"Probably not," Tessa said with a smile. "I'll see you in the morning then. Pleasant dreams-" The words were barely out of her mouth before Mia practically shoved her into the hallway and she staggered, demanding, "Was that entirely necessary?"
"No, it's just fun," the younger woman said with an impish grin. Tessa swatted at her playfully and she ducked away, laughing. "Come on, we really do have to get you ready for bed or Madam will have both our hides."
Tessa sighed and trailed after her to her bedroom, tossing the book onto her bed, then through the small door- set into the opposite wall from the door that led to Tobias's room- that led into her private bath.
"Let's get this off," Mia said cheerfully and set about freeing Tessa of her corset. She winced with every lace pulled free, ribs protesting the jarring.
"I can undress myself you know," she muttered. She usually preferred to, it made her feel very young to have Mia do it.
"Not with this monstrosity you can't," her maid replied, and Tessa had to admit she was right. It was a newer gown, and current fashion seemed to scoff at the idea of a lady being able to dress and undress without help. Finally the multiple layers of the damned thing were off and Tessa was shooed into a scalding hot bath. She flinched as the water touched her bare skin, the bruises left on her ribs by the corset. Mia tutted when she saw them, frowning. "Those don't look good."
Tessa nodded. "Always happens the first few times I wear a new dress," she muttered, reaching for a bar of soap. Mia perched on the edge of the tub, humming softly and slightly off-key as she retrieved a comb from somewhere and set about freeing Tessa's hair from the pins that had kept it off her face all day.
"Tobias seems nice," she commented as she worked. Tessa nodded again, splashing the now only moderately boiling water over her skin. Mia upended a bottle of some sort of scented oil- lily, she thought- over her head and combed it through her hair. "He's quite...imposing, I think is the word."
Tessa smiled. "Until you talk to him, then he seems more like a teddy bare." She giggled. "Gods, Mia, you should have seen him and Isaac!"
Her maid laughed with her. "Oh, I would have paid to watch that," she chuckled. She reached for a tin of white powder and Tessa stiffened. Mia gave her a sympathetic look. "It's easier if we just do it fast," she said. Tessa nodded, and she upended the tin over the water. As the powder dissolved, her skin began to itch, then burn. She clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, cursing her mother and her "miracle products". It was supposed to keep the skin's "youthful glow", but privately Tessa thought it might just be some diluted acid. She'd actually cried the first time Nateri made her use it when she was twelve, but now she just waited it out.
After several minutes she could take no more and vaulted from the tub, reaching for the towel that Mia was already holding out to her. "Alright," she said with a smile, wrapping it around herself. "Part One, finished."
Her maid winked. "On to Part Two."