“Bath is through there.” He pointed.
She took a peek inside. The shower was as big as her entire apartment bathroom. “Three showerheads?” she asked.
“One for water, one for cleanser, one for moisturizing,” he explained.
“Okay…” She pictured herself going through a car wash.
“Your clothes have already been put away in the wardrobe.”
She wasn’t sure how she felt about servants handling her stuff. Not that she had anything to hide, but it was weird to be tended to. To have servants.
He opened a panel to reveal her clothing, neat and forlorn in the ginormous space. She’d worried she’d overpacked, but the closet made it look like she’d brought hardly anything.
“Good,” she said, at a loss for words. “What’s next?”
“Dining room. Lunch.” He shut the panel and left the bedroom, stepping into the outside hall. He pointed to a door at the end. “That leads to the servants’ quarters.”
“For the entire palace or just yours?”
“Just mine.”
“How many servants do you have?” She walked beside him.
“Four. Two housekeepers, a valet who helps me dress, and a butler who serves the meals I order from the palace kitchen and does a myriad of other tasks for me. I couldn’t get along without him.”
After what she’d observed so far, she imagined there were many tasks requiring the attention of a personal butler. And, for the size of his unit, two housekeepers seemed a little light. But a valet? “You get help getting dressed?”
“You think I’m a pampered little prince unable to do things for himself?”
“Uh, no, of course not!” Her face flamed.
“I’m teasing.” A devastating grin transformed his face from handsome to knockout gorgeous.He is so out of my league.And not because of his looks—although a man as handsome as him would never pick a woman of average looks whose smile was slightly right of center—but because he was a crown prince and loaded. She was a penniless nobody. The class and culture differences seemed as vast as the universe.
“I do dress myself—it is one of my skills—except for ceremonial occasions, which require intricate special dress. I do need help with that.”
The dining room shouldn’t have surprised her, except it did. A golden etched ceiling curved over a long table with seating forfourteen. Clear stones sparkled like diamonds in the floating chandeliers. Two place settings had been arranged, one at each end of the enormous table. “This isn’t the main dining hall, right?” she asked.
“No, this is my private one,” he replied.
Of course it is.
A uniformed alien stood at attention next to a trolley. The butler. she presumed.
“Good afternoon, Your Highness,” he said.
“Good afternoon, Lewen,” Jaryk said. “May I introduce my wife, Kismet Kennedy of Earth.”
Had the butler known of the marriage? He didn’t even blink an eye. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Kismet Kennedy.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.”
“I am here to serve you. Should you need anything, do not hesitate to call upon me.”
She couldn’t imagine what that would be. She didn’t need anything—and yet needed everything. She was a stranger in a strange land. “Thank you.”
Lewen pulled out her chair—a heavy gilded throne with ornate arms—before seating Jaryk at the other end of the table. Then he served the meal to the prince before traveling the length of the long table to serve her.
Savory aromas wafted up from the food. She hadn’t been at the palace long enough to have eaten many meals, but the food she’d tried had been delicious. Every meal was chef’s surprise. Nothing resembled anything she’d eaten on Earth.
