Queen (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (12 page)

I shake my head at her sadly. Leave it to her to think that my currency is green.

“I’m the commodity that you need, Mrs. Whittenhower. I’m providing you a service. I’m providing the entire Whittenhower name a service. Don’t talk down to me. The only name to fall from your lips better be Miss Regal. Do I make myself clear, Mrs. Whittenhower?” I back her up to the hallway wall with just my voice.

“Miss Regal,” spits from between her firm lips as her heels clack down the tile.
Pride swells my soul and runs through my veins. A smile forms on my lips. I feel the attention of someone and I whip around to see who it is. The elder Mr. Whittenhower is looking at me strangely from the doorway to the study. It’s a mix of awe and fear.

I don’t speak to him. I home in on the
one safe place I can think to go- Whitt’s room. I can’t face Ade or Grant yet. I have no idea where my room is. I need a dose of sunshine.

I stalk the second floor looking for the door with the teddy-bear on it. I needn’t have worried. Whitt’s room is open and I can hear him humming to himself.

I settle on the bed next to him and look over his shoulder at his work.

“What do you have there,” I ask him. I don’t bother to pas
te a phony voice over my sad tone. I won’t treat him like that.

“I like to dra
w. Father doesn’t approve.” He’s so serious and formal that he sounds like he’s a grown adult.

“It’s not about him, now is it?” I look at the renderin
g of his family. I note that I’m standing with Grant while holding Whitt’s tiny hand. Adelaide is leaning into me and Priscilla’s hands are resting on Grant’s shoulders. Cora and Mr. Whittenhower are standing off to the side with another female that I’ve never met. The symmetry is not lost on me. He’s a very astute child.

“Who is this? Is she your other sister?” I tap the woman in question with my fingernail. She and Ade look just alike, but there is a hardness that Whitt captur
es perfectly.

“Katherine, she’
s my oldest sister. She just got married.” He gazes up at me with his impossibly bright, blue eyes as he speaks.

I can see
the disconnect between Whitt and his family. The twenty-year age gap must put a large strain on the family.

Whitt flips the pages on his tablet until he comes to a blank one and starts to draw again. I watch him in fascination as the pencil-lead whispers across the paper creating an
intricate design.

“I guess I’
m staying here with you for a while. Are you okay with that?” I know that his answer will not make a difference with my staying, but I’d like it better if he wanted me here.

“Father told me weeks ago that we were just waiting for you to graduate and that you would live with us after. I waited for you during Adelaide’s party thinking you would show up, but you didn’t. I finally
gave up waiting and then you showed up.” His voice is sad until he gets to the part that I’m here with him. His face brightens bringing the sunshine back.

“My mom was sick and I had to be with her
. That’s why I didn’t come. But I’m guaranteed to be here for the next five years. You’ll be ten by then.”

Wow, that really puts it in to perspective. If I manage to get pregnant immediately I will spend over four years wit
h my child. I feel sick again.

“Eleven,” h
e says quietly while he draws.

“What?”

“I’ll be eleven in five years. My birthday is next week.”

“
Are you having a party?” I say in a bright voice. It isn’t forced. I would love to see the child have a party all of his own.

“No, only the adults have parties.” He shrugs and goes about his designing.

Seeing Whitt reinforces my resolve. I will do what I must to survive here, but I will escape eventually. I can’t allow my children to live here either. I’d take Whitt with me if I could.

“Miss Regal?” A smoky voice says from the doorway. I peer up expecting to see a grown wom
an and startle. A teenage Hispanic girl looks expectantly at me.

“Yes?” I ask in question.

“I’m to show you to your room,” she says politely.

“Okay,” I stand from the b
ed and Whitt captures my hand.

“Do you want me to go with you
? I know how scary this house can be.” He looks at me like a little man full of concern. Someday he’ll be a very protective male. I smile at him. I have to do this alone.

“No, thank you though. Will you draw me something that I can put in my room?”
I squeeze his hand and smile at how the request brightens his eyes.

“I’ll try real hard to make it special.” He crawls off his bed and goes to his desk and starts to fish around in his
drawers looking for something.

“I’ll see you in the morning, Sunshine. I’d read you a story tonight, but I’ll be busy. Tomorrow- I promise.”

I know he hears me, but he’s so absorbed with what he’s looking for that he just nods his blond head at me.

I follow the girl the length of the hallway. I recognize this area from when I was
lost the last time I was here.

“Mr. Whittenhower requested tha
t your room be adjoining to his,” she says bashfully and blushes.

She opens the door t
o a large, pale gray room that’s sparsely furnished with white-washed wood furnishings. It feels cold and utilitarian and I feel at home. Grant was smart not to regale me with too much stuff. I would have felt bought and paid for.

“This door leads to Mr. Whittenhower’s room.” She points out
the door near the dresser.

My heart starts to beat out of control. He wanted easy access to me.

“He had a deadbolt installed on your side of the door and the main door to the room, too,”  she says when she notices my panicked expression.

She pulls a key from her pocket and hands it to me. I don’t doubt for a second that there are several copies held by people in this household. I appreciate the gesture, but I will secure my doors farther.

“What’s your name?” I ask out of curiosity.

I’d rather place my attention on the girl than what I will have to do inside this room- nightly.
As much as I don’t want to be pregnant, it will mean that I won’t have nightly duties for almost a year. I estimate that I will have to lay with Grant only a handful of times if we are very fertile. I can handle that.

“I’m Kristal
Harris,” she says meekly.

She’
s short and curvy. Her copper-colored skin glows with health. She has the thickest, brown hair I’ve ever seen. I wonder where the ideal comes from that tall, blonde, blue-eyed, pale, and sickly-thin is attractive. It’s an ideal that both Ade and Fate have aspired to reach. I could care less. I’d rather look like the girl standing before me. Kristal Harris will be stunning when she’s a grown woman.

“Hi, Kristal, please call me Regina.” I shake her hand and she acts as if she’s never had anyone use the gesture on her. I look at her quizzically as she stares open-mouthed at our joined hands.
“I really shouldn’t call you that,” she says bashfully as I release her hand.

“Who will know?
” I say conspiratorially. “May I ask what you’re doing here?”

“I’m your personal maid,” she smiles sweetly.
“May I turn down your bedding and draw you a bath this evening?”

She moves towards the king-sized bed that takes
up the majority of the room. Lavender bedding lies as a cloud on the white-washed wooden frame. The headboard has ironwork inlaid into the wood creating a sunburst pattern. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and I know right away that Grant picked it out. It’s as creepy as it is sweet.

“No, Kristal. I will do those things myself. How old are you, sweetie? Why are you here?”
I ask her again.

I stay her hand as she pulls the coverlet down. I sit on the edge of the mattres
s and wait for her to respond. She looks surprised that I would care. Her brow furrows as she decides if she should answer.

“I’m fifteen
,” she says bashfully as if she never talks of herself. “This is what I do, Miss Regal. I’m a maid. My Mom’s the head housekeeper. Whittenhower Estates is where I live.” Her forehead scrunches up in confusion and it only makes her more devastating.

“Don’t you go to school?” I wouldn’t put it past the Whi
ttenhowers to use slave labor.

“I’m tutored, but most of my trai
ning is with the keeping of the house.” She tries to fold the sheet down, but my large ass is in her way. I don’t move.

“Listen, I won’t use you as my maid.” She back up as if I’ve struck her.

“Did I do something wrong, Miss? Do you want someone else?” She tries to hide that she’s offended, but it’s etched across her face. Her big, hazel eyes look shiny.

“No, it’s not that.
” I hold my palm out to her wanting to take that look off her face and not knowing how. “I want to do for myself. We’ll just say you did it, but I’ll do it myself. I’d rather we just spend time together than you cleaning up after me.”

“Oh,” she looks confused by t
he suggestion, but I know she’ll comply. Subservience is imprinted in her genes. Her skittish demeanor screams that she doesn’t truly trust my motives- smart girl.

“I’ll show you that I mean it. I’m glad that
you don’t immediately trust me,” I praise her.

I stand up and fold the sheet down myself. I locate two doors on the inside wall and guess which one is the closet. I guess wrong. Inside is the bath. The room is the size of the living room at my
old, rundown apartment. It’s like a paradise- soft blue and frothy white. I’ve never seen a Jacuzzi tub before. This one isn’t really mine, but I’m renting it for the next five years. I might as well put it to good use. I know my face shows the unadulterated lust I feel for the biggest bathtub I’ve ever seen and I feel no shame for it either.

“I think I’
ll take a bath.” I drawl out in a voice that doesn’t sound like my own.

I caress the goose-neck faucet as if it’s my first lover. I blush br
ight red when I realize what I’m mimicking. I mustn’t fall in love with inanimate objects. I vow to buy a tub like this with my own money in the future. A girl should have a few frivolous things to enjoy.

“
I’ll need something to sleep in…” I trail it off as a question. I have no clue how to operate the tub or if I have any clothing.

“Would you like me to do it or just show you how?” She asks me
of the various knobs on the side of the Jacuzzi. Her hazel eyes glow with amusement. Miss Smarty-pants Regal is a moron when it comes to the rich and famous’ gadgets. I’m number six in the country and I can’t figure out a bathtub. I laugh good naturedly at my plight and she smirks with me, but she’s still unsure if she’s welcome to laugh too. 

She shows me how to work everything and
lectures me not add too much soap or bubbles will cover the bathroom. I do as she says and start to fill the deep tub with warm water. I follow her to a pocket-door that is nearly hidden by a shower-stall that’s the size of my old bathroom. She slides the door open revealing a huge closet. I would have guessed wrong on door number two inside my room being the closet.

“What’s the other door out there?”
I ask of the door in question.

“It’s the
nursery,” she says matter of fact. I can tell it makes her feel awkward.
I sigh heavily. Well, on that note…

“Could you give Grant a message from me? Tell him to be here in an hour.” Her mouth drops open in astonishment.

“Mr. Whittenhower is a nice man. He won’t force you. If you’re not ready, he’ll understand. He’ll give you all the time you need.” Her voice trembles in concern. It’s weird. I’m three years older than she is and Kristal is talking to me as if she is the one with more experience. And I can tell that Kristal’s being genuine.

I believe that Grant would give me time. Not five-years’ worth, but at least a few weeks. I can’t afford to wait. I don’t want to do this after I’ve formed an attachment to him. I have no doubt
that his plan is seduction. I’ll not follow the path of my fellow teenage-idiot girls from my old neighborhood.

“I’m not a procrastinator. If I wait
, it will fester in my mind and drive me crazy. I’m ready,” I say courageously. I feel strong in my decision. Even if it’s the wrong decision for my life, it’s the only choice that I can make. I might as well get it over with.

“It’s not so bad after the first time.” She starts to walk out of the bathroom and I follow her.
“You’re not? I mean, you’ve done it before? You’re just a kid,” I gasp out in astonishment.

If I was a young guy I’
d go nuts around her, any man would. Nausea overtakes me when a thought pops into my head. What if it was Daniel or Grant she is talking of? My resolve shatters and the fight or flight reflex pours through my body. I need to get out of here now!

“Whoa! Regina!
It’s not what you think. Grant’s a nice guy and I’d never touch him that way. He’s twice my age- gross.” Her hands are surprisingly strong on my upper-arms. Her fingernails bite into my skin. The pain drives away the panic from my system.