The sun beat down on shining Prasus. I spent so much time under the light of his sisters that I sometimes forget how lovely his warmth was. The golden glow streamed across spires and rooftops, castles and halls and eventually through the tall arched windows of my bedroom. My silk drapes were angled just so, channelling the warm light onto my four poster bed and making the fine white sheets glow like noon lit sand. All in all it was a beautiful day... which was why I was simply lying in my bed enjoying the soothing silence.
The second I got up Lydia (my ladies maid) would be in and bustling around the room, dressing me up for some event or other which I would be obliged to sleepwalk my way through. She’d be telling me how many duties I had, how many audiences I must give, which lessons I must attend, how my siblings were doing, how many jobs they had, how I should help them, how many curtsies I need to drop and how much polite small talk to make. I knew that all of that was still to come so I simply lay there enjoying the warmth and quiet.
But I knew it couldn't last forever and even as I thought that I heard my room’s door creak open and saw out of half hooded eyes a figure dressed in demure white and black with a downcast gaze enter and walk across the room to my cupboard. I expected the usual burst of chatter, the litany of appointments and commands and some interesting gossip which Lydia told me every morning but the maid was silent. In fact she even seemed hesitant to open my cupboard and she kept sneaking glances towards me in bed.
My curiosity (a dangerously powerful part of me that contributed to my career in thievery no little bit) peaked so I made a show of groaning and shading my eyes as if the light had just woken me. After a few moments of carefully simulated awakening I slipped out of bed, my long white sleeping gown hanging around my ankles mirroring my messy curtain of silver white hair. The maid bowed (to my utter astonishment; Lydia hadn't bowed to me since I was nine) and stiffly to like she was worried.
“I'm sorry to wake you Mistress Dutair.” she quavered, this wasn’t Lydia, to start with they had pale skin like mine rather than Lydia’s dark brown skin and they were blonde whereas Lydia has black hair also... and most notably, they were scared of me. Lydia doesn't fear me and always spoke her mind around me as I’d encouraged her to do so often over the eons, as I told the Baroness nobles should be an example not a warning[63].
“It's ok,” I soothed as she grabbed the clothes and shuffled towards me with every sign of reluctance. “I should have been up hours ago.”
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“I wouldn’t have come in,” she whispered. “But your father ordered me to.”
Now I recognised her! She was one of the scullery maids (and a new one at that). She shouldn't have been in the upper house at all, and she certainly shouldn't have been dressing me, which could only mean that father had found the first female servant he could and ordered her to wake me... but why? It wasn’t Lydia’s day off, she should have been in the manor for hours by now.
“If you don’t mind Mr. Dutair?” The girl quavered, She's even younger than me I thought before nodding and raising my arms. She began to clumsily slip clothing on over my gown padding it with shawls, scarves, skirts and pantaloons in abundance.
After a moment’s awkward silence I spoke, causing her to jump slightly. “It's... Katherine, yes?”
“Uh... yes Mistress Dutair?” She seemed stunned and I remembered most of the servants only dealt with my relatives in the other wings of our mansion who treated them like ambulatory furniture.
“Where’s Lydia?” I asked, deciding any level of subtlety would be lost on the poor girl.
She screwed up the cloth sarong she was holding and looked up at me. She still didn’t quite make eye contact though. “Lyd... you know her...” She stopped and bowed. “I'm so sorry Mistress Dutair, Miss Melton didn't report for work today, in fact nobodies seen her since yesterday evening. Your father is furious.”
“Of course he is,” I muttered to myself, turning around on the spot so Katherine could pin my hair back. “Wait... nobodies seen her? What about her brother?”
I felt Katherine's hands pause on my hair for a second again and smiled to myself. “I do care about my employees Katherine.”
I felt her blush. “I'm so sorry mistress I didn't mean to imply...”
“It's fine, just tell me, has her brother seen her?” I asked, letting a little sternness into my voice, I was getting worried.
“I'm afraid not. He came round this morning asking if she was here; he said she didn't make it home last night. Your father had him thrown out for creating a disturbance.”
“Has anyone told the watch?”
“Her brother did, they said they might be able to investigate in a month or two.”
I turned back around to see Katherine bowing, “It's a real pity,” She said, her voice aging with sadness. “If only someone could do something about it.” With that she scampered out her slippered feet scratching gently on the carpet as she shuffled down the corridor.
I turned back to the window, adjusting a few pieces of improperly tied clothing as I did so. Looking out across the sunlit rooftops if I strained my eyes I could convince myself I could just about see a certain ruined district and a certain ruined house.
“Yes.... somebody should.” I murmured looking around for my raven.