Guard

Chapter Nine: Lord

ELENA

A loud call of a rooster caused me to stir in my sleep and slowly open my eyes. I had a dream I was still at the castle, with my mother telling me stories of my childhood as we walked side by side.

I stretched my muscles before getting out of bed and getting ready for work. It was still dark but that rooster thankfully crowed somehow at the right time every morning, waking me up, allowing me sufficient time to get ready before the sun rose.

Today signified exactly two months since we moved to Celia, and thankfully I had started getting accustomed to life here. The first week was rough, filled with cold sleepless nights due to a hard mattress and rough blanket that didn't provide much warmth.

Also, my body had never done so much manual labour at that intensity in my entire life, it was such a struggle to carry those buckets of flour on my shoulders I felt as if I would collapse on the second run back to the bakery.

Thankfully James was understanding. After seeing that they had employed a woman at the flour mill, more women were moved to want to work there as well. Some helped out with the manual labour of grinding the flour, others helped bring in the grain from the farms, and others were like me who ran flour to the various bakeries around Celia. Some of the women were lovely, others I feel weren't educated to treat others nicely.

I had made friends with a girl there named Samantha. We worked at the same pace than the rest so it was nice to have someone with me for a short time as we walked to our assigned places. And fortunately too, I learned that she lived not to far from Xander and I. Every morning she would wait for me outside and we would walk to the mills together.

I heard a soft knock at the door, and I ran to open it, revealing a smiling Sam.

"Morning," She chirped. "Ready?"

I smiled and nodded, taking a coat the hung on a nail off the wall, put it on and closed the door behind me. The darkness before dawn air was always chilly.

"Cue the handsome man." I heard her say as linked arms with me as we started to walk.

I frowned, confused at what she said but almost immediately I heard a door open behind us, revealing Xander, also wearing a coat as he stepped out of his house and closed his door behind him, following and walking behind us.

"You're so very lucky Elena," She told me with a wink.

I rolled my eyes and smiled. She would tell me this everyday, she would tell me how jealous she was that I was 'friends' with and lived across and "handsome young man" such as him, and who would follow us to work and back home like he was our bodyguard.

I simply reminded her that he followed us because we started work and finished work at the same time, and that our places of work were not too far from each other.

I looked back to look up at Xander, who didn't meet my eyes but looked straight ahead, as he always did. The uneasy feeling that I was feeling the past few weeks came back and lingered in my stomach.

Yesterday I had received an unexpected letter from my mother. It brought me such joy when I had opened it to see her handwriting. She asked me how Xander and I were, and that she missed me. She told me she and the rest of the household were doing fine, but that it felt like something was missing since I had left. Tears brimmed my eyes as I read her words, not realising just how much I missed her.

I wrote down a reply as soon as I had finished reading it. I told her about our living quarters, our new names, my new job, the people I had met, the things I had started to grow to love about Celia. But I also included the fears and concerns that I had.