Trifecta

Chapter Nine: In Which I Am Not A Proper Lady

The servant girl from earlier came back while I was looking through the heavy dresses in the wardrobe.

"Thought you might need some help dressing, miss. See one you like?"

"I've never seen anything so complicated." I held up an emerald green gown. "Why are there so many layers?"

"They're petticoats, miss." She chuckled.

"What are they for?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"To make the dress look grander."

I gave the gown in my hands a look. It had so many ribbons and 'petticoats' it made my head spin.

"I don't think I like grand..." I muttered and set it back into the wardrobe.

The serving woman laughed. "You are strange. Any other guest of the king's would have no less." she suddenly looked ashamed. "Not that, not to say you aren't worthy of grand, my lady –"

"What are you doing?" I frowned. "We were having pleasant conversation, why do you act as though you've done something wrong?"

"I, I didn't mean to offend –"

"And you didn't. Goodness knows I need some help figuring all this out."

She smiled softly and curtsied. "My name's Jacqueline, miss. At your service."

I smiled at the woman, who looked a bit younger than Mama. "Its a pleasure to meet you, Jacqueline. My name's Avaká."

"That's a strange name, miss." she remarked.

I shrugged. "Mama says it comes from The Word Of The Old."

I looked back at the wardrobe, so full of gowns it seemed to be overflowing. I wondered why a king with no wife or daughters would have such finery.

"I don't suppose there's a dress that's a tad simpler?" I asked Jacqueline.

"Hmm. Let me see..." she rummaged through the fabrics. "Aha!" with a small tug and a triumphant smile, she pulled out the most beautiful dress I had ever seen.

It was smaller than the others, but certainly fancy. The fabric was a deep blue, etched with curls of red embroidery. Down the front, red and blue parted to show off a ruffle of sea foam green that matched my shawl where it sat draped over my basket on the bed.

"Oh, its lovely." I said in awe. Despite the dress being smaller than the others, Jacqueline still had to help me with it. There was something called a corset that I personally thought belonged in a torture chamber instead of on a dress.

"Can you breathe miss?" she asked in concern.

"Just barely." I fought to fill my lungs. "This is meant to make a woman look beautiful you say?"

She nodded. "Noble ladies wear them under all their dresses."

"Then I think I prefer to be a commoner."

Jacqueline said I looked a sight, wearing a fine dress with mud caked boots hidden underneath the skirt, but after being forced into a corset I cared little for the details. No one could see my boots, and I refused to wear those death traps she called heels.

At the end of it all, I looked more like a kid playing dress up than a lady. I was freshly washed, my dress was made of fine silk, and there were two silver pins in my hair to keep it from falling into my eyes. That was it. That was all the lady I had to me.

I was still just a tiny girl in a big castle who needed an old gypsy shawl to make her feel safe and who had a pouch full of richest that had been stolen twice tucked away in her mud caked boot.

What? You think I'm going to leave something like that unattended?

After I won the argument with Jacqueline against those heels – she didn't really expect me to walk down the stairs in those, did she? – she led me down the hall, muttering about mud boots.

I fell behind her quite a bit, as I found myself stopping to marvel at every new room we came into.

"Miss Avaká!"

Jumping, I dashed after her, only to freeze once again.

King Peter was one man, why did he need a table with more chairs than I could count? By the sun and stars, even if you filled every seat, you'd have to yell to hear the person at the other end of the table!

Speaking of the king, he was sitting at the head of the table. More food than I had ever seen in my life was spread out around him, and I was certain he couldn't reach most of it, let alone eat all of it.

"Avaká!" he smiled when he saw me. "Come, sit." he nodded at the chair to his right.

Doing my very best to walk in a lady-like fashion, I stepped up to the chair and pulled it away from the table.

Or at the very least I tried to.

The chair stayed stubbornly in place as though it were made of stone. It wasn't though. It was made of gold and cushioned with shiny red velvet. The velvet looked soft and squishy, however the gold was solid and heavy.

I heaved at the chair, but it refused to budge. I glared at it. Where was the strength that had taken down Kovate? Why did it abandon me when I was trying to do something so simple?

King Peter laughed and I felt my face heat up. Great. Now I was making a fool of myself in front of the most important person I had ever met. Thanks a lot chair.

He stood and pulled my chair out for me with ease. Mumbling a thank you, I sat down.

My embarrassment over the chair was forgotten quite quickly. I was too focused on trying to eat like a lady, which was a challenge as there were so many different sizes of forks, and my stomach was still growling from a lack of supper yesterday.

On a good day, a meal in Trifecta consisted of a meat and vegetable soup. That had stopped lately, due to the shortage, so I was lucky if I got porridge.

But King Peter had chicken, turkey, cheese, every fruit and vegetable I could think of and even some I couldn't. And every dish was seasoned to perfection, it was like nothing I had ever tasted before.

Perhaps it was all I was eating Scout, but for some reason I was feeling very tired.....