Minerva batted her eyelashes at me and pushed her shoulders back. "Do I look lonely?" she said.
She looked like someone I wanted to push onto her back right then and there. Like someone I wanted to kiss until we were both dizzy. But there were things you didn't say to a princess, not when your station was so far below hers.
***
On her first day working as a maid, Eve finds the king dead on his throne. His murder kicks off a cascade of intrigue, and as the plots of the nobility come crashing down around her, Eve is torn between hungry princes, the ever-watching eyes of the royal court, and a mad princess who seems to know far more than she lets on. Complicating everything further is the Imperative, a magical curse through which the Andan nobles have bent the world to their whims. If she is to survive, Eve must learn what it means to find strength in the face of overwhelming power.
The Maid and the Monarch is created by EOK Gifford-Smith, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

The Maid and the Monarch

We traveled around the hall to dizzying new lands. I met merchants who had been to the sea and beyond, royals who owned swaths of land larger than I could comprehend. Some displayed their wealth openly, dressing in pearls and gold. Others hid it behind rehearsed manners and carefully chosen words.


One man kissed my hand and declared me to be the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. His lips were unnervingly wet. Had Leon not reminded the merchant of whose arm I was on, and in so doing chased him away, I thought I might have hit him.


Another set of women tried to occupy me in conversation for several minutes, talking about the latest fashions and gossip of the courts. All of it went above my head, and after more than half a dozen of my monosyllabic replies, they grew bored and left to find richer dialogue pastures.


Chapter 23: The Court of Whispers