Better than she thought she would

I couldn’t help tossing and turning, the bed was both uncomfortably warm and miserably cold. How did normal people sleep alone? Ugh, I got up and walked around my room, the midnight moonlight was more than enough for me at the moment. I pulled my out a drawer and took out my old uniform. Just seeing it made me smile.

We didn’t have clothes when we left the charmed castle, well beyond our Lady of the Light outfit. In any result we had all grabbed ours, and I hadn’t been an exception. So, put it back on and just felt better. I knew it was hollow but I wanted something, or maybe it was better to say I needed something. I also had the two rings that Rosemary had made, they couldn’t quite function the same way without Master, but I couldn’t bare to get rid of them.

I made my way slowly downstairs. The soft air against my skin just gave me a sense of normalcy. The intellectual part of me did understand that I was walking around the house in what amounted to less cloth tha probably even the servants bras. Whatever, it felt good.

I was hoping the servants would still be asleep and I could just get some work done to scratch this itch in me. Yet, as expected, I wasn’t that lucky. Martha, one of the cooks was peeling potatoes. It must have been closer to morning that I realized.

“Lady Celeste?” she asked. I had known Martha since I was a child, but she wasn’t one to leave the servants area and Mother had been fairly keen on keeping me away.

I nodded. “Yeah,” I said.

“Just what in the world are ye wearing?” she asked.

I looked down at myself, but I only felt pride. “Do you find there to be an issue in what I have elected to wear?”

“No Lady,” she said. “Just ain’t never seen it before. Thought ya died long time ago, but gossip is ya got messed up in the head. So ye want breakfast.”

I suppose, maybe I did die a long time ago. No, I wasn’t going to let myself be bothered right now. “I shall prepare my own, but do inform me, what do the others wish for breakfast?”

“The little miss? Ye wanna cook? I remember as a wee little thing you’d avoid he the word kitchen,” she said with a chuckle.

I raised my chin up. “Well, as you noticed, many thing have changed since then. How much time do we have until the family gets up?” I asked.

About three hours. She also challenged me to make an omlet, I gave a smirk. Beyond easy. She continued to peel potatoes and when glancing at her, I thought I might see something negative, or perhaps wasteful. Pleasantly instead I realized she was peeling them with the same speed and efficiency that me and Marianne used to do.

I cut up various veggies, the same ones that Master loved the most of course. I suppose being a noble home meant it was easy enough to find the supplies. The kitchen was a bit more modern here, but it wasn’t a big deal. If anything it just meant the fire was a bit better focused and the food cooked a bit faster.

“Smelling good,” Martha said. “Better than lots of others.”

Course I was better than others. “Do not flatter me before you have had a chance to try it.” I set it on the plate steam rising into the air as I did. Though, I didn’t wait for her to eat, I had broke a few more eggs to start again. I was hungry as well.

“Ye best,” she said.

I smiled. “Naturally.”

“So where did ye learn this?” she asked as she cleaned her plate.

“In another life,” I said as I flipped the next omlet.

Two girls entered. Oh the maids from last night in the office with my sister.

“Lady Celeste! But you shouldn’t be down here?”

“The Lady of the house might be angry if she knew you-”

I clapped my hands twice. “Enough.”

THey both sat silently and a smile crept over my face.

Martha was curious. “What was that?”

I turned to her. “The double clap is my way to ask others to look at me, and get their attention down or perhaps their focus on me.”

“Is that what that is for,” one maid said scratching her chin.

Made me a bit upset to see her dismissing it like that. Oh that is new, I never really felt angry at the charmed castle. Interesting, but that would be easy enough to fix. “Let me guess, my mother has told you basically nothing right?”

They all nodded.

“I was a **** to learn how to be a maid, and know what, I got good at it. Cooking too, and let me show you what I can do.”

I put on the plate both their omlets and a third for myself, the growling was getting stronger than I remembered.

I took a bite and was almost nervous. I was out of practice, and I wasn’t used to this stuff. Marianne would certain be disappointed if this was what I was serving. I would need to get practice.

“Wow! This is the best egg I have ever eaten!” one maid said.

I was tempted to smile, but no, if this is what I was giving, I should not be letting myself get full of it. I knew these girls, they were consisting doing six out of ten work. It isn’t a shock that eight out of ten breakfast is impressive.

“Can I ask about…” the maid paused and gestured me. “All this.”

I looked at my uniform. “Do you find it to be strange?” I asked.

“Well, yeah, obviously. It has such low coverage, and you were just cooking near a hot flame. This is unpractical of the highest order. You could have gotten burned.”

“As if I would be so uncoordinated for that,” I said. “I was enslaved, and during that time. I found myself learning to love the work. Learning to push forward. I wore an outfit just like this for nearly all my twelve years missing. So, yo see, from my perspective, you all look quite cramped and uncomfortable wearing so many layers.”

“Girl, what?” one asked.

“Ye okay?” Martha asked.

So even the servants wanted to pity me. Was that just my fate? To be pitied even by girls that cannot do half of what I can, whom are more like overpaid cleaning servants than true maids, true servants. Was it time to just give up? Should I just accept that this is ultimately my life now?