Just outside the East wing dinning room

  Dark hair styled in bob and dark eyes, Anne carefully arranged Lady Veronique’s food on the table and left the room, but instead of heading back as usual she stayed behind, putting the silver serving cart against a wall a few meters from the side door of the dinning room.

  Anne hadn’t always worked for the Aurelia, unlike most of the staff she had joined the household under Duchess Lucretia and only knew of the other Duchess from stories.

  The so called scandal wasn’t that scandalous to her that was used to other kind of nobles with far darker secrets and in all honestly didn’t really give a damn if some spoiled noble threw stuff around, sure it was irritating but she was getting paid anyway and should things go rough or she wasn’t appreciated for her talents, she was ready to pack her bags and leave just like she had done so many times before as despite working with them Anne had never felt loyalty or love for any noble and the relationship she had with them was one of pure business.

  However this time she had grown fond of Elise, the old woman who had never given up and kept doing her job even if she would never be anything more then an assistant cook.

  It was the kind of tenacity that Anne wished she could have, she had lost count of all the times she left because she wasn’t getting a promotion and got herself hired someplace else with an higher pay.

  Anne had wanted to see where such temperament would lead Elise to, if such tenacity would reward her in the end or it was simply a fool quest.

  It was weird, she didn’t know it was possible to both admire a person and pity her, which was why Anne had took the task of bringing Lady Veronique’s her meals, she didn’t want Elise’s work to be in vain and for a time she had despised the child, or at the least she did till Lady Veronique got over her tantrum and started eating Elise’s meals with no complaint.

  Her anger slowly evaporated from there, only to flare up tonight both at herself and the noble that Anne had been sure would throw a fit.

  She didn’t want for Elise’s journey to finish this way, getting fired over a child’s tantrum and without a smidge of recognition.

  Maybe Anne just wanted proof that mere loyalty and tenacity would pay off in the end, that she it was safe for her to put roots somewhere, or she had simply grown too fond of Elise and was being completely irrational about this whole thing.

  Either way she couldn’t wait till after Lady Veronique was done with her meal to know, so she stuck around and planned to listen from behind the side door, when a younger maid had joined her.

  She had light brown hair almost bordering to blonde and spirited cerulean eyes along with a scrawny and petite figure, her name was Margaret and if there was one thing that characterized her was her love for gossip.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Margaret wasn’t a bad person just the nosy and chatty kind, but that was a side of her that disappeared when she was in service replaced by impeccable professionalism.

  Anne was sure that one day Margaret would still get in trouble for her nosy nature and when such thing happened she hoped the younger maid wouldn’t get anything worse then a stern talk, she would be more worried about it if Margaret worked for some of the other noble families Anne had experience about.

  However Margaret still had enough sense to keep the gossip inside the confines of the Aurelia’s estate and never actually try to eavesdrop on the Duke and the Duchess, in truth the only member of the family that she did such thing was Lady Veronique so it wasn’t surprising to Anne to see her there

  “You were curious too?” Margaret had whispered to her

  “I just wanted to know first if Elise had to pack her bags” Anne would respond still feeling guilty by accidentally setting off the chain of events that brought to Chef Bernard giving that ultimatum to the old woman.

  Once Lady Veronique arrived they took turns looking through the keyhole to see what she was doing and Anne was relieved to see that the young noble was just enjoying eating her meal as usual

  “She could still throw a tantrum tomorrow” Margaret whispered

  “It doesn’t matter Chief Bernard meant tonight and she seems way too eager to eat Elise’s food to ever complain about it” Anne whispered back and, feeling as if she had seen enough and left with the cart leaving Margaret to eavesdrop alone.

  Kitchen

  “Elise, Lady Veronique didn’t throw a tantrum” Anne was glad to inform the sweet old woman about it

  “Really?” Elise smiled at the news, she had been just sitting on a stool in the corner of the kitchen looking utterly defeated and sad.

  “It was just like you said she’s still appreciating your cooking” the younger maid added to it basking in the pride that was just irradiating from the older cook

  “Ah I am so glad to hear it” Elise then talked louder in the direction of the Chief “Hear that Bernard? I guess I will stay a bit longer” she informed him with laughter in her voice.

  “We will see if that’s the case tomorrow too” Chief Bernard was completely uninterested, he didn’t even look up from the recipes he was visioning

  “Tomorrow?! The bet was for tonight” Anne wouldn’t stand for this and, for the first time in her life, she breached protocol and argued with a superior

  “No, I said if Lady Veronique throws a fit, I never specified a frame of time” Bernard retorted sounding almost bored

  “You didn’t even say if she had to throw one over Elise’s food” Anne was quick to catch on what wasn’t said “Are you going to put Elise at fault even if Lady Veronique has a random tantrum?”

  “So what if I am? What is it to you? I thought the nosy one was Margaret” Chief Bernard retorted finally looking up from his work to fully confront her on the matter

  “I can be nosy too if I see some pompous man acting like a child and making up new rules when he didn’t get his way” gasps could be heard all over the kitchen and Anne was satisfied to see a popping vein on the Chief’s forehand.

  “Anne!” even the old woman was a bit scandalized over how far the younger maid had gone.

  “Fine, Elise can keep working herself to her grave over that spoiled brat if she prefers it that way” that feeling of satisfaction left Anne quickly at Chief Bernard’s words “But when she’s gone, I want you to take over her job or pack your things”

  “Alright” Anne was used to leaving anyway so she didn’t really care, even if she wasn’t quite sure her actions today had been right.

  Wouldn’t it have been better for Elise to go in retirement and enjoy what little she had left without serving anyone?