They brought me to a stone room on the first floor, and upon walking inside, I was shocked. It was… how to describe it. A lake, perhaps? A small lake, but that was what I thought of—enough water for ten people to bathe in. Steam filled the room, and the warm air was instantly calming. Sniffing, I even detected lavender. On closer inspection, I noticed lavender flowers inside the bath. Just absurd.

  The maids looked at me. I wasn’t sure why or what they were thinking. Perhaps they were waiting for me to say I was okay.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “May we begin?” she asked.

  “Uhm, begin what?” I asked.

  “Bathing you,” she said.

  “What? Um. No. I can bathe myself!” I shouted.

  She tilted her head. “But you are from the third floor, we always bathe those from there?”

  “No way!” I shouted. Not even my Mom and Dad have seen me naked since I was a child! That was something special. Something you save for a lover. Or perhaps a healer, but that was different. Noble culture was weird.

  She hummed a bit. “We shall inform the lord and ask what should be done. Please wait. I would like to correct our understanding before one of us gets in trouble.”

  “Fine,” I said. Surely Christopher would understand the need for an unwed woman to hide her naked body from strangers. This had to be a thing for married nobles. It had to be.

  With a bow, she left, and I was sorely tempted to get in. The bath looked absolutely dazzling, but I didn’t want to get her in trouble. So I waited. I touched the water with my hand. So good. And the smell was delightful closer up. As absurd as this was, it also had me a bit excited.

  “Miss,” the maid said as she returned. “The lord informed us that we should be bathing you.”

  I practically fell out of my skin. “No!” I shouted. “He must have misunderstood! I will talk with him!”

  The maid sighed and excused herself. A few moments later, I came outside to see Christopher.

  “This is a mistake, right? You aren’t saying I am expected to let other people bathe me. I am not a child!”

  He rubbed his head. “No one is accusing you of being a child, but this is simply how it is done. I am not sure I understand the issue. The maids are women.”

  “You're saying you had no issues with other men seeing you naked before you were married?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  My heart sank. I tried to think of something. “You said you’d fight for my ability to relax. Right? Allow me this much!”

  He shook his head. “There is a problem with that idea. If the teacher is a woman, she will likely see you getting dressed. I have no doubt you are capable of bathing yourself. But she is going to judge your skin and how clean it is. Two weeks is such a small time to give the maids to try and improve your skin. Even one day less is likely to showcase a difference. It is the maids that shall suffer if we allow this.”

  I wanted to cry! How much more was I expected to give away!

  “Even if I allowed you one night, would that really help you? Even the best the maids can do may not save them from this person's glances. Is this something you really want to do for one night?”

  My arms just dropped, and my head slumped. “Fine.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Thank you, Julia,” he said, turning and leaving.

  Three maids came in and bowed. “Sorry, miss,” they said nearly at the same time.

  They got around me, and I realized they were trying to undress me. Fine, what did it matter anymore? It went by really quickly as they showed their skills, presumably having done this many times.

  One more piece of the life I envisioned is gone. I wasn’t allowed to marry Kevin. The king said that would never change. That even if he could do something for me, the gods had forbidden it. What did I do to deserve this! I couldn’t hold back the tears.

  I slowly stepped into the bath, but it no longer held any real value to me. I could feel the warmth, but it felt distant. Like I was encased in snow and dropped in a bath. The cold eclipsed the warmth. I kept my eyes closed and tried to drown out all but the sensation of them pulling on me. My arms, legs, and even my head. It got pulled this way and that way, and it just left me in a daze.

  Perhaps it was my fault for resisting, but this was as far as I was willing to go. No. That isn’t true. I wasn’t willing to go this far. I was forced to, so this was the best that they could expect of me.

  At some point, they began tapping on me. I realized they were done, and I stood up, opening my eyes. “May I at least get dressed by myself?”

  “But, we need to measure you?” one maid asked.

  “Can I not get dressed first?”

  She shook her head. Had I known that, I would have said no to getting measured today.

  She took a piece of string and began wrapping it around different parts of me before saying numbers to a maid near the door. I understood some of them, like my waist or my chest, though I still didn’t see why she needed my chest bare. But she took some baffling places. Like my wrist. The length from my wrist to my elbow. By the time she was done, I could not imagine one place she did not place that string against.

  “Can I get dressed now?” I asked, just wanting this awful day to end already.

  “But, we haven’t finished?” one maid said as she took out a bottle.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “It’s lotion,” she said.

  I didn’t have the energy to fight or even care anymore. I simply closed my eyes. Like with the bath, I felt their hands everywhere. First, drying me with a cloth, then applying this cold, almost honey-like solution that made me shudder. Then they began rubbing it in. At what point did I become a winter ham?

  Though even in my irritation, I couldn’t fault that it kind of felt nice, like a very soft cloth rubbing against me. I realized this had come to an end when I felt my dress being pulled over. I guess they wanted to do it before I asked to do it myself.

  When I opened my eyes, the girl held out three bottles, asking me which I liked most. One smelled of lavender, the next of something I didn’t recognize; it had a biting yet sweet scent. The last made the inside of my nose feel cold before burning. Awful. I picked the lavender, and she hit me with a light mist from that bottle. Sniffing caused me to realize that since she hit my clothes with it, I would likely smell of lavender all day now. Well, at least I liked it.

  With this done, they escorted me to my room. The maid closed the door with me inside. Then she got down on her hands and knees, overlapped her hands, and pressed her forehead against them. “I am deeply sorry for any way I displeased and failed you. Please let us know how we can provide you with a better bathing experience.”

  I clenched my fists. It wasn’t her fault, but wasn’t she a commoner? Why didn’t she understand me? Why didn’t she know what I was going through?

  “I mean, do you bathe each other?” I asked.

  She looked up. “Not here, no.”

  “Not here?” I asked.

  “Well, when the lord isn’t here, I return to my hometown. We don’t have private bathing houses. So there are usually ten women in the bath whenever I go. So we do trade off scrubbing each other’s back.”

  I felt even more deflated. Not even the commoners bathe in private? Was Hatula village the weird one? We didn’t have any baths big enough for more than one person. Instead, we had about five that could fit one person. On average, we didn’t even use them. More often, we would just wash ourselves with a tub of water and a rag.

  “I see,” I said. My stomach suddenly twisted like I got stabbed. I fell to my knees.

  “My lady,” the maid said.

  A groaning noise emerged from my stomach. I realized how weak from hunger I was. “I… think I am hungry.”

  “Right! I shall fetch something immediately. Is there something you desire specifically?”

  I just shook my head as I held my stomach. It was still cramping. I heard her footsteps as she walked away and just curled into a ball on the ground. This sucks.

  A little later, she brought some beef stew and bread. As she helped me up, I realized a certain feeling at my legs. Great. Just another addition to a horrible day. “Could I get some warm water and rags?” I asked.

  She nodded with a smile. Could this day get any worse?