Chapter 20: +Chapter 20+
Mari’s questions were answered when a maid showed up in a completely different uniform, it couldn’t even be called a uniform. She wore ripped skinny jeans and a halter top, a blinding smile on her pretty face.
“I’m Vi and I’ll be attending to you, Miss.” She bowed respectfully for her casual dressing.
Mari would never get used to being treated like some important personality, especially when she was literally a fugitive, a poser. Someone that nice Vi would totally hate if she actually knew her secret.
“Just Mari is fine,” She corrected nervously.
Vi took one look at the strange werewolf dressed in nothing but King Kade’s clothes and smiled brighter, “I’m sorry, Lady Mari,” She quickly corrected.
“No-” Mari started to protest but Vi cut her off.
“I’ll prepare your bath now, my Lady,” She said in a rush hurrying to the bathroom.
Mari just watched her in disbelief; she had thought that the rules would be more lax in what seemed to be King Kade’s palace but it was even stricter.
*‘Wait, was she actually in King Kade’s palace??’* That would mean that they were in Wolfden, just how long had she been out of it?
She had no other option than to stand in place until the maid returned. “Vi! Wait!” She called out desperately before she could run off.
Vi eyed her warily but there was no hostility in her dark-eyed stare, she was just very curious. “Yes? My Lad-”
“Just Miss is fine,” Mari cut her off, correcting her through gritted teeth. “Where is this?” She asked in a quieter voice, her voice faltering.
“The Royal palace of Wolfden, my La- I mean Miss Mari,” Vi stumbled over her words at the end of her sentence.
Mari ignored this, hiding her shock well, “And what day is it?”
The maid started to give her skeptical looks at her strange questions but Mari didn’t care, she just needed to know what was going on.
“It’s Wednesday, Miss,” Vi curtseyed. “Your bath is going to cool down, Miss Mari,” She added before walking off as calmly as she could.
Mari huffed out a breath, maids thinking she was a loony was the least of her problems. Somehow in the span of one night, she had traveled to a whole other Kingdom without even knowing.
What she didn’t know though was that Vi, the maid that had attended to her, didn’t think of her as loony at all. As a matter of fact, Vi was too busy trying not to combust from excitement to pay attention to the strange guest’s stranger questions.
She immediately went on the search for her best friend Bells to fill her in. They met at the end of the hallways because coincidentally, the other maid was also looking for her.
Bells was dressed in a lacy, pale pink dress, matching pink bows filling her short curly blonde hair. “Vi! There you are! I’ve got some pretty juicy news for ya!” She whisper-yelled, cupping a hand around her mouth and simultaneously pulling her taller friend closer.
Vi let herself be pulled but she was also talking, “Not as juicy as what I found, I’m sure.” She said with humor but let her bubbly friend go first.
“So an order was sent from His Highness himself… I mean you know how the entire palace is literally already in flames when he was said to return from Moonbeam with a lady… I mean an actual real-life woman! Oh! I never thought I’d see the day…” Bells sniffed, wiping fake tears away from her face.
Vi was beginning to run out of patience, she had already heard all of this before, “Get to the point or I’ll say mine first,” She threatened, “What was the order?”
“That the lady friend he brought to be given his clothes until some can be ordered in for her,” Bells said sneakily, leaning even closer and whispering harder.
Vi frowned, “But we already arranged for a wardrobe full of clothes at his previous orders…”
“Shh,” Bells hushed her violently, looking around like it wasn’t just the both of them in the deserted hallway. “All of that doesn’t matter, you’ll wear her King Kade’s clothes until His Highness says otherwise.” She ordered, jabbing a finger in Vi’s chest.
Vi was just speechless, sure she had jumped on the bandwagon that their King might have finally found someone he was interested in but she didn’t think it had progressed this far already. Although it kind of made sense if the werewolf in question was basically wearing his clothes at the moment.
“So what did you have for me?” Bells asked eagerly.
Vi’s response was cut off by the scathing voice of an old woman dressed in a vintage dress, her graying hair in a severe bun. “Violeta! Belladonna! Are you two slacking off work?”
They both jumped in fright, Bells letting out a little squeak as she ran off, leaving Vi behind. Vi just bowed stiffly at the matron and then hurried away in the opposite direction.
The matron just grumbled to herself as she continued ambling down the hallway, her shrewd eyes sharp despite her slow gait as she kept an eye out for other slackers. She disapproved of His Highness allowing the hires to dress as they wished but that would be the limit of their unruliness if she had something to say about it.
Vi didn’t dare look behind her, Matron Constance had eyes at the back of her head and would scold her for giving her lip if she dared look back. Her destination wasn’t the room that Miss Mari was currently taking her bath in but rather the one right next to it, King Kade’s room.
Perhaps Vi could see why all the hired help was treating the matter like they were literally mated and the strange werewolf from Moonbeam was already their Queen. Lady Mari was the only woman that their King had brought to the palace outside of business.