CinderEll

Chapter Sixteen ~ Offers

A few days later when Ell was all recovered from her accident many things happened all at once. Alex had to resume her training to become queen and also had to train for her fencing competition that was coming up, and the queen herself wanted to speak with Ell.

She wasn't sure what exactly it would be about. She only hoped that she hadn't done anything wrong and was fully preparing herself to pack her bags and leave the castle thinking to herself that she had imposed far to much upon Alex's family. But when she entered the room with baited breath, and the queen asked her to sit down in her office, things went a little differently than what Ell had expected.

"Ah Ell. I'm glad to see that you've recovered now and I wanted to run something by you."

Ell nodded with a shy smile.

"Well I was very impressed when I heard that you not only saved my daughter from a life threatening situation once, but you actually saved her twice. Risking your own health each time."

Ell blushed at that as she made to protest but when the queen held up a hand, she blushed and allowed her to continue.

"Alex has also told me that your very good with children and most of Rose's nanny's well... she manages to get rid of them so to speak within the first few weeks of their jobs."

The queen sighed as she looked up at Ell seriously.

"Now I want you to know that you don't need to feel obligated to accept my offer at all and you are free to stay with us for as long as you need to either way. But I was wondering if you would like to give it a go? Rose really likes you and I think you'd be a perfect nanny."

Ell blushed bright red at that. A nanny... she'd never really thought of what she'd like to do after high school, the choice had instead been made for her by her uncle, but she couldn't help but to get excited about the prospect of a new challenge.

"A nanny? I think I'd like that a lot." She shyly replied to which the queen beamed.

"Great! Now you'll be learning from Rose's most recent nanny who has agreed to provide you with training before she leaves and once your trained you'll be making sure that Rose gets around the castle ok to her different tutors and during free time, making sure that she doesn't get into any accidents, at least where-ever possible." She said, amusement colouring her voice.

"Do you mind starting today?" She asked, to which Ell shyly nodded.

"Great now you can wear whatever you'd like in this role and of course you will be paid in the next couple of weeks."

Ell blushed brightly at that.

"I would happily do this for free though, y-you've done so much for me after all." She tried to protest but the queen tut-tutted.

"Now Ell, of course I'm going to pay you and there will be no arguments about that. But thank you. Now run along, you'll find Rose and her nanny in the gardens, she'll teach you everything you need to know."

Ell bit her lip as she made her way out of the room, making sure to curtsey a little before leaving. She was going to be a nanny. She was going to be a nanny!! She was so excited she could barley contain herself as she all but skipped the rest of the way to the gardens feeling that things in her life where finally beginning to fall into place.

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Alex had been busy ever since Ell had gotten better. She had wanted to stay by her side and have the chance to get to know her better while she stayed with them, but Alex had her duties and training to attend too. Not only did she have to tail her mother to all sorts of meetings and conferences, but in the afternoon she also had her fencing training to attend to as the Alluria Fencing Championship was set to happen just before Christmas and she was admittedly a little bit out of shape.