"Yes, sire, she is," Matthew replied.
"Good, then let's wait and see, and also don't kill her yet, Matt." The king emphasized the last part.
"How are the preparations?"Gavriel asked, changing the subject.
"They are moving smoothly, your Majesty. All the invitations were sent out a week ago. The guestrooms will be prepared today, and the maidservants will be briefed again on how to act." The butler gave his King the details.
"Good, send me something to eat," the king uttered with his eyes closed.
Bowing, the butler closed the door on his way out, wondering which unlucky woman would serve the King.
Back in the kitchen where Florah was panicking, "Oh no, please heal, please!!" Florah internally screamed. She was on the verge of breaking into tears as she had accidentally cut herself while cutting the onions.
She had survived cutting herself while peeling the potatoes now her 'very good luck' had brought her into this situation.
Luckily enough, the vampire headmaid had left the room to go check the dining hall before she would catch the scent of her blood, which was very enticing as Jeremiah had once told her. And that would be very bad for her.
She wondered why her healing was slower than usual, pressing on the injured finger a little more. She felt a stinging but bearable pain.
Panicking, she put it in her mouth, licking the wound desperately praying for anything to work so that the bleeding would stop.
Pulling out her finger, she saw the wound slowly closing. Sighing in relief, she looked around to notice that the other maids were busy with their work to notice her actions.
With all the things that were happening to her that she was clueless about, Her fast healing was the only good thing that she was happy about, that's why no matter how many night episodes her body went through, she was able to recover quickly.
"I do not know why we go through all this trouble when the guests never finish their meals and end up using one of us as their meal" She heard the dirty blonde haired maid, Harriet whisper to her friend.
"Shhhhh, someone might hear you," Whitney, her friend, warned her.
"WHO!!, that old vampiress who knows nothing but shouting and giving endless orders.... And wait till the ball.. This will triple. " Harriet continued to utter her frustrations.
"Shhhhh Harriet, will you stop?" her friend warned again, looking around to see if anyone heard her friend bubbling nonsense.
"I pray that I am not here by then," the maid Harriet muttered under breath. This time, her friend just ignored her.
'Did she mean she was going to quit?' Florah wondered and went back to work.
Time went by fast, the Kings guests, which Florah heard that were his family through the maids gossip arrived, and Florah hoped to see them but refrained and continued with her work.
In another part of the castle,
A woman lay in one of the guests' bedrooms unconscious, half naked with the white sheets unkempt.
'Knock' 'Knock' The butler opened the bedroom door entering, he announced, "The guests have arrived, Your Majesty."
"Oh already! I am guessing they missed me," the king said, his words coated with sarcasm.
The butler went over to pick up the unconscious woman, to hear, "She just needs rest. She will forget everything after she is awoken. So try to keep her alive." The king said while buttoning his shirt.
"Who has my ever so beautiful aunt brought with her?" Gavriel asked, uninterested.
" Her two daughters, son and a month's worth luggage," the butler said with knitted brows.
"Guess I should welcome them," the king said with a sinister glint in his eyes.
A dark gold beaded dress swept the floor as a beautiful woman who appeared to be in her early thirties made her way to the grand hall.
"Mother, where is cousin Gav?" A beautiful young, dark-haired woman asked, walking a step behind her mother ever so gracefully.
"He is the king Stacey. Did you expect him to welcome us by the door?" Caroline, another dark-haired young lady, sassed.
"We are his family. He should... "Shuush now, Stacey, he will greet us when he is done with some matters. " Their mother, Duchess Roselinda Clayton, uttered with her chin held in the air.
Servants bowed to the Duchess of Yraville and her family as they walked past them.
"Stacey, where did your twin brother run off to?" Roselinda asked her daughter
"Who knows, mother? He might as well not come back till the ball. " Stacey replied, frowning as she didn't want to be anywhere near that annoying brat.
"You and your brother should learn to tolerate each other and stop bickering every now and then." Roselinda lightly reprimanded.
"Tolerate each other or love each other, Mother?" Caroline taunted her mother
"I know what I said, Caroline," Roselinda answered her older daughter's taunt.
She always felt like the girl was always challenging her. She honestly preferred her second daughter, who was more like her.
Reaching the grand Hall, the three ladies gawked at the richly decorated hall, with two high chandeliers placed above them glowing a subtle golden light, several white clothed tables placed at the right and left sides of the hall.
A long table was placed near the centre of the room, clearly allocated to royalty and rulers of several lands.
"Very grand indeed, mother," Stacey uttered for her mother to hum in satisfaction.
"I hope this one transpires well, unlike the last one." Stacey remembered how her cousin brother pulled out Lady Amber's heart, the last midnight ball, such a gore scene.
"Mother, do you really think Lady Amber did what she was accused of?" Stacey whispered.
"Darling, let's not bring back old tales to ruin something that's supposed to be joyful." Roselinda warned her daughter.
"Maybe this time, he will pull out a chatterbox's tongue," Caroline said, looking at her sister.
Stacey drew closer to her mother at her sister's words.
In one of the hallways on the second floor of the castle, a handsome young man walked leisurely dressed in a dark Grey ensemble, with his hands placed in his trousers' pockets.
Reaching a certain portrait, he stopped and looked at the right corner of the painting. Walking towards it, he pulled out a small rolled up paper and opened it. He smirked when he saw the paper was blank.
"Little cousin, were you looking for this?" Gavriel asked while holding up a small paper that looked exactly as the one the young pureblood was holding.