The King of Saminu

Chapter 11

"She's the one that Our Majesty is going to marry?" A voice full of disgust announced as the door to my room opened. I kept my eyes closed, wanting to hear where the conversation would continue to. What an annoying way to wake up.
"I can see her back! She sleeps like a man, how strange,"
"Well, you know women don't have rights in Slifni. She's probably fully naked! Slifni probably trains them for easy access," I almost snorted at how wrong the women were, unable to keep up the charade any longer. I started rustling in the blankets, rolling onto my back to open my eyes and cut their rude conversation off.

"Good morning dearie!" One of the women spoke, and I was surprised to see that they were actually grown. I had expected younger girls, but the woman to the right had greying hair already. After a dramatic yawn, I smiled.
"Good morning. May I ask what you're doing in this room?" I questioned, and the women looked at each other as if they couldn't understand what I was saying.
"Well, we were asked by His Highness to come and fit you for clothes, as you have none,"
"I have clothes. They're just not here with me," The women followed my gaze to where the cloth I used to bind was sitting on the nightstand.
"His Highness wants us to fit you for clothing that would display you are to be queen, rather than the outfits that recommend you are a servant," My forced smile fell and the women grew uneasy.

"Did His Highness use that wording, or is that how you took it? Did he also ask for you to come in here and make bold assumptions about how I was raised as a Slifnian?" I wrapped my blanket around my chest even tighter as the women grew uneasy.
"His Highness.... Did not use that wording. I apologize for our misbehavior, madam, it won't happen again," I sighed, realizing that the older women meant no harm. Even in Slifni, there was quite the generation gap. I couldn't blame the women before me for the ideals they were raised on long ago.
"Please, knock before you enter this room again. I'm not comfortable with being walked in on while I'm sleeping. Especially because I'm not comfortable with you two staring at my skin," The women looked at each other again, growing confused.

"We're tailors, darling. We need to see you undressed so that we can help you into clothes that actually fit," The woman on the left argued, and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her.
"Please leave. Allow me to get dressed and I will see you in the hallway,"
"But-"
"Allow me to get dressed and I will see you in the hallway," I spoke again, looking both women into their eyes to show the anger I was clearly starting to feel bubble up. Of course, the women scurried out as quickly as they could.

I was quick getting ready, taking barely five minutes before I was outside of the room with the door wide open. However, the only clothes I had were the ones I had come to Spenn in, and the clothes I had stolen from Brann the night before. The women looked to each other, no doubt planning to announce to whatever girls they knew about the fact that I was already wearing the king's clothes, but I couldn't care. People were going to make assumptions about me no matter what, even though I was sleeping in a separate room. It didn't bother me.
"There was no need to get dressed, ma'am. You have to und-"
"I'm not going to be fitted by you, sorry. You're dismissed, or whatever," I mumbled, feeling awkward now that I had to exert an order over them. Annoyingly, the women bristled up, offended.

"Only King Brann can dismiss us off of an order, dear. Please don't make this harder on us,"
"Where is he, then? If you need him to dismiss you, go find him," The women looked at each other again, and I was starting to feel my blood boil with the anger I was feeling. I was used to being treated like a child, but at least as a boy in Slifni, I had some respect. For a country that claimed to have so many rights for women, I wasn't being treated very righteously.
"I'll go get him," The woman with graying hair whispered, and she rushed off down the hall, heels clacking loudly on the marble. It was an awkward twenty minutes as all I could do was stop myself from growing angrier.