"Ah!" Princess Charlotte relaxed under the warm water, taking a long sniff of the scented air as she did so.
Her back arched as she stretched her legs forward, allowing the maids to massage her very smooth shoulders.
"Benita." She called, her eyes closed.
Her personal maid, Benita quickly went forward, to her side, to inform her of her presence.
"Yes, my princess?" Her voice was laced with fake brightness. That irritated the princess but she made no noise out of it.
"What do you think of the slave?"
Since the past five days she had always made mention of Almira. She couldn't stop talking about her, she craved to punish her again and watch her blood trail down her wounded skin.
She craved that so bad that she could feel her fingers itch but she knew she had to exercise patience.
But unfortunately she had no patience in her anymore.
All she had was tolerance, to tolerate the fact that the slave was still alive and near to her.
But her tolerance had gone low, so low she soon wouldn't have any one left in her.
"Who, my lady? The Princess Almira?"
Immediately the wood 'Princess' left her mouth, Princess Charlotte sprang up from the bathing pool and threw a thunderous slap to her face.
Benita screamed as the palm caught up with her face, almost causing one of her eyes to swell.
"How dare you address the slave by that title?!" She spat out, making the other maids to take a step back in fear.
They all knew how bad-tempered Charlotte was and how she ended the lives of three maids who had accidentally angered her.
Since that terrific incident, they had all tried hard to avoid getting her angry.
Charlotte was fuming.
She hated the audacity of these maids. She hated that they were so quick in turning her mood sour.
That was the exact reason she deposed of her former personal maid, Mariam and employed Benita.
But now all she was thinking of was deposing of Benita also.
"I apologize, your highness! I deeply apologize! I would never utter such again."
Benita begged, bowing her head lowly to the floor.
Instead of that lessening her anger, it provoked her even more.
"Get out! Leave all of you!" She sneered and the maids in the bathroom all quickly bowed, taking hasty steps out of the room.
"You!" Charlotte stared at a maid who was about leaving the room.
"Me?" The maid stared apace and befuddled.
"Yes! Do you lack ears? Wash my hair."
The maid nodded and quickly went to her side. Charlotte removed her remaining clothing and again went under the water, now clad in nothing.
She closed her eyes as she felt her hair being moistened and washed.
Thankfully that seemed to calm her and erase her soured mood.
Suddenly a maid rushed into the room. The fast footsteps disturbed her and forced her eyes to open.
She instantly glared at the maid who also paused, seeing her gaze harshly fixed on her.
"My lady, am heavily sorry for the interruption but I have an important announcement to make."
"And so what? That gave you the temerity to barge into my room like you own it? How dare you?"
"I apologize my lady."
Charlotte frowned.
She had had enough of these maids. They needed to be whipped and forced to learn some manners.
"My lady, King Luther would be here soon in about an hour. He had already arrived at the kingdom capital and is approaching the palace. That's the important announcement, my lady."
Charlotte couldn't believe it.
She knew he was on his way but she didn't expect him to arrive so soon.
The thought of seeing him brought her to blush and shiver delightfully.
It has been two years after all, two long years of meeting and now for the first time in a while, she would be seeing him again.
She hastily came out of the bathing room and rushed back to her bedroom.
"Go! Go get me my fancy dress!"
She yelled to the maid who was earlier washing her hair, who then hurriedly went to her wardrobe and brought out the dress she desired.
She got herself into it and tried to relax as the maid put in some makeup on her face.
She was just too excited! Finally she was going to see him... The man of her dreams.
She wondered how he would look like now.
The last time she saw him, he was so revengeful and bitter. He was the kind that doesn't express his emotions and rather keeps it hidden.
At the sight of him, you know better than to dare him.
He was like exposed dry thorns, sharp and pointed. They were hazardous as they seem and they try no bit to hide their harmfulness.
Two years ago, she was with him, trying to be his biggest form of comfort but unknowingly to her, Luther despises any comforting.
He hated people seeing him as weak and so made himself non transparent and blank.
No matter how hard you try, you couldn't see any reflection of his emotions. He was just there... Blank, ice and stone.
Both of them had been childhood friends. They knew each other since they were babies.
Luther's parents and hers had a very close, known relationship and fortunately that made it easier for their offsprings to bond.
But out of Charlotte's father plenty children, Luther bonded quite well with Charlotte.
The both families were thrilled and made a decision.
They betrothed them both and agreed to get them married when they get older.
But unfortunately when Luther was ten years old and she five, a war broke out in Sihasin causing Luther and his parents to get captured, enslaved and tortured.
That action placed an automatic end to the betrothal and till date, both her family and Luther hadn't made mention of it.
But now she was here to make mention of it. She was ready, overly ready to get married to Luther.
She loved Luther since she was a child and could clearly remember how she had cried and denied food when she heard what happened to Luther and his kingdom.
She was only five then but she lost sleep over it.
That could tell any person of how impossibly heads over heels she was with Luther.
The maid styled her hair and made few curled strings hang at both sides of her face.
She stared at the mirror and smiled.
She knew without doubt that a look like this could charm any man, even the toughest of them all.
She was pleased.
She didn't expect a look like this, probably because she had incompetent maids who were so useless to a fault.
"What's your name?" She asked the maid who beautified and dressed her up.
She needed to know the name for future references, so she could easily call her back when she desired her.
Except for that, she had no reason to know a name, especially one belonging to a maid.
"Tina, my lady." The maid made a bow.
"Tina..." She mumbled and that was it.
If the maid was expecting a complement from her then she was wasting her time.
Charlotte could never complement a maid, she had a pride to keep.
"My lady, may I come in?" She heard a voice from outside her room.
She rolled her eyes and after a while, said a 'yes'
The maid walked in, her head all bowed to the floor. Charlotte could sense it was an important information even with her not yet saying anything.
"Your highness, King Luther has arrived at the palace."
It was a simple sentence but that got Charlotte to feel a rapid heat in her stomach.
She beamed elatedly, contemplating whether to wait or go meet him.
It was courtesy to wait for a person who just returned from a travel to get situated in first before any meeting but Charlotte couldn't wait.
She lacked patience, especially when it comes to Luther.
Ten minutes later, an impatient Charlotte who had been roaming around for a while could be seen heading towards her door.
"Follow me." She had said to the maids. "We would be visiting his highness's chamber, right now."