A few hours later, the Queen's Ballroom sparkled. The floor was clean enough to eat off of, and Linette could clearly see her reflection. She smiled at their hard work and went to the chambers to wash up for supper.

            She followed the hordes of servants back to the servant's quarters. She was dimly aware that her hands were bleeding, but only slightly. She gathered them into the folds of her apron to numb the pain, as she still puzzled over the strange man.

             It was obvious how he knew her name, she had told him earlier. But how in the name of Mithros had the ring gotten into the bag with sand and rocks? She bit her lip as she attempted to comprehend the situation, but gave up. It was impossible to understand, even to someone with more of a complex thinking process than Linette.

            She realized that she had arrived in the servants' quarters. She strode to the room that she shared with Chavi, and stepped in. A basin on the nightstand was filled with water. Linette dipped her hands into it, appreciating the coolness of the water on her chafed skin. Eventually the bleeding resided, and the only trace that remained were that her hands were faintly pink.

            As Linette stooped to wash her face in the water, Chavi rushed in. "Oh good, you're free." She told Linette. "We need an extra person to serve at the meal tonight. One of the serving girls got sick, and everyone else is busy." She looked at Linnete, and said, "You don't mind, do you?"

            Linette smiled at her friend. "No, of course not. I know how it is around here these days." She would have preferred an earlier bedtime, but it was worth it to help out. Besides, it was fun to make fun of the noble's too fancy clothing with the other serving maids. Linette crawled across to the foot of the bed. She rummaged in the trunk next to it, and pulled out the uniform and apron of a serving maid.

            "Now out Chavi! Can't a girl get some privacy around here?!" Linette jokingly hopped up and pushed her friend out of the room, the cook laughing at her.

            "Fine, girl, you just better get yourself down there before I drag you down myself, dressed or not." She closed the door on Linette, leaving her to dress alone. Linette quickly pulled off her dress and apron, before sliding the fresh ones over her head. She reached around her back to button them, and tied a bow on the back of the apron. She checked her appearance in the small looking glass she and Chavi kept over the washing basin, and hurried out the door.

            She passed some pages in the hallway to the kitchens, coming down to help serve the meal. They were laughing and pushing each other, stunning in the simple, yet elegant, page uniforms. Linette rolled her eyes, and hurried past them.

            She found the kitchen in more of a frenzy than it had been a few hours ago. The cooks were busy making sure the food for the entire court was hot, and maids were handing off tureens and platters of food. Linette giggled as she saw a small squire trying to carry a platter larger than him, and went to help him.

            "Here, boy, hold it like this." She took the platter from him and showed him where to place his hands on it, before giving it back to him.

            He blushed and muttered "Thank you." before rejoining his fellow pages to deliver food to the nobility.

            Linette heard giggling and turned. A group of serving girls were standing nearby, watching her. "One of them laughed, "Did you see that poor boy? That plate was bigger than he was!" They all laughed, Linette included. Another chimed, "I don't see why they make the poor pages deliver the food, its not like they ever have to do that as a knight. That's our job." A laugh didn't come this time; they all were pondering why this was.

            A maid named Delilah said, "Who cares? Less work for us, and the same pay!" This made a laugh arise from all of the maids as the watched the pages struggle. The group broke up when Cecelia came by, yelling at them to help the cooks give the food to the boys. They still giggled as they streamed away, to offer the help they were paid to give.

            Linette began to hand a platter of fish to one of the boys, who refused to take it. "I'm allergic to fish." He stated. Linette sighed, and set the plate down on the counter. She ran off to find a free page, only to see that there were no free pages. She walked up to Cecelia, and told her the problem.

            "Just go do it yourself. Nobody'll care." Cecelia shooed an aggravated Linette off, who went back to retrieve the platter. She inquired to the page who he exactly he had been serving, and he pointed. She whisked the tray up into both of her arms, and carried it off into the banquet hall.

            The hall was spectacular. The long tables were set up, with a sparkling white tablecloth upon them. Linette whistled at the pages' ability to miss the tables when they fell, which was quite often.

            Linette abruptly thought of the noble who had seemed to turn up in the oddest of places. She glanced around to see where he was, so that maybe she could ask his serving page of his name. She wasn't looking to where she was going, and tripped over the long hem of her skirt. Much to her dismay, the fish  and it's ceramic plate tipped off her platter, and fell onto the floor. The fish and shards of the plate laid in a heap before her.

            Linette groaned. She gathered the mess back onto the unharmed tray, and felt someone brush up against her. She looked up, and saw her stalker. She gasped as he stood up, and looked down at the pilings in the tray. When she glanced back up, the man was gone, and the chatter in the banquet hall continued. Thoroughly confused, she stood up and brought the tray back to the kitchens.

Author's note: I need someone who can write good poetry (preferably rhyming, but not necessarily) for my last chapter of the story, and I might as well ask now rather than wait until the last minute. I will give you full credit for the poem, and promise to review at least four of your fics if you do. If interested, please contact me at notacompletefreak@yahoo.com. Please, someone reply to this, it is needed for me to be able to complete the story, and I am hopeless with poetry.

BTW, thank you to all of the people who reviewed. And to answer the question most of you seem to ask, it's not Roald… You'll have to wait till I finish the story to see my "unexpected" twist!