Chapter Seven

RAYA BANKS

I shifted my weight on the soft comforter of the bed uneasily.

The longer the maid girl stood at the threshold of the silver-lined room, the more I struggled to clamp down on the urge to bite into my finger beds, the stretch of silence hanging like a maiden’s tits in the space between us.

”Judith was it?” I croaked, managing to clear out the rubbish at the last syllable and affecting a measly charge of authority in the time it took the girl to look up and nod dutifully, staring at me through the heavily-lashed rims of her soulful eyes.

I shifted again, glancing around the richly-dressed space and feeling like a brown-nosed donkey in a wedding dress as the unease settled like lead in my belly.

“I’ll draw you a bath Miss, it’s almost time for dinner,” Judith voiced suddenly, startling me into what felt like a disembodied nod, grateful when she disappeared into the washroom and left me alone with my thoughts.

Had Nikolai filed that under her list of duties as well? The though