Chapter 14: A Kind Gesture

Struggling to shut the door behind her, Sofie was finally able to reach out from underneath the delicate fabric in her arms and grab the handle to pull the door to the queen's room shut. She wished that the queen's extravagant gowns were not so extravagant. She found it much easier to carry a pile of sheets than a delicate, fancy gown, let alone two.

Perhaps it would have been easier and safer to carry one down at a time, but she couldn't spare the time to make two trips. She had much to do if she ever wanted to seem diligent enough to be a hard worker who could not be spared, one who could not have attempted to kill the king, and one who certainly had not committed a murder just a few days prior.

One of the dresses the maid was carrying began to slip down her arm, threatening to touch the floor. Quickly, she lifted her elbow to shift the dress back towards her torso. Sofie groan as it now covered the view in front of her. With her chin, she managed to flatten it back down.

It seemed as though nothing had been going right for her that day. In fact, nothing had been going right for the past few days, ever since poisoning the king didn't worked. And of course, her unfortunate luck just had to occur when she had lots of work to do.

It was little things that frustrated her and made her want to scream out loud. Most were just minor inconveniences, such as the problem with dresses or breaking a bottle, but it seemed as though everyone else did not have these little problems. It was just her struggling.

As she began to descend the stairs, the top dress fell out of her arms. "No," she groaned as she attempted to catch it, but it fell out of her grasp and slid down the few steps in front of her.

"Here, let me get that for you, Miss," Sofie heard a voice say. She looked up to a young guard ascending the stairs. He bent down and picked up the gown she had dropped.

"Oh, be careful with that," she warned, her arms under the dress she still carried tried to reach out towards it. "A few jewels on the one side came loose. They need to be mended."

He looked at them, touching the small, silver jewels ever so slightly. "It looks like they survived the fall at least."

"Thank you," she held her arms out to recollect the dress, wanting to get on with her day.

"Would you like some help carrying these? They seem like a lot for you," he suggested, the dress still in his hands.

He smiled at her, and it made him seems carefree, as if he didn't mind taking the extra time out of his day. However, Sofie chose to decline. "It's fine…" she looked at the black name tag pinned to his blue uniform, "Officer Frandsen. I can handle it."

"Are you sure?" he skeptically asked. "I wouldn't want you tripping down the stairs and hurting yourself. Let me help you."

"I wouldn't want to take up your time."

"I've got a few moments to spare. No worries," he told her.

Sofie did not want help from the officer, but it appeared she had no choice. He would not give back the dress. "Okay, thank you."

"Where are you taking these to? The laundry room?" Frandsen asked as he headed down the steps next to Sofie.

"They need to go to the seamstress."

He looked down at the dress in his arms as a question popped into his head. "Does the queen really wear her dresses again?"

"She wears her simple day dresses multiple times, but her fancy gowns get altered and worn again sometimes. Ultimately, she has too many dresses for the people to even remember which dress she's worn I guess," Sofie explained.

Frandsen smiled at the insight. "That's interesting. I never really thought much of it. Of course, I'm not big on fashion."

Sofie did not respond further as they stepped off the last stair. A silence took over between them. Since the officer's main concern was her tripping down the stairs, she had hoped that once they stepped on flat ground he would give her back the gown and let her on her way. He did not. They continued walking in the direction of the seamstress. Two of the maids from the laundry room shot them a curious glance. Sofie ignored it knowing that they would take anything and blow it out of proportion.

Eventually, the officer spoke again. "Are you okay?" He had found himself wanting to ask her that question before when he'd see her in the halls, but he never did until it just rolled out of his mouth.

"Am I okay?" Sofie repeated, taken back by his unexpected question. She ran the question through her head, unsure of the answer herself.

He nodded. "Yeah, I know it's personal. It's just that you always seem upset, almost sad, when I see you pass by. Not―not that I watch for you or anything. I just see you sometimes when I'm stationed in the hall. I see a lot of people actually-"

"I'm fine," Sofie interjected. He was rambling anyway; his face flushed a shade of pink as he spoke.

"Are you sure?" Frandsen pressed again. "Because part of my job is observing people for―wow, observing sounds like a bad word―for anything out of the ordinary for safety concerns. Not that you are a safety concern. I just happen to pick up on the emotions of others, and believe me, some need to learn to contain their emotions."

Sofie raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to learn to contain my emotions?"

"No, no. Not you. Some of the king's advisors need to learn how to hold back some anger and not take it out on everyone. I do think letting your emotions out is a good thing sometimes. Some people need to learn to let it out, whatever they feel, like Madame Brodeur," the guard explained.

"First she needs to learn to at least smile," Sofie commented. She had met the Madame when the queen visited her last week.

"I don't even think she knows what a smile is," commented Frandsen.

Surprisingly, Sofie found herself laughing, despite everything.

Suddenly her laughter faded. "I'm not really sad," she said in response to the officer's earlier question as they rounded a corner. She could see the seamstress's room just a short distance down the hall. "I'm more or less just frustrated."

"About what?" he asked, quickly retracting the question and scolding himself for asking yet another personal question. "Sorry, you don't have to share that."

Conveniently for Sofie, they had reached her destination. She never would have thought of doing so anyway. She turned towards him once they stopped in front of the door. "Thank you for your help, Officer. I appreciate it."

He gently placed his gown back onto of her outstretched arms. "It was my pleasure, Miss," Frandsen responded holding the door open for her. Walking in, she gave him a smile to be polite before he shut the door, smiling as well.

That night in her bed, Sofie pondered over the officer. It was odd that someone had actually stopped to help her. Now that she looked back, she wondered: was he making fun of her? No, perhaps he wasn't. He acted like a gentleman, but of course, all palace guards were supposed to act like that. But he had stumbled over his words, so it wasn't as though he had planned to make fun of her.

Was it possible that this was just one, lucky moment when someone had stopped to help her out of the goodness in their heart? Sofie was almost excited about that. It was much easier carrying one gown than two.

Of course, she would probably never speak to Officer Frandsen again. It was highly likely that he already forgot of their encounter.

Good. She didn't want anyone getting close to her because they'll only get in her way. She had a king to kill.

Sofie rolled over in her bed, pushing all thoughts she had aside and pulling the warm covers over her shoulders and up to her neck. Thinking about Officer Frandsen had taken up the time she would normally use to sob into her pillow. She was tired from her frustrating day, too tired to cry over all the little things that went wrong left and right, so she opted for sleep instead