Her heart never stopped thumping as she made her way downstairs. Lost in thoughts, she thought of a plan. She already had the ground floor of the annex as well as the ground floor and first floor of the mansion memorized. In front of the Duchess’s quarter were another two rooms she identified as guest rooms. She stopped in the middle of the stairs. The manor was four stories high. She must know what her environment was and had to see the other floors before making any rash decisions. She turned around to go upstairs again when a familiar voice called out to her. Viviane just appeared with plates all up her arms from the room facing the grand dining area.

  “Orane, go help Lucia in the laundry room, now.” Viviane ordered.

  “But…”

  “But what? Do you think you’re here to laze around?”

  Avril sighed in exasperation.

  “You’re right. I’ll go immediately.” she quickly conceded.

  “Good, the laundry room is beside the cellar. I’m going upstairs. If trouble finds you, ask Lucia.”

  Hurriedly, Viviane went up the stairs accompanied by the clinking of her porcelain plates.

  Avril clenched her jaw and exhaled loudly in annoyance, but she soon rationalized. For her and Emerie’s safety, she must follow these binding rules. Before acting, she needed to gather intelligence. For now, what she knew was that Viviane seemed to be the first attendant and her direct superior. Following her order was the best choice and Lucia might even have some answers.

  Resolute and knowing her way around, she went directly to the nauseating kitchen. When she entered, the charred piglet was still above the fire and the sight and the smell were terrible. She held her breath, crossed the room in a hurried manner and went directly to the left door at the back. She paused for an instant in front of it, exhaled lightly and entered Orane’s role once again before opening the door, plastering a light smile on her face.

  As she opened it, she saw a petite figure crouching in front of a big basin. She recognized at once the young woman who was beside Emerie. Looking around she saw a lot of empty baskets on the left corner. Along the walls were some stone tables. Opposite to her was a fire with another huge basin on top. There was a door on the left wall. To her right were two big empty clotheslines and some more baskets. The room was stuffy and she could hardly breathe. Sweat started trickling down her back. She wiped off her face on her sleeve and asked:

  “Um... Lucia?”

  The young woman was startled and some water splashed directly onto her apron. She lifted a hand to heart and exclaimed:

  “Sorry, you surprised me.”

  She then flashed a big smile.

  “I’m sorry, I didn't want to scare you.” Avril apologized truthfully.

  Both stared at each other for some time. Lucia was really young. She should be barely 15 years old. She looked really naive and kind. The fairness of her face enhanced her light grey eyes and her light brown hair. A single loose braid tied her hair. Being stared at, some rose colored her fair cheeks. She cleared her throat in embarrassment. Prying some information from her should be easy.

  “So… Do you need anything?” Lucia asked to break the silence.

  Snapping out of her thoughts Avril averted her gaze and answered:

  “No, um… Viviane told me to come help you so… here I am.” she faintly laughed.

  Lucia oh’ed and scratched the nape of her neck. The silence was awkward. It was far from the ease of Viviane to talk and order around. Lucia swallowed loudly.

  “Um… What can I do to help?” Avril asked.

  “Oh… yes. I was washing Madam’s sheets. Maybe you could wash… her clothes. Do you know how?”

  “… yes of course.”

  “I’ll give you the other side of the basin.”

  She then moved to a corner of the huge basin and crouched again, rubbing. Avril glanced at her before searching for the clothes. The clotheslines were empty and so were the baskets. She started walking toward the basin on the fire. There they were, boiling with a light foam on top. The bubbling, the rhythmic rubbing and the occasional crackle from the fire were the only noises she could hear. It was really uncomfortable in this room and droplets of sweat rolled down her face. She fanned herself with her hands and looked at Lucia who, at times, wiped her forehead and continued to work on the sheets.

  “Um… Lucia, can you help me take down this basin please?”

  “Oh no need. Pick the wooden pole to your right. Grab what you need with it. Let the rest continue to boil.”

  Lucia then returned to her work and Avril followed her instructions. She fished out what seemed like a linen dress and put it in the huge basin in the center of the room. She found another washingboard and got to work. The water was icy and the foam was greasy. The cold offered a light relief to her sweating body. She tried to imitate pieces of fiction, unconvinced.

  “Are you feeling better now?” Lucia asked out of the blue.

  “… yes, thank you for your concern.”

  Lucia hummed lightly. The two women continued their work. Sometimes, Avril watched how Lucia rubbed the sheets, willing to improve herself. Suddenly the young woman got up and asked:

  “Can you help me wring out the excess water please?“

  “Sure.”

  She left the dress in the basin and got up too. Standing at opposite corners, they wrung out the sheets together.

  “Come with me, we’ll do the same outside.”

  The other door in the room led outside. Fresh air poured inside her lungs, dried her sweaty back and finally offered her some real and awaited relief. Outside were some more clotheslines and another basin filled with water and other white sheets. Avril followed blindly as they put their sheet inside.

  “We’ll rinse them and wring them out together. It’s way easier for two people!” Lucia said joyfully.

  “Do you usually do this alone?” Avril inquired, curious.

  “Yes. But sometimes Viviane comes to help me.” she smiled.

  As Lucia jumped to the conversation, she lit the room, putting Avril at ease.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “And the others?” Avril asked.

  “Isabeau is our gardener. If you haven’t seen the garden yet, it’s huge. She doesn’t have time to help me. Emerie cleans the mansion alone with sometimes the help of Viviane. And Viviane is the Madam’s first attendant, she’s busy. So, it leaves me to do the laundry. But it’s not so bad compared to them.” Lucia answered calmly.

  “Bingo.” thought Avril.

  As they hung out the sheets in silence, Avril rejoiced. She finally found some pieces of relevant information.

  “Since when have you worked here for Madam?” asked Avril eagerly.

  “I started… I…” Lucia frowned, lost in her thoughts for seconds. “I… don’t seem to remember. It must have been a long time.” she chuckled uneasily, nervousness twitching her fingers.

  “Probably.” Avril answered, narrowing her eyes. Then she tried to brush off her uneasiness. “I hear a light accent, where are you from?”

  Lucia’s brows furrowed deeper as she stopped what she was doing. She then answered in a flat tone, almost like she rehearsed it tons of times:

  “From a town far from here. You probably haven’t heard of it.” Her gaze was unfocused and drifted into the distance as she chuckled again.

  Avril hummed in response. She felt as though she had touched on an unspeakable subject again. She secretly grinned. To confirm her doubt she should ask the same questions to the others. But as it seems, this whole game had its limits.

  She didn’t need to burden Lucia any further – perhaps her safety was at risk too.

  “Are you close, you and the others?” simply asked Avril to change the subject.

  “We should be.” a smile lit Lucia’s face.

  “That’s good.”

  They silently continued their work outside until they emptied the basin. Though the silence was comfortable, Avril’s thoughts never ceased. As she saw it now, each of them were to enact this play lest it brought consequences. It possibly was why Viviane seemed so afraid, why Lucia couldn’t tell the truth. She needed to find Emerie and Isabeau to gather their stories. Even if it was still a mystery why Emerie appeared here out of nowhere. She couldn’t figure out their role for this story and why it was needed to disguise herself as Orane. What did Orane do deserving deprivation of her entire person? Was it the Duchess’s accomplishment? Sensing her spiralling self, Avril stopped making assumptions and based her thoughts on what she knew. She had a story to follow – serving the Duchess and freeing the servants from this place. She must –

  “We’re good to go. Let’s wash the clothes together.” interrupted Lucia.

  Avril lightly hummed and followed her inside, enjoying her last bit of breeze. The suffocating heat soon clung to her skin again. Lucia went to fetch another dress and they started working again. An hour passed while they rubbed all the clothes clean. They followed the same routine as before and went outside again to rinse and hang the clothes. The sun was high in the sky, so Avril guessed it was probably 3 P.M; the air carried a slight chill and the vegetation was verdant – it was likely spring. She inhaled lightly and smiled a little. The view was beautiful from here and it was the first time she actually looked at it. The mansion was on a light cliff. From the clotheslines area you could see a little bit of a forest in front and a corner of the garden – indeed it seemed huge, she should visit it at some point. She closed her eyes for a second, enjoying the breeze.

  Lucia stretched loudly and hummed.

  “Let’s clean the laundry room and we’re finished for the day. Then we’ll go help the others.”

  Avril nodded.

  Cleaning the laundry room was especially easy. The basins were to be emptied of water outside and the floor just needed a scrubbing. They finished in less than half an hour and prepared to set off to Viviane for instructions.

  Avril decided it was time to act. After everything happened, she hadn’t given up the idea of exploring all of this residence. But first, she needed to be free from Lucia.

  “Um… Lucia, I lost something this morning, I need to go find it now. It was precious to me.”

  “Oh, of course. Do you remember the last time you had it?”

  “I can’t seem to remember.” Avril scratched her chin seemingly in thought.

  “We should start from the beginning. Come, we’re going to our room.” she hurried through the door.

  “Our room?” Was what Avril thought. Maybe they shared it. It was a good opportunity, so Avril hurried after Lucia.

  They went through the door and back to the kitchen. The horrid stench made them retch together. Lucia brought a hand to her mouth to hide her silent heaving. Avril was not so polite and stopped breathing. The two cooks didn’t seem to mind and continued what they were doing in silence. It was really strange. But Avril had no time to dwell on it. They took the wooden stairs in one corner of the kitchen and escaped this room. Upstairs the smell subsided a little and the two poor women finally breathed aloud. Seeing that Avril wouldn’t talk about it, Lucia didn’t comment. She silently led the way to a long hallway and then turned directly to her right to enter the first room. Avril followed, paying attention to their surroundings. It seemed that the passageway led to more rooms, so she should definitely find some information. There was another small room right when they entered – she identified it as a restroom. The rest of the room was small with four aligned beds and bedsides. In front of these were four small wooden trunks. Nothing more in it, it was really bare. A light breeze came from the opened window in the background. The roofs and the walls were made from fair wood.

  As soon as Lucia entered she started rummaging through the room. She crouched down, checking under the beds. Avril was stuck in place not knowing what to do. She should have checked the trunks, but she didn’t know which one was hers. She probed the room, in search of information. One of the trunks was slightly ajar, likely due to clothes stuffed inside. But the three others hadn’t any signs of use. The bedsides were bare and their drawers were untouched.

  Lucia noticed her stiff expression and stopped for an instant.

  “Are you okay? Do you remember anything?”

  “...Yes… I had it when I got up this morning.” Avril cleared her throat and pretended to think. “Maybe I lost it when I fell earlier.”

  Avril closed her eyes, scratching her chin.

  “Oh let’s go find it then!” said Lucia joyfully.

  She seemed so kind that Avril started to feel bad about lying to her. Lucia went for the door when she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

  “Wait um…go to Viviane, I’ll check quickly and catch up to you. Let’s not waste anymore time. It’s just an object.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes… Thank you for your help. It was really kind of you.”

  “No need. I’ll go to Viviane and excuse you for a second. Be quick.”

  “Promise.”

  In her mind, Avril apologized, wishing to erase the lie. Lucia didn’t suspect anything and nodded at Avril before going out of the bedroom. Avril listened closely for the footsteps before starting to search the trunks. The trunk by the farthest bed from the entrance was full with pieces of clothing. She probed the bedside and it was full with items like headbands or some books. It could belong to Orane. She then searched the chests of the second bed and it was empty, same for the third one. She searched through the last trunk near the door and the bathroom and found clothes. The bedside contained some scattered items – her bed must be one of the two which showed signs of use. No notebooks, no maps, nothing useful. She searched through the bathroom – it was a simple one. Finding nothing of interest she quickly moved on to the other room beside this one. The room was exactly the same with two trunks and bedsides used. Inside one she found some written pieces of paper. It described some daily chores, like cleaning the windows or the floors. This bed probably belonged to Viviane or Emerie. She scanned through the note and found some minor information. It mentioned Orane’s arrival yesterday. Orane was described as nice but lost and there was a strange sentence: “Poor thing, to have come to this manor.” Avril closed her tearful eyes, based on the tone used, she identified this bed as Emerie’s, although it was nothing but speculation. She shook her head, focusing on the clue. So, this manor really had something going on, but what exactly? She found nothing else really useful and quickly made her way to the other room. The passageway led to four bedrooms. If the manor assigned rooms based on gender, then one of the last two should belong to the cooks. The third one smelled really nice. There were some blue curtains hanging beside the windows. In this bedroom, only one trunk was stuffed with light blue and beige dresses. This was definitely Viviane’s room, the clothes were much more extravagant than the others – worthy of a first attendant. But she’ll wait for the evening to confirm her suspicions. Finding nothing again, she went through the last room. This one was dark. The heavy closed curtains were black. It smelled as terrible as the kitchen’s stench. She reluctantly went through the trunks and the bedsides. Again, only two were used. Inside one of the bedsides, Avril found a word engraved in the wood: leave. A cold sweat clung to her back as an ominous feeling seized her heart. She caressed it with the tip of her fingers. Who could have written this? Why was it carved inside this room? Were the two cooks relevant to the story? Did they know more about the situation? Despite her heart thumping as she thought, she promised herself to find more about them – maybe they were the keys. She finished searching through and quickly went out, some lingering feeling darkened her train of thoughts.