Loved - Staff thoughts
Now that breakfast was taken care of and the royal family was off to their duties and lessons, Danika the maid went to the residence level on the top floor of Castle Arendelle. With a basket on her elbow, filled with flowers and other things from the gardens and kitchen that she couldn't stage upstairs, she climbed the huge spiral stairs. The stairs creaked in the quiet of the large, nearly empty castle.
Danika munched on the smoked fish sandwich the cook had given her as she passed through the occasional shaft of sunlight. Her sandwich was really good, she wondered if the chef was sweet on her.
There was a time there were maids and butlers and other servants on each level, but now there were just Kai, Gerda, a reduced kitchen and stable staff and herself. Gerda and herself took care of most of the darkened castle, making sure it was clean. With hardly anyone in it, it was simple enough, mostly just dusting. The weather was warming up and Gerda was talking of bring back some help for the Spring cleaning. They would have one day to deep clean everything while the royal family was away.
That was the odd thing, the royal family would leave the castle, but not together. It would be one thing if they went on a picnic together, but they weren't. It was so very different then what her family had done when she was a child.
Danika stopped to put her basket down on the sideboard she used to stage her cleaning rounds on. Behind a tapestry she went to her cleaning closet and accessed her supplies, noting her waste basket was nearly full. Danika missed having young pages to fetch firewood for her, it would take her several trips to reload the bins up here.
She went to the Royal apartment first and made the bed and tidied up. It was a fast job because the Royal couple were neat and nice people. She took the breakfast trays, Kai and Gerda had brought up, back to her staging area.
She went next to the apartment of the Crown Princess. The door was unlocked so it was fine to go in. Occasionally, she would find the princess locked in her room. She would ask politely if she could clean but Princess Elsa was always said her room was fine. And it always was, except for some dusting and replacing the flowers.
Shaking her head, Danika worried about the growing princess. The King and Queen seemed to be riding her so hard with lessons and studying. The girl never seemed to have time for herself anymore, except when she was locked in her room. The King and Queen were still young, they surely didn't need to prepare their daughter to rule so strictly?
As she tucked the dolls of the princess next to her pillow, Danika wondered if the child had any time to play anymore. Danika knew she missed the sounds of the girls playing and racing up and down the corridors. Hopefully, the princess wasn't lonely. She remembered the time she had found the two girls in the pantry, their faces smeared with chocolate. She had quietly scolded the blushing girls about not asking first. Why did tears come to her eyes over such a silly memory?
Danika paused as she replaced the flowers, the little table was further from the bed then before, again. Danika knew that Princess Elsa liked her room organized and tidy but it just seemed like the side table and vase weren't in the place she would expect it to be in. She stepped back to look at it. It was so odd, it wasn't quite in the middle of the wall, nor was it lined up with the wallpaper. She could only shrug, the princess would have done that herself, no one else would have. If the princess wanted it there that was enough for her.
Taking the wilted flowers and meal tray back Danika picked up the broom and dust pan before heading to Princess Anna's room.
"How could such a small girl make such a big mess?" Danika sighed to herself as she swept up the five foot radius of crumbs around the desk. Before making the bed she had to untwist the sheets and comforter and then replace the drool coated pillowcase.
Danika picked up the clothes that had been tossed in the corner last night. She gingerly felt the pockets to see if there was another dead mouse in them this time. That had given her such a turn. It was just a small shiny rock this time, which she placed with the others on the windowsill.
The dead mouse wasn't the only thing that made Danika cautious here. If the Royal couple were too strict with Princess Elsa, then they were too permissive with Princess Anna. Even with lessons now, she seemed to have full run of the castle. Anna was a nice child, but she seemed to have issues. Danika had found her conversing with the paintings in the gallery on occasion, she had told Gerda who had gone to the Queen, but nothing seemed to come of it expect starting lessons, but the conversations hadn't stopped.
Something was up with Princess Anna. Everything had changed after that white streak showed up in her hair. Danika was positive that it was new and she hadn't always had it like the King and Queen insisted. Why were the gates closed and the staff reduced? What had happened to Anna? Danika had been around Princess Anna for years and thought she was a nice person, but why did her family act so scared of her? Should she be scared too? The uncertainty made it so hard to do things for the princess, could something set her off? She didn't know and that didn't help. Why were they so desperately trying to keep her happy, even at the cost of their other daughter? She wished she knew so the knot in her stomach would go away anytime she saw Princess Anna.
Danika finished cleaning up Princess Anna's room as fast as she could.
