Melina turned pale at the realization that she hadn't gotten back her maid's uniform and had borrowed Nikita's own the previous day.
She saw Nikita open the door to the room that looked a bit scattered like someone had run through their belongings. The girl cursed as she tried to arrange the things that belonged to her and had been pulled out of her wardrobe. Leanna also followed suit when she caught a glimpse of her belongings scattered about.
Ms Carlos had given them just ten minutes so they dared not waste any time. She took note of how they ignored her while rampaging through the things on the floor to know which was theirs.
After managing to arrange what belonged to them, Melina watched the two of them get into the bathroom and close the door behind her. Immediately she heard them bolt the door, she hurriedly tried to pick up some of her things too while contemplating what to do about her missing cloth.
However, when she finished arranging the remaining items left that belonged to her, she opened her wardrobe to keep them when she was greeted with the sight of her maid uniform, folded inside the corner of it.
Her mind went blank for a moment, trying to grasp what she was seeing. Then the next moment, her hand pushed forward to pick the neatly folded dress from its position. When she unfolded it, her eyes narrowed at it because this was exactly her uniform. She could tell by the collar and compared to when she wore it last, it looked...neat. She tried to wrap her head around this incident.
Did that mean the prince send it back to her? But how did he do that and when? Or did someone else do it? She looked around her, turning alert. Maybe the prince sent someone else but...
'ouch,' she put her hand on her forehead, feeling it throb again and simultaneously, the door of the bathroom opened, revealing the two servants who had entered before now. They had cleaned themselves up and worn their uniforms, which gave less room for her to see the lash marks. They sent silent daggers her way before hastily leaving the room.
Remembering Ms Carlos had given her only ten minutes, she picked up her uniform and swiftly stood up before disappearing into the bathroom. She wanted to treat her wounds but didn't have much time anymore and considering how the woman had pardoned her for today, she didn't want to get on her bad side.
She simply cleaned the wounds on her knees and her head before showering and sliding into the uniform.
With no other time to waste, she too left the room.
When she reached the quarters again, she noticed Ms Carlos had already sent some of the servants to their assigned duties.
"All the maids whom I have assigned to the guests, you are to head to their rooms with refreshments from the kitchen. Make sure when you draw the bath, the water is warm enough but not cold. And listen to their every word! I don't want any complaints!" she emphasized and scanned through them, noticing how they all bowed in compliance.
Melina saw the woman point at her and another maid whom she recognized as Cinna from earlier. They both didn't need to be told as they left the quarters for the kitchen to carry the refreshments being prepared by the other maids.
After that, they went back to the quarters and heard Ms Carlos order the guard, Tynan
"Take them to Lady Jordyn's room. The future King's wife should be served first." Tynan bowed before leading them to the guest's quarters.
Melina was still slightly limping due to the pain in her knees but straightened herself up when she heard she would be serving the woman who had hurt her hand. She didn't want to make any clumsy move so she wouldn't be punished again and for the first time, she did well.
When Tynan reached the front of Lady Jordyn's door, he knocked before announcing,
"Ms Carlos has sent your servants for the night!"
"Oh finally, I thought my skin will peel before Leon would attend to me. Come in!" came her saucy reply and Tynan opened the door for them to enter.
Cinna and Melina entered the room and bowed their heads before placing the tray of snacks on the table.
Seeing the room was very untidy and scattered, Cinna started picking things up and Melina entered the bathroom to draw the bath, turning the faucet for water to fill the tub, the way Ms Carlos ordered.
When she was done, Jordyn took off her dress completely and immersed herself in the soapy water, whereas Melina who saw the naked woman, swallowed. She had been thought to bathe elite ladies but had never actually bathed one before. She prayed she would not mess up this time and slowly but steadily, she picked the soft sponge before gliding it on the woman's skin.
While she carefully used the sponge on every part of her body, she noticed how spotless and smooth her skin was. Not even a single scratch or bruise was marred on it, leaving her to wonder if that was how all elite skin was. No wonder the lady had been so dramatic when the cutlery unintentionally fell on her at the burial today.
"For a maid, you have smooth and long hands," remarked Lady Jordyn, who had been following how gracefully Melina's hands moved on her body.
"Thank you, my lady." she accepted the compliment and didn't speak further on it just for Jordyn to continue,
"My brother was right. Servants here are not given enough tasks to carry out. A maid is not supposed to have good hands. They should be rugged from doing a lot of chores." she educated Melina like she had no idea and Melina cautiously closed her mouth this time, simply listening and not retorting.
Seeing her not speak, Jordyn intentionally dug her sharp nails into Melina's slender hands while she brought them up to wash her, causing the poor girl to flinch, looking up at the lady.
"What? Why are you still staring at me?!" Melina bent her head down again, scared and not speaking a word to her. She was trying to not do anything silly.
Though to the young girl, Jordyn's actions were due to the hostility of what happened earlier at the ceremony, in reality, the elite lady was just envious that there was someone who had more delicate hands than hers and to make it hurt more, it was a servant.
After the troublesome bath, Melina dried Jordyn's body before letting her step out of the tub.
The lady pulled the curtain to be met with a sparkling clean room, contrary to what it had been earlier and it was all thanks to Cinna.
However, she didn't care or take regard to the way Cinna had cleaned the messy room and merely went to sit on the chair facing the mirror.
The two maids glanced at each other before going to where she sat to prepare her for her siesta.
While they helped Jordyn slide into her night dress, she took a piece of biscuit from the refreshments before she commented,
"They should look like those" and crunched on the snack. Confused, the two servants gazed at each other again before she elaborated,
"I mean your hands, it should look like hers," she pointed at Cinna's hands which compared to Melina's looked horrible.
"Do not worry, when I become Queen, it would look like that," she affirmed, raising her chin in pride.
The maid subconsciously gasped and hid her rugged hands behind her, feeling embarrassed and her face redden. However, Melina finally grasped what she meant and internally sent a glare at the lady, along with a look of disapproval.
She didn't understand why it mattered how one's hand looked but it seemed from her short time with this elite that it was a thing of importance to ladies of high status.
'How wealthy people wasted their time on useless things' came the first thought in her head. There were more relevant things to worry about than this.
They spent a few more minutes in her room dressing her up while she ranted about so many things, especially how she would be Queen and achieve a lot of things with her position.
Finally, she dismissed the both of them from her room.
The two quietly strolled out of the guest's quarters to the kitchen and halfway there, they saw the palace guards, still searching the areas for the missing piece.
"Stop!" came a loud voice she recognized. Though he had only impacted her life for a few minutes in the quarters, she still felt shivers run down her spine from his voice. Cinna was also present when the man interrogated the servants so she too looked scared at his appearance.
"Which guest did you serve?" he questioned them while looking at the almost empty tray they carried. He didn't need to be told they attended to a guest.
"Lady Jordyn's" they promptly replied.
He collected the tray and gazed at it before nodding in approval and letting them go.
As they walked further, Melina noticed from the corner of her eyes, two familiar faces that had saved her today.
Matthew who had released her from the dungeon and the prince who had somehow returned her uniform to her on time. They held such serious gazes, it made her wonder what all this search was about. Was it just a knife as she heard back there? Or did the knife mean something?
Suddenly, Leon's gaze came her way and immediately their eyes met, she turned away and paced faster, embarrassment surfacing her.
She had enough reasons to be embarrassed. Starting from when she found herself in his room, to when she realized he had changed her dress and now, he would have also heard she was the servant eavesdropping on his conversation the previous night...
Her mind continued to wander in different directions, causing her head to ache again.
....
"I would retire everyone for the night now." the voice of Ms Carlos was heard again when they had all finished their duties and headed back to the quarters.
"I want every servant to be awake very early tomorrow so we can serve our guests to their satisfaction, do I make myself clear?" her enthusiasm now to alter the guest's view of her trainees increased when she heard no complaints from them this time.
They all nodded and bowed in obedience before leaving to their respective rooms to rest their head.
....
...
If anyone is still reading this book, I would like to say a big Thank you for truly being patient with me. I know my update routine has been very horrible and the story may not even be enticing but please bear with me as I try to stabilize things.