Ode to Aphrodite

Chapter Ⅴ

  

     "Milady! You must make haste! We haven't even picked out your dress!"

     "Please come with us. We have so little time left, milady."

     Madeline placed her used fork down and dabbed the white napkin on her lips. The food on her plate was half-eaten, and she knew that not for another second of today would she get to consume another meal.

     "Rita, please, I have yet to finish eating." She exclaimed, doing her best to convince her maids to let her continue.

     "My Lady, the Baroness has instructed us to make you look the best of the best for the ball tonight. We will need to start now, because I have so many looks I would want you to try." The two maids stared at her as they stated this.

     Madeline had no choice. She knew it was her fault how she declined trying dresses yesterday. So, with that thought in mind, Madeline cut off two large pieces of the meat in front of her, smothered them in the warm mashed potatoes, and ate them as quickly as possible.

     In an unladylike manner, she gulped down water from her glass and stood from her chair. She picked a small piece of bread from the basket on the table and held it in her hand as she said, "I shall come with you now, let's go."

     And with that, Madeline's day started. Shoved into different dresses, different shoes and shown a various collection of jewellery.

     This took the entire morning, and frankly, she was tired of trying it all out. The next dress she would try out would be the one, she did not care about impressing anyone tonight anyways.

     Though she had truly loved the Baron and the Baroness for taking her in and thankful for every item and time they had given her, she could not come to love the idea of debuting in society. It felt like being sold off to a person that she would try to love her entire life.

     To her, the idea of love wasn't all that grand as well, it was not at all needed. Though, it would truly be wonderful if it comes together at the right time and place, and not forced upon the moment, simply because 'she was at the ripe age for marriage'.

     Madeline was never patient, although she tried to be, she just couldn't contain her frustration. "How many dresses did the Baron provide?" She finally asked.

     "Oh! Milady, he had given you shelves upon shelves! So much that it all took up the other room!"

     'This is all just a waste of money' she said to herself.

     Yes, they were a well-off family, with great land and a wonderful position in the agricultural business, but that didn't mean that they could splurge on anything they had wanted. Madeline knew that their assets were not even half of what the royal family had.

     "I should convince my father to sell them after, I'm sure many other lovely ladies need it more than I do." She told herself once more.

     "Lady! Whatever should we do! All the dresses so far have looked so wonderful on you, we do not know what to choose!"

     "Yes! Yes! We haven't yet started on the second half of what was provided, but we are already having such a hard time making a decision!"

     "My Lady Madeline could wear a sack of potatoes and still look like a goddess!"

     All the maids nodded with this statement. Their foreheads were scrunched up in confusion as they roamed the thought of the ones they had already been through.

     "Thank you, but that is an exaggeration, can you please bring in the next choice instead?"

     "It is not at all exaggerated Milady!" Margaret argued, before she left the room to grab a dress.