Emilie of the Royal Heart

Chapter 14: The Princess-to-Be Has an Eventful Bath Time

It would have been good to have the blue dress now that Emilie was going to be meeting the Emperor. Aurora's brother was staying with Lady Diselle, a noble that Aurora had plans to visit on the Southern Tour. The day that their party arrived, Emilie was practically sequestered away for the express purpose that she wouldn't meet the Emperor until she was supposed to. All the while, her attendants tried to decide which dress would be the best to meet him.

"I am quite sad that the Tailor took away your most spectacular gown," Ester commented, "but I guess it makes sense he didn't want such a fantastic piece to travel. It could get damaged after all."

"That is certainly the reason he kept it at the palace," Emilie squeaked from where she sat on her guest bed. She grabbed one of the decorative pillows at the head of the bed to squeeze.

"What about the yellow one, miss?" Minnie offered up, her hands already digging in the second trunk looking for it.

"Yes, that one is lovely on you," Ester concurred, "and it looks divine enough to meet the Emperor. The fabric is so shiny and with the golden detailing-"

"You look like the sun," Agatha finished with a dear smile.

"You three are too free with your compliments," Emilie countered.

"This one we mean," Agatha stood up from the chair she had pulled up to the trunk. She walked over to Emilie and told her, "however, I have to inform you that you need a bath drawn. Soon."

Emilie felt her cheeks heat up and she attempted to sniff her arms discreetly. She wasn't the best smelling and a soak would be nice, but now she was worried that other people had been turning up their noses at her.

"Is it that desperate?" she whispered.

Agatha gave a kind laugh and said, "only for royal standards. Fret not. While the girls and I get plan your ensemble and your evening, you can bathe yourself in the Lady's bathing chamber. I will have the water drawn up and warmed now."

Just as she promised, the bath was prepared and Emilie perused her last selection of notes before she dawned her robe and let Agatha lead her to the bath room. The room was floored with white tiles and there were a few dividers creating a kind of labyrinth inside the room. On the far end of the room was a hearth with a glowing fire. Emilie could see that far because the dividers were made of paper and as such the outlines of furniture were visible, especially with the light of the fire.

Agatha told her where everything was and led her to the steaming bath in the back of the room. She said that she would wait outside the room for her to be done. Emilie thanked her and then Agatha left, closing the door shut behind her.

Emilie disrobed and climbed into the bath. She made sure to keep her hair out of the water - it wasn't a good time to be tackling that and Agatha had helped her clean and detangle her hair recently anyway. She leaned her back against the long end of the tub and picked the ends of her hair up and let them hang off the dry side of the tub. Then she closed her eyes and let her body relax.

Though she wasn't sure how much time passed, she trusted Agatha to come knocking if she was taking too long. After a while, she picked up the sponge and started scrubbing with the soap. She was getting at her feet when she heard loud footsteps outside the door. She glanced toward it, but the dividers made the straight view from the bath to the door impossible. Emilie supposed she should be glad of that. If some random person got in, they wouldn't see her before she got her robe on. The noises died down and after a minute or so, she went back to bathing.

At last, she grabbed a towel, dried off, and wrapped herself in her robe. She weaved between the dividers and slid her feet in her slippers before she opened the door.

Except the door didn't open. The doorknob jiggled, but it wouldn't turn far enough to allow her to pull the door. Emilie let go of the knob and hugged her arms in.

She figured this could be worse. She was clothed in a warm, thick robe. She had shoes. There weren't windows here, but there was a chimney if she dared try that escape route. But before she was ready to get soot all over herself, she thought she might try Agatha first.

"Agatha!" she called, pressing her face close to the door, "Agatha, the door's locked! From the outside. For some bizarre reason."

She expected her attendant to come running. Her attendants usually did. In general, Emilie didn't like when they crowded her, but she would appreciate some suffocation now.

"Agatha!" she shouted again. If she didn't know any better, Emilie would've thought she heard her own voice echo in the hallway. "Agatha!"

No answer.

Emilie swallowed hard. She was going to have to put a little more effort into this. It seemed Agatha decided to abandon her at her worst moment.

She sucked in a big breath and then screamed, "somebody help! I'm locked in the bath room!"

She waited a beat or two and then a minute or two and then ten. When she heard no one coming, she screamed again. After that failed to lure anyone to her situation, she banged her fist on the door and screamed. Still, no one heard her.

Mulling over how long it would be before anyone came looking for her, Emilie turned around and leaned her back against the door. She slid down and sat on the floor with her legs pulled into her chest. She worked this hard maintaining her cover with Aurora and she learned Fellen law just to speak with the Emperor and now she was going to be horribly late.

Unless she really did take on that chimney. Emilie didn't think she was that desperate. Not yet anyways.

Time passed the same as watching a pot of water boil. Emilie was about to pull out her hair for entertainment. When about another ten or twenty minutes passed by, she would call out for help again and bang the back of her head on the door because she was too dejected to turn around and use her fist.

All of a sudden, she heard footsteps. Emilie shot to her feet and whirled around. This time, she slammed both her fists against the door.

"Hello! Please help me! I'm locked in here!" she called to the passerby.

The footsteps stopped in front of the door and then they backtracked. Emilie tried to listen to where they were going or figure out what they were doing. For a moment, she feared they might've secretly left her alone, but then they returned to the door with a jingling companion. Emilie heard them unlocking the door and she stepped back. The door swept open wide and Emilie's elation quickly dropped into the depths of anxiety.

"Well," said the Emperor, "look at you."