All she could do was play the part. In this case, the part was that of a demanding princess sitting on her bed with her arms crossed, waiting for someone to come and bring her a pair of pants. Some hiking boots would be nice too, just in case she managed to make her escape when she got to wherever Emma wanted to take her.
Of course, when the butler appeared, Emma placed her hand to her forehead, signaling her stress, and acted like her mistress was out of line and making demands. Ashley thought that was funny, but Ashley decided to play along with it, deciding then and there to sit on her bed, pouting her lips.
“Pants,” she said in a demanding voice, adding to the part by clicking her fingers together. “Now.”
The butler’s eyes widened. It seemed like he wasn’t expecting her to ask for such a thing. Still, he darted out of the room. That was a good sign. Maybe she should have tried it sooner? When he was gone, Emma turned to speak to Ashley again.
“Elliot and Jack need to speak to you.”
“Yes, I gathered that from the little you’ve told me. Strange because considering everything that I saw last night, I’m starting to think that I might need to speak to them as well,” Ashley said with more bitterness than she meant to. None of this was Emma’s fault.
“How long have you known those two?” Ashley asked, hoping to take the sting out of what she’d said before.
Emma busied herself with putting clothes back into Ashley’s wardrobe.
“Not long. The day you made me your lady’s maid. That is when they first approached me,” Emma answered, which was just the tiniest bit suspicious, but Ashley knew better than to ask too many questions by now. “They were so nice and wanted only the best for you, you know? I enjoy talking with them.” Emma’s voice was tinged with something else, maybe just a hint of desire, which wasn’t exactly all that surprising, Ashley decided, when one took into account the fact that both of the men were very charming and attractive.
“And what were they saying?” Ashley asked, only to find that her question fell on deaf ears because that was when the butler reappeared, two tailors in tow, with a wide array of fabric sitting in their arms.
Ashley blanched the moment she realized what that meant. This was going to take longer than she wanted. “Aren’t there any pants that can fit me in this entire place? I didn’t ask for someone to come and make me pants.”
But, as usual, what she had to say fell on deaf ears. She looked to Emma to somehow take care of the situation, but of course, the demure maid wasn’t exactly capable of that. She did have a few faults, after all.
It was time for Ashley to step up, raise her voice, and ensure she was heard. She took a deep breath, steadied her shoulders,and willed herself to do what had to be done. The right thing, of course, was to be as big of a bitch as possible.
“You simply can’t expect me to sit here and wait for you to make eight different pairs of pants,” Ashley said, making sure that she said eight because that seemed like a good enough number for the time being. She would request more in the future, but she made clear that there was an expectation that there would be at least eight. That was the first part of her plan.
“Take my measurements, make one, and then allow me to go about my day. I don’t want to see either of your faces after you take my measurements. The fact that my wardrobe is devoid of such an essential is insulting to me,” Ashley said, doing her best impersonation of her brother that she could. The fact that none of them seemed surprised kind of reassured her that she was doing the right thing.
The butler turned to the tailor with wide eyes, making clear that they needed to fulfill this request. To Ashley’s surprise, it seemed that, for once, someone had listened to her. She might have a hint of power in this place, after all. She didn’t exactly know how to approach that information, but she’d figure that out later. Within an hour she had a pair of pants in hand as the tailors scampered out into the hallway.
“I would pay actual money to find out what my brother will say when he hears I’ve got pants now. And more on the way,” Ashley said, but she knew that it was probably for the best that she didn’t hear anything from her brother that day. After all, she needed to convince him that she was in her room, sulking at the fact that he had yelled at her the night before. But, as she didn’t exactly have magic, she was short of options.
Instead, what Ashley had was a pair of pants that were practically begging to be worn and places to go, people to deceive. In this case, a pair of conniving men who very obviously had been consulting with her lady’s maid, of all things. She waspretty sure that if she’d been raised in this high society, she would have been annoyed by that, perhaps even insulted. But, as she wasn’t, and she was just a girl at the end of the day, she pulled on her pants and nodded to Emma, gesturing for her to take her to the men. Emma did so without complaint.
Emma moved through the halls with the sort of beauty and grace that Ashley knew she lacked. Emma knew exactly what to do and what was expected of her as a lady’s maid, one that just so happened to be accompanying her lady. It turned out that just about anything could be done if you looked confident enough, something that Ashley had to store away for future reference. It wasn’t like she would always be with Emma.
But she could always remember how Emma held herself and the ease with which she moved, the way that she dominated the space and seemed to know exactly what to do. Ashley swallowed hard, realizing the same was expected of her, and she had failed to be the person everyone hoped she would be in the end.
But just because she had initially failed didn’t mean there was no hope. Ashley looked towards the ends of the hallway with glee, knowing that the closer she got to the door, the closer she got to the truth. Soon, she would know exactly what was going on, and the moment she did, well, that would probably be when she knew more about herself.
Just when Ashley was about to convince herself that she would get out of there, something unexpected happened, and someone unexpected appeared.Suddenly, all the servants jumped out of the way asthe flow of traffic began goingin the opposite direction. It was almost as if shewasfighting the tide.
“Oh, fuck me,” Ashley breathed, not having the same amount of decorum as Emma. She was pretty sure that if her brother had heard her use such words, he likely would have paled, realizing how well and truly fucked he was when it came to sending her off. But, as he wasn’t there, Ashley continued to swear.
“More fucking guests,” she muttered, immediately recognizing what was going on and putting two and two together. In front of her, the maid was pale, and Emmawas revertingto the stiff, shuddering girl she had first encountered.
“They’re here,” Emma said, and there was something about how she said it that made it more than clear that she was caught off guard. Obviously, she hadn’t expected everyone to show up all at once. It was clear that the whole dragon nobility was there days ahead of time, yet there was nothing that Ashley could do to get rid of them. They had decided to surprise her brother, undoubtedly wanting a peek at her, and there they were.
And there Ashley was, standing in the middle of the hallway, undoubtedly expected to do something. Still, before she could question what exactly she was expected to do then, Emma shined a little light on the situation for her.
“They’re not supposed to see you,” Emma said, and with those words, Emma offered Ashley a way out.
“Oh fuck,” Ashley gasped in surprise as Emma yanked her away from the hallway. Despite all of Jack and Elliot’s scheming, the maid had to think fast on her feet. Now, she was stuck looking back at Ashley, her face betraying her surprise. It turned out that Emma wasn’t the only one with secrets up her sleeve. Ashley knew very well how to sneak around. It was practically a sport in Tennessee.
The one thing that Ashley did not know, however, was the current layout of the entire castle. Though she tried time and time again, she couldn’t exactly figure out where she was going. She would have paid to have a map made. But instead, she had something better. A MapMaid.
“You know exactly all of the passageways in these halls,” Ashley reminded Emma when she looked at her blankly, willing Emma to show them the way out. “More than that, you just so happen to know where Jack and Elliot are hoping to meet us,which is a good thing,” Ashley reminded Emma, wrapping her hand around the other woman’s as she tugged her along with a determined look on her face. “Now, if you’re going to have all these secrets about everything, then you need to start being useful.”
