Alicia refuses

With a small shake of her head, Alicia stepped back.

'I - I would rather not, milady,’ she said quietly. Elena frowned, the beginnings of anger pricking at her playfulness.

‘You refuse my request?’ she asked, taking the girl’s arm and pulling her to the corner of the room. It was embarrassing to be refused in front of the messenger. She stared at Alicia in disbelief. Her maid looked miserable.

‘I am sorry, milady,’ she stammered, ‘but I promised Pierre – the boy you saw me with’ she explained at Elena’s look of confusion, ‘– that I would only be with him from now on. I know you are my mistress and I should do what you ask, but – he wants to marry me. And I really like him.’ Elena grinned.

‘I could tell that from the way you moaned,’ she said. It seems the maid had made the decision for her. She had no wish to **** Alicia to do something that she had promised not to. Besides, she had been itching to try these things out for herself, hadn’t she?

At a noise from the other side of the room, the two women turned back to the messenger. He looked flushed.

‘I think I may have overstayed my welcome,’ he said, bowing low and taking his hat from where he had laid it on the table. ‘I should - ’

‘Not at all,’ Elena said smoothly, stepping towards the window. ‘I wouldn’t dream of letting you go out into this weather.’ She closed the shutter quickly before he noticed the absence of rain. ‘You must stay until it stops. I have questions I would like to ask you about the cities in which I may establish my home.’ She stepped closer and put a hand upon his arm, looking up at him demurely through her fringe.

‘I am so ignorant of the world,’ she told him, ‘I would really appreciate some advice. Alicia,’ she said to her maid stood in the doorway.

‘You are dismissed. Please ensure we are not disturbed.’