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

I crossed my room to open the door, a tirade of frustrated and exhausted excuses ready on my tongue. Instead of finding Minerva, or even Leon, as I had expected, there stood Chava with a pile of linens in her arms.


I stood aside to allow her entry and shut the door behind her. "I suppose everyone is going to call me a Lady now aren't they," I mused.


Chava nodded. "They're very excited about it," she said. "Mrs. Claire said you were 'one of our own, finally being shown the respect we deserve.' And my aunt keeps laughing at things that aren't funny, which means she's in a good mood."


It was more words than I had ever heard the girl string together. I decided to push my luck. 


"And what do you think of it?" I asked.


She thought for a moment and said, "When you have power, you can change things. You can make them better. I think--we all would like that, and I think that you can do it."


Chapter 38: Resolution and Change