Sigrid raised her eyebrows, oh look another detail that was forgotten in the book, Emmah was raised on the funds of the Thorin family. They basically raised the child that would lead to their downfall.
In addition to that, they sheltered her mother, fed her, clothed her and protected her reputation. When a filtered version of this story was released to the public, Duchess Mila got the identity of a villain for cruelly forcing Mirena and Emmah to separate because she could not let go of her servant while Mirena was seen as the poor humble servant that suffered a grave injustice.
Mirena's soft beauty coupled with her sob story and Emmah's halo all contributed to her white washing and she won the heart of the king's widowed brother who married her in a grand wedding fit for nobility.
All this of course fattened up Emmah's identity even more, she went from a woman with unknown roots to the daughter of a prince.
Before getting married, there were some disasters that Sigrid wanted to take care of, like this one. The sooner Mirena was removed from the their home, the better.
"Duchess, pardon me for interrupting but if we do not hurry the lady will miss the auspicious time for the wedding." Lanai interjected into the conversation.
They were not talking anyway, all of them were thinking about what Sigrid had said. Time had really moved fast however and the sun had come up, the wedding was to be held in two hours time, followed by festivities, a banquet and then the couple would set off for Stormwind castle.
"We can discuss this next time, perhaps we we should have a talk with Mirena first." Iryne suggested.
"No."
The duchess and Sigrid both responded at the same time, rejecting the suggestion strongly.
"Lanai go and take Mirena further away." Sigrid ordered. After ten seconds, she grabbed her grandmother's hands and said, "Grandmother, you need to get rid of her or else someone will take advantage of this matter to ruin my reputation later. How many of these noble families are waiting for an opportunity to send their daughters to Roland's bed and win his favor?
I paid a very large price to make the king decree that he cannot have a secondary wife and many nobles are unhappy.
If they cannot have their daughters take up the position of secondary wives the only option they have is to get rid of me, the main and only wife. Any negative information they can get on our family, however small is a weapon."
Deanna nodded, as did the duchess but Iryne was a little skeptical.
"Grandma, after my wedding, assemble everyone on the estate, especially the servants on this list and let them all go. Start with Mirena, make sure that you mention her child, tell her that you are letting her go so that she can enjoy the rest of her days with her daughter.
Give them a house, a small cottage somewhere and be sure to mention the orphanage and how you have been taking care of her daughter. Do not mention the father of the child, it will be best if people speculate about that matter and draw their own conclusions.
If the story comes to light later, everyone that was present at her termination will testify as a witness to your kindness to the mother and daughter."
Duchess Mila was no fool, all the reasons Sigrid laid out for her made a lot of sense. Their family had given up the salt mines to secure Sigrid's marriage. It would not be worth the sacrifice if it was ruined.
She was even more impressed by the way Sigrid was articulately and cleverly laying out a plan. When she heard about how Sigrid had talked the king into granting their family a death free medal, she had skeptical but now, she was convinced. Indeed, marriage made changed of women, and in Sigrid, the changes were good.
Her granddaughter needed to be more cunning than a fox to survive the cunning nature of the royal family.
"What about the rest of the servants? Should I compensate them too?" she asked.
Sigrid nodded. "But make sure that they receive less than Mirena and do not give them any houses. You can plant a few of the loyal ones among them to express their dissatisfaction of Mirena's special treatment.
She has created an image of innocence all these years, we need to turn it into one of cunning. The more they resent her, the better for us.
People will be suspicious when we let go of thirty servants at the same time so in their place, hire new ones, younger ones whose minds have not been infected with rumors and presumptions about our family.
We should also hire more farm hands, I met a business man at the Eastern boarder that gave me some new seeds which have never been planted in Eldoria. I think we should grow them and see what surprises they can bring us.
The emperor is very suspicious of our family, our military might makes him wary. If we take up part time farming and give up some of our military power, he is bound to relax."
Sigrid got off the bed and stretched her arms.
"I am ready to get married now, mother help me prepare."
The three ladies got up, Deanna left first to start working on tracking down the servants on the list while Iryne and Mila stayed behind to help Sigrid dress up.
Even though Eldoria did not have the extreme comforts of modern earth, it was not a very backward world. Sigrid had certainly found the large bath in her very large room enjoying. It was the size of a small swimming pool, the water was always warm and rose petals were always added to the water.
Having maids assist her when she was taking her bath was new to her but she did not stop them, when one was in Rome, they had to do as the Romans did.
After her bath, Sigrid was helped into her wedding dress which was a long flowing white gown that had been tailored and changed in the last two days.
The design had been changed to include lace that extended to the high neckline and long sleeves. The skirt was not as voluminous compared to the usual standard dresses that had multiple layers of silk or tulle.
At the back, small pearl shaped buttons trailed from the arch of her back to the small v-shaped design which showed a part of her back before continuing all the way to her neck.
Sigrid opted to design her hair personally, choosing to do a slightly messy bun with a few escaped locks of hair trailing at the front neatly.
Instead of a veil, she chose a floral crown which was made from white flowers with a little green here and there.
It was a little more modern without being too modern to cause alarm and grab the notice of Emmah, alarming her to the presence of another transmigrator.
"So, what do you think?" she whirled around in a single elegant move.