Astoria

e i g h t

The next day found Meredith and Evan rising early to set out for King's City. The sun had not even risen over the horizon when they left the small house, leaving a warm loaf of fresh bread that Meredith had made for their mother to find on the table when she awoke. 

They had paid the fare for the coach, and, while the ride was long, it would not last for more than half a day. Meredith tucked away her few belongings, including her new, lovely set of pearls, into her faded carpet bag, a rather ugly monstrosity from which the handles were about to fall off. 

They made their way down the street into they reached the main part of their small town. Dunkirk was, like most small towns, not noticeably active at this particular time of the morning. People were still in bed, shops had yet to be opened, and no one had left the warmth of their home unless it was entirely necessary. The small cheerful looking homes, white-painted and shining in the faint morning light, flowers in window boxes still dripping with dew, stood like silent sentinels lining each side of the street. 

They boarded the stuffy, old coach and creaked towards the main road out of town, leaving all things familiar behind. Neither she nor Evan had ever worked in such a big, grand environment as King's Palace before. 

She briefly wondered what to expect. Would the head housekeeper be as kind as the second housekeeper who had interviewed Meredith for the job in the first place? Would she know how to do all of the jobs as she was asked them? She had come across many situations in the previous homes she had worked in, but wasn't all that sure that she had learned all the right things.

She shifted in her seat, jostling Evan so that he stirred slightly in his place next to her, where he had drifted off to sleep. Her dress, having been freshly washed and dried by her mother the day before, was now sticky and sweaty in the hot air of the coach and she felt dirty. 

She leaned her forehead against the window and thought through what she might encounter once she arrived at the palace. All new hires would be arriving on the same day, and would be set to work tomorrow. As they were merely supplements to the old staff, they would blend in and hopefully, any necessary training would be unnoticeable and the palace would continue to run smoothly as before. 

For smoothness and professionalism were necessary: the king would be arriving the next day.

Prince, Meredith reminded herself. He's not king yet. 

The servants would be in a frenzy to complete the preparations for the coronation itself and... the event that every distinguished lady of the empire was looking forward to, the event that would place all the top people in the kingdom in one room: the coronation ball. 

Meredith closed her eyes. She mentally chided herself for doing her hair in such a tight bun that morning, for she could feel a small headache beginning to make its appearance.

Meredith awakened with a start at the sounds of the coach driver yelling "whoa!" and the carriage coming to a sudden, jolting stop. She didn't know when she had fallen asleep, but it had accomplished its magic: her headache was gone and the trip had felt surprisingly fast. 

They exited the coach, Meredith accepting the hand offered by the driver, grateful because she had felt somewhat unsteady after sitting still for so long.

The coach, soon after depositing its last passengers and boarding its new ones, left them. 

Meredith and Evan looked around. They were at the coach stop near the massive gates of King's City. She gazed at the buildings in awe. Here, near the edge of the city, were houses, almost like the ones in Dunkirk, except they were somewhat larger and the shades varied slightly from white: there were houses of blues and grays mixed in, and the streets were occasionally peppered with a few yellow homes. 

People walked up and down streets, children played, women chatted and hung laundry on a shared line stretching between their two houses. Another hung a towel over a small window balcony to be blown and dried by the slight breeze. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted from windows and Meredith could see, occasionally, the warm loaves or the occasional pie cooling on the window sill. Further up the street, the houses gave way to shops, some self-standing, some with their owners' apartments on the second level. One alleyway had been turned into a market shop where traders sold their wares or smiling women offered hand-maid trinkets. A man at the end was even selling small rabbits and tame rats as pets. One stall sold homemade baked goodies and Evan used two of his remaining ceros to purchase a cookie for each of them.

Further down were more official buildings: a bank, a registry, and a lawyer's offices. A large inn stood on one side of the street, flanked by a traveler's goods store and a medicine shop, the doors of which were wide open, letting the scent of fresh herbs penetrate the air. A jeweler's store was next to that. 

And more houses. In the distance, a university. The barracks of the King's Army. Another inn. 

Meredith felt as though she were turning her head in every direction, swiveling around and attempting to take in all the glory of King's City. And the people were so friendly! Meredith found herself being presented with a small bouquet of white flowers from an old woman who was pushing a cart of fresh-cut roses and daisies and chrysanthemums. Little children they passed waved to them, and then stood on the sidewalk to wave to the next person that passed by. 

And then, in the distance, sitting above it all, perched a small distance back from the waterfall which it was built above, was King's Palace.

Meredith heard a sharp intake of breath from Evan. For all they had heard about it, the stories of its beauty and magnificence, it could not hold a candle to the way the palace actually looked upon their seeing it for the first time. 

The sun, lower in the sky now, behind the highest towers of the palace and the tannish brick and stone and white trim seemed to almost glow. The windows gleamed in the evening sun. The grounds were also beautiful, flowering trees and lovely willows lining the water of the pond in which the rivers met on their way to the waterfall. A few swans or ducks swam serenely across the surface of the lake. On either side of the waterfall itself, lifts had been built to haul goods to the palace. Perfectly groomed bushes and topiary outlined the driveway, a bricked road leading from the palace itself down the hill away from the waterfall, and then to the entrance outside of town, guarded by huge gates and armed soldiers barring entrance from anyone whose intentions were less than good or who did not have any sort of appointment.

It was to this gate that Meredith and Evan now walked and showed the guards their letters certifying that they were new employees. One of the guards now opened the gates and began to escort them in the guards' carriage up to the palace and around to the servants' entrance. There, they were directed to go inside and ask one of the kitchen staff the way to the housekeeper's office. Meredith would make her way there while Evan reported to the butler. 

Once in the kitchen, and having heard the various directions that both had been given, Meredith and Evan said goodbye and parted, both going to different parts of the massive royal home.