The Dramedy Adventures of Tilda Attaway

Chapter 44: Visitor

As Marley and Cosaria were walking towards the main entrance of the castle, Cosaria couldn't tear her eyes away from a corridor to the right of the stairs.

Marley noticed and asked, "What's there?"

"Hm?" Cosaria answered.

Marley gestured, "That room?"

"That's Delrik's drawing room."

"Oh man. I'll be sure to stay out of there then."

Cosaria didn't understand Marley's apprehension. She asked, "Why is that?"

"Oh, uh," Marley wasn't sure if it was okay to talk about the tyrant duke's reputation in front of his wife. "You know, sends servants to jail, or exiles them from the country, or just kills them."

"He's not like that at all," Cosaria said, "He's really very considerate, once you get to know him."

"Is he? I get a shiver down my spine whenever he looks at me," Marley said. While she had had the pleasure of meeting Delrik on a few occasions, those meetings were not pleasant. Already, he had given her the look of disgust, distrust, arrogance, and contempt. Sure, all his words were cordial, but they were also very cold.

Corsaria's brow furrowed as if she couldn't imagine Delrik being dangerous. She said, "How strange. When he looks at me, my heart starts pounding so loud I'm afraid everyone will be able to hear it. It's like my head is on fire, I feel faint, yet it isn't uncomfortable."

A light of recognition shone in Marley's eyes. She said, "OOOOOH? Oh man!!! I've definitely read enough romance novels to know what that feeling is. For sure!"

"What?"

"You don't know? Oh man. It's so easy. It's love!"

Cosaria shook her head and said, "Oh, it couldn't be that. We're just friends."

Marley furrowed her brow. That sentence made zero sense. Was Lady Cosaria just THAT dense, or was she living in denial? Or both? And did she really not know about the Duke's cruelty? He chopped off the fingers of a servant who tried to steal the Duchess's jewelry and then had her exiled. Marley decided she would have to ask Tilda about it.

༻✧༺

That chance came later as Tilda and Marley strolled along the road going into town to run some errands. No one else was around, so Marley voiced her confidential thoughts.

In response to Marley asking an edited version of, 'Why is Lady Cosaria so dumb?', Tilda said, "I don't think Lady Cosaria has all the same mental functions as everyone else. She doesn't quite understand social cues. Or people in general. It is as if she can't conceive of the idea that people can be bad. And she's just so unnaturally pure, that it makes me wonder if she's been touched by an angel or something."

"So, she's genuine about it?" Marley asked. The whole I'm-so-innocent-thing wasn't an act? It was so over the top that sometimes Marley felt like it was fake.

Tilda said, "Genuine to a fault. A very big fault. It's one of the reasons she needs you so badly. You're not just her lady in waiting now, you're one of her advisors to help her make correct choices based on more than the immediate perception."

Morley stopped walking as the weight of those words sunk in. She finally spoke, "Oh man."

༻✧༺

Cosaria was in the garden. Her visage was that of an angelic being as the wind rustled her hair. Not even the greatest sculpture in all the land could have imitated the beauty that was Cosaria.