*happy dance*
Next chapter is up!
I ran as fast as I could, praying she did not notice that I was late for work. I launched over the fence, waving to the grounds-keeper Mr. Sliven as I ran. I bounded around to the back of the house where I slipped into the kitchen unnoticed.
I prepared a quick breakfast for the sleeping women upstairs, and then I set everything on three separate trays. Placing one on top of my head then I picked the other one up, balancing it between my shoulder and my right hand then I stooped down and shimmied the other off the counter and onto my left shoulder and hand.
I hurried up the steps, hoping to get to her room before she woke, but when I got to the top step, I almost tripped on the fat black cat, Duke lying in the way. He purred and pawed my ankles with the pads of its feet wanting his milk. I crouched down and slid the bowl of milk from the tray on the right onto the floor. He started lapping it up, and had it all gone in a matter of seconds.
I stepped around him, and slowed my pace to a quick walk. Then I tapped lightly on the door leading to Lady Berggren's sleeping quarters. "Enter." Came the angry reply. "Oh, no." I thought before I opened the door.
"Your late, girl." She said with venom in her voice.
"Yes, I am sorry." I tried to sound regretful, but in truth, I was not.
I walked over to the bedside table and slipped the tray on the left gently onto it. Then I half listened, while she listed off all the multitudes chores I had to do today. It seemed impossible for one girl to finish all those chores in one day. However, I have never had trouble accomplishing it. In fact, it has been rather easy.
Once she finished I continued on to the next door… Drizzela's room. I knocked loudly on this one, trying to wake her up. "Go away." She yelled, and then I heard the snoring start back up. I opened the door, set the tray in my right hand on a table beside the door, then went to the curtains and jerked them open. Successfully blinding the snoring grouch.
I left the room before she could start throwing things at me, and came to the final door in the hall. This one I walked in without knocking. I set the tray from my head on the short table in the middle of the room, then walked over to the window and its already open curtains and looked out over the beautiful garden.
I unlatched the lock over the window and pressed a hand against it, letting in the cool breeze. "Oh, it is such a gorgeous day!" I looked over my shoulder at Bertha as she said this.
"Yes, it is very beautiful." I said, longing to be outside.
We both stood beside the window in silence, enjoying the amazing sun. Until I felt her eyes on me, and I knew she was about to ask a question. Three… Two… One. "Brie, are you okay?" I looked at her, surprised, I knew she was going to ask a question, but I hadn't seen this coming.
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
She studied me with a doubtful and worried look, and then said, "No reason." Then she looked away and changed the subject. "Before you leave I need you to iron the dress on my bed." I knew then that the side of her that liked me had gone into hiding.
Later that day, Bertha came looking for me, and found me making their lunch in the kitchen. She looked over my shoulder to see what I was making, then wandered over to the fruit bowl and grabbed an apple.
She perched herself beside my work space up on the counter, and started swinging her legs back and forth, in the same manner as I had seen Lyssy do.
She reached into a hidden pocket on her dress, and pulled out an envelope, it was the palaces very own stationary. Crimson envelopes with the addresses written in silver across the front. A black wax seal held the flaps closed, and imprinted in silver into the wax was a dragon standing on its hind legs breathing fire. The dragon was the symbol of Rhenia.
The king himself, I knew, sealed this envelope. He wore the stamp on a chain around his neck, and the designs in the fire were one of a kind, impossible to impersonate.
My eyes widened as she turned it slowly so I would know what I was looking at. "What does it say?" I asked eagerly.
She smiled, "I have not opened it yet, because I wanted you to be with me." She said with excitedly. I smiled gratefully, "Well, open it!" I said with a small laugh.
She carefully broke the seal, and then pulled the thick slip of paper out of the envelope. There was a gasp, I am not sure who it was me or her but the reason for it was the beauty. It had a single red rose engraved into the black paper. Then we unfolded it and found more silver writing,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Her Highness, Queen Quymby Marissa, and His Highness King George the Third,
Would like to cordially invite every lady and gentleman of Rhenia to make an appearance at Prince Damian's third and final coming of age ball.
I stopped reading for a moment, and laughed at the words "third and final". Prince Damian had always been… defiant of the stereotypical royalty roles. Since he was six, he tried to be a 'normal' person; he has learned to fight with a sword and has learned archery, both of which are forbidden to royalty in our kingdom. He has run away multiple times from the palace, and was often found either wandering through the streets of Rhenia talking to the commons people, or hunting with his bow in the forest adjacent to the kingdom.
But the most prominent of the misbehaving was when he missed his own coming-of-age balls, the ones that his father and mother had planned for weeks, all of the kingdom was invited but the only one that didn't show up, was the prince himself. This happened two times already, and now they are trying it again.
I looked back down at the letter,
It will be held in the south ballroom of the castle, the festivities will begin on the fifth chime of the bell on Saturday April Seventh the day that is known as "the day of the moon". There will be a great feast in honor of the young Prince and the festivities will last through the night. If the Prince does not select one of the eligible maidens gathered for this event to be his bride, the King will choose one for him. Princes and Princesses from neighboring kingdoms have been invited to this celebration, so all attire should be decent and formal. Ladies will need an escort to accompany them.
We wish dearly that you might be able to attend ~King George the Third
I looked up at the dazed Bertha as she gave a contented sigh. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if he chose me?" she said wishfully.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
She looked at me with a shocked face, then grabbed the paper out of my hand and pointed urgently as she said, "Right here hun, It clearly says; "If the Prince does not select one of the eligible maidens gathered for this event to be his bride, the King will choose one for him." Is it not a dream come true? And only a week away!" She gave another sigh as she stared into the distance.
I rolled my eyes; I did not have time for such silly things. I turned back to stir the soup, and to take the bread out. Once she finally came down from her day dreamy state she looked to me expectantly. "Who are you taking to be your escort, and what are you going to wear?" I looked at her surprised, I had not even thought of going.
"I'm not going." I answered simply.
"Not going? But every one is going! Why in the world wouldn't you want to go?" She asked with huge eyes.
"I have other things to do, and I do not care to go to those kinds of things anyways." I told her, hoping she would not press the subject.
She sat silently studying my face, then in a quiet tone, she said, "You have changed, ever since your father died you have been so sullen and- and… old." She slowly got down from the counter, picked the letter up, and walked quietly out of the room.
When I was sure she was gone, I stopped cutting the vegetables in front of me, and slumped down into a nearby chair. I was suddenly very tired, and I felt like I could cry.
The rest of the day I avoided anyone I thought might ask me about the ball. And I worked double the speed so that I could get home as soon as possible. But that plan failed when I heard my name being screeched through the house, it was Drizzela, wanting me to make her a brand new dress.
"What is wrong with your pink one?" I asked, exasperated.
She made a noise that was a mix between a pig and a donkey. "Is that a dig or a ponkey?" I thought briefly.
"I already wore that one. Really, you would think even lowly servants would know that." She said in a whiney voice.
She pointed to an extremely complicated pattern in the book she was holding. I looked at it, then looked at her, sure she must be joking, "This dress would take weeks to finish if not a month." I told her.
She glared at me, and then she turned her head towards the door, opened her mouth wide and screamed, "Mooootheeeer!" Lady Berggren came running, and Drizzela quickly said in a pouty voice, "Mother, she is refusing to make my dress!"
I opened my mouth to protest but it was cut off. "Is this true?" She asked furiously.
"Of course not! I mean, it would take weeks to make that kind of dress and-" I was again cut off by Lady Berggren.
"I have no doubt in your sewing skills." She turned to Drizzela and said, "You will have your dress by the end of the week." Then she turned back to me and said. "You had better get started if you want to meet your deadline." Then she stalked out of the room with an air of superiority.
Drizzela tapped the face of the book twice and said in an officious tone, "Better get started." Then she flitted out of the room after her mother.
I picked up the book and examined the dress closely; it had the most ridiculous amount of fabric, you could not possibly fit it all onto one person. It may have looked fashionable to Drizzela, but it looked more like a torture device to me. I smiled wickedly; I would not mind torturing Drizzela.
I grabbed the book and hurried out of the room, I really would have to work hard to finish it in time, but I was sure it would be worth it.
I left the house and hurried to the fabric store. I picked out the fabrics I knew Drizzela would like, and hurried home, to fix supper and get to work on the dress.
When I arrived, I realized that the mare was in the barn, meaning that Wess was already home. I was greeted by the smell of pancakes. I smiled; the only thing Wess knew how to cook was pancakes.
I walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see that Wess was sitting in a chair, arms crossed on top of the table, head on his arms… asleep. I looked over to the stove and saw that Nathaniel had picked up where Wess left off.
"He fell asleep after starting some pancakes…" Explained Nate with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Thank-you Nathan." I said gratefully
After making sure Nate had it all under control, I left to change out of my dress into my shirt and pants. I worked tediously all through the night, only stopping to make breakfast for the others and to send a missive to Lady Berggren saying:
I will be working on Drizzela's dress all day,
I will not be coming in to clean today.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are in the ice box.
Please excuse my absence.
~Brietta
Around noon Isabella came in, she saw how much of the dress I had finished and gasped. "You must have been up all night! Wesley told me you were making a dress for 'Grizzly' but he said you only started yesterday." I looked up from the delicate stitches, and to tell you the truth, even I was shocked at the progress.
She laughed at the look on my face, "Don't know your own strength, huh?"
"I thought it would take several days to get to this point."
"Well you are not done yet, you still have a long way to go." She replied to me.
"Thanks for the encouragement." I said dryly.
She laughed and left with the promise of returning with a sandwich and a little girl.
A little while later, when my fingers were cramping and my back was aching Isabella decided to keep her promise. She walked in, led by Lyssy who was carrying the sandwich. I only ate half of it though, and I only ate that much because I was under four watchful eyes.
It went on like this for three days, and then, on Thursday night, I sewed the very last ruffle into place. I looked around, feeling like I had just woken up from a dream. Which was ironic because I had only taken a few short naps in the span of three days.
I looked to my bed, thinking about how much I missed it, then I ran and jumped onto it, landing on my back. I apologized to my bed for ignoring it as I floated on relaxation. I realized that I should probably get up and change my clothes, but I could not bring myself to move any muscles, and when I was able to lift an arm, it fell back onto the bed like a cinder block. I could feel every time my heart throbbed, sending a wave of blood through me, or at least that is what it felt like.
My eyes hurt from having them open for so long, I closed them tightly, I slowly filling my lungs with air, but by the time I let out the breath, I was in deep sleep.
*~~H~~*
The next morning I awoke at five o'clock, "Oh no! I'm going to be late!" I thought, a little panicky. I dressed swiftly and stumbled half blinded by sleep, down the stairs. And was shocked to find every one already sitting around the table, eating pancakes.
They looked just as shocked as I felt. I walked over to the empty chair and sat down, all eyes were on me. I looked up and asked defensively, "What's wrong?"
They all just stared at me, then finally Wess cleared his voice and spoke up. "You are not going to finish the dress?" He calmly took a sip of his coffee to wash the sticky pancake down.
"I finished last night." He started choking on his coffee when I said this, and when he was finally under control he asked in a surprised tone, "You finished it last night? Why didn't you sleep longer then?"
"I slept an hour longer." I said with a frown.
He sighed an rubbed his forehead. "Brie, you need some rest."
"I had four whole hours of sleep last night" I said, wondering why he was acting like this.
He chuckled, "You are really something, you know that? Fine, how about this, you go back to bed for another hour, then when you feel rested you can go back to work." He negotiated.
I glared at him, then I stood and stalked out the front door. Ignoring their voices asking me to stop. I got half way to work before I realized it was raining, and it was cold rain.
I was a shivering mess when I finally got to the mansion. I walked through the front door and went straight to Bertha's room.
There was already a tray of breakfast on the table in the middle of the room, I gawked at it, for some reason it made me feel unneeded. I slid down to the ground, back against the wall, and closed my eyes. I only meant to close them for a second, but when I opened them again I was looking up at the ceiling, and instead of wall and floor behind me I felt a soft blanket.
I heard a voice to my left, and tried to move my head to see who it was, but I was too exhausted. Someone replied to the first voice. "I found her sitting there, soaked to the bone and freezing." I think that one was Bertha's voice, but I'm still not sure who's voice spoke first, it wasn't anyone I knew that's for sure. Then, yet another voice was added to the picture.
"She left the house before I could stop her. Thank God she came here and not somewhere where we couldn't find her." That was Wess' voice, I knew that much.
"Yes, you were very fortunate. She was probably ready to pass out before she even left her house. Then add the ice cold rain to that…" I finally realized who it was, it was the doctor from the north side of Rhenia. I had talked to him on a few occasions, but he didn't know I wanted to become a doctor. So I wasn't really an interesting person to him.
I was finally able to move my head enough to see that they were all standing with their backs to me, looking out the window at the rain. I tried to say something, but it came out in a dry croak, then I started laughing, because I sounded so funny when I was just trying to say hi. The laughing sounded even worse, it was like someone was torturing a frog, but I couldn't stop, I sounded extremely funny.
I now had the attention of the other three people in the room. Bertha and the doctor's faces were concerned, but Wess' face told me that he knew I was laughing, and not dieing a slow painful frog death. He had a silly grin on his face, making me laugh harder.
"What's wrong?" I heard Bertha's anxiety filled voice.
Then I heard Wess reply with a hint of laughter in his voice. "She's laughing at herself."
Bertha's face turned relieved, then she looked almost happy.
I looked at the faces around me and had the strange feeling that a new beginning was rapidly approaching.
A/N
Tada!
Okay, before I forget, I'm totally wacked out about the date of the ball...
You will see why this Saturday :D (Hint, hint.)
Thank you everybody for reading, I hope you review!