Serving House Beneviento

14

The carriage ride to the castle was as lively as always with Angie making her comments on everything that moved to purposefully irk me. We made it to the castle before the sun set and walked up to the door. Before I could knock, Elena opened it with enthusiasm. She jumped on top of me, and I toppled back onto the stairs. Her laughter filled my ears as I pushed her off of me and grabbed the back of my bleeding head. I healed it slowly and my head spun as I slowly got up. I stood on shaky legs. Donna crossed her arms around her chest as Angie floated beside her and laughed.

"Sorry!" Elena said as she scratched the back of her head. "I was really excited to see you! I haven't seen you in weeks." Donna grabbed for my arm and pulled me into the castle. Elena followed behind us and chatted alongside me. "So, I wanted to see if you would come to the kitchen with me. It had been a while since the maidens had to cook and none of us are sure if its actually good.

"Are you guys not humans? Do you not know how to cook for yourselves?!" Angie snapped. Elena and I were taken aback. That didn't sound like Angie's usual tone. I glanced over at Donna as she continued walking.

"Elena, I'll go help you in a moment," I murmured to her as I hurried back to Donna's side. I turned back to Elena and she trailed at a further distance behind us. When I turned back toward Donna, she walked even faster.

"Go help her. Apparently she can't cook for herself." Angie snapped in my face. I took a huge step back. What the hell?

"Did I say something wrong?" Elena asked as she walked up beside me.

"I...don't know," uttered out of my mouth rather confused. "I'm going to let her cool off. What did you need help with in the kitchen?" Elena snapped back into her train of thought and motioned me to follow her. Through the twists and turns of the halls, we finally made it to a massive kitchen where a few malnourished cooks looked at the food with confusion. Donna may have had it wrong to imply that people ate regularly here. I hissed under my breath and Elena smiled.

"A few of them are from the basement. They have been brought up to cook. I don't want to watch them get thrown back down by the daughters." I slowly nodded my head as I grabbed for an apron alongside Elena.

"Oh, you're cooking too?" I asked.

"Do you think they can cook on their own?" I glanced back at the people that just stared helplessly at the ingredients.

"Fair point." With the ingredients we had, we decided on stuffed crab and some form of sweet potato side dish. It was all that was really fresh and available. When the kitchen door opened again, we saw Nikolai enter. He waved to us and grabbed an apron from one of the staff that sat silently and chewed on some bread that Elena gave them. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you could use some help. Well...Lady Beneviento was very adamant that no one could do a damn thing on their own in the castle apparently." I cringed.

"Is she still in a mood?" Elena asked.

"She came here with one?" Nikolai asked.

"She seemed fine until we got here and then Angie was...really snippy." Well, I think Donna was the one that was being snippy, but that was not something worth disclosing. "I don't know what happened. Elena attacked me at the doorway and then chaos for her attitude." The two just stared at each other before we all shrugged and continued cooking. After about thirty minutes later, a maiden ran to the door. Her eyes were wide and panicked.

"Lady Demitrescu is coming," she breathed. Elena sighed.

"Why does she have to scare everyone?" Elena whined.

"Might be a power thing," Nikolai muttered as he checked the oven.

"That's what I'm for," Elena grumbled as she turned back to the bread she was cutting up for dessert. I mixed the cinnamon batter as a chuckled bubbled up from my throat alongside Nikolai. The door swung open moments later and the cooks that sat around were on their feet and checking different things throughout the kitchen. Donna, Angie, and Heisenburg rolled in from behind her. A bad feeling tugged at the pit of my stomach. Angie loose in someone else's kitchen. Oh god.