Yvette pondered the miracle that was her newfound beauty as she watched Bastien walk away.
She barely had to say a thing and he was already hooked. All she needed was to look pretty and that was it. She supposed the rumours of her being ugly probably made her beauty seem that much more elevated.
It was a shame that Genevieve had interrupted their little accidental meeting. Yvette was sure Bastien was about to confess on the spot before they heard Genevieve's voice calling for him, at which point he had to return to the party.
Yvette managed to make him promise to visit the Decaux manor again in the future, though, and she was pretty sure he would come through on his promise.
After the duke left, Yvette waited by the fountain for the tea party to be over before she moved again, at which point she set her sights on the kitchen.
It wasn't yet time for them to start preparing dinner, but all the cooks and the head chef usually took their breaks in the kitchen, so Yvette didn't waste any time and walked right in.
As soon as she passed through the door there was an immediate silence. Since the kitchen staff rarely ever had any reason to leave the kitchen, most of them actually haven't seen Yvette before. Yvette knew, however, that the head chef, Pauline, had definitely met her once.
"Y-Yvette!" The head chef exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
Yvette smiled innocently. "Hello."
The rest of the cooks started murmuring to themselves. Everyone knew that Yvette had no real status in the Decaux family, and most of the staff had been ordered to treat Yvette as if she was invisible, so to see her in the kitchen suddenly, looking dressed up and pretty, none of them were sure how exactly to react to the situation.
"You... what are you wearing?!" After bypassing her initial surprise, Pauline now seemed angry.
"What a stupid question." Yvette remarked, casually leaning against the countertop. "What does it look like I'm wearing?"
Everyone was shocked into silence, but Pauline especially seemed stunned. Yvette didn't blame her.
They had met once when Yvette was six. Yvette had made the mistake of grumbling about not being able to eat enough within Sabine's earshot, and so she overheard. Yvette had not complained about the quality of the food, only that she never got enough, as Claude always emphasised that feeding Yvette was a waste and that Pauline shouldn't bother serving more than the bare minimum for her.
The day after Sabine heard Yvette whine about her meals, when Yvette was served her dinner by a maid, all the food was rotten.
Yvette wasn't sure what she was looking at, so she brought the food down to the kitchen, thinking that it must have been a mistake that she was served something that obviously belonged in the trash. But when she went to the kitchen to speak to Pauline, she only coldly said, "Your older sister told me you were complaining about my food yesterday. Since you hated what I gave you so much I decided to let one of the other maids cook for you instead. What? Are you going to complain about her cooking too?"
Knowing there wasn't anything she could do about the situation, Yvette simply left, dejected. She didn't eat the rotten food, hoping that maybe her next few meals would return to normal, but they just kept serving her rotten food again and again. Eventually, she had to give into her hunger and ate one of the rotten meals.
Unsurprisingly, it ended up making her sick. She was pretty sure at that time, little Yvette was on the brink of death, as she was already not as healthy as other kids her age. Seeing such a severe reaction however, at least made her meals revert back to normal. Sabine had laughed herself silly when she found out Yvette almost died, though.
From then on Yvette knew never to complain about her meals ever again. Whenever she was hungry she just learned how to pick the door to the kitchen and sneak food when no one was looking. She didn't know if Pauline felt bad about how she almost died and so ignored the signs of her pilfering or what, but no one had ever caught her for stealing food.
What a lovely reunion.
"You know you can't be here. I'll tell Lady Decaux that you've been wandering around where you're not allowed... and that you've stolen one of her dresses." Pauline hissed.
Yvette hummed, looking around for a moment before she spotted a knife lying nearby and picked it up. Without any warning, she then threw it towards Pauline, too fast for anyone to react in time. She wasn't aiming to kill, though, so the knife sailed past her head and was lodged into the wall behind her. It was definitely a close thing. The tip of the knife just barely missed the top of the head chef's ear.
There was a moment of deafening silence, and then Pauline fell to her knees. The other cooks watching all stumbled back in surprise and fear.
When they all turned their eyes from the knife back to Yvette, she was grinning from ear to ear. A shiver ran down all of their spines.
"I know you're not an idiot." Yvette started, slowly walking around the table to get to the head chef. "So I won't have to warn you again, right?"
Pauline turned up to look at Yvette, her shoulders trembling. "Wh... What do you want?"
"Easy! All I want is for you to give me a proper meal. No skimping on the portions, and make sure the ingredients are all fresh, alright?"
"B-But... what if Lord Decaux notices?"
"If he does, then I'll handle it. But I really don't think we have to worry about it. After all, if you're careful enough, what will there be to notice?"
The hard glint in Yvette's eyes was enough to make Pauline back up in fright, nodding her head frantically to show that she knew what she needed to do.
"Perfect!" Yvette clapped her hands together. "If you even think about telling anyone about this, I'll kill you in your sleep. So make sure to keep this secret just between us, okay?"
This time she got nods from everyone in the room. Satisfied with her work, Yvette then left the kitchen with a skip in her step.