted with a scene of mountains at dawn.
There were three girls lounging in the pool, attended by a couple of servant girls, and they all looked up as Luce entered the chamber. There was a girl with wavy, white-blonde hair, a tiny redhead, and an exotic looking brunette beauty. Little Mother pointed to them each and ticked off their names in turn, "These are your roommates, Marianne, Catherine, and Diana. Girls, this is Luce Taylor, she will be in your room. Please help her to get situated, show her how to use the baths and then take her to your room and assign her a bed. She is to meet the prince tonight, so you must also take her to be dressed. I trust that you will be able to handle this, right girls?"
The tiny redhead nodded vigorously, sending her copper curls waving about. The other two showed no inclination to answer and merely kept staring at Luce in a way that made her feel distinctly naked, even though they were the ones without a stitch of clothing. Little Mother left the bathhouse and Luce decided to put her best foot forward. There was no reason that she shouldn't at least try to make some part of the whole situation tolerable.
"Luce, was it?" asked the blonde, rising from the marble slab.
Luce nodded but didn't answer out loud. She was a bit distracted by the ridiculously perfect body that was making its way towards her. Perfect. Translucently pale skin, lean, toned and a set of breasts that made Luce a bit jealous. There was pretty much no way that the prince would ever notice her when there was a girl like this running around, not that she wanted that anyway. And Luce hadn't even gotten to her face yet. Perfect, again, with a slightly upturned nose. Her eyes were somewhere between blue and gray, and they were glinting with interest and enmity.
"Hmm, not much contest. What do you think, Diana?"
The other girl remained in the pool, but fixed her mahogany eyes on Luce, "Not much at all."
Luce felt her cheeks growing hot. So, it was going to be like that. She had known plenty of girls like this in her village and had in fact been friends with many of them. Clearly, Marianne was the queen and it looked like Diana was her number one supporter. That left the little redhead and Luce had a feeling that she would find out where she fell in the pecking order momentarily.
"And what about you Catherine? Do you have anything to say about our new roommate?"
Catherine blushed furiously and stammered out that she thought Luce seemed nice enough. Yes, just as Luce had thought, she was Marianne's whipping girl. She had seen enough of that as well, and she wasn't about to stand for it again. The best way to get at a girl like Marianne was t
o ignore her, and Luce knew it.
"Thank you, Catherine. Maybe you could show me around?"
Catherine gave a smile that scrunched up her button nose and went gratefully to Luce's side. Naked as the girl was, Luce still put an arm around her shoulder as they walked back to the dressing room. Gods, she was tiny.
"Sorry about them, they don't really like...anyone?"
"Yeah, I kind of got that message. You seem nice though."
"Nice, or a mouse, I'm not always sure of which. So where are you from Luce?"
As she spoke Catherine was rummaging around in one of the cubbies and handing things to Luce. Luce accepted an armful of stuff and answered, "I'm from Wesley, what about you?"
"The hair didn't give it away for once. I'm from Brynn." Catherine shrugged. "You'll want to take off your clothes, and probably have them burned, they look a little filthy."
Luce laughed at Catherine's unexpected sense of humor, "I’ve never heard of Brynn, but maybe my brother has. He knows a lot more of distant lands than I do. We’ll have to ask him, if I ever get to see him again, that is.”
Catherine's shockingly blue eyes widened, "Your brother? What do you mean?"
"The queen brought him with me, on accident she said. I don't know what they're doing with him right now, but we'll find each other again."
"Wow. She's never taken a boy before, or anyone's family members."
"Are a lot of the girls taken from their families?" Luce asked as she began peeling off her sweaty, dusty clothing. “I assumed that they had all been bought, like me.”
"Most are. The queen has no shortage of coin. She only takes girls when they can’t be bought.”
“When is that?”
“There is a mountain village nearby that won’t sell their girls, but if the queen thinks Prince Jonathan would like them, she takes them instead.”
Luce thought about that chilling fact as she stuck her clothes back into the cubby and wrapped herself in the linen sheet, putting on the padded slippers. She followed Catherine back to the main room and discovered that the other two girls had left. Good riddance. Catherine led her over to one of the washbasins and waved over one of the servants.
"So, whenever you come to the bathhouse, this will be how things work. You will spend a lot of time here. I mean a lot. Like every day. We always have to be perfect for the prince."
Luce had a question on the tip of her tongue but was distracted by the servant girl. She slipped off her towel a bit shyly, Luce wasn't super modest but around here naked seemed like the thing to be. The girl scooped up water from the basin in a silver bowl and poured it over Luce's head repeatedly until she was drenched. The water was steaming, and it felt blissfully good.
"I'll wait for you in the pool."
Luce nodded, appreciating the attempt at giving her privacy. The servant girl began soaping Luce's hair and body, vigorously, and Luce fought down the urge to complain. The girl was just doing her job. She would have thought that it would have been more embarrassing to be scrubbed down like this, but the girl was so mechanical in her movements that it seemed about as personal as washing a pair of stockings.
"I will leave you to wash privately, call me when you are ready to be rinsed."
I can rinse myself, Luce thought. But when she tried to tell the servant when she had finished bathing the girl wouldn't hear it, so she gave up. It felt to Luce as if she was doing a lot of giving up or in today. The only option that she saw was seducing the prince, becoming pregnant, and then convincing him to at least get Jude back home. A long shot.
Luce was led over to the pool and sat into the cool water. The girl began working her over with a rough cloth, and Luce turned to Catherine for distraction. “Is it common in this part of the world to have concubines?”
“Just here, just because of the curse.”
“Curse?”
Catherine’s went wide. “No one told you?”
“I just learned that magic actually exists.” Luce shrugged. “So, tell me about this curse.”
Catherine leaned in close, her lips brushing the shell of Luce’s ear as she spoke as quietly as she could. “Queen Anne was not always the queen. It was her older sister Leona who was married to the king originally. She failed to provide him an heir, so he left her for her little sister who became pregnant almost immediately. Some say she was pregnant before he even left Leona, but no one can say for sure. Another pregnancy came almost as soon as their first had been born. Leona was heartbroken by the betrayal and placed a curse on the entire kingdom before she fled.”
“What was it?”
“She cursed the kingdom to barrenness and no children have been born ever since. The only one in the whole kingdom not affected is Prince Jonathan, since he hadn’t been born yet. Queen Anne believes that they could break the curse with the birth of a baby, so she brings fertile girls from other lands to be with the prince.”
"What is the prince like?"
Catherine shrugged and drew back, "I've only met him once. He was polite but quiet and a little distant. He's gorgeous though. He has these light green eyes that look outrageous. And he's nice and tall, strong without being too much, you know?"
Luce nodded. She did know. "And you've only met him once?"
"Yeah, when I first got here a year ago, but he's never called for me since. He usually only sees Marianne, maybe a couple of others, but he really doesn't come around much."
"That's kind of weird, isn't he supposed to be getting a girl pregnant? You would think he would take a different girl each night."
"I wish he would take me. I could get away from Marianne, become the next queen. But that won't happen."
Luce breathed a sigh of relief as the scrubbing stopped, but it was only a long enough break for her to twist around so that the servant girl could get her front side. Her skin felt very raw and she really hoped that it would be over soon.
"So, should I be nervous then?"
"Only if you want him to pick you for a date, otherwise he will be polite for a few minutes and then say good-bye."
"Weird."
"Yes, but good. If he did seem interested in you then Marianne would make your life a living hell, literally. I don't want to scare you, but she's bullied a few girls to their breaking point."
Luce was going to pursue that last statement, but before she could the servant girl dumped a bowl of water over her. Luce looked down at the water running off her and was a bit grossed out at how dirty it looked and how much dead skin was floating on the surface of the pool. Now her tan skin was glowing even more than usual and when she ran a hand over it she was amazed by the silkiness.
"Am I done?"
Catherine giggled, "Nope. Next, you will get a rubdown with oil, which is actually very nice, and then you will get shaved. After that you're done, with the bathing at least, but if you're meeting the prince than I'm thinking you have another couple of hours of torture before you."
"Great."
"Do you think you'll be all right if I leave for a little while? I'll come back before you're done."
Luce didn't necessarily want to be left alone, but she assured Catherine that she would be fine just the same. Maybe having a little while to think would be a good thing. She sure did have a pile of things to start working through. Like the fact that she had been brought across the sea, or that her brother's life hinged on her good behavior, or the mean girls that she was now forced to live with, or the fact that she had to meet a prince and she wasn't quite sure if she wanted him to like her or not...
Her head was a mess, she hadn't felt this level of emotion whirling around since her parents had died. At least this wasn't worse than that, nothing could ever be worse than those two days of her life. Her father had collapsed in the fields. She had been the only one with him at the time, and she had been the one who had to cradle his limp body until help arrived. Luce was alone in the field with his body for an hour before Jude had found them. Her mother had been right behind him and Luce would n
ever forget the way her cries sounded as she sank to her knees. Her mother had been so heartbroken that she drank poison that very night, and Luce had been the one to discover her as well.
Luce physically jerked herself out her reverie, it was a road of memories that she didn't feel like traveling down now. Normally she kept it all at arm's length, neatly locked away with only a trickle escaping occasionally. Her defenses seemed to have been torn down by the recent events and she knew that it was going to be a battle to maintain her composure. She brought herself around and focused on what was happening. She had hardly realized that the servant girl was rubbing her down with oil and was about to start shaving her with a golden straight razor.
"Be gentle," Luce whispered.
The girl gave her a nod and a timid smile, "Do not worry, I do this often."
Luce tried to relax as the razor approached her leg, but it took her a few deft strokes to relax fully. This wasn't so bad, she could handle the legs and possibly her armpits, but if the girl went anywhere near her private area with a straight razor it was going to be a whole different story. Luckily, she steered clear and instead had Luce stand while she poured water over her head repeatedly.
The girl handed Luce one of the linen towels and the robe and gave her instructions on what to do next, "Go into the next room, there will be tea waiting. Make yourself comfortable and another servant will be in to take care of your hair and face."
Luce nodded, and the girl departed without another word, Gods it was awkward having a servant waiting on her. Luce felt like she should have thanked her or something, but she also had the feeling that it wouldn't have been appreciated. She wondered briefly how pampered she was going to be in this place, and she wondered if Jude was fairing as well as she was. She really hoped so.