Serendipity ✔

XIV

"We were one, we were golden."

♫ You Said You'd Grow Old With Me - Michael Schulte  ♫

♛

Penelope stared ahead at the two ladies that entered the room. She politely curtsied in front of the Queen, earning a warm smile from her. 

"It is very good to see you with us again, Lady Penelope," Queen Katherine said to the red head. "I do not think you have been introduced to Princess Gwendolyn, yet."

Penelope took the chance to really look at the princess Alexander was supposed to marry. The fair girl held her chin high in the air as she extended a hand towards Penelope. 

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Penelope," politely said the princess. Penelope returned the gesture by shaking her hand. "The pleasure is all mine, Your Highness." 

The men of the room were all gathered around the desk, not really paying attention to the ladies seated at the tea table. Penelope suspected they were talking about Alexander's recent love debacle, for the poor King still looked shaken up from that. She was so intent on trying to read Alexander's lips while he was speaking, she almost did not hear when princess Gwendolyn and the Queen started talking. 

"Alexander and Lady Penelope have been very good friends ever since they were infants," Queen Katherine had said, smiling proudly at the memory. "They were attached at the hip for the longest of time."

"Oh?" the princess cocked an eyebrow at Penelope. "What happened, then?"

For some reason, Penelope felt like the princess did not really like her. Though, she could not blame her. She hadn't taken much liking to her, either. 

"We had to grow up." Penelope answered truthfully with a frown, for she did not like the thought of that. Even though she wanted nothing more than to be Alexander's bride, it pained her still that they were not as close as they used to be. Maybe if they were, he would not have been madly in love with another girl now. 

Who was that girl?

She looked up to Alexander and tried to figure him out again. To no avail, though, as he seemed lost in his own thoughts. 

In that moment, something happened. While King Adam and the Duke were discussing something, Penelope saw Alexander's eyes flicker off to something in the room. No, not to something. To someone.

It was only then that she noticed the other person in the room with them. She was standing next to the Queen with a tray of tea cups and biscuits neatly arranged. Judging by her grey and white dress, she was no doubt a maid. 

Then, why was Alexander looking at her?

The Queen, as if she had noticed Penelope's gaze on the maid, cleared her throat. 

"This is one of my maids, Lady Penelope," she said, but somehow Penelope noticed the uneasiness in her voice. "She is fairly new here, if you were wondering."

"Ah! That must be why I did not recognize her, Your Majesty."  Penelope brushed off the weird look on her face with a smile. She watched as the young maid curtsied elegantly, holding the tray so perfectly that not even a drop of tea spilled  while she did the curtsy. 

"Shall I serve you the tea, Your Majesty?" she asked politely. 

"Oh, please do, Miss Anna." 

Her name is Anna, Penelope dully noted in her mind. 

When the maid was handing out the tea cups with the biscuits, she leaned in well enough for Penelope to fully see her face. She was too beautiful for a maid, there was no doubt in that. But, she was a maid, after all. There was absolutely no chance that Alexander could have been talking about her. She brushed off her ridiculous thoughts. 

The next thing that happened in the room happened so suddenly that Penelope could barely register all of it. 

When Anna finished serving the tea and retreated away from the table, her foot had caught on the carpet and she stumbled backwards. It happened too fast that nobody was quick enough to catch the girl from falling. And, so she fell, spilling hot tea on one of her stocking clad legs. 

She quietly gasped in pain, her cheeks flaming from embarrassment. Not even seconds passed before the Queen and Alexander were by her side. 

"What happened?" he urgently asked as Queen Katherine called out for other maids to come into the room. 

"Are you alright, Miss Anna?" By now everybody in the room were on their feet, which contributed more to the embarrassment the maid was feeling. 

Lady Penelope watched intently as Alexander tended to the girl on the floor. Granted, he was always polite to everyone, a servant or not. But, there was something in his eyes when he looked at the maid. He looked worried, so very worried. 

"I'm alri--" the maid tried to say but was cut off by the prince picking her up and leaving for the infirmary, with Her Majesty trailing right after him. 

Penelope's breath hitched in her throat when she realized that the girl really was who Alexander loved.  A maid had really captured the heart of the man the red head always dreamed of having. 

While she had spent nights and days waiting to see Alexander's face again, he already found someone to hold and kiss. 

But, Lady Penelope would not have any of that.

Lady Penelope would not lose to a maid, a commoner. 

And, she would do anything to change his mind. 

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