Rosie's Games

"I believe we may have a problem," Huig greeted Rosalind the moment she walked inside her room. She looked at the latter before she turned towards the door and locked it from the inside.

"What is it?"

"The woman that you asked me to observe was secretly preparing to leave the mansion."

"Dorothy?" Rosalind lifted an eyebrow.

"That woman, yes."

Since the attempted kidnapping that did not happen, Huig had been calling Dorothy 'that woman' and Jeames, 'that man'. Honestly, she found it entertaining. In her past life, she had never met anyone that would disrespect Dorothy and Jeames by calling them that.

"They are leaving?"

"They are preparing to leave as we speak."

"They did not announce this departure," Rosalind murmured. Instead, they were telling everyone about the banquet. Are they trying to use the banquet as an opportunity to hide Dorothy and make her leave the mansion without attracting anyone else's attention?

But— That does not make any sense.

Why would she suddenly leave after what happened?

This was not the Dorothy that she knew. The Dorothy that she knew would never give up this fast.

"Keep observing them," she said.

"And you?"

"I will be fine."

She felt him leave just before there was a knock on the door. She immediately opened it knowing that it would be Victoria's maids.

A few hours later and Rosalind walked out of her room feeling exhausted.

"How do you feel?" Grace greeted her with a smile on her face. "This must be the first time that you experienced something like this. So, the Madam asked me to give you this tea. It will make you even feel better."

Rosalind smiled. Saying nothing, she took the tea and finished it in one go. She was not feeling better at all. If anything, she felt pain all over her body.

When Victoria told her that her maid would help her, she did not say anything about shaving every inch of her body, scrubbing it so hard until she felt like her skin would fall off, and then cleaning the rest of her as if she was… that dirty.

Even in her past life, she did not experience this type of treatment. She felt like these people were preparing an animal to be slaughtered and served to the Emperor!

She smiled at the older woman before she was once again dragged away by the maids so that she could have her hair and makeup done. Only once all those things were done could Rosalind finally change into her red gown.

"Young lady, I know this might feel a little rough since this was your first time, but this is completely normal for women that would be entering the Palace for the first time." Grace was smiling at her as if she was a mother looking at her very own daughter. Rosalind hated it.

In the past, Grace was quite close to Rosalind as she was Victoria's aide and Rosalind had always seen the latter as her mother. Grace would give her words of wisdom that would help her decide things. All in all, Grace had a hand in the actions of her previous life which meant that Victoria had a hand in it too.

Grace was a servant and Victoria was her master.

It would be impossible for Grace to act like that without Victoria's approval.

"Every noble woman… that would step inside the palace for the first time shall be thoroughly cleaned. The world outside of the palace is nasty and cruel. It is only right that we clean ourselves to not influence the Blessing that the Goddess granted the Empire," Grace added.

"I understand," Rosalind responded.

"Are you nervous about seeing the Emperor?" Grace asked.

"Yes."

"You should start preparing yourself for events like this. Once you marry into the Duke's family, you shall join him in events with Emperors and Kings."

What a way to make her excited, Rosalind thought inwardly. If this was the previous Rosalind, she would have beamed at the thought of talking to Kings and Emperors. She would be that naive again. However, in this life, she knew that talking to those people was akin to being in a war. One mistake and you would lose your head.

"Very well... Since you are almost ready, I will inform the Madam so we could leave at the fifth hour in the afternoon." Grace bowed toward her and elegantly left the room.

Just as Grace said, it did not take too long for them to finish 'preparing' her. She walked out of her room in a red long gown that hugged her body. The dress had beautiful sparkling jewels embedded in its fabric.

Miss Monoroe assured her that the stones and jewels would not fall off of the fabric even if she would run inside the cursed forest with her gown on.

This time, her hair was in a beautiful bun to emphasize the large diamond choker necklace. Her red strapless dress and the diamond made her look… older yet regal. Something that she quite liked.

"You look absolutely beautiful!" Milith said as she handed Rosalind a white shawl made of fur. "Young Miss— " Milith's eyes were teary as she stared at her. "You— You just— "

"Stop the antics. We have no time for such," Grace interrupted as she entered the house. "The Madam is already waiting. Milith and I will be riding in another carriage as the Madam needed to talk to the young lady."

"So it is just mother and I in the carriage?" Rosalind asked.

"Yes. The Madam wanted to talk about…. Important matters." Grace gave her a knowing look. "The Madam is aware that we have not taught you some etiquettes so she wanted to tell you stuff that should be avoided once you are inside the palace. This will greatly help you."

"You stay with Grace," Rosalind said. "I will see you in the palace."

.........

"You are awfully quiet," Victoria said just as the carriage started moving away from the mansion. The banquet will start at six in the evening, yet they needed to leave the mansion as early as five because it would need at least thirty minutes to travel to the palace in a carriage as large as theirs.

"It is not every day that I wear something so luxurious," Rosalind responded. Until now, she was still trying to figure out what their plan was. She was not prepared to lower her guard.

"That— " Victoria suddenly laughed. She smoothed her dark blue gown and leaned forward. "There is no need to pretend anymore. It is just the two of us."

...

What do you think will happen next? I am pretty excited!

Tomorrow Jan. 18 is my birthday so I might be busy. Anyway, I am hoping to have a mass release after my birthday! I hope I can do it!