Safe for now, Lucia turned her attention to the person who had saved her hide. While she no longer had any right to protest, she feared Luther wanting to have another go at physical intimacy so soon after the first time.

She’d been told that it would hurt, though it hadn’t been as bad as she’d heard older women and maids whispering about. Perhaps it just depended on how much pain tolerance one had?

If so, Lucia decided to count herself lucky.

But she also didn’t want to see if she’d be lucky a second time so soon after the first.

Hmmm. I suppose Luther is one of the quiet ones Grandmother told me about. He hardly made a sound when we were…!

Blushing harder, Lucia immediately regretted thinking about it again and coughed harshly to try and force her mind to behave.

I need to focus on this new individual and find out her relationship with Luther. Is she perhaps his wife?

With that firm reminder, Lucia took in the woman and—!

“Oh...oh my,” she unconsciously whispered out loud.

Black hair, as black as Luther’s skin, pale skin that had never once seen the light of day, and a body that was, well….

Glancing down at her own body, Lucia felt a brief moment of confusion, followed by an overwhelmingly crushing sense of inferiority.

Yes...I see. If this is Luther’s taste in women, I suppose I will be lucky if he visits my bed-chamber once a month!

While Lucia was caught up in her thoughts circling around her lacking assets compared to the other woman, Luther’s expression grew stormy enough to make his black skin look bright.

Standing in the doorway to the main suite of the plane, the woman in question struggled to hide a smile.

Lilith was a creature all about the freedom of women, the ownership of their power as females, and keeping men under her thumb and in her bed for amusement. She’d really found her place in the most recent modern era of humanity.

Her hair was as black as night, with pale skin, plump lips, smoldering green eyes, and a body that had men running after her on all fours for even a single minute of her time. Currently, she was dressed in a black halter top and jeans that hugged her lower body so tight, they were a second layer of skin.

Completely ignoring the thunderous look in Luther’s eyes, Lilith studied the blonde, blue-eyed little girl in the jade-green velvet dress carefully.

The bodice hugged her curves, before flaring out at the waist into a full, heavy skirt that touched the floor. The neckline was square-cut, showing only a modest amount of the skin above the bosom, though the bodice showed that this small slip of a thing did, in fact, have a nice bust. Thousands of tiny golden beads had been hand-sewn as flower embroidery all throughout the bodice, down the front of the skirt, and along the sleeves.

Letting out a low whistle, Lilith started counting up money figures. This dress would be worth a fortune at home.

Shaking her head, Lucia forced her mind to come back from her dazed comparisons. Stepping forward, she took notice of the strange clothes the other woman was wearing. Frowning briefly in thought and distaste at the vulgar manner of the other woman’s dress, Lucia quickly put on her best business smile before dipping into a perfectly executed curtsey.

“Fair greetings upon you. My name is Lucia Cadwell and I will shortly be joining Sir Satanael’s household. I hope that you may watch over me kindly, as my senior, while I adjust to the change in status and place. Might I inquire if you are a wife or concubine?”

Eyes opening wide, Lilith’s jaw nearly unhinged itself as her green gaze jumped between Luther and Lucia. “Um...uh, ugh, um...W, what?”

She thinks that h, he and I…!

Panic, mixed with a few pangs of bitter regret, and buckets of disgust, boiled inside Lilith’s mind as she stared at the young woman in a daze.

“We do not have that sort of relationship,” Luther explained this fact firmly, gold eyes burning bright as they glowered at Lilith.

Lips twisting in an annoyed frown, Lilith nodded slowly. Luther’s words were more than enough to break her out of her daze, it hadn’t been necessary to glare at her. “That’s right,” she smiled in reassurance. “I am a subordinate of...of Sir Satanael.”

Blinking, Lucia felt a rush of embarrassed shame flood her cheeks. “Oh,” she murmured shortly, before remembering herself. “I mean, I do apologize for jumping to conclusions like that. If I have offended you, Miss, I beg your forgiveness. If you are a subordinate of Luther’s, I hope that you continue to serve this family well.”

Face twitching a bit in an overwhelmed rush of exhaustion and defeat, Lilith nodded vigorously several times, fighting to keep her polite smile in place. “Of course! I live for my service,” she gushed in a tight voice.

Glancing between the two women, Luther sighed, before deciding it was best to move on to other things. “Lilith,” he called out in a commanding voice, “fetch me Pahaliah. Now, where is Jegudiel?”