“No. If I was banished today and sent far away, I’d never be able to find my way back.”
“They banish people here?” I asked.
“If they displease the king,” she replied.
I chewed my lip. What kind of place was this?
“Come. Please let me take the sheet from you so you can climb into the bath now,” she said then, cutting off any other questions I might ask. When I didn’t move, she took the coffee from my hands and put it down on the nearby marble counter. Her fingers brushed tentatively against my shoulder and I stiffened, before forcing myself to relax. She was just another woman, a servant. I’d already had my naked body put on display for the king to do what he wished with, so I shouldn’t be affected by being naked in front of her, but I was. It made me self-conscious. With a deep breath, I slowly unwrapped myself and allowed the sheet to fall to the floor.
I blushed when I realized that I could still feel the king’s dried seed on my thighs, and it would be nice to finally be able to wash it off. I hoped she wouldn’t see it.
Carefully, I stepped into the bath and sighed in relief as the warm water caressed my skin. I lowered myself down as quickly as I could manage, hoping to hide my backside, which I feared was still pink from the king’s hand, as well as whatever remained of the evidence of our coupling on my legs. I rubbed my arm and whimpered when I felt a sore spot. I tentatively pressed at it and tried to angle myself to see, when Maria cleared her throat.
“Upon your arrival, the king had a form of birth control injected into your arm. If you’re sore, I’ve been given permission to give you a pain reliever. Just tell me if you’d like one,” she offered.
I hadn’t even thought about that. I probably should have.
“It’s fine. I don’t need anything. The king, is he a fair man?” I asked.
“He is. It’s been an honor for my family to serve his for so many years,” she replied. I turned toward her, trying to assess her age.
“Your family has been here for a long time?”
“Yes. For at least the past hundred years, my ancestors have served the Santaros. It is a great privilege to be allowed to live here,” she answered.
“It almost feels like I’ve gone back in time with all this talk of kings and kingdoms and servants,” I murmured.
“I’m sure it does, but you should be quite comfortable here. From what I understand, we have all the modern conveniences you’re used to,” she said.
“What about a cell phone or a computer? Where can I find those?”
“The king will allow you access to those when he decides that he can trust you,” she replied.
“Trust me not to throw him out a window, you mean?” I scoffed.
She didn’t respond, but I could see her eyes sparkle just the slightest bit in amusement.
“So, what now?” I questioned.
“I’m going to bathe you,” she answered. Carefully, she helped me to lean backwards, wetting my hair before she squirted a healthy portion of shampoo into her palm. Quickly, she began massaging it into my scalp and I hummed with enjoyment. Her hands were gentle and even though being bathed by someone else felt embarrassing, there was also a certain measure of it that seemed like I was being pampered.
I was at least thankful that she was another woman. For a while, I was silent as she bathed me, luxuriating in the feelings of being taken care of so thoroughly for the first time in forever. After a while, it simply felt as natural as visiting a spa.
A spa in a castle with a man who called himself king. Growing curious, I wanted to ask more questions.
“So, tell me, since there is a king, is there a queen? Princesses and princes? Dukes and duchesses?”
“There is no queen or prince, at the moment,” she answered. “There’
s a number of duchessas and duces, as well as comtes and contessas, and a great deal more titles of the nobility that the king will introduce you to at dinner tonight, I imagine.”
“It seems almost like a fairy tale,” I observed quietly, albeit a dirty one where the king had stripped me, spanked me, and fucked me before his loyal subjects.
This world was a strange one.
“There’s no way out, is there?”
She didn’t reply and to be honest, she didn’t need to. I already knew the answer. Whoever this man was, if he was really king here in this isolated valley in the mountains, he wasn’t about to let me go anywhere. Even if there was, I had killed a member of his family and he could have me jailed or put to death for what I had done.