Chapter 1

Dawn crept through her Eastern facing room. There was no curtain to shut out the light and catch even a few more minutes of sleep. Serena heard the snoring of a few that occupied her room, but a majority of them had already gotten up, dressed and out for the day.

Her 'sisters' would not wake for a few more hours still, her stepmother would be calling for her when all of the sky lost its darkness. Serena ambled over to the window and stretched. She soaked in the view only a lucky few received. It wasn't a tradition she particularly favored or would have happened upon through her own will. It was thrust upon her, and although it wasn't a happy occurrence, she'd eventually come to accept and even relish the quiet minutes before her chores began and the house bustled to life.

Her eyes watched as the sun rose and created shadows upon the hills that were lucky enough to be considered her own, before those too got chased away and they shone golden in the pale pink sky. She rested against the wood and there was a small smile across her features as she let the sun warm her with its touch, just as it did that of nature.

A bell rang, waking all the servants and she had spent too long this morning disregarding her tasks.

It was interesting to note that despite her fall in status in this household, she wasn't tasked with too difficult of jobs. She was the in-between. She brought up the food, she took away the plates, she bought and brought the supplies from town. She brought in the flowers and produce. She was the one to deal with the tantrums thrown by her 'sisters'. She did after-all, still rightfully retain her status, but unable to do anything until she came of age. Of age though, was the difficult part to pin down. 18 if she married, 21 if she didn't. As she had no plan to marry until she was settled into her own and loved the man she'd marry, she had another three years plus before she could walk away from this household or attempt to kick them out.

In the meantime, unless the Royal Parents stepped in, nobody could do anything about the treatment she received. Her stepmother wasn't dumb though, she knew she couldn't go over the line, that her stepdaughter will in fact do something in retaliation if pushed too far, rather than just leave with her share of the estate. As she was a child of the household, she had to do whatever her elder and caretaker told her to do. This was the life she'd been settled into. She wasn't a servant, yet she was living like one.

After Serena dressed for the day, she went down to the ground floor to greet the messenger with the latest news and any letters or parcels that had come for the family or its servants. He had a drawn face as he handed over the latest and she didn't even have to ask before he broke out into weeping sobs. Serena didn't know what to do or say, she patted him on the back as he cried into her shoulder. He was a small man in height but he made up for it in weight. He wasn't a runner, so he had gotten lazy and heavier and heavier. He had three children at home and a wife, but the wife wanted nothing to do with him since he had gained the latest kilo. Serena wasn't sure what this was about, but if it were about his family, he wouldn't have come, another would have taken his place. If it were about his wife, well, Serena wasn't exactly adapt at handling that kind of situation. Her stepmother might have been a better source-.

"It's horrible, its so horribly tragic! The poor boy! That poor woman! How will they cope?"

"Are you ill, sir?" Serena asked, pulling away slightly, not to protect herself from illness, but to check on him.

He shook his head and he hiccuped. Had he taken to drink already so early in the morning, in addition to his other less cleanly habits? "No, no, it is far less personal than my humble life. Oh dear me, I seem to have lost my head. You do that to a man, Serenity dear." Serena shook her head, the man refused to call her anything but her given name. He said it raised her status without the need of formal titles. He continued on though, despite her protests. "No, I bring tragic news of another source, one that will affect the nation."

"The Prince-"

"Has not run away again, nor has he finally succumbed to matters of his marriage." He shook his head. "Rather, the King has passed."

Serena felt the world drop out from underneath her. She had felt like this before, in the past. She was well accustomed to this feeling, but it still disoriented her. She thanked the man and returned to her home, he had to go and share that with countless others, though it might reach them before he did, if he kept on the way he was. She completed all of her morning duties before her sisters rose and brought in the pot of tea for her stepmother.

"What is the news? Has there been an announcement of a ball at the palace? Serena, child, you look frightful, have you seen a ghost?" Esme questioned, sounding for once like the she embodied the role she had taken on, caring for Serena.

"No, no, I have heard of some news though, but I thought it best if I were to share it with all of you at once."

"You are neither 18 nor wed yet, so it can't be of your departure from these grounds." Though all wished it. Serena was rather surprised that there hadn't yet been an attempt on her life. "You may share it with me, and I will determine whether it is necessary for it to go beyond our knowledge."

Serena hesitated, but then she stood behind the chair facing her stepmother, she did not offer Serena a seat, and Serena would have declined it anyway, she was already too dirty and she'd only have to clean it again once she was done. "The messenger has informed me that our beloved King has died."

Her stepmother's reaction should have surprised her, but by now she was well aware of her stepmother's true nature, knew when she was lying and when she was up to something, when she was angry and when, on the rare occasion she was telling the truth. Glee positively radiated off the aging woman's face and she sent Serena away with a wave of her hand and a rude "Carry on then."

Serena knew there was something up, and as she entered the kitchens, she found her old friend Lita at the stove. There was a tenseness to Lita's back that Serena had only seen once before and without asking, she pulled away the top of her friend's shirt to revel angry welts. "Don't they know its a bad idea to anger the one handling the food?"

"Almost as bad as angering the missus." Lita agreed and she shifted so the shirt returned to her body. "It aint so bad, Miss Serena."

"Why do you stay?" Serena asked, hoping up onto the counter and stealing a bite to eat, Lita attempted to stop her, but Serena started coughing. "You need to cut down on the spices."

"Redemption." Lita responded with a cheeky smile. "Besides, you know the answer to your question." Serena swallowed and nodded. Her friend's loyalty astounded her sometimes. Lita put up with whipping to stay with her.

"I pray that you would wise-en up and leave this dreadful place. I shall send you a letter, when I am free as well."

"I think it has escaped your notice, my lady, but your family is rather short staffed these days." It was true, only a few remained, only a few truly loyal to Serena, the proper heir to this property. The servants didn't have to stay if they were badly mistreated, and many of them had gone off to other households. Serena could count on one hand those that remained from before her father's remarriage, many had remained until his death, but even in the short time that they'd been together, a few had also left due to her stepmother's mistreatment of them. Her father hadn't noticed, or thought much of it, still under the initial infatuation he'd felt for his new bride. Serena hoped there had been love there, hoped that she had only cast her own dubious eye on the matter, that she was mistaken about that which happened behind the scenes, behind closed doors.

Had he loved his new bride who had brought along two children of her own, or had she just fit the requirements he laid out for himself as a good mother quality for his own daughter? Serena always wondered if it hadn't been as simple as either of those, but something deeper and more fatal. Had he been drawn in by her false charms, her pandering and stroking of his ego, or even baser than that? Was it just physical attraction that had brought them to this desolation? Had her father been so blind by lust that he couldn't see past the woman's physical facade and seen the cruel woman just a flake away? For he hadn't scratched any deeper than whatever had lead him to her, and to bring her back, to the daughter he cherished. She strongly wanted to believe it with all her heart that this woman had loved him back and it wasn't a power play.

Serena sighed heavily and leaned back onto her hands. "I have seen we had lost another, but it is one that I would have thought death would be needed before she left my side."

"If you are talking about the governess, she has been chucked out."

Serena bolted up into a sitting position. "What are you saying?"

"The Baronessa believes it is no longer necessary to have help in her children's education. She has sent the governess off to another family."

"Tellu is too old to start anew. She was settled nicely into this family." Serena was starting to get angry. "Where has she gone?"

"To Spain, I hear."

"Another country?"

"I'm afraid so." Lita responded, reaching and wincing as the welts pulled at her tender skin when she moved.

Serena was on her feet in an instant. "I shall have a word with her! She has gone too far this time!"

"Serenity!" Lita's voice was sharp and the girl was barely a few years older than her. "Sit down and eat." Lita shoved a plateful of food into Serena's hands and she collapsed into a chair in a bit of a daze. "It will be better to let this one go." Lita continued on in a more gentle tone. "The governess was never a favorite among the staff. You will only do more harm than good if you interfere now."

Serena nodded dumbly and started eating but discovered she had no appetite. "There is further news, it will be a sad day for us all. Hell, a sad year wouldn't even begin to cover my feelings on this."

"What is it now?" Lita sighed as she realized this news was important and she could only begin to guess. Serena was too tender heart-ed sometimes, more things bothered her than the rest of the help.

"King Edgar Viola has passed." There was a clatter as the other servants who had entered the room and Lita were all hit with the same shock she was.

"This will be the end of this kingdom." Lita shook her head. "The prince is too reckless, too ready to shirk off his duties to stand up against any opponent, much less the ones vying for his land."

"We're doomed!" One of the girls weeped. "England won't have a chance to get us, he'd do us in first."

Serena wasn't among the opinion of bestowing the son any kinder thought and so she remained silent, surprised more that the servants were so against him. She listened and added it into her mental folder of charges against the prince. There was a long list and she'd only seen him the once. Eventually her sisters were up and dressed and ready for their breakfast.

Serena carried them up to her siblings, biting her tongue, wanting to say something to the woman called stepmother officially but something much worse unofficially. She placed down the meal that Lita had created, secretly smiling on the inside as Serena thought about what their first bite would taste like, but not daring to let it cross on her features.

"I want blueberries."

"Blueberries are not in season." Serena patiently reminded her younger older stepsister.

"But I want blueberries, go get them for me now!"

"Nowhere will have blueberries." Serena insisted. "I can gather you some raspberries if you so wish." There was a sweet smile on Serena's face as she stared down her stepsister.

"Antonia, eat it without the berries, you will gain too much weight if you indulge at every meal."

"Of course mother." Ann smiled charmingly at Serena. "I have a figure to watch, besides, I do not care for raspberries."

Antonia was allergic to raspberries and all knew it. Beryl raised an eyebrow at the interaction. "I shall like some raspberries just this once."

"Of course." Serena bowed her head and walked into the other room to take the bowl she had prepared. She entered again to them discussing the King's passing. "The raspberries as you requested." Serena set them down near her oldest stepsister.

Beryl's hand went towards it as if to pick it up to spread over her plate, but instead it went flying at Serena. Serena caught it, but many raspberries still fell to the floor. "Oh dear!" Beryl gasped in shock. "Get down on your knees and pick them up." Her words and tone turned sharply from apologetic to cruel.

"As you were saying mother?" Ann looked at it for a moment as Serena did as she was told, and did it quickly, before turning back to more pressing matters. Beryl too seemed to forget Serena was in the room.

"This is the perfect time to move in on the grieving family. Who else would the prince turn to for a hand in marriage and to be his partner through life, than the one that supported him in his darkest times? We shall get ourselves to court more often than we already go, and we will position ourselves in the church as well."

"Mother, I still don't understand why we haven't been making much of an appearance since our debut. Wouldn't it have been wiser to chip away at his restraints all these years?"

"First off, the prince hadn't been attending court too often, but now he must. Second, I didn't like the way the King kept on, always asking about Serenity and how she was handling her father's death. I kept waylaying him that she was grieving and she didn't want to go out or be seen, but he started getting suspicious the longer I held him off. So we whittled out of attending court for awhile before his memory of Charles faded. I do not understand how he could remember one Count so well. Perhaps he took interest in all of his subjects that high up and we haven't been privy to see it yet. Oh well, now that he's gone, we can employ the real reason I kept you two out of public eye for so long. While the others' are beautiful, they have faded. The two of you have only become more charming and instead of letting the prince become immune and desensitized, he will see the two of you and will be floored by how he never noticed you in the past. You will be unique and new."

"A peacock strutting about in a land of white." Serena added as she attempted to leave the room, disgusted by their scheming. Even a man she disliked as much as the prince didn't deserve this kind of treatment. The King deserved far more respect than to be used as a stepping stone to his child and kingdom. He deserved better than being swept away as if he hadn't mattered. Serena hadn't always been too pleased with him, but she always thought he was a good man and a good king.

"Explain yourself!" Esme's eyes flashed, but she didn't even rise in her chair.

"I thought it to be obvious. The flames have come up to engulf the dry bush and set it afire, destroying everything in its destructive path. I only hope what is left after the wreckage can grow once more."

"Get out of here, you ungrateful child." Esmeraude hissed. Serena was about to do just that anyway, when Esmeraude called her back. "Finish serving us first, then go out the servants' door." Serena complied but Esme had one last thing to say before Serena left. "Oh, and Serenity, no food for a day." Serena's eyes turned dark at the thought, and wished she could burn a hole into her stepmother, but knew if she acted out now, the servants would be on the receiving end. It wasn't illegal to punish them, but she'd be loosing a lot of help the next day when they decided to leave. Esme only called her Serenity, not because it sounded more formal or higher status, but because she didn't want there to be any thoughts of friendliness between them and Esme was too high class to slip into a nickname.

Serena closed the door firmly behind her and was already halfway up the stairs to the rest of the rooms, to see what she needed to do there, when she heard her friend's name screamed. "Adelita!" Serena cracked up, unheard so far away, they obviously bit into the spice-infused concoction that Lita created. Served them right, hopefully Lita could pull it off that this was the way she always made them.

She paused at a door that hadn't been used for well over ten years. She opened it to revel her parents bedchambers. Not the room that her father had shared with Esme, but the room he shared with her mother. She had been tossed from her horse and the hooves had come down on her chest when Serena was eight. Her mother hadn't lived long enough to even get her back to the house.

It had pained her father too much to even look upon this room, and so it had been closed and never reopened, not until five years later when her father had been found here. Tears started to gather in her eyes, but she moved into the room anyway and her fingers ran over the dust filled furniture. Esme had completely forgotten this room existed, but Serena never could. It was in the opposite wing her step-family now occupied, her own room was down the hall, but she had been banished from it, the entire wing closed up after her father's death. Esme also wanted it to hit home that Serena was now a servant first and foremost.

Serena didn't mind, Lita had been her friend since they were toddlers, Lita was born into servitude, her mother and father were cooks for this household before her parents both died as well from an illness that had bolted through the country. Lita had been 17 when it had happened, but it didn't hurt any less for her. It had bonded the two of them together, this shared pain, they were more like sisters than anyone of blood relation could claim.

She kept walking further into the room until she came across the bed that her father had laid in at the time of his death. The doctor hadn't wanted to move him, and it had been a drawn out process of three days. Throughout it all Serena had sobbed and begged for something to be done to make him better. Her father was her rock and light and the world turned and the sun set because of him. She knew what would happen once he was gone, but more than that, she wanted him with her for as long as possible. It still choked her up sometimes when she thought about him or someone talked about him.

Her father had called to her in his last few moments and held her face in his hands and told her, he loved her. He did not look away, even though the rest of the family stood around his bed, and then he was gone. He died mere weeks before her 13th birthday. Every year her month of another year of life was bittersweet as it was another year of death as well.

The doctor said it was his heart, but Serena knew better. His heart was strong, she had spent many nights listening to it as her lullaby. Serena doubted she would have come in here, now, had it not been for the news of the King. The King who had said such comforting words to her shortly before her father's death, the King she thought abandoned her in the time of need just after saying them. She should have known her stepmother had a hand in this one. However her father had told her, his will was held by one of the most trusted men in the world, his dear friend, the King. Despite any thoughts against him, she was going to hold him to his word, she was going to go to him on her 18th birthday and demand he fulfill his promise, helping her and setting things right, allowing her to have control of her land and property now, rather than later, and provide for her step-family another residence to control. With his death, Serena was once again reminded of her parents' deaths and how she was once again back to the nothing she had lived at for so long. She could no longer go to him, and it felt like she was loosing her family all over again.

She liked the King well enough and so she flopped down on the dust colored sheets that had last held her loved ones and cried for the King, for his family, for her parents and for herself. Oh she cried and she could not stop herself. It was this way that she fell into a doze and it was nightfall before she removed herself from this area and back to her uncomfortable servant's bed. She fell back asleep.

It wasn't a quite average day for the D'arte household, but it was close to one, save for the mourning that settled over the entire country.


EAN: Yay! Update in what is it... a day? 2? Haha, yeah I did it. Told you that there would be more updates now that its a new year!