“So, when will His Majesty be back?” Freya asked to break the silence that was slowly creeping up.
As accommodating and kind as Herro was, Freya did not want to be in the King’s chamber for long. She wanted to leave as soon as possible.
Herro seemed to just realize that they had been talking for a while and offered her a chair.
“You went through quite the ordeal yesterday, let’s sit and talk.” He pulled another chair for himself and sat.
Freya hesitated, “But I have to go soon.”
“If King Lucius arrives and finds out I let you go then I’ll be in trouble.” He leaned forward, his hair rushing forward and perfectly framing his face, “Do you want me to get in trouble, Freya?” Herro joked as he looked up, his red eyes piercing through his hair.
He might’ve been joking but Freya didn’t want to risk getting Herro in trouble.
“I’ll wait then.” She chuckled nervously.
“Thank you. The king can be a bit scary.” Herro said, pretending to shiver at the thought. Without realizing it Freya laughed out loud, forgetting where she was.
“Well, I will make sure to stay until he comes then. Even if he takes all day.” Freya laughed.
His playfulness seemed to disappear for a second, “You seem like a good person. It’s not easy serving King Lucius.” He smiled sadly.
Freya could hear the tiredness in his voice and couldn’t help but sympathize. She had only met King Lucius twice but both times were times she wished to forget. She didn’t know what she could say to console Herro. After all, she didn’t have to constantly be around the King like him so could she really know how he was feeling?
“Anyway, I don’t know when King Lucius might come back? Are you okay just waiting here?” Herro broke her out of her train of thoughts.
“Yeah, it’s not like I have anything to do anyway-”
“Ah, I got an idea!” Herro said excitedly, an unrecognizable glint in his eyes. “Come with me. Hurry.”
Before Freya knew what was happening, she was being dragged somewhere by Herro. Herro didn’t look too physically strong, so Freya was surprised by just how firm his grip was on her arm.
“Where are we going?”
“I have been working on a soap and I was looking for someone to try it on.” He grinned at her as they made their way to wherever he was taking her.
Soap? Freya couldn’t understand what Herro meant but before she could question him, they arrived at the bathhouse.
“Here we are.”
As they entered numerous gasps and squealing could be heard.
“Sir Herro! Do you need a bath? I’m here to serve you.” A lady ran up to them.
Soon after, all the other ladies followed suit, and soon a small crowd formed around Freya and Herro. Freya was surprised at the scene in front of her but more so at how nonchalant Herro seemed about all of it. He was probably used to it.
“Can you prepare the bath for her? And some new clothes too, please.” He said to the first lady.
The lady seemed taken aback but politely bowed her head and left to start preparing a bath. The others too rather dejectedly made their way back with some even shooting Freya a nasty look.
It was only after they left that Freya could take in where she was at. She had never seen such a place before. There was a giant bath in the middle of the tent place with a huge firepit. The steam covered most of the room with the most amazing aromas wafting through the air.
She was suddenly taken back to her and the other kids at the orphan had to wash their clothes with icy water.
Look at the ridiculous amount of hot water here, she thought bitterly. Why did Herro bring her here? Was he implying that she did not look presentable enough for the King?
“There is no need for me to wash up. And I like my clothes just fine, I don’t need any more from here.” The words came out more aggressive than expected.
Herro calmly responded, “I just think this would be a good idea because there is a disease going around and if you don’t regularly wash up you will have a higher chance of getting infected.”
“A disease?” Freya’s voice was small.
She remembered a time when the flu broke out at the orphanage and since they didn’t have money to get medicines or the proper treatment, they lost a lot of children. She did not want to have to go through that again.
“This soap has medicinal properties that will help prevent you from getting the disease.” He assured her.
She couldn’t risk catching the disease and if this soap helped then nothing bad could come from a bath, right? As Freya nodded, Herro signaled to the lady, and she came and led Freya towards the bath.
“Do I just step in?” She asked nervously as this was her first time getting into a hot bath. The lady who had no desire to serve Freya just rudely nodded her head. Freya felt uncomfortable but slowly took off her tattered clothes while trying to avoid the judging eyes of the bath lady. Freya entered the bath in nothing but her old underwear and a torn inner shirt. The bath was much deeper than she had expected.
A thought suddenly came over Freya as she sat in the hot bath. It was something Sophia had said a while ago, “Witches put troublesome children in boiling water and turn them to stew!”
Freya could feel her heartbeat quicken. She wanted to get out of the bath now.
“Turn them to stew!” The phrase played in her head over and over again.
It felt like someone had sucked the air out of the room as she struggled to breathe. Her panicked body seemed to have shut down as she could no longer move. Freya felt her body slowly starting to sink.
“Please help me! I need to get out, I can’t move!” She called to the bath lady.
“Oh dear, I think I forgot something outside.” The lady murmured as she hurried out completely ignoring Freya’s cry for help.
Freya’s heart sank as her body started sinking lower into the hot water. As if out of instinct she called to the first name that came to mind, “Herro! Help!”