"Miranda, did you hear about the marriage alliance between the vampire and werewolves?" Lucette asked after Miranda finished instructing the chef.
Miranda nodded. Her serious facade didn't change a bit, Lucette puffed her cheeks at Miranda's unbothered reaction.
"Then, who will be the bride?" Lucette asked, but Miranda shook her head and said that she didn't know.
The spark in Lucette's crimson eye dimmed. Miranda wasn't interested and unfazed about the matter, and didn't bother to know something unrelated to her job, but she wanted to know!
'Is it wrong to learn the latest and the hottest gossip in the kingdom?'
Miranda showed a stoic expression whenever she asked her about gossip. 'What a rightful person! She would be a good official if she studied.'
She would never let a gossip pass without knowing about it. Whereas her curiosity would eat her from the inside.
"Miranda, you are no fun," she said, pursing her lips.
"Lucette, since you have so much free time to chat, why don't you take the tray to the vampiress' chamber?" she said, pointing at the tray.
Lucette gazed at the tray. "Are there any guests?" she asked Miranda who nodded. The amount of pastry was enough for several people. Though vampiress Sophie would invite her friend to the palace, she never did that in two consecutive days. Besides, they never eat sweets. Lucette took the tray silently and walked out.
Meanwhile, Miranda stood in the royal kitchen in a daze. The same person who complained about serving the vampiress a day ago was ready to do it easily today! Miranda shook her head not thinking about the reason because no one knew what was in that kid's head.
Lucette hurried to the room, she served the food and drinks to the guests, then glanced at the three new faces from the tip of her eyes, though it was just a glance she distinguished the three women sitting beside each other, their faces had some common traits. Their clothes were of high quality.
'So they are nobles?' Lucette quit the room in deep thought.
'Who are they and why did they come right when the king announced the marriage alliance? They could be the ones in charge of the wedding's preparation.'
Lucette sighed as soon as she remembered the work she would do to arrange the wedding next week. The days to come would be hard.
As Lucette thought, the next couple of days passed doing double the work she ever did in her whole years of working that she forgot to gossip. Lucette dragged her tired body to have lunch. As the wedding ceremony would be tomorrow, the servants toiled day and night to complete the preparation.
'But nobody thanked us! What a miserable life.'
'I will be a gracious lady one day.'
Lucette gazed at the bowl of soup and bread, frowning. The tasks she did the past days exhausted her, feeling like her body didn't belong to her. She ate with the other maids, then she resumed her task. To serve the vampiress again!
'What an awful luck.'
She kept waiting for the princess to appear, but she didn't even catch her shadow. The hope she held was decreasing day after day.
It was better this way, as much as she wanted to see her, her fear of failing the princess surpassed her excitement. 'Many years passed, would the princess remember me?'
Lucette stopped in front of a white-colored door, knocked on the door then entered. The woman with waist-length hair she saw lived in the chamber two days ago.
She put the glasses on the table and stood up, waiting for any other order. The woman and the Vampiress were discussing the dresses.
Lucette glanced at the pile of costumes over the bed with envy. She lowered her head and looked at her shabby black dress and pursed her lips. Listening to the endless compliments from the vampiress shocked her.
'So she knows how to be nice too!'
Lucette heard the chatter of glass and the scream, raising her head to witness the vampiress' peach-coloured dress turn red.
"Sorry, so sorry, I turned abruptly without noticing you were behind me," the woman apologized, then she bowed to wipe the soaked robe. "I-I'm sorry… your..."
Lucette's eyes winded, and then she bit her tongue to prevent herself from laughing out loud. She wanted to clap for what the woman did, be it by mistake or deliberate. The result was pleasing to her.
'If the liquid fell on her head instead, I would jump from happiness.'
The scene before her was too satisfying. The ever-elegant woman in the vampire's noble society looked like a chicken drenched by the rain. This view would show up once a millennium.
'A part of my revenge got paid by an acquaintance's hands.'
"Never mind," Sophie said. Her eyes bulged from their eyeballs.
Lucette tilted her head fast when the drenched woman was about to look at her and clenched her robe tight.
Sophie passed her. "Clean this mess," she ordered and went out.
Lucette heaved a sigh of relief the moment the door closed. She hurried, bought the cleaning products and returned. She collected the pieces of glass and wiped the floor and the carpet while the waist-length-haired woman was sitting on the bed.
"It's nice to do what you want in your life without someone ordering you around and controlling your steps, just to be fit and worthy for your family's name," the woman said, and Lucette's hand posed for a while.
She thought the woman was talking to her, but the woman spoke once again, "You can't even live for yourself."
Lucette lifted her head. The woman gazed at the ceiling, her eyes were glistening and tears falling from them.
Lucette wiped the carpet absentmindedly.
The hardest thing for her was to live her life as a maid. She spent her years doing what the master said, and she feared her life would pass in vain.
Lucette tightened her hand and rose from the floor. "It's your life and your choices. You don't have to do what the others say, they will not live your life nor you will live theirs. You are the key to change your life. If you don't stand up for yourself, then you will end up in remorse," Lucette said, her eyes glowed.
"No one will force you to do something you don't. You had to face them and speak for yourself," she continued.
Maybe these words were directed to herself not for the woman, how she wanted to do this but...
Lucette eyed the woman who was shocked.
'I got carried away! What if the woman told that evil vampiress? I'm in deep trouble.'
"You are quite brave despite-" the woman said, but she didn't continue and smiled at her.
'Despite what? Doing the opposite of what I said!'
Lucette pursed her lips and said, "Thank you for the compliment. Another thing, please, don't tell anyone about what I said earlier."
The woman chuckled and said, "No, I will not."
Lucette smiled and went out. She blabbered in something she shouldn't, at least no one would know.