Chapter Six: The Obsession
The Countess Sai of the Cat Kingdom sipped her morning tea as her pet songbird trilled a greeting from its golden cage. Her red lips split into a naughty smile.
The Baron von Gikkingen had surely learned his lesson by now. It had been two weeks since he had posted the new version of the housekeeper ad, and she knew for a fact that no one had been able to answer it yet. She giggled softly as her delicate teeth nibbled on a scone.
Under ordinary circumstances, she would never have considered setting her cap for a mere Baron, especially one that only owned a narrow strip of land between the kingdoms. But from a political standpoint, there were none higher ranking than the Baron, save for the King and Prince.
The King had long held a strange disdain for the Countess, as had his son, from a little misunderstanding with her parents a few decades before concerning the accidental falling of a chandelier.
Sai knew that, if she wanted to, she could have the old fool wrapped around her paw in a thrice and gain an impressive inheritance upon his death, but there was a good chance that the Prince would find a way to block her path to more wealth, or even the throne. And the Prince was much too young for her to try her wiles on him.
Besides, he already had a countless number of royal and noble she-cats vying for his hand in marriage. So the logical choice was Baron.
She had wanted him for years. After he had turned her down for that white little nobody, she had given in to the advances of an aging and childless Count. If she couldn't win from a political standpoint, she could at least gain a win from a wealth standpoint. After the white Baroness had died, the autumn-colored cat had thought that she was but one poisoned glass of wine away from taking the thief's place. But even after the all-too convenient death of her old and doting husband, Baron still chose to keep his distance for reasons known only to himself.
She looked at her reflection in the window. Yes, there was no doubt of her beauty, and she could hold her own at any court. Without his mother or even a housekeeper to lean on to help him with his motherless kittens, it was only a matter of time. He had to come to his senses about her, sooner or later…
The red cat sighed again, thinking about his beautiful green eyes, and thick rich gold and ivory fur. Sai giggled like a little girl, not afraid to admit to herself that his political standing wasn't the only reason she found him so appealing.
About the only reason she didn't fly into a terrible rage after seeing the ad in the paper was that it provided her with the perfect chance to show him that the only female he could ever trust with his house and children was herself. It had cost her quite a few pretty pennies, to bribe all those potential housekeepers into presenting themselves in the worst light possible, but if that's what it took to put a 'Baroness von Gikkingen' in her name, then so be it.
Her heart began to pound in her ears, thinking about what it would be like for Baron to finally hold her close in his arms, and kiss her…
"Uh, my lady?"
Sai suddenly turned, realizing in the process that she had been unconsciously kissing the scone in her hand. Her man servant Jai was looking at her nervously, like he didn't really want to disturb her.
"Yes?" she asked, a little miffed that her sweet daydream had been so rudely shattered.
Jai bit his lip nervously. "I'm afraid a candidate slipped past me, my lady. The Baron hired her on the spot."
"What?!" she screeched, jumping out of her chair. "I thought you were camped out on his land!"
"I was, my lady, but he met the candidate while he was in the human market. I approached her after the others had gone to bed, and made the usual bargain, but she turned me down flat."
"Then you should have doubled it!" she hissed at him, throwing her tea pot at him.
Jai dodged it, barely, and put his arms over his head as the porcelain shattered against the wall behind him. The wallpaper became stained brown from the tea that ran down the wall like a dirty waterfall. "I tripled it, my lady! But this girl didn't even turn a hair over the money, and she's a peasant!"
Sai's paw froze, just before sending her teacup to join the teapot. "She's a peasant?"
"Well, she has to be, from the way she's dressed." Jai opened one soft grey eye to look at his mistress, and rubbed one of his dark cheeks with a grimace. "She hits like a peasant, too. She's a stubborn, willful savage of a human."
"What does she look like?" the countess asked, while setting her teacup down. Her black eyes were narrowed in a calculating manner.
Jai managed a soft laugh. "Let's just say that when the Baron asked for a plain housekeeper, he got one. When she doesn't talk or move, she almost disappears entirely, and it's hard to keep your eyes on her at any given time. You can't even see most of her face, because she wears a huge pair of eyeglasses that no normal person can look through. She could never hope to hold a candle to you, my lady." The ending of the speech had turned soft, almost worshipful, but the countess didn't notice the change of tone.
A second naughty smile came upon the red cat's lips as she reached over the small breakfast table, and finished eating her scone.
"A plain peasant girl that doesn't know her place…" she laughed softly. "In that case, leave her be. She'll exit the Baron's manor soon enough, one way or another. Then he will see the light, and come running… to me."
ooOoo
Baron kissed each of his children, and shook Hashi's hand before tipping his hat at Haru. "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, possibly two weeks or longer. Children, I want you to do exactly what Miss Haru says, and be good."
"Yes, Father," they said sadly as Lily snuck one more hug.
Baron hugged her back while looking at his children's nanny. "I'm trusting you with my treasures, Miss Haru. Don't let me down."
Haru bowed once more, keenly feeling the master key for the house that he had given her, and she had wrapped around her neck for safekeeping. "I won't disappoint you, sir."
He smiled a bit at the strange lapse, and climbed onto Toto, who had been stretching his wings in an exercise pattern a few yards away. He grinned a bit as the feline lord climbed onto his back, armed only with a day's worth of food and a change of clothes in a knapsack. The Baron had always been one to travel light.
"I'll be back as soon as I can!" he called out as his darkly feathered friend took to the gorgeous blue sky.
His children waved at him until he had become the size of an ant in the distance, as his two housekeepers did the same, although they felt silly doing it.
"So, what now?" Thomas asked his tall nanny as she stretched her arms out.
"First thing is laundry. There's a good breeze in the air, and we might as well get some use of it."
"Can you tell us another story while we work?" Elly asked, holding onto the dark girl's brown skirt.
The bespectacled human laughed, and wrapped one arm around the white kitten as the rest of the children followed them back inside the house to start gathering the dirty laundry. "Have any of you ever heard the tale of White Bear Whittington?"
"Only when you were talking in your sleep again last night," Hashi said dryly before running up the stairs to escape his sister, who was in hot pursuit as the kittens collapsed into helpless laughter.