Good evening for the europeans, I don't know what time it is across the globe but anyways; good evening/afternoon/morning to you too. This is a little something something I came up with after visiting this amazing castle in France. A lot of the rooms described are actually from said castle, so if you recognize it, clearly it wasn't my imagination, it were the French. Another disclaimer, obviously and sadly, these characters do not belong to me.
Summary: Emma falls into the time-portal alone. Not aware of any laws and customs in the enchanted forest, she finds herself utterly alone, hungry and scared.
Emma felt safe. For the first time in a week she felt safe. Her jeans, which had been torn and dirtied anyway, had finally been replaced by a rough woolen dress that protected her from the cold. Her boots she kept. Nobody would see them anyway. Emma smiled at the blonde walking next to her, a fine girl, she only differed two years in age which, named Abby. The girl smiled back and locked arms with her. "Aren't you excited?" She asked.
Emma nodded furiously, figuring such a response was fitting and said, "Absolutely!"
Abby's little sister, Mabel joined their conversation. "Me too, as well! I've never been this far from home before. And to think we'll be seeing the White Castle! Perhaps even work there... It's like a fairytale!"
The mother smirked. "Hold your horses there, little May, it's still half a days travel. And then we can only hope to get hired. Though I don't think the kitchen master can say no to a pair of young, strong girls as yourselves. And before you start yelling injustice, I mean the lot of you. Yes, Erica and Lillian, you as well." The two redheaded sisters kept their cranky glares but Emma swore she could see a small uplift of the corners of Erica's lips. It had truly been a miracle when she stumbled across the family of five. She'd been starved, alone, chased, yelled at and almost raped four times since arriving in the Enchanted Forrest only a week ago. When she saw the five were just women she figured she could take them on and steal but her charming conscious got the best of her and she merely begged. Instead of ignoring her or pushing her aside, they'd set up camp, given her some leftover food and clothes and asked where she was going. Emma told them she'd accidentally ended up here after a freak accident separated her from her family and friends. They'd smiled sadly and told her to sleep. When she woke up they told her they'd had a family meeting and if she'd like to join them jobhunting in the village at the foot of the White Caslte. It was only two days travel away and she seemed alright. Emma knew it wasn't a small gesture and so she couldn't stop the tears forming in her eyes as she thanked them and promised to pay them back, however she could. And she started right away by taking two backpacks and a pot to carry, leaving the mother's back bare except for the pouch with money and the youngest girl's arms empty. It was the least she could do, Emma told them, and before they could argue she'd already started walking.
"Aren't you excited to see princess Snow?" Mabel asked. "Only twelve, they say, and already one of the fairest. Can you imagine?"
Emma was most definitely curious to see her mother as a child and so Emma nodded. "Aren't all princesses fair? Isn't that in their DNA or something?"
"DNA?"
"Never mind." Emma smiled. "So if she's twelve, that means Queen Regina is there too right? Or not yet?"
Mabel raised her eyebrows and looked at her mother, who nodded in return. "Yes, dearest, King Leopold married her only half a year ago, quite an event. Not a lot of people have seen her yet but the ones that have claim she's every bit as lovely as his first wife."
Erica scoffed at that. "His first wife? Queen Eva? You are trying to pass that replacement off as equal to Queen Eva? Please! Queen Eva was fair and gay as could be. As I take it, the second wife is a grouch with a temper."
Emma however, heard non of that. "Queen Eva was gay?"
"Oh yes." Lillian joined in. "She was always happy, smiling and kind. Nothing like Queen Regina."
Abby coughed as a way of asking to join. "I heard Queen Regina is still a child in many ways. Always nervous, shy, preserved..."
"Well," mother said. "With any luck we'll find out soon enough."
As it turned out, half a days travel took only five more hours because of a short cut and a mile on the back of a wagon, which meant they arrived in the White Village, as it was called apparently, before noon. This left them with more than enough time to bathe and apply. Emma had learned quickly that bathing was neither a pleasant or an often done experience as it involved getting into an ice-cold river and scrubbing your body with salts. As Mabel was disrobing she told Emma about the baths royals get. How they get to bathe inside, in warm, scented water with flowers and candles and soaps while maids brush the knots out of their hair and wash it too. "Oh, I'd marry a prince just for the baths!" She exclaimed and right now, Emma couldn't agree with her more. After they bathed and dressed again they said down for a quick supper before making their way to the castle.
"Yes?" The guard asked them. "What is your business here?"
The mother stepped foreword and asked; "We're looking to be hired. We're is the servants entrance?"
The guard had the ugliest expression on his face for a second or ten and Emma quickly realized the brute was thinking. "You wait right here." He told them. "I'll fetch the castle master for you."
"But we wish to work in the kitchen."
The guard nodded. "Perhaps, but two maids died of the fever and so we need more. You wait here. I'll be right back." And truth be told, he returned after only a minute. "Look." He told the castle master. "Four strong women, a pup and their mother. Surely you could use them?"
The castle master nodded "indeed". Then he looked at Mabel. "How many summers have you seen?"
After a short second to fight her nerves the girl squeaked, "Fourteen, master."
The castle master nodded. "It's enough. I can use the lot of you. Follow me." He started walking towards the entrance of the large castle. "Listen and listen carefully. You must keep your eyes down at all times, skirts are to be worn to the ankles, never talk back to your superior, marriage must be reported and approved of if you want to keep your job and stay out of the gardens unless instructed otherwise." He turned around before they entered. "You." He motioned to the mother. "Take the girl and make your way to the kitchens. You'll find them following this hallway and walk down the stairs. Ask for Alfonso. He'll help you further." They nodded, smiled to the other girls and did as instructed. "Okay then. I need a new maid in the library. You." He said, pointing at Erica. "Walk up the grand stairs and follow the main hallway until you reach the south wing. Ask any guard to bring you to the library. In the library you'll find two butlers, one is named Niles. Tell him I send you and all will be fine." Erica nodded too, squeezed Lillian's hand for a second and took a deep breath before she too entered the castle. "Okay, down to our final three." He eyed them all for a moment or two before he said, "Right, yes, you." He pointed at Emma, "and you," Abby, "are going to be Queen Regina's new maids. Her last one died from the fever and I think she could use another one. You may follow me in just a second. You however," he said to Lillian. "Can join your mother and sister in the kitchens. If I find something else for you I know where to find you." And so, Lillian nodded too and made her way to the hallway, where her mother and sister were just halfway down.
"Right." He said. "Follow me." The walk to Regina's chambers was long. Apparently, the entire royal family slept in the west wing, overlooking the ocean. And it was beautiful, Emma had to give them that, she could see Mary Margaret missing this place, hell, Emma might even one day. "This is princess Snow's room. You'll see it and her often enough, but the princess has her own maids to see to her. Adjoining her room is Queen Regina's room." He knocked. A woman with short, blondish hair opened it and bowed. "Mary," He said. "These are the new maids. Right off of the streets. Teach them." And with that his job was done and he left.
Mary however smiled. "Never mind him. Do enter." She opened the door further as an invitation. "I'm mary, that's Margaret and later you'll meet Hannah, the last of us." Another woman joined Mary and smiled too, she looked exactly like Mary and it didn't take a genius mind to figure out they were related. "Queen Regina is out riding with Princess Snow. I don't think you'll meet her until tomorrow morning. But right now we'll start with the basics." She said with a happy smile. The basics, as it turns out, were cleaning the room, returning any books, plates and silverware Regina used, preparing a bath, bathing a queen, which was very different from bathing Regina apparently. The queen, as Emma was told, was very protective of her hair. Nobody was allowed to touch it but her. After the bathing-rituals they turned to the dresses, which was a huge room underneath theirs, filled with dresses for all sorts of occasions. They were taught how to choose, to lace, to accessorize but most importantly, how to layer. Because it wasn't just one dress. It started with the undergarments, then an underdress, then a basic corset, then the dress itself, which contained a corset too, which they could lace a couple of different ways. Emma was dazzled and kind of respected Regina just a tiny bit more. Then Mary pointed to the ceiling. "There is where we sleep. We need to be able to get to Queen Regina at all times. So follow me. Mary opened another door which lead to a very small hallway, across from which was another door. "King Leopold sleeps there." She said, but instead of opening it, she squeezed her way through the small hallway until she reached the ladder, which she went up before she motioned Emma and Abby to follow her. It lead to a vide with a door and when opened showed a pretty large yet empty room with six beds. Three of which looked in use, two were used a while ago and one was just new. Two boxes stood in a corner, which belonged to the former maid, Mary said. And with that the conversation was done. After eating a fairly good dinner, Emma and Abby were told to go bed because they really weren't necessary anymore. They were joined an hour later by the other blondes who told them that Hannah had this nightshift. Abby and Emma were allowed five full hours of sleep before Margaret woke them. "Sorry girls, Hannah called, come on." They quickly robed and half asleep they made their way to Regina's room.
"Shit, it's gonna scar!" They heard loud whispering.
"What happened?" Emma asked as she made her way to the bed, where the important things were happening. On the bed sat Regina, a much, much younger Regina, who was just staring in front of her, not really seeing anything. Her lip had been torn, her nose broken, ugly bruises covering her neck like a string of rubies, her nightdress torn, exposing even more bruised flesh.
Hello, my darlings, I hope you enjoyed this bit. I found it somewhere on my e-mail account, I guess I wrote it and completely forgot about it. Anyways, In this story Regina is about 18, 19 maybe 20. But not older than that. I also don't quite believe that a man who married a girl who could've actually have been his daughter, had he married Cora, is all that good and kind. His relationship with Regina will be discussed later on but it's not the typical Regina/Leopold relationship we see on Fanfiction a lot. Aside from that, in this three-shot Rumple will certainly make an appearance, Snow has a big role, we'll see James and David, King George and maybe even Robin. By the way, this is not SwanQueen, it's more along the lines of a very weird, difficult and complicated friendship, but an important friendship non the less. Maybe after the three chapters I'll do one in Storybrooke but I'll have to see how it develops first. Future chapters will be longer.
As always, thank you for reading and reviews are very much appreciated. Ideas, I love ideas and prompts so don't hesitate.