Book 5: A Quiet Moment with the King

Maddy

I wake with a start to my bedroom door opening. After a week spent living in this castle full time, I’m still not used to the maids fluttering in and out and around the castle day in and day out. They move like ghosts most of the time, save for Hannah, who always stops to talk if she has a moment to spare.

I roll over and find that the young maid who tends to my room in the early morning–stoking the fire and laying out fresh clothes or dropping off baskets of laundry–is not who's currently shutting the door snuggly behind them.

I pull the sheets up to my chest as King Isaac walks into the center of the room, his hands tucked into the pockets of his gray sweatpants. A white shirt hugs his torso, showing off every broad muscle of his chest and shoulders.

Ruffled from sleep, and looking slightly dazed as if he just woke up, he stares at me for a long time before he finally says something.

“Good morning.”

“G-good morning,” I sta