Even if she did, I wouldn’t really protest. It wasn’t like I was self-conscious about my appearance. I had seen too many solar fae herbalists and healers to worry about modesty, and whatever the herbalists and healers hadn’t taken care of, the years of nudity and physical mistreatment in prison had demolished.
“I brought some things with me.” The woman gestured to a rack of clothing. “But I’ll measure you first to decide whether or not anything will fit.”
I nodded, and held my arms out at her instruction as she took measurements from multiple different parts of my body, clucking her tongue and shaking her head as she did so.
“Has the king been starving you?”
“He had me in his prison.” My voice was flat.
But… guilt struck me.
The man hadn’t actually been starving me.
“There was plenty of food, I just didn’t have the motivation to eat much. And I was already this skinny before he imprisoned me.”
She clucked her tongue again, continuing to shake her head as she turned back to the rack.
“I’ll speak with him. Make sure he’s ensuring that you eat.”
Oh, hell no.
“Please don’t.”
She shot me a dark look. “I’m not altering my perfect dresses because you have a hard time eating.”
Bitch.
I didn’t say that aloud though, because ultimately I had to take what she gave me or walk around in the nude. And although I was comfortable with nudity, I didn’t want to get stared at and hit on every time I went anywhere.
“Besides,” she said, flipping through the dresses on her rack. “Life is too short not to enjoy food. I have a friend who owns a bakery; I’ll have her deliver treats to help you.”
I heaved a sigh. “I haven’t had anything sugary in decades.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could even stomach it anymore.
“Precisely why you need to lose yourself in cake for a bit.” She remained serious as she flipped through the dresses.
I couldn’t help but snort. “I wish that was an option.”
She flashed me a knowing look. “You can change yourself and your life at any point, Akari. If you want to dedicate yourself to cake, dedicate yourself to cake. You’re already alive; might as well figure out a way to enjoy it.”
Her words struck me.
I believed in mental health, and mental disorders, but… well, I had never considered that there was a way formeto feel better.
Which was ridiculous, because I’d seen so many healers in my early life that my bedroom had always felt like a hospital.
Cake wouldn’t heal me, but maybe the healer could do something to make me feel slightly better.
And maybe then, I could enjoy the cake.
“Alright, you’ll keep all of these except these two.” She pulled two dresses off the rack, and then wheeled it toward my door.
My eyebrows shot upward, and she smirked at me a bit. “The king told me how slim you were before I came—he showed me on one of my mannequins and guessed almost the exact measurements I just got from you.”
My eyebrows lifted further.
How had he known that?