"Bring me a paper and a pen, darling Angela. I shall write to Vassia that I might be late or not attend at all if my prior engagement drags on. You're such a genius!"
***
To say the night passes rather slowly would be a lie. It was as if time stretched on, minutes turned to seconds and seconds to hours. I tossed and turned in the bed yet the hands of sleep did not take me.
It's only when the first strip of coral seeps through the most minute gap of the curtains, do my mind allow my eyes to flutter shut. Yet it feels only a minute has passed before the doors to my room swing open and Angela pads in, pulling the curtains apart and letting the coral and rosy rays flood into my room.
"My lady, it's time to get up."
I hear her loud and clear yet I still pretend to sleep.
A second later—I should've known from the deep sigh she let out—I feel the chill air creep up my skin as the sheets get peeled off my body and leave me grumbling incohesively.
"You leave me no choice, my lady." Angela sounds resigned.
Almost as though used to this, she pulls me up in one fell swoop until I'm sitting on the bed instead of lying down. I vaguely remember her tugging at my hands and directing me to the bathroom where she splashes ice cold water onto my face and causes my heart to leap into my throat.
"Ah!"
"Oh my, did you forget you specifically instructed me to douse you with cold water if I couldn't wake you up? But I'm kind enough to prepare a hot bath for you and merely sprinkle some cold water onto your face to wake you up." There's no mistaking the cunning smirk on her lips despite the hand that's covering it.
Angela is as lovely as her name suggests it. But just like the heavenly beings, they have the darkest side to them.
"I did, huh?" I smile stiffly, one corner of my lip twitching at the remembrance of my foolish past self who did, in fact, asked her to do that.
The morning goes on relatively uneventfully, that is, until a yelp echoes from down the hallway and then a shout.
"Halt. This is Lady Arabella's room, what business do you have with the young miss that you couldn't have the decency to wait in the parlor?" Flora, the head maid's voice drifts stern and clear into the room.
Angela and I both freeze in curiosity and in shock. The latter's hand which holds the comb hovers inches over my head while I sit in front of the vanity in my undergown.
When I stand up, she instantly recognizes what I'm about to do and drapes a shawl around me before I step out of my room, studying the tension filled air in front of me with Flora and three other maids standing between the Gastor knights and the door to my room.
"My lady, we've received orders to make sure you stay in your room for three days. No one is to come in or out except Miss Angela." Marcos, the second-in-command, bows, the five other knights behind him mimicking his action.
"Whose orders? And for what reason?" I demand, voice chilled and authoritative.
"The young master, Luzak, my lady. As for the reason, he did not disclose—" Marcos' words are cut short.
"You should know better than anyone what it means for a Gastor to cozy up to the Agriche's."
A familiar gravelly voice booms in the air and the knights, as though sharing one mind, begin to step to the side, revealing an red-auburn haired man with a scar on the left side of his face that adds to the forbidding air to his steps.
YOU ARE READING
to tame a beast
Fantasy♔ 𝓓𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝔁 𝓞𝓒'𝓼 ♔ Arabella is the daughter of the Gastor household. A lady of noble birth and grandeur through and through. All her life, sitting still and being pretty is the epitome of what she is. Yet it's become quite feat to continue l...
