The Gentleman of Greenstoke

V.

Sakura observed her frame in the looking glass. "Any powder, Miss?"

The Japanese looked up at the servant next to her. She was not accustomed to this new development. After her uncle told Mr Kirkland about their home and living, the Englishman had insisted on giving her a personal maid who would take care of her. Although it was a nice suggestion, the Japanese did not want to give up her independence in dressing herself. She was capable of doing it by her own hand. Nonetheless she accepted in order to be polite and told the female servant to only help her with the powder and hairdressing.

"Yes, thank you."

It was an uncommon situation for Sakura; having a personal maid, being treated as if she was a member of the nobility. As she had requested Alfred to introduce her to the servants, he seemed surprised with that task. The black-haired woman had read in several novels that the servants were not allowed to engage with the masters and mistresses of the house. It was a rule to turn around and eye the wall when the royal household passed them. Sakura was glad to be in a mansion where such rules were not considered important.

After the maid left to tend to her other duties, Sakura looked at herself again in the mirror. The hairstyle and dress were giving her an elegant aura; it was extremely unfamiliar for her; she looked very English. Minutes passed before she decided to exit her bedroom and walked to the dining room.

It was the day after the odd dilemma of the previous night and the memories were still very fresh.

She knew that Elizabeta was a strong character who would have confronted the older Beilschmidt sibling for hours, had she not been in the presence of her employee. After she had seen Mr Kirkland's astonished expression, the woman bowed her head in shame and left the room without a soft "I will clean it up". Nonetheless, the evening had ended abruptly and Elizabeta had not faced any consequences that night. Arthur had explicitly explained to the oldest Mr Beilschmidt that he would take care of her by deciding over her fate the next morning after breakfast. Sakura hoped to talk to the Gentleman before he would dismiss Elizabeta, who had been a good friend to her the last two weeks. She knew it was an abrupt step to defend Elizabeta from her host, but she felt obligated. Fortunately, the man waited in front of the dinner room as Sakura approached him. Her hands were a little sweaty due to the following request she would have for him.

"Oh, good morning Miss Honda," the man in question greeted gently , a small smile on his face as he stepped to the Japanese who reciprocated his greeting words. After the usual inquiries after their health, the two stilled and looked at each other. While Arthur's face warmed, Sakura diverted her eyes; the nervous female was still musing over her next action. A daring action.

"Mr Kirkland, I hope I will not unsettle you with my request, but I wanted to talk to you about last night's event."

The British man frowned a little; he had not expected her to mention the former night. Of course he was still embarrassed as his role of a master and failed to have commanded Elizabeta back to the kitchen when it had happened. He felt responsible for his guest's situation and Elizabeta –due to his commitment to the household he had occupied and his sympathy for her. Gilbert had not been soft in his insults towards her. Arthur had endured the occurrence without any word. During the awful set-down, his eyes had wandered from the cook and Prussian, to his foreign guests. He hoped that both knew that it was not a western feature to greet one's guests with dipping food over them. Sakura's face had expressed the same amount of shock; just like his face and after the ordeal, she had gone to bed without another word. The dreading sensation of speaking about this certain problem was causing him to cringe for seconds before a stoic expression hid his nervousness. "Well, is it of great importance? If yes, we can speak about it immediately," he uttered.