I grasped my rounded stomach.
“If you absolutely have to speak, you are allowed one question: Sir, how may I please you?”
Servants were allowed one question to ask the Crownes…
My uncle had told me to swallow my indignity.
Maybe that was the problem.
Maybe I’d become used to it.
“Did you hear me?”
I blinked out of the memory, and nodded.
“You will learn all things necessary to be a member of high society and blend in among the du Lac world. You will be the perfect companion, seen and not heard. There is one cardinal rule for you to remember: the mistress comes second.”
I covered my body, hands to my shoulders in a crisscross. “What happens if I break these rules?”
There was a pause. The girls in front of me gave me a desperate, pleading look like seriously?
Thwack.
Madame slammed the ruler down on my knuckles.
“Do not speak unless spoken to. The only person you will be allowed to speak without question to is your girl. You may only discuss with her matters of dress, as she will help you be appropriately attired.”
I rubbed my sore knuckles. Fucking catholic school nun wannabe.
“You will be appropriately rewarded, and expected to uphold your end of the bargain. You can pick two items to cross off.” She held out her hand, and the blonde scrambled out of the room, returning moments later to place a clipboard in Madame’s hand. Madame gave it to me.
I glanced at it—a list.
Anal. Fisting. Anal fis—
I reeled. “W-what the hell is this?”
I braced for another hit, and sure enough it came.
Thwack.
Right between the shoulder blades again.
She stared back at me, stone-faced. “What do you think a mistress does, Miss Hale? You can pick two things to say no to.”
I opened my mouth to object, but paused at the gleam in her eyes.
I stared at the list, it must have a thousand items on it.
Once upon a time, Grayson had demanded a contract of me. This is what I’d feared then…this is what I’d imagined in the dark recesses of my mind.
Except…Grayson was always the exception to the rule.
He gave me a safe word so I could be safe. He never took what I wasn’t prepared to give. In the end, the most dangerous item on the list was love.
“You will learn everything, Storybook,” she continued. “Everything required to be the perfect companion to Mr. du Lac.”
“So like a corrupt, fucked-up Emily Post training,” I muttered. “Cool.”