A Beast's Tale

Chapter 2

"Her name is Ivetta," Clavis said, bursting into my office. "And she'll be very entertaining."

I didn't bother looking up from the document I'd been skimming. I could picture the wide grin on his face just as well as I could picture Nokto's head snapping up from his stack of paperwork.

"Who are you talking about?" he asked.

"Chev's new maid. Well, she's not assigned to him, just the library. I checked." Clavis sat on an empty corner of my desk, leaning over to see the papers in front of me. "Marge is disappointed you didn't scare her away, Chev. Losing your touch?"

"What does she look like?" Nokto pressed Clavis. He had only one thing on his mind where women were concerned, as usual.

"She's a pretty little thing. Short—can't be much over five feet. Long, straight black hair, bright green eyes, slim build, with all the right curves in all the right places."

I wouldn't have worded it the same way, but it was an accurate description. And guaranteed to make Nokto drool.

"Hm, I may have to pay a visit to the library," he mused.

"After you finish your work," I interjected, giving him a pointed glare.

His sly smile didn't dim, nor did the light in his crimson eyes. He shrugged, his messy silver hair brushing the shoulder of his white jacket. "Of course, King Highness. Anything else I should know about her, Clavis?"

"Well, she's a little jumpy. I suppose you gave her a fright yesterday, huh, Chev?" Clavis laughed. "Not enough of a fright, though. She was cleaning your library when I found her, and she had the audacity to shoo me away so she could get back to work!"

I turned to the built-in bookcase separating the windows behind me and selected a heavy reference textbook. Clavis vacated his spot on the desk just before I dropped it there.

"If you have nothing of importance to say, you have your own work to do."

"You don't mind her being in your library without your permission?" Nokto asked. "Or did you give her permission?"

"No, he didn't. She said as much," Clavis said, grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the desk. "But he complimented her yesterday. Called her 'efficient.' I think our dear older brother may have finally found an interest in women. Or at least this woman."

What a laugh. "I leave the pointless womanizing to those with lesser ambitions."

Nokto leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. His dark blue tie was loose around the collar of his white shirt, which he hadn't tucked into his dark gray pants, and he'd neglected fastening the top button of his shirt. He was always fresh out of bed or ready to fall into it with his next conquest, as the case may be. "Sounds like she's fair game to me."

"What you do in your spare time is none of my affair." I pushed a stack of paperwork toward Clavis.

"I did a little digging, of course," he continued, opening the book. "She didn't tell Marge much, which is why our beloved head maid took a dislike to her. No last name, no list of references, and she was very particular about her hours. Eight to five every day, and she requires advance notice if she has to come early or stay late for special events."

"Hm, shrewd businesswoman," Nokto commented.

"I couldn't find much about her either, although I have a few more threads to pull. Still no last name, no father, just her and her mother scraping by on odd jobs in that little village west of the capital city. Her mother, Evelyn, showed up pregnant twenty or so years ago, and nobody knows anything about her before that."