~Nadia~
Thoughts about him caused the familiar tingling sensation all over my body. I went into my bedroom and plopped on my bed. My body was aching with need like I had never known before. I rubbed my happy button thinking about his erection. He told me that I turned him on. That got my juices flowing. I rubbed harder and faster, imagining his tongue running over it.
"Nadia?!"
Ugh! My mother was looking for me.
"I'm here!"
I got up and ran to see what she wanted.
"It's almost dinner time for the royals. Why aren't you in the kitchen?"
I told the head chef how passionate I felt about cooking and she gave me an opportunity to watch her cook and help her out with preparing sauces sometimes. But most other responsibilities that she gave me were useless to me. Take coffee to the Prince's bedroom, serve dinner, and wait at the dining table, blah blah blah that I didn't care about. It paid me good money though.
Ian never noticed me before and so it wasn't a problem standing at the dining table and while the rich folks pretended that I didn't exist. But today was going to be different. He just ate me less than an hour back. And it will be awkward standing near him. I hoped that I didn't have to. It's his spoiled sisters and the vixen girlfriend of his who needed everything passed to them and served most of the time. I will just stand close to one of them.
And so I stood next to Jenna, his feather-bedded girlfriend who treated everyone like vermin unless they were wealthy. She moans like a whore when Ian fucks her. I hated her more for that reason, lucky bitch could probably kiss him whenever she wanted, touch him however she wanted.
"Can't you hear me?" She snapped her fingers at me.
"Sorry." I stood in an attention position waiting for her to repeat what she wanted.
"Pass that stew over."
"Absolutely."
I slightly bent over towards Ian to reach for it and once I picked the pot, Ian ran his fingers across my waist where the skin was exposed. It caused sparks to shoot up all over my body and I spilled the hot stew. And guess where it fell? Most of it on the table but a few drops on his girlfriend. She usually finds excuses to yell at people.
"You bitch! You ruined my dress."
She took off her housecoat and frilled neckband and threw them at my face.
"Get them cleaned well!"
The head servant responsible for dinner arrangements, Nancy, came running to apologize to everyone. Jenna rolled her eyes. Nancy chided me for my clumsiness and told me to go back into the kitchen.
I looked at Ian hoping to see that he touched me by accident while reaching over for something. But no! Of course, he did it purposefully. He was smirking, enjoying the drama.
This accidentally deliberate grazing and bothering happened two more times. I was afraid to yell at him the second time he did something like this the very next day. I was asked to serve drinks to all the warriors at training. I took twenty-two drinks on a tray at once, hoping not to drop them and cause an embarrassing scene.
A few men, the non-royals, always flirted with me but never did anything more than that because they know courtesans are off-limits to them unless the royalty allowed them to, on occasion. Although they were high ranking warriors in the army, they were mostly common people like me but were trained to excel. The lack of royal blood in their veins deprived them of the courtesan privilege.
Ian waited for the men to clear out and approached me. Until last week, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing his hot and sweaty body come near me to grab a drink after training. Except that, he never noticed me before. I retraced my steps when he walked toward me, his gaze never drifting from me. I was standing on the stairs, two steps above him. He was still taller than me, but I didn't feel as short.
There were three cups of water and a glass of juice left on the tray when he pinched the skin near my belly button and I almost dropped the tray. He caught it by placing his hand under the tray, his eyes never leaving mine. I expected him to mock me or say something ridiculous but he didn't. He just smirked before grabbing a drink and leaving.
The third time he messed with me turned into a disaster. Several guests arrived at the palace to collect some paintings for an upcoming art auctioning for charity. Elaborate dinner and pre-dinner arrangements were made. There were some song and dance programs happening near the garden area and everyone was seated in rows and round tables watching and socializing. I was told to present some keepsakes, which were homemade wrapped candy and random paraphernalia, to the guests.
Ian was seated in a row with some other men on either side. I walked between the rows to hand them items. I skipped him because he obviously doesn't need a keepsake, it was his party. He stopped me by putting his leg in my way which I didn't see until it was too late. He caught me into his arms and pulled me to his lap as I was about to fall, and the items in the tray and the tray went flying.
Not only did I create a mess and cause embarrassment to the hosts, but I fell into his arms which was not taken lightly by his mother or the head servant of the house. I had to hear a lot of nasty words about how I threw myself at the most eligible bachelor and what not.
I couldn't dare to throw an accusatory look at Ian because most of his family members were staring at me. I was taught to always accept fault even if one of the royals deliberately caused trouble. It was etiquette 101 for poor people who lived on the palace grounds. This public bashing almost made me cry.
I waited for the party to get over so that I could confront Ian and ask him to fucking stop making my life miserable. It felt like he was punishing me for disobeying him. I was coming across as an incompetent klutz, and oh, after tonight probably a sleazy scheming gold digger too.
I stopped him from going upstairs and confronted him.
"You think too much about yourself Nadia. Do you think people take time to look at you and form an opinion about you? No one knows that you exist. They just know you as 'some servant girl'. They won't know even if you told them that it was you who fucked up every day in a row."
I pushed him angrily and said, "I didn't fuck up! You made me look like I did."
"You look really cute when you get mad. But that doesn't mean that you are allowed to talk to me in that tone."
He scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder to carry me upstairs.
"Put me down! I am sorry I forgot!"
"I warned you."
"I am sorry, please. It won't happen again."
"Yeah after I punish you, it won't happen again obviously."
I punched him in the back and whacked him on the shoulders asking to put me down.
"If you don't stop, I will make you pay for every blow." He said in a warning tone.
Nine months later(Mountbatten, September 30, 1836) ~Nadia~"Sorry, I can't help being rough with you today," he said, gripping my hips tighter."Me neither!" I bit into the skin near his collarbone and sucked on the side of his neck.We were dying to be alone and as loud as we wanted for almost a week now. He pushed me up against the wall, capturing my lips in a passionate kiss and moving his hands under my blouse.A sharp, angry cry resonated throughout the entire home."Oh, that little brat!!"Ian made a sulky face as he went to check on Leo, and I followed him laughing. Leo stopped crying as soon as I rubbed his chin with my finger. Just like Ian, he wanted me to brush his hair with my fingers.Ian admired his sleeping little daughter. Oh yes, we had twins, Mabel and Leo."Look at my angel, sleeping so peacefully, allowing us some quality time. Such a sweet darling."He moved the tiny ringlets of hair off her forehead and leaned down to kiss her face."Caramel skin and hair as bla
~Nadia~"Do you have any idea the kind of hell you put Seb through?"What was she talking about? She had a wedding ring on and a baby bump, probably in her second trimester."You can write such articulate letters to strangers with pen names but don't have the guts to confront the father of your child? So what if he rejects you? At least you would have tried. You deprived him of seeing the baby grow inside you and the satisfaction of being there for you. You made all decisions for the three of you.""I saw him with you at the ball. You were all over him as always." I couldn't remove the bitterness out of my voice."I love him, and there was no sign of you anywhere for months. You can't expect me to be a saint and sacrifice him for you. You should have confronted him, fought with him, and claimed him back if you really wanted him that bad. You ran like a little kid, making him dig into the entire Prussian spy network and operations."I w
~Ian~I reached Ivaris Central in no time, and the first thing I noticed was a large group of people surrounding something and a lot of commotion. I pushed my way through to find that Andrew was beaten to a pulp and my men were in a heated argument with a handful of commoners."What's going on here?" I helped Andrew off the floor and asked him."That woman in the barracks, she's Noah's accomplice.""Which woman?""She's pregnant now. She ran after him while we were chasing him. I tried to stop her, but she concocted some cock and bull story and got me beaten.""Where is she now? Did you hurt her?""She ran after him, that way." He pointed to the tracks."I saw her get into the train that left just twenty minutes back." Another one of my men told me.I went to the ticket counter to ask which train she might have taken. Only two trains left in the last thirty minutes, one going to Arcadia and the other to Krems
~Nadia~I needed to go as far away from Ian as possible. I feel disgusted by him to the core. Once a playboy, always a playboy. Such a fool I was to wait for him, hoping he would come one day.Where was the map that grandpa uses? I needed to get out of Ivaris and go somewhere up north. I changed into more comfortable clothes and packed some food and clothes as quickly as possible.Poor Andreas, I wrote an apology note for him as well and another note for grandparents and Giselle. I left part of my earnings along with the letter, hoping that Andreas continues to send them my allowance, at least for Giselle's sake.I ripped the letter meant for Ian into a thousand pieces and left home. The train station was in Ivaris Central, which was only a mile away by the shortcut grandpa showed me. There was a long line of people at the ticket station because of the rush hour.As I stood in the line and marveled at the granite facades lit with giant lanter
~Ian~"Seb, did you like it?"I forgot what Caty wanted me to try. She put her hand on my back."It's good," I lied."I knew it!"Every time she laid even a finger on me, I could hear Nadia yelling at me. I can't forget that night she got drunk and ran onto the street because I hurt her. Even though she left me, I still felt loyal to her.I gently slid Caty's hand off of me, but she wrapped her other arm around me."Won't you dance with me?" She whispered in my ear."Maybe after we eat dinner. I'm not in the mood right now."I turned around to eat one more of what Nadia loved. I would give everything I had to get that night back when she was in my room, talking about baking and why she loved plum jam turnovers so much.Those large brown eyes staring into mine every time she lifted her head up after burying her face into my chest. Knowing enough about her now, I know why she did that back then. She was feelin
~Nadia~Putting Giselle to sleep was a daunting task today. Her snuffles didn't stop long after she closed her eyes. I pushed all thoughts of Noah away until she was off to bed, but now that I was the only one awake in the house, I went into Noah's room and burned those two letters addressed to Johann Barnekow.Was that really Noah under the streetlight today? Did he escape from the prison and come to see Giselle? Why would he not come home unless he was a fugitive on the run?I don't want to side with a spy, no matter how good he is to me. Do I want to deprive Giselle of her papa though? Certainly not. I have to do my part so he's able to come back to Giselle one day, sooner than later.I guess he would have talked to me and his daughter today if Andreas wasn't with us. He was always there when I was low. Why couldn't he be the simple, honest man I thought he was?What if Ian never came for me because of Noah? If he was in the prison as some Barne