The Stunne family was a part of the illegal palace hirings. Esme should have guessed after hearing all Delphi had to say about the family's ambitious nature.
Still she was surprised when it was the head matron who approached her with her wooden badge.
It happened right after the bell for end of breakfast was rung. Esme had attempted to get up and leave the dinning hall like all the other maids were but Delphi had put a firm palm on her knee to stop her rising from her seat.
'You are on dinning clearing duty' she had said.
Then she added 'I hope you know the proper way to address a senior matron'.
Esme hadn't had the chance to question that statement before Delphi joined the long line of maids exiting the hall.
She managed to deliver a proper salute and thankfully there was minimal dialogue between them. The lady had simply shoved her badge in her hand, informed her that cleaning the dinning room would be part of her daily chores and that any further instructions would be passed down through her cleaning group mates.
After that Esme was left to clean the large hall with nine other girls.
That had been three hours ago. The dinning hall was now clean, dirty bowls were piled into several large buckets placed at the far side of the hall. The floors had been throughly swept and mopped. The tables had also been wiped down. Esme was arranging the chairs to the tables when one of the other nine girls approached her. All morning the girls had worked mostly in complimentary silence only speaking when they needed too and Esme had been wondering if any further instructions would come or if she could now wander palace grounds with her badge on her.
Her thoughts came to a pause when the girl stepped in her line of sight wiping her hands on her skirt.
Esme looked up. The girl appeared to be plain faced except for big blue eyes that covered almost half her semi circle shaped face. Despite the size of her eyes and bright color of her pupils she didn't have the appearance of innocence like most people with such features. Her nose looked like a single button and her lips had a good curve on the upper one and an average, unenviable plump on the lower. Her hair was brown. Just boring dull brown.
The girl smiled widely and Esme noticed that she also had a set of brilliant teeth.
'I'm Truyi' she said in a tone that encouraged conversation.
When Esme didn't immediately reply in kind she raised a questioning brow.
'Ria', Esme supplied.
The girl nodded smiling again.
'Madam Stunne said you are to stick with me for the first half of the day and after lunch you will be with Delphi'.
'Ah I see', Esme said nodding.
'Welcome to the palace' Truyi said already walking away and gesturing for Esme to follow after her.
Esme followed.
'Within these ridiculous walls you'll find much more ridiculous...situations so keep your head up and be careful. It's not all horrible though. The pay is pretty good I'm sure you know that'
Truyi sent her a wink over her shoulder and then continued saying ' so just get your money and shut up. Never agree to be a witness about anything. Things are always going on around here so if you see something wrong no you didn't. If you hear something wrong, I guarantee you, you didn't and if you smell something...?'
She faced Esme then with an encouraging smile and her left brow raised again
'I most definitely didn't ', Esme finished.
Truyi nodded turning around and continuing to lead them to the end of the room where the buckets with dirty bowls were arranged.
'You should survive. Also as a maid your duty is to serve and get paid. Don't nurse any ambition other than that it would get you killed'. She made a brief but intense eye contact as the last word spilled out of her lips.
Esme nodded.
Truyi smiled again 'Anyways we are kitchen maids and the most noble people we would possibly be around are madam Stunne and Nalette so we should be just fine'.
Not for me Esme thought as they finally reached the buckets at the end of the hall.
She would have to climb this ladder of ambition a little if she wanted to save the prince.
Truyi picked up a bucket full of bowls and gestured to Esme to do the same.
She followed Truyi and together they carried the bucket out of the hall and to an open backyard with a large gutter. They had to walk a few miles of seclusion before coming to the busy large gutter. Not all places inside the palace was pretty. Dirty jobs needed to be done too but they were done very far away from anyone remotely noble.
When they deposited their load by the large gutter. Truyi picked clean buckets and led the way to the closest well.
For the next few hours Esme fetched multiple buckets of water and then sat down to clean her share of the dirty bowls. As she worked away at her new duties even while making plans for her primary duties the sun above her slowly began to rise welcoming a new dawn over North Chedii.