by Cay Garcia (Tafelberg)
Tired of the hectic life in Cape Town, Cay completes an intense 10-week internationally recognised butling course, hoping to travel and have some fun.
She is offered a year’s contract as PA and palace manager to Princess Arabella in the Royal House in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
She is dropped off at the expats’ compound to share a flat with Mona and given an abaya to wear if she is to leave the compound and four pages of do’s and don’ts to read before she meets the princess.
At the palace she is in charge of a staff of four, two Filipino and two Malawian girls. Two girls are desperate to go home, their contracts have expired, but the princess will not let them leave until replacements are found and it could take her a year to find somebody she is happy with. The princess is beautiful, loves to shop, suspicious, mistrustful and very angry. She has many strange rules which have to be obeyed or physical punishment is meted out: Take your shoes off in the villa, don’t feed the cats, inventory must be done, shelves cleaned, goods documented and categorised. In one week 18 boxes of expired foodstuff have been removed from 34 cupboards in one of the five kitchens. Life is stressful for all staff.
The surroundings are beautiful but the princess and country’s rules make life difficult. Will Cay manage to stay for a year?