And thankfully I had the presence of mind to pull the covers back before I’d gone too far.
“Good morning, your Highness,” said the girl who was attractive in her own way but was absolutely and in no way Keira. “Sorry if I woke you, but the Queen insisted.”
“Er…of course,” I said. If my mother was going to passive aggressively use the staff to punish me every time I did something to irritate her, then I’d probably never get another decent night’s sleep. More importantly, where was Keira? A sinking feeling claimed my stomach; it was hard not to link the fact that my mother was obviously pissed at me to Keira’s absence.
“You’re new, aren’t you?” I said, not wanting to ask where Keira was for fear of causing trouble, and clinging to the possibility that it might just be her day off.
“Not new to the house, your Highness,” the girl replied. “But Rogers asked me to take over as your personal maid.”
“Permanently?”
“As far as I know, your Highness. Is that all right? I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No, that’s fine, that’s fine. I should probably start getting up at a more reasonable time, anyway,” I said.
I would’ve loved to ask why she’d needed to take over and where Keira was, but Rogers would hardly have shared that information, and besides, I didn’t want to raise any suspicions.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, and the girl simply nodded and continued cleaning the floor.
As I showered, I rushed through the endless possibilities in my mind. It could hardly be a coincidence that this sudden staff reorganization had happened the day after Keira and I had hooked up in the day-staff changing room. Was it possible that someone had seen us? Yes, of course it was possible. We’d locked the door but presumably keys existed, there were windows, and for all I knew there were security cameras. I couldn’t speak for Keira, but I’d been so caught up in the moment with her that I wouldn’t have noticed if the house’s entire staff had come in and cheered us on. Christ, it’d been so hot. There was nothing better than a woman who could give just as good as she got, and those moments last night had proved Keira was like that in more ways than one. The fire in her eyes, the way she’d held her own…my cock was practically begging me to fuck her again and again.
So the big question now was: what had happened to her? Had she been fired? If so, I would never forgive myself. Perhaps she’d just been reassigned?
If she had been fired, would she think I was behind it? Selfish though it was, that thought gave me pause. The idea of her being fired was bad, but the idea that she might think I’d ordered her to be fired now that I’d had my fun with her was unbearable.
One way or another, I had to find her.
The great thing about being a prince was that people very seldom questioned what you were doing anywhere, which meant that I could go and check on the staff schedule with relative impunity. I got a few startled looks from various maids, footmen and so on, but I answered them all with a smile as I made my way to the complex notice board that told the house staff where they were working and what they were doing on any given day. And there she was on the list! Keira Valencia.
Relief overwhelmed me in finding that she hadn’t been fired, which didn’t mean that I was out of the woods yet; she might still think that I’d asked for her to be reassigned. I ran a finger along the line that showed where Keira was due to be. Her duties as my personal maid had been scored out with a ruler-straight line and scribbled in were her new duties as…
I frowned in bemused surprise—this was quite the reassignment.
“Can I help you, your Highness?”
I turned to find Rogers standing behind me. The man was smiling, but not in a way that suggested happiness, or indeed anything positive at all. While it was true that a prince could move with impunity in his own house without being questioned or frowned upon, that always came with a caveat: downstairs, the butler was King. While he hadn’t been born to rank or title, Rogers ruled his domain with as much authority as any monarch, and somehow, though I wasn’t sure how, that authority comfortably extended over any members of the family who might stray down here.
“I was just…” I couldn’t help thinking that I ought to be able to say ‘none of your business’ and leave it at that, but I just couldn’t. “Looking for something,” I finished lamely.
“Are you not satisfied with Margo?”
The new maid’s name was apparently Margo.
“Oh, no. I mean, yes. She’s very good.” In my desire to throw Rogers off the scent, I became slightly too effusive. “Absolutely fabulous girl. She has completely satisfied me.”