Snippet #2084659

Had she heard right? No, no, she must have been mistaken. He would never had made an offer like that. She must have misunderstood. Aethyra paused before turning a corner, her hand on the wall, and stared at him. He would teach her? He would help her escape? Blinking to clear her head, she cocked an eyebrow at him. "I am no student. But if there would be equal respect, I would be interested in speaking to this 'teacher.' I shall bring you your reward, thief," her lips twitched into a ghostly smile as she said the word, "then we shall break fasts and discuss." Continuing down the corridor, she slid into her bedchamber and closed the door, resting her head and fingertips against it, releasing a large sigh before sinking to the cold stone.

A young servant girl bustled in and rushed the fair-skinned girl to a hot bath, scrubbing her and tugging her and coating her with sweet-smelling oils. Aethyra hated the cloying scent of the flowers, but it was "proper" that she be presented before the courtiers and guests as a true princess, whether or not she liked it. After being bathed, she was dressed in a long dusky blue gown, her chest constricted from a corset, waist tied with a ribbon of golden-coloured silk. Glittering jewels adorned her neck, and some were placed in her hair after it was dried and twisted into a terribly feminine cascading fashion. Was it overdone? Yes. Did the servant girls all gasp and coo upon seeing her dressed as a proper lady of her stature? Yes. Did Aethyra pine for the comforts of men's clothing? Yes.

Before abandoning her room, she snatched a heavy satchel of gold from beneath her mattress, and hurried out. Her silk-coated footsteps were muffled, but still loud enough that people could hear her coming, and she hated it. Her limbs stung from the harsh scrubbing the servants had given her with a pumice stone, her eyes and lips itched from being painted with all sorts of beauty products, her scalp pained from having her hair tugged and pulled as they fashioned it from her usual comfort of having it loose around her shoulders. Though she looked stunning, her lips a gentle red, her eyes outlined in a charcoal paint, cheeks defined with rouge, and looked a proper Heir, it was obvious the girl was not happy.

"Where is Parthenia?" she gasped, still unused to the corset holding her ribs tight, and was informed of her helping deliver the duke's child. "Inform her that I must speak to her privately once she has finished with that. It is of upmost importance, and it can not wait." Rounding a corner, she noticed Alain again, and had her cheeks not been covered already in a false pink, all would have noticed the mottled flush creeping into her skin. "There you are." She tossed the coin purse to him, trying to look at him as a diplomat would a common man, "I believe that shall be sufficient. Or do you require more? Come, we shall see the lord, if he is available." Bustling away from the dawdling women surrounding her, she hurried as well as she could towards the throne room.