Leon was too stunned to speak. He had just sneakily gone to meet the cookmaids to prepare this with the claims that he wanted to eat it. This food would barely satisfy his sister, talk less of saying it was too much.
He gaped at the girl for a second before he swallowed hard. He didn't want to misbehave this morning since he was trying to prevent her from getting caught by Ms. Carlos and needed to be urgent. So he suppressed his irritation and went to the wardrobe. Once he became King, he would deal with all these head servants.
He picked a well-folded and neat gown that he had asked a maid to get and placed it carefully on the bed.
"Freshen up and wear this." He said.
Melina stared at the dress, looking weary and unstable. Then...suddenly, as if realizing something, her eyes widened to the extent that if her eyeballs were not fixed on her face they would have fallen off Leon just acted confused but was completely aware of why she reacted that way.
"You..." She looked at the dress she was wearing, her hands covering her chest, wanting to protect her body. The prince just curled his eyes and questioned.
"What happened?"
"M-my clothes...did you change them?" She raised her head to look at him.
"Hmm. Were you expecting me to leave them to dry up on your body with so many bloodstains?" He asked to reason with her.
Melina who was too weak and nervous right now just kept her mouth shut.
She looked like she had surrendered yet, he couldn't ignore the fact that, at the moment, she looked like an innocent dove who had been wronged.
He had a lot of interrogation to do based on how she got these injuries and ended up in the forest but since she appeared frightened this morning, he left that part out. As long as Ms. Carlos doesn't kill her in the next few days, they will still be in the same villa and he will probably meet her again.
Presently, he needed to recover from the distress he went through last night to take off her clothes.
.
Leon left the room for some minutes so that she could get dressed. It was still very dark even though the torches had been lit and most people apart from attendants were still asleep so it was easier to hide her out from people when she was leaving.
"Thank you." She had told him before she departed. He didn't understand why but her attitude since she woke up wasn't satisfying.
He had to admit that he anticipated her tantrums but got disappointed when he got none. Her childish yet bold remarks made him eagerly await her reaction this morning but from his observation, something was bothering her and he guessed it was related to her current condition.
"Phew!" He sighed feeling frustrated with himself. Why was he overthinking because of a maid he knew nothing about apart from her being a maid she was?
Unless he couldn't remember, he had never even peeked at a servant...talkless of a maid. This was probably because his father was dead so he felt free to do whatever he liked.
The morning had already come and the daylight now showed radiantly. This was the standard time, servants were meant to get up from bed and failure to do so came with a huge punishment.
However, Melina still sat calmly in the woods where she came back to conceal herself. She dared not go back to that room besides, lest she had a death wish. She was too weak to get to work this morning and she wanted to hide here for a while even if she knew this might not go well. Ms. Carlos liked to prey on her so it would be easy to recognize out of the hundreds of maidservants that she was missing.
She sat for some minutes before she realized something. The two maids yesterday had been talking about Ms Carlos choosing servants today to attend to guests at the funeral.
She thought of it. She needed to be present at the occasion so she could at least, meet with Aunt Paloma...that was if she would attend it. She already missed her so much these few months. Without needing anyone to tell her, she stood up from where she squatted and ran to their normal meeting location. This time it was harder to leave the place because it was morning and servants were everywhere.
Some of them stared at her as she passed the corners and she could tell it was because of the bandage tied around her head and the new uniform she was wearing.
When she got to the place where the maids were to line up, she saw the large crowd. Some maids were being flogged by Ms. Carlos for coming late and she knew if she wasn't smart right now, she would get whipped too.
So slowly, she turned around to follow a corner where she could get to the front without being noticed.
When she finally escaped the beating, she heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the other barricade to see some of the guards who were being flogged. They faced their portion of brutality too.
Among them was Tynan, a young but energetic steward whom she had known since she was 15 years old. He was the only male servant who was allowed into the maid's quarters and that was how she had known him but he was there, solely to serve Ms. Carlos. Though she had never gone close to him or talked to him before, she could tell he was a nice person. It was obvious when he spoke and composed himself. By the way, he had been the one who took them around the castle that day and his accent had been so alluring.
She refused to admit it to herself but he was the first male she had liked.
He was working towards becoming a Knight now so it was no surprise that he was being trained like this. A Knight's position was the highest posture a servant could get to but it needed a lot of training and commitment.
When King Lucas was king, he refused to let any servant become a knight but now that a different reign was about to start and Leon was much soft-hearted than his father, he attempted to give a few servants the opportunity.
Tynan seemed like a devoted person so she was sure he would make it...
"Pay attention!" Someone whispered to her from beside and she turned around to see who it was. "Ms. Carlos is saying something important. I'm sure you don't want her coming for you again. So concentrate." The girl said to her and turned to listen again.
She glanced at the girl. It was a fellow maid of hers that she had not seen before. It looks like the girl was new but they didn't appoint new maid, did they? Her advice seemed genuine but she couldn't fathom why the girl had suddenly warned her. She was right anyway.
Maybe everyone now knew that Ms. Carlos was really after her for reasons she couldn't understand. Clearing her thoughts, she focused on what her headmaid was saying.
"...some of you are going to move back to the former quarters and I don't want any of you bickering or causing an eruption. If I hear any complaints concerning that, you will regret it horribly." The woman said with a dangerous look while examining them each.
Melina could feel the chills that ran down her spine as well as those of others within her circle. This woman would go to any length to get what she wanted so she didn't doubt anything she told right now.
She raised her head higher since she was not so tall and saw the woman bring out a lengthy piece of paper...more like a scroll. Maybe she wrote the names of those she wanted to be present at the ceremony, she assumed.
Melina became tense when Ms. Carlos started calling people's names and surprisingly, the first name she had called was hers?!
"Melina Clinton." She said with a straight face waiting for the girl she called to come out of the crowd.
Melina, who was still in shock at the sudden call slowly walked to where Ms Carlos stood. It was as if she had misheard and was just trying to clarify if she was the one until she heard that pushy voice again. "Don't waste my time!" Came the brash statement from her headmaid. The woman was too impatient to train people like these.
Melina did not need anyone to give her a brain cell before she brushed past the people obstructing her way and went to stand before Ms. Carlos...her head bowed in respect. The woman's eyebrows furrowed when she glanced at Melina.
"What happened to your head?" Came her polite question. Melina thought she misheard and looked up to meet her eyes.
Since when did Ms. Carlos start to care about her well-being? Even if she saw a person's head ripped off, she would care less.
"I hit my head, Ms. Carlos." She lied, gently putting her head down again but raising it immediately she heard what the woman gave as a remark.
"And you thought changing to a new uniform will make it heal, huh?" Melina's eyes widened in shock. Uniform? Oh no...she forgot she had been wearing a new uniform all along else she would have changed it and found a solution.
"The moment you get upstairs, you better change it. If I see it on you again, I'll rip it away from your body and leave you stark naked in the hall." She threatened and Melina knew it wasn't an empty threat.
"Yes, ma'am." She quickly nodded. Well, now she understood. Ms. Carlos was just concerned about the uniform and not her health. Maids were usually given spare uniforms so that years later after the first one had worn out, they could change it but the case was that this was not even her spare uniform. It was gotten for her by Prince Leon from God knows where.
"You'll stay in the palace and serve as an attendant on the funeral day. So stand here. I don't want you causing trouble in the previous quarters again since it's the only thing you're good at. At least, if you caused any trouble where I am then it will be easier to control it...not when I'm not present." She said to her with a serious look.
'Was she choosing people based on how they caused trouble?' Melina was confused.
Ms. Carlos continued to call the names of people as they filed up where she told them to stand and now half of the maidservants were standing apart. She looked ahead of her to see the people who were not selected and her gaze fell on her tormentor, Nikita along with her side machine, Leanna. Maybe she would finally sleep well for once in her life! "Phew!" She sighed relieved.
"We meet again." She heard the familiar voice of someone and turned back to see who it was. It was the same girl who had warned her to listen to what Ms. Carlos was saying. So Ms. Carlos had chosen her? But she didn't look like the type to cause trouble. If she did, Melina would be aware by now, She thought in her mind but shooed it off later.
That didn't matter. She was only glad that she had changed her mind to come down to this place else if Ms Carlos figured out she was missing, she didn't want to know what would happen if she was found in the woods. And again, she might get the opportunity to meet Aunt Paloma so she wasn't so worried about the reasons.
"Hmm, Yes. Though we don't know why." She whimpered to the girl and gave her a tiny laugh.
"I was wondering the same thing."
"You were?" She asked.
"Yes. Anyways, that shouldn't be the problem now. It's the amount of work we have ahead of us that we should worry about. I've heard that the King's burial is not a small event...especially in this kingdom. People from all the districts will be present. You can imagine the load of responsibility we'll have to make things go smoothly. " The girl informed, trying to tell her to prepare her mind for the tremendous activities they'd have to do today.
She sighed.
Another stressful day for her.....