"How dare he!" Lady Catalina barked at the top of her lungs.
Her anger shot to the sky at the insult she suffered from Angelus's hand. Zaya worked tirelessly to clean her up.
Lady Catalina insisted on twelve baths to remove the stench of the servants' bathing water from her skin. Her maid-in-waiting made several trips to the kitchen to fetch warm water.
She had to clear out the pool after every bath and start all over again. She'd drain the dirty water, clean the pool, and run for clean water.
The kitchen maids scolded her a lot, calling her wasteful and troublesome as her arrival brought them an extra workload. They had to heat plenty of water and use up most of the milk and petals brought back from the farms to be used for the week.
All to cater to Lady Catalina's high demands and spoiled nature. Several ladies in the palace were going to have to make so with bathing in plain water as the milk and petals left in storage were reserved for the regals.
"I will have his head. Wait until I am dressed, Zaya, I am going to have a talk with the queen and get something done about that lunatic!"
Zaya winced. Her lady's temper was on the roof, and from the looks of things, she had no intentions of calming down.
"All done," Zaya released a sigh of relief when her twelfth bath was complete.
Lady Catalina stared down at her body. The image of Angelus throwing her into the servants' bathing pool flashed in her mind and stopped her from appreciating how clean she looked.
She could still smell the stench of that place, it was subconscious but that didn't stop her from becoming more unreasonable. "No, one more....no, three more baths. I still feel dirty!" she demanded.
Zaya's face lost color. The head of the kitchen maids gave her a strict warning not to return to the kitchen and there her lady was demanding another set of clean...everything.
"Lady Catalina, you already look clean. I fear another bath will dull your beauty; please, let's get you dressed and in front of the queen as soon as possible. The more time you waste here the more time that scoundrel has of running away," she invited Lady Catalina, hoping to change her mind about bathing a few more times because that would be the death of her.
Lady Catalina pondered over Zaya's words. She found sense in the wisdom her maid-in-waiting offered her. However, her stubborn mind refuses to let her leave the bathing house before a few more baths.
Her insecurities came alive. 'You'll smell in front of the queen and end up a mockery of the ton. People will gossip and the reputation will stick with you for the rest of your life. What decent man of the ton will want to marry a smelly woman, even one as pretty as you?' her thought ran loose like a wildfire and kept her glued in the bathing house.
"After another bath, Zaya. Fetch me some clean water and call me..."
"My lady," Zaya fell to her knees and laid her head on Catalina's feet. "Please...be satisfied with the ones you got. If I go back to the kitchen for more, those maids will have my head," she added.
"Meaning?"
"My lady, even at the Duke's house you don't have the luxury of taking twelve milk baths in a row. This might be the palace and luxuries are endless but understand the people enjoying those luxuries are many too. The resources can't be wasted on one person, especially in this mating season when all the ladies and gents of Werthingham have come to stay at the palace. Please, don't insist."
Lady Catalina pouted. She wasn't used to being denied what her heart desired. Her father, the duke, had made many contributions to the kingdom and aided in raising the Rathmore name over the years; she didn't see why the people of the palace couldn't spare resources to please her needs.
"Go and tell them that Lady Catalina Wigan needs more water, milk, and a different set of petals for another bath!"
"My lady, I fear you'll get us both in trouble if you do this."
"Are you going to go or should I?" Catalina asked, changing into a light see-through purple waiting robe. "I won't get dressed until I get another bath, Zaya. Either you go or I will!"
Zaya was at a loss for what to do. Lady Catalina was beyond unreasonable and refused to back down. Only she knew the things she endured going back at forth to the kitchen.
Seeing her hesitation, Catalina's anger flared up. Forgetting herself, she stormed out of her chambers to see everything herself. "The people of Werthingham palace will have to understand that I do what I want and I always get what I want," she mumbled.
"Wait, Thalassa," a thick, husky voice sounded before someone collided with her.
"Argh," Catalina fell backward, her eyes bulging as she was about to hit the floor.
Just when she thought she was about to hit the ground. A pair of strong arms catch her.
Lady Catalina looks up at him, her heart hammering in her chest. No man had ever held her so intimately and all she had on was a light see-through robe that gave away all of her underneath. She swallowed...hard.
The handsome emerald-eyed man didn't move an inch. Holding her fragile frame in his long masc hands without breaking a sweat.
"Where are you going wearing so little, little lady?" he asked, his eyes boldly running up and down Catalina's body.
"Shameless!" Catalina scolded, pouting again.
The man smirks and helps her to her feet; his arm never leaves her, even when she's stable. He stayed put, watching her watch him.
"I am shameless. Now, before you encounter more eyes like mine, I would advise you to return to your chambers and get dressed properly," he shielded her frame with his and walked forward, forcing Catalina to back away until they reached her door.
He raised his arm, his biceps flexing as he moved and pushed open the door. "Don't come out so poorly dressed, dear, the palace isn't a safe place for a tiny rabbit such as yourself," he said, taking one last look from her head to toe before pushing her inside and closing the door.
His words dawned on Catalina after he left and it made her extremely angry. "Who are you calling a tiny rabbit?" she touched the doorknob with the intention of going out and confronting the man but remembered her robe and pushed away the idea. "I will deal with you another time," she went inside. "Zaya, get me dressed," her encounter with the stranger made her lose interest in doing anything but getting dressed.
'I can't believe he saw me like this. If anyone came to know, we'd be forced to marry!' she thought, Catalina shivered because when the idea struck her mind, she didn't find any displeasure in her body.
The fact that a piece of her would entertain the thought of marrying a stranger baffled her.
'He could be a bad person, a monster in the guise of a handsome gentleman. Worse, he could be one of those lost men who can't keep to one woman,' she shuddered at the thought. Surprisingly, she wasn't repelled by her weird thoughts at all.
Thinking back to his deep emerald eyes running up and down her body, her skin started heating up. She turned red like a tomato.
The first time a man gazed at her innocence, it was random and with a complete stranger. Lady Catalina would never have imagined that her anger would lead her down that road.
"My lady, are you coming down with something?" Zaya inquired, touching her forehead to test her temperature.
"Why?"
"Your face is so red. Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?"
"No, I am fine," she said, the truth was far from it. She wasn't fine; lustrous ideas were coming alive in her, and strange sensations were filling her body for the first time. "Get me dressed. I have a scoundrel to punish!" she demanded, changing the topic.
'I must find out who that man was...later!' she made up her mind. His blazing touch on her skin still lingered and she needed to understand the sensations he awakened in her.