No'One wheeled around so fast, she nearly tore the dress off the worktable.
In the doorway was a massive male with blond-and-black hair. Verily, he was so big he filled the double-size jambs, but that was not the astonishing thing.
He appeared to gleam.
Then again, he was covered with gold, hoops and studs marking his ears, his eyebrows, his lips, his throat.
No'One dived for what normally covered her, and he stood calmly as she girded herself with the robe.
"Better?" he said softly.
"Who are you. "
Her heart beat so fast that the three words came out in a rush. She wasn't good with males in enclosed spaces, and this was very enclosed, and he was very male.
"I'm a friend of yours. "
"Then why have I yet to make your acquaintance. "
"Some people would say you're lucky to have been spared," he muttered. "And you've seen me at meals. "
She supposed she had. She typically kept her head down and her eyes on her plate, but yes, in the periphery, he had been there.
"You're very beautiful," he said.
There were two things that kept her from completely panicking: First, there was no speculation in that deep voice of his, no masculine heat, nothing that made her feel preyed upon; and second, he had shifted his position so he was lounging back against the jamb - leaving her room to bolt out if she had to.
As if he knew what made her nervous.
"I've been giving you some time to settle in and get your bearings," he murmured.
"Why would you have cause to do that. "
"Because you're here for a very important reason, and I'm going to help you. "
The male's bright white, pupil-less eyes held hers, even though her face was in shadow. . . as though he were not merely looking at her, but into her.
She took a step back. "You do not know me. "
At least that was a truth so solid she could plant her feet on it: Even if whoever this was was familiar with her parents, her family, her lineage, he did not know her. She was not who she had once been: the abduction, the birth, her death had wiped that slate clean.
Or had broken it to pieces, more accurately.
"I know that you can help me," he said. "How about that. "
"Are you looking for a maid?"
Hard to imagine, given the number of staff in this household - but that was beside the point. She didn't want to serve a male in any kind of intimate way.
"No. " Now he smiled, and she had to admit he looked a little. . . kind. "You know, your default doesn't have to be servile. "
She kicked her chin up a notch. "All work is honorable. "
That was a fact that she had missed before everything had changed. Dearest Virgin Scribe, she'd been a spoiled, overpampered, entitled brat. And the shedding of those ugly, jeweled robes of self-inflation had been the only good thing that had come out of it all.
"Not maintaining to the contrary. " He tilted his head, as if he were imagining her in a different place, with different clothes. Or maybe he just had a stiff neck; who knew. "I understand you're Xhex's mom. "
"I am the female who birthed her, yes. "