5. Reprieve Before the Storm

Rosie let out a childish laugh as she splashed water onto Rebecca.

Shocked, Rebecca didn’t even fight as Rosie tackled her into the water like they were childhood best friends.

“Roseanne!”

Rosie stopped trying to pull Rebecca into the water when her named was shouted, but she didn’t let Rebecca go at all.

“What?”

Rosie looked upward and Rebecca did the same. Yasmine was standing at the edge of the bath with her hands on her hips. There was something in her hand—soap?

“Did Rebecca say she wanted to play?”

Rosie blinked like she’d never heard of such a concept. She looked from Yasmine to Rebecca and then back again. “No?”

“Then let go of her please. She just came from a long travel and she doesn’t need you trying to drown her.”

Rosie pouted. “I wasn’t trying to do that.”

Even still, she let go of Rebecca. It was Rebecca who was the one that put a few feet of distance between them.

Yasmine held out a bottle. It was a generic plastic that didn’t at all match the aesthetic of the rest of the room and bathhouse. “We each have our own. The next time the merchants come through you can pick one, but for now you can borrow mine.”

Rebecca took it with a smile. “Thank you.”

Yasmine nodded. “The other girls will be here shortly. They went out to celebrate Penelope’s birthday.”

Rebecca’s brows rose as she took the soap bottle. “We’re permitted to leave?”

Rosie had flipped on her back and floated beside Rebecca. “Sometimes. Penelope, Nina, and Camrin have certain privileges that the rest of us don’t.”

Rebecca’s brows furrowed. “Why?”

Yasmine sat down by the pool. Rosie looked over at her like she was asking for permission. There was also something like sympathy in her eyes when she looked at the other woman.

Yasmine’s eyes adverted to the bubbly water. She ran her fingers through it, wading them back and forth delicately.

“They each have a child with Syrus.”

Rebecca had never heard the name Syrus before, but she already knew who she was referring to. The King of Crows. And the way she said his name seemed to hint that there was history between the two of them.

She’d said his name softly like she were whispering to a dear lover, not someone who was taking advantage of her position.

Rosie cleared her throat. “We see them from time to time. The children. Syrus keeps them away up North, far away from the populated areas.”

Yasmine nodded. “He’s a good father.”

A deep silence settled over them. It was heavy and Rebecca didn’t know how to recover from it. However, it was Rosie who pierced the balloon of awkwardness.

“I can’t wait for when the merchant comes again! We can all go shopping!”

Her excitement was a little too much for Rebecca, but she found a smile anyway. She hoped these nervous jitters would go away soon. She hated feeling this way. She wanted to be in control of herself again.

She popped the cap of the bottle and poured some soap in her hands. She listened to Yasmine and Rosie chat about the merchant and what they wanted to find when he came through. Though her senses were still on high alert, she slowly started to become more comfortable around the two. It was much easier to calm down when she wasn’t the center of their attention. She liked being in the background for the most part. She would have rather bathed in a more private area, but she was making do.

As she washed her hair and body, Yasmine and Rosie’s conversation died off with Rosie going quiet while floating on her back and Yasmine standing up from the bath’s edge.

She left and came back with a fluffy towel.

Rebecca wrung her hair out and climbed out of the bath. She took the towel with a soft “thank you” and dried off.

She shook her hair out with the cloth that felt like a cloud against her body. Yasmine watched her with a thinking face. She paused.

“What is it?”

Yasmine smiled. “Oh nothing really. Your hair is quite long. A hair cut might liven it.”

Rebecca twisted her hair up in the towel. “I—uh—rather not.”

“We can discuss it later. First, we should find you something suitable to wear. Inside the bedroom, we’re to wear our body jewelry, but outside we’re to wear clothes.”

Rebecca bit the inside of her cheek. She managed to stop herself from speaking her mind. Wearing clothes outside was quite normal to the rest of the world. Being forced to wear the ridiculous body jewelry even in the bedroom was barbaric.

She heard the splash of water and then Rosie climbing out of the bath as well. She padded across the floor to a cupboard of towels. She wasn’t at all shy about her nakedness. Rebecca supposed none of these women were since they were around each other for so long. She wondered how long and for how long each of them had been trapped here.

She was the most curious about Yasmine. She wasn’t old but she was older than Rosie and Layla. If she had to guess, she’d say Yasmine was around the same age as King Syrus.

Yasmine lead her back to the bedroom and through a door that was close by. She flicked on the light and the smaller room lit up. However, it wasn’t another room. It was a closet.

The walls were lined with clothes and shoes. The clothes were sectioned off which she assumed were each of the girl’s own private collection. Again, the fabrics were the most beautiful she’d ever seen in her life. In her small town, even the families that did well didn’t have access to these kinds of things. Of course the King of these territories would salvage and keep all of the fine things that were left of the old world.

Yasmine picked something off the rack and held it up to Rebecca’s chest.

“Hm. You’re much slimmer…” She took the almost shear dress back.

Rebecca let out a sigh of relief. She did not want to be walking around in something that was so revealing. It was almost worse than just walking around naked. The revealing clothes almost screamed “look at me!”. Though, that made sense if their jobs were to satisfy the King’s sexual urges.

Yasmine moved further down and plucked another garment from the rack. She held it once more to Rebecca’s chest.

“Here, try this on.”

Rebecca took the dress into her hands. It was a pale blue dress with two layers. The first layer seemed to be a normal dress that stopped above her thigh and was sleeveless. The second layer was more of that shear fabric. It went all the way down to the floor and covered her arms and her neck. She’d be covered, but the shear fabric wouldn’t leave much to the imagination.

It took her a long while to snap out of the haziness that had befallen her. She blinked a couple times before she looked up to find Yasmine watching her. She was waiting, almost like she expected Rebecca to refuse, but Rebecca didn’t do that. She swallowed what pride she had and slipped the dress over her head.

The inside fabric was soft and comfortable. It was fitted to her skin, tight but not too tight. Not suffocating. The outside fabric was strange. It cinched at her wrists and neck. Again, it wasn’t too tight, but it felt strange because the other parts of the outside fabric barely grazed her skin.

It was nice now that she thought about it. The warmth of the room made it so that the shear fabric didn’t leave her cold.

She felt…she felt oddly worth something. Though that was a funny thought to have when she was being dressed for a man’s entertainment.

She remembered once more the King’s harsh words. She wouldn’t so much be entertainment or even eye-candy for him. She’d be more like a joke. Something to gawk at. Her stomach twisted with the awful imagination of what he might do to her.

She wasn’t like these other women. Some of them even bore his children so he must have thought they were worth more if they were treated slightly better. She was on the bottom pole. She wasn’t even a hole for him to fuck like he’d mentioned.

She wasn’t anything.

“What’s wrong? Do you not like it?” Yasmine came to Rebecca’s aid like there was something she could do to fix this situation.

She didn’t dare cry. Those tears were long gone. Months ago she would have crawled to a corner and pleaded for death to come take her away. Now, she shouldered this pain. She then shoved it down where she couldn’t feel it at all. But in doing so, she cut off all of her emotions became an unfeeling husk.

She rapidly shook her head. “No. I-It’s…beautiful.”

The unspoken words were heavy in the small space between them. Her shoulders sagged.

Yasmine placed her hands on Rebecca’s shoulders. “There’s something else isn’t there? Something besides the fact that you ended up here?”

Rebecca didn’t know if it was wise to nod or not. She didn’t want to speak of her past. She didn’t want anyone to know where she’d come from or why she was here. In time, it would come to light, but she wanted that to be when the King was on his knees pleading for his life to her not the other way around.

Yasmine’s gentle hands on her shoulders was peaceful. It grounded her in a way that she hadn’t felt since her family was torn from her.

Yasmine lowered her head to see Rebecca’s face more clearly. “No one will force you to tell your story. All of the girls have the freedom to keep their past life a secret, including you. But if for any reason you want to talk to me, you can.”

Rebecca’s eyes widened at the heartfelt statement. In a world that was so selfish, she couldn’t understand why a complete stranger would care so much about her.

“Why are you being so kind?” She asked, her voice not above a whisper.

“Because I’ve been in your shoes. I know how horrible it can be and I know how bad it will get.” She frowned. “I won’t sugar-coat this. Syrus may treat his girls better than a slave or a common whore, but he will never love us. He might love the children borne by the other girls and respect the mothers of his children, but he doesn’t love us. Do you understand?”

Rebecca almost wanted to scoff. She didn’t though. She couldn’t do that in the face of someone who had shown nothing but kindness to her so far. It didn’t matter that she was in a shitty situation and that she wanted to act out accordingly. She wouldn’t pull those around her down.

However, she wanted to defend herself and say that she had no intention of ever falling in love with that disgusting man. She couldn’t even fathom such a thing being possible. That man was unlovable and he didn’t deserve any kind of love or kindness.

She also couldn’t comprehend how someone could find themselves falling in love while be kept here essentially against their will. She wasn’t going to be one of those slaves who got Stockholm syndrome.

She swallowed her pride and the words on the tip of her tongue. “Yes, I understand.”

Yasmine straightened up, something in her eyes that made Rebecca nervous. “Good. We don’t have much time before lunch.”

She turned off the closet light and walked out to the bedroom. Rebecca trailed after her. The swishing of the dress around her feet was strange. She looked down at the fabric wondering if it was going to get dirty, but the castle seemed to be very clean considering everything.

“Is something happening at lunch?” Her stomach twisted in nervousness.

“It’s your first meal with Syrus. I assume he didn’t…touch you when you arrived, but his ravenous lust usually gets the best of him.”

Yasmine walked to the bed opposite of the one that was Layla’s.

Rebecca stuttered to a stop. Her face went white as a sheet.

“He’s going to—” She shook her head with a dark laugh. “That’s not going to happen. Not only will I not let him, but you’re mistaken about his attitude toward me.”

Yasmine had grabbed a purple case from beneath what must have been her bed. She cocked her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Rebecca flopped onto the bed. “He was very clear that he had no interest in me. Not only did he say that I was ugly, but he also said that he’d have to turn me over if he were to—”

Her voice lowered to a whisper. “—fuck me.”

Yasmine slammed the case onto the bed so hard it made Rebecca jump.

“That bastard!”

The look upon the woman’s face was so harsh that it scared Rebecca. It was a look that didn’t belong and truly meant that she was pissed.

Rebecca started to get up. Yasmine placed her hand on Rebeccas arm.

“No, stay. I’m sorry.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She opened the case, revealing makeup.

“Syrus can be a real asshole sometimes. Whatever he said last night, dismiss it. He has a lot going on right now.” She chewed her bottom lip as she picked out eyeshadow and lipstick.

Again, Rebecca thought she was intentionally leaving something out.

But Rebecca didn’t ask, knowing that she wouldn’t get the truth even if she persisted.