Untold Tales: Books 4-6

Chapter 3

3

The room was filled with the flurry of dresses being chosen and the chatter of excited serving girls. What I couldn't work out was why. I longed to be in the kitchens or the stables with Dart, rather than here with the other girls.

"Aren't you going to pick one?" Julia asked me, twirling around with a horrendous pink gown pressed against her. Did she think it would look good on her? I wasn't sure, and I felt it was better not to ask at this point.

"I will." But only because I had to. The Matron had barged into our room today and announced that we were to get ready for the Prince's visit. I thought that would mean double the amount of chores and cleaning, but apparently, that wasn't the case. She'd left us here with the vague instructions of getting ready.

Julia danced away to talk to Nancy. Not for the first time, I felt as if I didn't belong with the girls here. Tanwyn wasn't a common name, and it certainly wasn't one that was used for the class of people who typically became servants. It was a noble name, and as a child, I'd heard the girls whispering about that and wondering where I came from. I tried not to think about it too much. What did it matter that I wasn't from one of the villages around here? Perhaps I was the daughter of a noble, one who'd owed the Duchess. To me, that made sense, even if it wasn't particularly fair. Then again, none of the girls here were treated fairly. Every day, everything was about how much the Duchess and the Matron could get out of them. It was all work, no play. And as far as I knew, I wasn't the only one who didn't get paid either.

"Have you seen this one, Tanwyn?" Jill called from across the room.

I looked over to the girl who'd become my best friend through nothing more than circumstance. She was holding up a soft blue gown which flowed in a straight skirt down. It wasn't as fancy as some of the others.

Knowing that I had to get ready along with the others or I'd be in trouble, I made my over to her. I slipped the fabric of the dress through my fingers.

"It's beautiful," I said.

"And perfect for you," Jill said, pushing it into my arms.

"No, you should wear it..."

She shook her head, cutting off my protest. "I have a different one." She gestured to a stunning emerald gown behind her. "It'll bring out my eyes."

"It will," I admitted.

Her dress was fancier than the one she'd chosen for me, but not as ridiculous as the ones I could see the others getting into. Ten girls who wanted to be women all dressed in fluff and skirts with huge ruffles and puffed sleeves. Thankfully not all on the same dress, that truly would be a horrendous sight, and not one anyone would want to see.

"Why are we getting dressed up?" I whispered to Jill, not trusting any of the others with my question. They'd wave it away and tell me it didn't matter so long as they didn't do any work.

Jilly shrugged. "The Prince is coming."

"Hmm." That didn't seem like enough of an explanation. What did the Prince care what the serving girls wore? We were nothing more than the servants who kept the house running to him, nor should we be. That was how the system worked. The royalty ran the country through the nobility, and the rest of us served them and made it seem as if their houses cleaned themselves and food magically made its way to the table. It was a flawed system, that much was for certain, but one that did work on some level.

I ignored the chatter and slipped the dress on over the soft and silky undergarments the Matron had given us. Unlike the dresses, which I suspected had once belonged to the Duchess herself, the underskirts and chemise had been new. I loved the feel of them against my skin, even if they made me wary about what was to come.

"Will you button me up?" I asked Jill once I was mostly dressed.

"Only if you'll do my hair for me," she teased.

"Of course, I will," I promised, already thinking about the best way to frame her face with her beautiful red curls.

"Turn." She spun a finger around to mimic the movement.

Her deft fingers had my gown fastened in a matter of seconds. She was wasted on the chores she was given. Jill should be embroidering fine fabrics and showing off the beautiful things she could create. Just one more thing to add to the list of reasons why the Duchess' system didn't make the most of the resources she had.

"My turn," she said, and claimed a seat in front of one of the dressing tables in the room.

I smiled and made my way over to her. I released her hair from her cap and let the curls bounce down to her shoulders. It shone in the light, beautiful and captivating.

"Maybe we should leave it like this," I said. "Then you can captivate the Prince with a look."

She giggled. "I doubt I would. My nose is too crooked."

"It is not," I protested, even though she's right, her nose is a little crooked, but I thought it made her all the more beautiful.

"It's fine," she dismissed. "With hair this colour, my nose is normally overlooked anyway."

I didn't answer, and simply focused on doing her hair instead. I wanted to leave it mostly loose, it was too beautiful not to, but then I'd pin bits of it back and tease out some strands at the front to frame her face. I could see it all in front of me. By the time we were finished, no one would know she wasn't noble by birth.

The other girls were all dressed now and doing the same as we were. It was easier to do someone else's hair than our own. Nancy even pinched her cheeks and bit her lips to put some colour into them. I didn't see the point when it would fade within a few minutes anyway, but I supposed it also didn't hurt.

"There you go, all done," I said to Jill.

She jumped up, her eyes shining with excitement. "Do you want me to do anything for you?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I'm just going to put it back up a bun."

Jill frowned. "Don't you want something more special?"

"Not until I know what we're doing," I said. "I don't want hair getting in my eyes if I'm cleaning the floors."

"You don't think they're going to make us do that, do you? Not in these gowns." She shuddered, as if the idea of working while wearing something pretty was the worst thing imaginable. I supposed in some ways it was. There was a reason the nobility didn't do the hard labour of the lower classes.

One of the other girls caught her attention and she wandered off to start comparing the dresses they'd chosen. I watched in the mirror as an amused smile lifted the corners of my lips. I wasn't sure what was going on, and if I was honest, I was a little worried about it, but it had filled a room of silent withdrawn workers with laughter, and for that, I was grateful.

I let my hair down, then brushed it back into a neat looking bun. A sparkle of blue on the dressing table caught my eye. I leaned forward and picked it up. A hair barrette, with stones a similar colour to my dress. I could make use of that. I slipped it into my hair, admiring how good it looked against the slicked-back blonde strands. I hadn't planned on adding any decoration like that, but now I had, I knew it was right.

"Attention girls," the Matron called. I'd been too distracted to hear her come in. I needed to be more careful about that. "If you'd all line up and follow me, the Duchess is waiting downstairs to talk to you all."

The others exchanged glances, and I could tell they wanted to talk to one another about what might be happening, but didn't dare because of the Matron. I stayed completely still, dread settling inside me. The Duchess hadn't talked to us all together in years, so whatever this could be, it wasn't good.

The girls started to follow her out of the room and down the stairs. I scraped my chair back and joined the back of the queue behind Jill. At least I'd be next to my best friend for whatever came next.