Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 33 Part 1- Weaving a Ward

"So, Anita you were telling me what happened with your plan to teach that stable hand a lesson? Did it work?" Verushka regained the flow of the conversation.

Anita nodded gleefully. "Yeah, thanks for the advice. It worked so well. That will be the last time he jumps the fence and steals milk from Daisy!"

"Who stole milk from Daisy?!" Liara strode in slamming a bag of grimy potatoes, still covered in dirt all over the table.

Verushka was glad for the last minute addition of Liara to the retinue of Bexley maids, but she could really have tried harder to appear the perfect image of servitude that they were supposed to be.

Anita had grown used to the other maid's unconventional ways and dusted the tabletop with a moist cloth as she answered. "Roger's been siphoning off milk to make mead for himself, which means less for us and-."

"Less for her calf!!!" Liara yelled. "I'm going to kill him! I'm going to chop up his little scrawny body and bury him under the walnut tree!"

Verushka rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, Li. Anita got him good, so I'm pretty sure he won't be trying that again."

Liara turned to face the Wyvernstone maid and was met with innocent eyes. She knew that look so well, in fact, she saw it on her own friend so often that it seemed highly suspicious that it was shared with another for no reason. Liara whipped around to face Verushka again. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Verushka denied fervently. "Well, okay I might have suggested that Anita tell him that we know why the beekeepers honey pot has been uncommonly low this last week. And we might share that information with the beekeeper if it continued... and failing that, we put the bull in with Daisy which I suspect was a startling surprise in the middle of the night."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are just a bit scary" Liara asked rhetorically, staring at both maids long and hard. She flopped down onto the bench between the other maids seated in a long line, chopping and peeling for the Ball that night. "Still, I spose I'm gonna miss you guys after this country party. Not gonna miss that screaming banshee of a Duchess that you have upstairs though."

Most of the maids at the table let an unbidden giggle erupt forth, and those that didn't still had a twinkle in their eye. The Duchess was not well liked and Verushka was glad to have heard what her staff thought of her. Most of the servants had been born into their life of servitude and the Hall was run with all the rigidity of a navy ship deck. It seemed that Jay was so often in town that the Hall was left to the rule of his step mother who cared little for the welfare and happiness of her staff.

Despite long hours divulging secrets with the staff, or even Liara's attempt at drunken night carolling by a bonfire, no hint of a sibling to the Wyvernstone heir was mentioned. It was, however, common knowledge that the deceased Duke was in love with a maid long ago. It was even whispered by the older staff members that the maid bore him a child that was rumoured to be Jacob, but no one would confirm the speculations. Verushka read a slight twitch in the lips of the butler who listened in silence to the retelling of the tale and deduced that at least one servant knew the truth of Jay's lineage. But, whether by force of fealty, not one word was spoken against their Lord. Jay's childhood and accomplishments were chronicled with deference and tenderness that made Verushka proud to be his sister. Every moment from the time he climbed his first tree, to his induction into the House of Lords was as significant to his servants as it was to him.

"Do you know," a third maid whispered conspiratorially, "that the Duchess of Wyvernstone wasn't informed that any Bexley maids would be here. You are all only allowed by the express permission of the Duke!"