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“You look absolutely exquisite!” she said.
Ancilla had been my handmaid since I first arrived at the castle. I befriended her right away, and she was always kind to me. She took care of me as one’s mother typically does, and even though it wasn’t required for her position, she also gave me advice and many life lessons. She was one of the people I wished I could tell the most about my identity. She was easy to talk to and nonjudgmental. I truly believed she wouldn’t look at me any differently if she knew of my position.
She lived here with her husband and two kids in the lower level of the castle where many of the other servants stayed. Her husband was on staff in the kitchen and made the best almond cocoa, better than any cup I’d ever made. Sometimes, Ancilla would bring some of his experimental sweet treats up to my quarters, so I could try them.
“All thanks to you,” I responded. “Are you coming to the celebration tonight?”
She blushed, her eyes beaming with excitement.
“We got a midwife for the kids, so my husband and I will be able to attend this year!”
Ancilla had an eight-year-old son named Jack and a thirteen-year-old daughter named Stella. They were two of the sweetest kids I’d ever met, and that was really saying a lot, considering I wasn’t the biggest fan of children. Stella and I had a special bond. She reminded me a lot of myself, actually. She was determined, motivated, and strong. With her parents’ permission, I’d been secretly training her how to fight and yield weapons. Sometimes, Miles even made an appearance to help. Whenever I had a spare chance to train her, Ancilla would bring her down to the training room to go over as much as time would allow us. Stella had a dream to be the first female member of the Royal Guard, and I would do everything in my power to make it happen.
I gasped. “The ball is going to start in less than an hour. You need to get ready!”
I began to stand, but she pushed me back down into the chair, continuing to put countless pins in my hair.
“My job is to make you look beautiful, and I take that very seriously.” She did, in fact, take it very seriously. Ancilla frequently mentioned how grateful she was for her position in the castle and the future it would give her children. “I will get myself ready as soon as I am finished with you.”
I sighed, defeated. “Okay, but how much longer? I still want you to have enough time to get ready.”
She gave me a soft smile and put more pins in my hair. “Not much longer. I’m almost done.”
Ancilla always had a tradition of turning my chair away from the mirror in the vanity so she could surprise me with her finished look. I was pretty sure she enjoyed getting me all done up more than I did.
Her eyes widened with satisfaction. “All right, I’m done.” She admired her work before she turned my chair to face the mirror once again.
It never ceased to amaze me how Ancilla could turn me from an assassin to a princess. My cheeks had a hint of rose, and my lips were tinted to match. She was able to conceal the dark circles under my eyes from hardly getting any sleep with a white powder, and my hair was up just the way I liked it.
I stood up to admire the gown I wore. It was simple but still elegant—the perfect dress to wear to someone else’s birthday ball. The gown was made from charmeuse, with a silky, shiny texture. It was fitted perfectly to my body, thin straps holding it onto my shoulders. The dress was form-fitting on the upper half of my waist, creating a kind of ruffled affect, but flowed loosely down and around my legs, giving them free space to move and dance. There was a long slit that made its way up to my upper thigh, revealing most of my right leg. The color of the gown was a light sage green, the perfect dress for the summer, and one that accentuated my green eyes even more against the contrast of my dark brown hair.
I gave Ancilla a big smile and then hugged her. “You never fail to make me feel beautiful.”
She squeezed back, holding me tightly as she let out a breathy laugh. “It’s not hard to accentuate what’s already there.”
I pulled back from the hug and demanded, “You need to go get ready right now! There aren’t many nights where you’re away from the kids, and I want you to enjoy it.”
She laughed, gathering her things and shuffling her feet towards the door. “Okay, okay, I’m on my way out. I’ll see you at the ball!”
After the door had shut, I made my way back to my vanity and opened the small drawer on the right. I pulled out a small black box and opened it to find my pearl earrings the queen gave me for my birthday. They were and continued to be my favorite piece of jewelry.
As I looked myself over in the mirror, the memory and horrors of the night before slowly slipped away. I still needed to tell Pater what happened, but he had dismissed me when I asked to have a meeting this morning, telling me we could talk tomorrow when it wasn’t his birthday. I was not looking forward to that meeting at all and thanked the stars that I could have a full day to think about how I would approach the situation of Bennett knowing my true identity.
I spent the next hour going over exactly what I would say to Pater. What parts I should avoid and what I couldn’t forget to say. Amica stopped by early this morning to heal my throbbing wrist, but now I was stuck with a pounding headache from the stress of this impending meeting. I started to practice some of my lines in the mirror when I heard a knock on the door, and three faces popped in through the doorway.
Amica was wearing a beautiful marigold gown with puffy sleeves. The gown flowed loosely around her body and caught the air gracefully, and it glowed against her tan skin, bringing out the golden hues in her eyes. She looked absolutely stunning, like a sunrise off of the coast of the ocean.
“Amica, you look breathtaking!” I said, meaning every word.
She ran towards me, hugging me to the point where the breath was squeezed from my lungs.
“As do you!” she squealed.
“Well, what about us?” Miles asked sarcastically. He was wearing gray dress pants and a dusty blue long-sleeved button-down that had ruffles on the cuffs and by the buttons on the upper half of his chest. Mendex was wearing a long-sleeved peach button-down with navy dress pants and navy suspenders. Both looked ridiculously handsome, and I knew there would be many courtiers looking to steal a dance or two from the both of them.
“You are both very handsome.” I turned to Amica and said dramatically, “How lucky are we to have such dashing escorts?”
Mendex took Amica’s hand and wrapped her arm over his own, saying, “Very lucky, I would say.”
