Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Release from Captivity

I left Minerva's rooms with an ache in my heart and another between my legs. The former faded to a dull knot, the latter to bittersweet memory. Theories and anxieties raced around my mind. Was I not good enough for the princess? Of course I wasn't. Maids did not consort with royalty.

But no, she obviously found me attractive--she had made that abundantly clear. Minerva's discomfort with our being together came from somewhere else. Had someone threatened her? The thought made me angry, but even that fury faded back into my jumble of emotions. Who could possibly threaten an Andan princess?

She had said she missed our being together. Or maybe she simply meant the physical intimacy? Was I the latest in a line of maids? Perhaps the Andan siblings were more similar than I'd thought--they would all play with whomever they wanted; we were toys to them, not people.

I hated that feeling most of all. It felt like a betrayal of everything that had passed between the princess and me.