The Duke and the Deal

07. Maids and a Dark Red Rose

~Not Edited~

Ella fell asleep sometime later on from the exhaustion of weeping almost endlessly. She had a tough time adjusting to a proper sleep and dream peacefully of her usual adventurous imaginary characters and quests, and it was probably due to the state of sleep she was in, and a particular being. However, she never had a hard time adjusting to Amos's dark vision and his voice echoing throughout Ella's dreams or more likely nightmares.

"Deal or death?" Amos's masculine voice echoed repetitively.

"Milady? Milady?" Another feminine voice distracted Ella's conscious. "Milady?" The voice said once again, sounding so real and close this time.

Ella fluttered her eyes open in slow motion as she tried to figure out the coming of the voice, noting that she had just awoken from her slumber as Amos's dark vision faded away. She lifted herself slowly up from the cold, pure white marble floor as she tried to adjust to her still weary vision until she could finally see clearly.

She still hadn't noticed yet that the mysterious feminine voice that had sounded so real and close was coming from the maid that was standing right before her.

"Milady?" The maid said once again, causing Ella to shift her gaze from the marble floor towards the lady with confusion furrowing at her brows.

Ella also noticed two other ladies standing just behind the lady who had caught Ella's attention first. They were all wearing the same faded blue dress, white aprons, and white hats. Straight away Ella clicked to who they were but was still quite confused.

Ella didn't really know much about how nobilities lived their daily lives considering she was just a commoner but she knew about maids, servants, butlers, footmen and many others that worked and served for nobility. It wasn't that hard to identify their line of work especially by their line of dress and formal address towards nobility.

It took her a bit of her time to finally say something, though.

"W-who are you?" Ella said half weary and confused.

Of course, Ella knew who exactly they were but she was still oblivious to the fact that she was in the duke's presiding residence and seemingly will soon be his wife. Well, Ella did not know when will they be wedded and surely that went on Ella's list of questions to ask the duke. Not that she was thinking of asking him nicely or asking over a cup of tea. Nay.

"Milady, I'm Freda and the duke has assigned me to be your personal maid. We will -" she gestured to the other two maids. "- be providing and attending you with all your needs as you may wish it whenever it may be."

Ella finally lifted herself stiff self of the hard ground as she came to eye level with her new assigned maids.

That made Ella frown. She didn't want anyone of lower-class as herself to be serving her as if she was high class. However, it would only be a matter of time until she was one. Unfortunately.

She looked at her new personal maid and studied her appearance. She was of the same average height as Ella and looked to be just around Ella's age or so. She had golden blonde hair tied up into a low tight bun. Ella specifically studied her features and was quite envious to see that this beautiful and gorgeous young girl was a maid. She had a slim angular face that consisted of the deepest brown eyes flustered with her thick and curly eyelashes. She had a small nose and faint pink lips plastered with a small smile hinting at its corners. Her figure was quite fragile like a glass about to be broken if not treated carefully, but she was exceptionally being held as too good and beautiful to be a maid for Ella.

Ella noted the other two maids' appearances as well. They both looked like twins but it wasn't hard to identify the difference they both resembled. They looked either younger or just at Ella's age as well. They both had the same colored brown hair and were of the same height but much shorter than Ella. They both had the same angular face and the same normal physique. But they had different features. The maid to Ella's left had icy-blue eyes and complex features, while the maid to the right had light brown eyes and soft and delicate features.