Funny Fanny

Chapter 2

 I never once regretted becoming her maid in the years that came. She became much warmer to me as years passed and I became her confidant. Master Davis thought me all the things that I would need to know to help Ella in academics and Helga taught me all the things that I would need to know to show Ella right from wrong. Angela and Pierre became like my older brother and sister that would teach me everything they knew. Hubert also warmed to me as he aged less than gracefully. He taught me about horses and how to greet people in the home. Philip after being called to Master Davis's house was given a job in one of Master Davis's stalls as a shop boy to one of the nicer vendors. I went to visit him whenever him I went to market. Everyone in the house was happy in our little bubble. This all changed in the year Ella became twelve and I turned ten. Master Davis had gone on a business trip to the kingdom of Serton. He had gone to observe his trading caravan in the kingdom and came back remarried. The women that came was called Madame De Forge and she also brought her two thirteen year old daughters Anastasia and Drusilla. I cannot say anything really bad about Anastasia and Drusilla other than the fact that they were both extremely dumb. Madame De Forge on the other hand was cold and calculating as a viper watching and waiting for its time to strike. Once she came the first thing she did to change the household was to move me from the room which Ella slept to the cupboards in the kitchen. This was both hard on me and Ella. We were each other's confidant and best friend. But Ella and I put up with it due to the fact that Master Davis was so in love with his bride. It was not even a whole season after his marriage that Master Davis began to feel ill and in less than a month he left the world to the great beyond. The death of Master Davis brought the house into a gloom. The servants myself included were devastated at the loss of our master for he had brought us each individually into the household. For Pierre, Master Davis had brought him to the Aurora from the hot desert village in Datia that he had been persecuted for being a half Serton. For Angela, she had been brought into the household from a failed marriage that she had to get out of. For Helga it had been the hardest for she had been with Master Davis since childhood and she had taken care of him like I did for Mistress Ella. For me it was the loss of a father for he was the only father I had ever known. Ella had learned humility in her father's death and lost some of her snobbery. Madame De Forge was the exception to the gloom even though she was a newly wedded widow; she was always seen with a ghost of smile. Though in the following years Madame De Forge's smile waned. Ella had become more of a beauty that she has predicted. Ella made her own daughters looked plain beside her. This caused for Madame De Forge to submit her daughters to harsh beauty treatments. Even though quite neglected, Ella at the ripe age of eighteen was a lady of high esteem not a maid as told in stories. She was an avid visitor of the King's Court of Arabella. We had both learned from Master Davis's death that Love was dangerous so Ella decided that she would marry for status rather than love. I chose that I would never fall in love. Ella had grown into a beauty her hair darkening to a ripe gold like the sun at dawn. Her cornflower eyes rounded and took a more womanly shape as did her lips. She grew tall and very slim with her bosom swelling to the size of the green apples that were in the orchard. Myself on the other hand grew very slightly and was often teased at my shortness. In the years I had been in the household Ella had taken it as her mission to fatten me up and by doing so I was plump compared to her. My midnight hair grew also but in order to work more efficiently on the kitchens I kept it in a tight bun unlike Ella who liked her hair in intricate hair styles fitting to court. My face grew to accommodate my eyes so I didn't have bug eyes. In turn I grew into a slightly plain girl who became invisible to those in the household. After Master Davis died he left a hefty sum of money to Ella and his wife so they would not have to go hungry, but by the time Ella turned 18 that money had dwindled significantly. Ella was not frugal. She liked pretty little baubles and beauty products and they had to be the best. Madame was also loose with her money due to the fact she had to pay for her and her daughters' beauty treatments. This was the cause of the whole prince debacle but I am getting ahead of myself.