The Lady's Tiny Rose

The beginning

A tired yawn could be heard in a small corner of the castle as Olivia woke up to start her daily routine. She was a maid working at Lady Dimitrescu's castle, she had only been there for about a week but boy was she good at her job. No room would be as squeaky clean as when Olivia cleaned it. She had had many years of experience at the job, although she was only 19 she had spent many years cleaning and helping out in her own home.

On her third birthday, her parents had determined that young Olivia was ready to help around the farm. They were a sweet loving little family, spending their days caring for the animals, the crops, their home and each other. It was perfect and Olivia had grown in grace and love protected from the harsh world outside of her farm home kilometres away from the nearest village. It truly was perfect until that cold night in November when she was 16 years old. It was quite tragic really, the dark night was so cold that Olivia's parents had decided to add some more wood to the fireplace in hopes it would keep them warmer, but as they finally closed their eyes as the warm air surrounded them a harsh wind blew in through the window, pushing the flames against the flamable curtains in the living room. The rest happened very quickly and the next thing Olivia saw when she woke up was her beautiful home in flames and her parents nowhere to be found. The only survivors being Olivia and their one-eyed orange barn cat, Bean.

With a broken heart, Bean in one arm and her favourite stuffie snowflake (a cream-coloured bunny) in the other, she walked for a couple of days until she finally stumbled upon a village. She slept under a tree that night but woke up the next morning with strong determination to find a job and a place to stay. she had Bean and Snowflake to take care of and they would need a roof to sleep under and money to get food in ther tummies. With her expert knowledge on farm-life she was lucky to find a job at the only egg farm in the village. She spent her days taking care of the hens and keeping their space and the farm squeaky clean. She even got a room in the farmhouse where she, Bean, and Snowflake cared for and comforted each other.

The last she had worked on the farm had been a year and a half ago after she decided she wanted to try a find a space of her own. Sweet Olivia had always been childlike as she grew up but after her parents' death she had found herself feeling and acting younger at times, it would bring her great comfort and soothe her aching heart. After some thorough investigation she had quickly found out what age regression was and realized that was exactly how she had been coping the past few years. But it was hard for her to fully regress in the small farmhouse she shared with the other workers. So when she stumbled upong a big and majestic castle during one of her afternoon walks she had decide then and there that she wanted to live in that castle, surely with that much space she would be able to regress when needed. Luckily for her, as she inched closer to the castle, her eyes caught sight of a flyer posted right outside the door of the castle stating "maids needed, knock on the door". There was no other information on the paper which spiked her curiosity and by the following week she had found herself knocking on the door.

Which brings us to the present moment, it's currenlty 7:00 am and all the maids including Olivia were now waking up to start their daily duties. Olivia yawned tiredly as the sun peekd in through the curtains directly hitting her eyes.

"ugh, Beeeaaaannn, I just want to keep sleeping, why is the sun so cruel, tricking my eyes into opening and waking me up!"

"meow"

"Yes Bean, you're right, I should really wake up and start working, and whisper meow next time, no one knows you're here and we don't need anyone finding out either" The orange furball purred in response and softly licked Olivia's nose snuggling up to her.

She kissed Bean's tiny nose and gently set him down as well as Snowflake and hurried to get ready, it was now 7:08 and all the maids had to be in the kitchen ready for breakfast before their morning chores by 7:15.

She got to the kitchen with some seriously messy hair but just in the nick of time, right on cue Bella walked in at 7:15 and told them to eat up quickly and get to work.

"not you new maid, I need a word with you"

"ye - yes miss Bella" as the words left the young maid's mouth Bella calmly and confidently walked toward Olivia who was trying her best not to shake fearing she had done something wrong and would get scolded or worse.

"a - I'm sorry i - if I did something wrong I...", "sh sh sh" Bella said as she brought her finger to the girl's mouth "now, now, no need for apologies, that hair however is awful, mother would certainly not approve, come here, I'll fix it before you get on with your day"

Olivia didn't even have time to react as Bella quickly got to work putting her shiny brown hair into a single braid. Her quick yet delicate fingers causing Olivia to giggle softly "sorry Miss Bella, but it tickles" she said between her giggles.

Bella's usually serious demeanor cracking into a smile for only a second before humming at the giggly girl's apology.

"off you go now ummm, what's your name again?" Bella certianly knew the girl's name but did not want to seem obvious, not when she barely knew the names of the maids that had been working at the castle longer than her.

"oh, uh it's Olivia, Olivia Rose"

"well little Rose, go on now, plenty of work awaits you" Olivia blushed at the nickname and nodded her head as she scrambled off to get on with her work.

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Aaaaand that's it for the first chapter. I'm so excited for this book! It's my first one and I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas you would like to see included in the book at some point :) I will try to make sure to update at least once a week and hopefully even more often.

- Violet