Three

"Go ahead," I prodded. "Speak."

The maid fidgeted with her uniform, turning away from me.

"Ma'am, I…"

"You what?"

I was getting impatient.

"She just began working here a few months ago, ma'am," an older maid walked up to me with an automatic smile on her face. She gave the maid sitting down a sour look and she quickly got up, curtsied, and left the table.

None of this felt right. I understood some families still had live-in maids, but I didn't like the way they acted like they didn't have free will. First an arranged marriage and now this?

Did I get transported to the seventeenth century without knowing?

"The young master is a very lovely man, my lady. I promise you will enjoy every bit of your marriage," she began, beaming, but her smile was not authentic.

I frowned. That wasn't really what I wanted to hear. I didn't want her humble praise for her 'master'. I just wanted the actual truth.

"How does he treat you?" I asked, deciding I had to be more specific if I was ever getting anything out of this lot.

"Quite frankly ma'am, he treats us very fairly."

I nodded, as I savored the food I'd just been served.

"Nicely?"

"Fairly, ma'am."

"You mean he isn't nice to you?" I asked.

The senior maid turned to the others who discussed among themselves.

"He isn't required to be nice to us ma'am. We're his workers," she said, still smiling.

I nodded again, thankful I was getting somewhere at least.

"Does he drink a lot?" I asked.

She cleared her throat.

"Not particularly ma'am."

"Don't give me vague answers ms…"

"Natalie, ma'am."

"And don't call me ma'am."

"Whatever shall I call you then?"

"You can call me Cassandra."

Natalie looked at me like I'd just grown a second head simply because I asked her to call me by my first name. This was going to take some getting used to.

"Yes, my lady Cassandra," she said, curtsying. I knew she wasn't going to refer to me without a title anytime soon so I just let it go.

Sighing, I pushed my food around my plate, suddenly losing my appetite. This was all new, all strange, and not at all comforting.

What kind of a life was this?

Of course, his workers would rather eat cement than say a bad word about their 'master'. If I wanted to know something, I'd have to be smart about it. Natalie was off the list. She had seventh-century maid loyalty written all over her. If I wanted to find out anything, I'd have to ask the girl I'd tried to ask earlier. I just needed to gain her trust first.

"I suppose the food is not quite to your taste, my lady? I'll have a word with the cook right away and give her a warning." Natalie asked, curtsying.

Ugh, this was exhausting.

Why did she have to talk like that?

"You may all leave," I said, their presence beginning to irritate me.

"Did we do something wrong, my lady…"

"Just leave, ok! I want to be alone," I said, raising my voice even though I didn't want to.

"Yes, ma'am," she curtsied again and left with the others who kept giving me backward glances.

Finding my way around the house proved to be more challenging than I thought. The house was just that big!

It didn't help that the maids kept watching me at every turn, quickly turning away whenever I stared back.

After a hopeless sojourn around the house with no answers to the several questions I had, I sighed and went back into the room.

I'd never felt this lonely in such a long time. How had my life gone from planning my future with my boyfriend a few months ago to being married to such a sketchy man?

My boyfriend, I thought, a single tear dropping on my cheek.

How was I going to convince this man who looked like he wanted nothing to do with me to send me over two million dollars to get a new heart for Kayden?

How did my father even plan to get that partnership with him? Was it something he'd discussed with Davis' family? After all, he was just an heir, wasn't he? He was being forced to do this like I was, probably by his parents as well.

I didn't even know anything at all about this man, and he was my husband. What if he got back and he wanted to do…things?

I shuddered. Even though he was extremely handsome, I'd planned to have my first experience with Kayden and not with some random stranger who was just as rude as he was handsome.

Ugh!

Why did I keep bringing up his looks in every sentence?

But it was undeniable.

Maybe it was for the best since he wasn't trying to get me to like him. I'd have to grab whatever I could if I had any plans of surviving any marriage with him.

Sighing, I grabbed my phone off the counter and typed in the name Davis Monroe in the search bar. Being the daughter of an elite, I'd been exposed to a lot of wealthy families, but I'd never heard of the Monroe family.

His pictures flooded my phone, his steely unwavering gaze piercing into me even through the screen. I breathed in, reminding myself he wasn't there. If I was this jittery now, what would happen when we'd be seeing each other every day?

USA's most eligible bachelor.

Heartbreaker.

Billionaire at twenty-four.

Were the most popular anecdotes used to describe him? However, one stood out the most to me; a billionaire at twenty-four. Really?

His parents weren't dead yet so how had he been able to have all their wealth under his name? Unless it was by name only.

Or maybe he'd made his own money himself?

No. That was impossible.

How did someone at his very young age of twenty-four amass such a large amount of wealth, especially if his parents weren't wealthy in the first place?

I swiped webpage into webpage, discovering more and more about him until I couldn't take it any longer. Every new information about him made me feel ten times below his league. I mean, I didn't want to be married to him, but still, I didn't deserve to feel that way.

I didn't know when I fell asleep, but a loud bang woke me up with a start. I searched frantically by my sides to figure out where the sound had come from, fear creeping into my skin.

"Who on earth told you you could come in here!"

I don't know which was more scary between his voice and the bang I'd heard earlier. He was standing by the door, looking dangerously furious. I got out of bed, my mind painting scary images of what he may do to me, although I wasn't even sure what I'd done wrong.

"Are you deaf?" He asked again and I shuddered. Even my father didn't make me this scared.

"The maids," I stuttered. "They brought my things here and told me this is our room."

He stared at me for a long moment, steadying his breathing. I started to wonder if he'd been drinking.

The room felt like it was beginning to shrink. I didn't like this at all.

He walked two steps toward me and I intuitively moved three steps backward. Soon, I was backing the wall and he was still coming closer.

My heart threatened to explode out of my chest when he didn't stop moving until we were only a few feet apart.

He bent a little to me, his breath lightly fanning my neck. The feeling was scary but at the same time, it didn't feel so bad. Both his hands were on either side of me, making me trapped. I held my breath and closed my eyes, imagining the worst as his lips lightly brushed my ear.

"Get out," he whispered.

"What?" I asked, not sure I'd heard properly.

"You don't listen," he said, clicking his tongue which was still close to my ear. "I'm going to change that very soon."