“This is Maddox, your valet,” Danika said when she entered the room assigned to me.
“Lord Andino,” Maddox said and inclined his head toward.
“Call me Lucas, please,” I replied.
Frankie had also been assigned a lady’s maid, and it made me smile to imagine how she would interact with the woman.
“The king would like to meet with you as soon as possible,” Danika said, “but he also understands it has been a lengthy journey and you will probably wish to freshen up. I’ll come back for you in an hour. I will also have some food sent up from the kitchens immediately.”
“Thank you, Danika,” I said to her.
She nodded once and then left, leaving me alone with Maddox.
“Would you like a shower?” Maddox asked.
“Yes,” I replied with relief. “That would be wonderful. Um, my luggage?”
“It will be here by the time you have finished showering,” Maddox said briskly.
I nodded and followed him to the bathroom. The suite they assigned me was large and surprisingly comfortably furnished. There was a sitting room with large glass doors leading out onto a stone balcony. The view was breathtaking, and I longed to linger awhile and take it all in. I had hazy memories of living on Kalopsia, but they were a child’s memories and hadn’t registered the beauty we’d been privileged to live with.
Maddox led me through the master bedroom, complete with king-size bed and lush furnishings. The ensuite bathroom was all in stone and slate. The walls were the stone of the castle walls and slate tiles covered the floor. There was a massive free-standing tub and a walk-in shower with a rain fall shower head and what looked to be a waterfall.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Maddox said. “There are toiletries in the vanity and towels in the cubby.”
“Thank you,” I said, barely waiting for him to leave before I began stripping off my clothes.
I stepped into the shower and groaned as the soft, warm rain fell over me. I let my body relax and breathed in the steam, keeping my eyes closed and just letting the shower minister to me. Once I felt more human, I became curious and explored the room with first my eyes and then my hands as I discovered that within the shower there was a sliding partition. I slid it open to reveal a window. A full-length window in the shower cubicle that looked directly out to the Aegean Sea.
It was glorious.
There was no fear of anyone seeing in and it was incredibly exhilarating to stand on the very precipice of a cliff in nothing but my birthday suit with the world laid out below me.
I luxuriated in the shower as long as I thought appropriate. The king was waiting for me and I was starving. Hopefully, there would be food and clean clothes waiting for me.
The towels were thick and soft and there was a charcoal gray robe waiting for me to slip into. I padded out of the bathroom to find an outfit pressed and laid out on the bed for me. I didn’t dress straight away. I wanted to eat first and knowing my luck, I would soil my clean clothes with whatever food had been prepared.
Maddox had set up a table on the balcony and I smelled the coffee before I noticed the food. There was a charcuterie board filled to overflowing with cheeses and meats and fruit, and then another platter piled high with pastries. My stomach growled as I sat and reached for my coffee, not even caring that there was no tea.
“Lucas? Is that you?”
I frowned and looked to the side of the balcony where I could just see the top of Frankie’s head above the stone partition.
“Yes, I’m here,” I replied. “What are you doing?”
“Eating,” she said, and it sounded like she had a mouthful of food.
I chuckled. “Me too,” I replied.
“Do you think we could eat together?” Frankie asked.
“I don’t see why not,” I replied. “Do you want me to come to you?”
I’d barely gotten the words out of my mouth when a passageway opened in the stone and Frankie stood in a matching robe grinning at me.
“Ta da!” she said, striking a pose.
Chapter 11
Lucas
“Do I curtsey?” Frankie hissed at me as we waited to be announced.
“It is customary,” I whispered in reply.
“Crap. I don’t know how to.”
I turned to look at her with my eyebrows raised. “My mother didn’t teach you when she was filling your head with all that other nonsense?”
“Oh, no, she did. I’m just not very good at it.”
I rolled my eyes and grinned.
Frankie backhanded my shoulder. “Don’t you dare laugh at me,” she growled.
“I’m not laughing at you,” I said, turning to her. I cupped her face and made her look me in the eyes. “You’ll be fine. From everything I know about the king, he’s not into all the traditional protocols. Just do the best you can and do it with confidence.”
“Ha,” she barked, but smiled up at me. “You’re the one telling me to be confident? Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?”
I smiled and let her go. Best friend. Yeah, she was my best friend. I needed to remember that.
“Okay,” she said with an exhale. “I can do this.”
“Of course you can,” I said without looking at her. “You can do anything.”
The double doors opened and a deep voice spoke, “Lord Lucas Andino, Markissios of Kourouka and his fiancée, Francesca Davenport of Boston.”
I stepped forward and bowed. Frankie wobbled into a curtsey beside me and I bit down on my lip to stop myself from smiling. This was not the time to embarrass myself by laughing, although I was glad Frankie was here with me for this first meeting. She was enough of a distraction to keep me from becoming too anxious.
When I rose, the king was looking at me with an unreadable gaze. He was blond, not what I was expecting, and the woman beside him, the queen I surmised, had red hair and a sparkle in her eyes I recognized. Frankie quite often wore that same expression and I knew she and the queen would become fast friends.
“Lord Andino and Ms. Davenport,” the king said. “It is good to finally meet you. May I introduce my wife, Queen Meredith.”
The queen nodded in my direction and I bowed once more while Frankie valiantly tried to curtsey again.
“Please,” the queen said. “Let’s not stand on formalities. Neither Jamie nor I require you to bow and curtsey to us.”
The king looked at his wife with a raised eyebrow and she shrugged. “What? It’s the truth.”
The king sighed and smiled. “My wife is right. We don’t prescribe to the traditions, at least not within the walls of the palace and definitely not with the members of the royal court.”
“Of course,” I replied, my voice rough with nerves.
“Thank God,” Frankie murmured under her breath beside me.
“This is the rest of the court,” the king went on, nodding toward four other people standing nearby. “This is Lord Dorian Stamos, Ducas of Paralia, Lady Sophia Dellis, Archontissa of Kalon, Lord Evan Anastas, Komis of Alethio, and Lady Elena Manolis, Varoni of Lethe.”
There were too many names and titles to remember them all at once. I would get to know them during the time I was here, but I felt the anxiety press in on me at not being able to keep everyone’s names and titles straight.