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

Our time together after that revelation took a stranger, more treasonous turn. I would slip into the castle nearly every night to visit with Minerva. We would chat, kiss, enjoy whatever snacks I had brought, kiss again, kiss some more, do all the things that came naturally after kissing, and then plot the assassination of her entire family.


We had several distinct advantages. For starters, we could move about the castle virtually undetected, thanks to the secret passages of the boy king. In addition, people were already disregarding Minerva. With a few carefully seeded rumors, we were able to build a reputation that would fully discredit any accusations of murder or conspiracy.


The king was seldom alone; he walked with an armed escort of guards and slept at night in what I started referring to as 'a pile of concubines.' And even if we could catch him alone, he was still an Andan noble, and therefore one of the most dangerous people in the world.


Chapter 32: Remembering VII