I stood there quite stunned. I was part embarrassed, and part annoyed. I finally bowed and answered through clenched teeth, "Yes, sir."

"Wait outside the door until I come out. You can then show me to dinner."

"Yes, sir." And with that I trudged outside in absolute silence, as Prince Nikolas demanded from someone of "my class."

Prince Nikolas and I walked in silence from his room to the dining hall. We finally approached the dining hall doors and I ventured to speak. "Here is the dining hall, sir."

Hopefully he wouldn't get after me for daring to speak instead of pretending I was mute.

"Thank you. Please return in an hour and fifteen minutes to take me back to my room. In the meantime, please show Ivan to where the servants eat and make sure the both of you are properly fed. That is all." And with that, Prince Nikolas entered the dining hall and left me be. I scurried back to his room to fetch the valet.

"Ivan," I said. "I'm going to take you to get food."

"Um," he stood there awkwardly. "I no speak English."

Oh.

I certainly felt that pain of only knowing one language—unless one counted my limited Spanish speaking abilities.

"Oh!" I thought for a moment. I started pantomiming food the best I could, by touch my mouth and rubbing my stomach. Ivan looked a little confused, but I hoped he got the message. I smiled as nicely as I could and motioned for him to follow me, which he did. I led Ivan down to the servant's dining quarters, and a smile cracked his cold face when he saw and smelt the food. I had him follow me in line, and Ivan copied my every move; he took the same types food I took and the same amount. However, Ivan was much larger than me, so when he only took one scoop of stuffing, I reached over a plopped another scoop on his plate for him, and also threw on an extra couple of chicken legs.

"Thank you," he said in horrible English, and I laughed and nodded.

Everybody was staring at Ivan like he had singlehandedly brought the black plague to Aregano. I wanted to tell Ivan to ignore them, but I didn't know a lick a Russian, and he didn't know any English. I felt strangely protective over poor little Ivan.

Not that he was that little, but I felt for him all the same.

I walked over to the table and sat across from Luke, who smiled upon seeing me. Ivan sat next to me and looked around somewhat nervously at the glares.

"This is Ivan," I told Luke. "He doesn't speak English." I then looked at Ivan and dramatically pointed across the table. "Lucas!" I said as pronounced as I could.

"Lucas," Ivan repeated.

"He's the Prince's butler," I told Ivan, who just stared at me blankly.

"I no speak English," he repeated.

I smiled. "Right."

"Reminds me of when I was in Nikoto. I was pretty lost myself since I know very little Russian," Luke said.

"You were in Nikoto?" I asked.

"Yeah, in February. I was accompanying Prince Coleman, just as Ivan is doing for Prince Nikolas."

"Did you like that?"

"No, not at all," he admitted.

I glanced at poor baby Ivan. "Poor little Ivan," I said. "He doesn't even know what anybody here is saying."

"Poor Ivan?" Luke cried. "What about me? I didn't have a nice pretty girl to show me around the Nikotan palace!"

I looked at Luke and placed my hand on my heart. "Lucas Prescott. Did you just say I was pretty?"

Luke rolled his eyes and smiled. "I'm trying to garner sympathy here and you won't indulge me."

I leaned over the table and patted his head. "Aw. Poor little Luke. Had to go to the big scawy pawace in Nikoto all by himsewf."

"That's more like it," Luke answered.

Ivan and I headed back to the dining hall to pick up Prince Nikolas, and I saw Ivan pull out a little Russian book from his pocket. We stopped outside the hall, and I peered at the book's contents. It was a Russian to English dictionary. He finally settled on a word and looked at me carefully.

"Lucas..." He pointed at me. "Boyfriend?"

"Oh, no," I said. "I mean, between you and me I do rather like him, but that's strictly confidential."

Ivan looked confused, and I had a brilliant idea. I whipped out my phone and typed "English to Russian" in the search bar. The translator tool came up, and I typed in the English box, "he is not my boyfriend." The Russian equivalent was "on ne moy paren'." Ivan looked a little confused, but nodded slowly.  I realized that google translate may not have been the most reliable source.

I typed in "google translate, am I right?" And attempted to read it outloud.

I squinted at the screen. "Gugl perevodchik ya prav." I looked up to see Ivan's reaction, who only looked more confused.

"Was that supposed to be Russian?" A thickly accented voice spoke. Prince Nikolas. Ivan spit out some response in fluent Russian to Prince Nikolas, who nodded.

"You were trying to communicate with Ivan?" Prince Nikolas asked me.

"Um, yes your majesty."

"With Google Translate?"

"Yes, sir."

Prince Nikolas raised an eyebrow. "That is thoughtful of you."

The dining hall doors opened once more and Prince Coleman emerged—military dress and all. He looked even more handsome than normal, with his hair drawn back more neatly and his fancy jacket. Of course, he still could have used a haircut, but he looked very nice all the same.

"Well, well. If it isn't my little maid," Prince Coleman drawled.