Oh, Darling Mine [Lady Dimitrescu] [REVIII]

Chapter III

During the subsequent weeks, Lady Dimitrescu had many a chance to admire this particular maiden—not only that, however she also found out her very own daughters had grown quite attached to the woman as well.

･-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-.

On a cold day, early in the morning, the Countess received a phone call; Mother Miranda demanded her presence yet again, a family meeting would soon happen in the ruined church. Despite dreading the moment she'd stand in the same room as her so-called siblings, she obliged.

It was then, as she—purposefully—slowly made her way across the dining room, into the main hall; as she quietly stepped on the marble floors, softly puffing out a cloud of smoke while delicately holding her loyal cigarette holder, long and thin between her gloved fingers; as she let out a tired sigh, the castle's usual somewhat somber silence came to be interrupted, and not by her own doings.

Coming from the floor above, a singing voice could be heard; soft, smooth, quiet—whoever sang, did not do so for an audience.

Alcina stopped immediately upon noticing the melodic voice. Without realizing, she held in her breath, automatically avoided making any sort of noise. She focused solely on the voice, quickly locating its source, yet not its owner: the wine room. Recalling instantly that only two maidens had access to said room, Alcina finally let out the breath she had been holding, as the ghost of a smile touched her vermillion-tinted lips.

In that moment the Countess had decided the family meeting could wait.

Just as quietly as she had entered the main hall, she climbed up the staircase, efficiently did so. Immediately sighting the door to the wine room ajar, the singing reached her a little louder, if but a tad. Tatiana wasn't one to sing at all, Alcina knew that—only one maiden could be in there, singing quietly to herself; singing beautifully, enchantingly even.

Her singing seemed to pull Alcina into a trance she could not really resist against.

Upon standing by the door, the Lady leaned forward, peeping through the small open space and into the room. As she had already figured out, [N] stood inside the wine room, carefully cleaning each and every wine bottle in the cupboards and shelves. She seemed to be busy, now with a bottle of Castle Dimitrescu's infamous wine, Sanguis Virginis. Not once did she stop humming to herself, sometimes singing a little out loud, but most of the time keeping it quiet.

The Lady of the Castle ended up arriving terribly late to her family meeting, for she would not be able to stop listening to her maiden sing.

･-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-.

For several days, the Countess paid more attention around the castle; she stopped whatever she would be working on to listen to [N] sing every chance she got, and so found out that this maiden also hummed happily to herself whilst cooking; and on more than one occasion Alcina recognized the song to be the same, noticed the slight longing the maiden gave it as she sang. Alcina wondered why.

This particular day, the Countess heard [N]'s voice coming from the main hall, however not in the way she had come to be accustomed to.

Bela, Daniela and Cassandra sat on the couch by the fireplace—what surprised Alcina to no end was how quiet they all were, leaving just [N]'s voice interrupting the silence. Alcina stood by the small balcony, gazing down at the four women with a thoughtful frown. [N] sat in front of the three daughters, with what seemed to be a book on her lap.

Not singing, but reading this time, Alcina observed, perplexed, how her daughters listened intently to the maiden as she read out loud the words imprinted in the pages. What shocked her even more was the sight of a quite large pile of books resting by the coffee table, leading her to think this wasn't the first time the four females did this.