Queensmen

Chapter 30

~Go Time~

Oris stepped out of her room with Mayree and Keziah silent on either side of her, their hands grasping one of hers as though they were afraid that the moment they let go she would keel over.

She smiled wryly, finding their grim expressions amusing. They made her feel all the more like a lamb being led to the slaughter.

Here goes nothing.

"Mistress," Andrea frowned, as though sensing her mistress' darkening thoughts, and tilted her head slightly in her direction.

Her eyes scanned Oris from top to bottom as she chewed habitually on her lower lip. The mere sight of the dress her mistress had chosen made her uncomfortable, and she knew Mayree felt the same about the unique hairstyle that had been forced onto the usually untamable red locks.

She and Selene stood farther down the hallway, watching Oris proceed onward with the other two maids, their gazes judging how pitiful the entourage looked with each step that was traversed.

Selene had an equally distressed frown perched on her red-stained lips.

Everything looked too simple. There was not one hint of gold or silver, no hair pins, no flamboyant layers to the dress, no elegantly wide sleeves or elaborate ornaments.

Maybe it was only Keziah that had managed to exercise her talents in this situation, having been ordered to make Oris' wound look as morbid as possible, as if it wasn't already.

Now, it stood like a beacon on their mistress' pale skin, and though most of it was covered by the neck of the dress, the part that sat above her collar bone was ghastly enough to elicit gasps of shock from whoever saw it.

"Oh, why are you two looking so glum?" Oris laughed at the two girls, but stopped abruptly after breaking down into a series of harsh coughs.

Her brows furrowed with concern when she heard the grating sound coming from her own lungs but she didn't let go of either of her maids just yet, in fact her grip only tightened.

Maybe they weren't wrong about me keeling over, she thought, her vision going hazy for a brief moment.

Mayree shot Oris a worried look which she waved away, detaching herself from the oldest maid to take the handkerchief that Keziah had stretched out to her.

"You are clearly sick, Mistress." Andrea said with a deep frown that seemed out of place on her youthful face. "You should have at least allowed Keziah to add powder to your cheeks and Kohl to your eyes. Some red on your lips wouldn't hurt either."

"Our Mistress has a fever," Mayree told the young girl quietly, her own rosy lips pressed into a thin line. "And a cold. Who knows what caking her face in cosmetics would do to her health."

"We could have tried at least," Selene muttered bitterly. "It is hard enough to garner attention with no jewelry to work with."

"Alright, I admit it," Oris announced suddenly, the green in her eyes twinkling, "I should not have chased you all over the room."

"Mistress!" Andrea was about to get down on her knees and start apologizing for her earlier behavior but before she could, Oris had started laughing again.

"Mistress," Keziah voiced her worry in her usual, quiet tone when Oris' shoulders started shaking and she coughed again. "You should stop laughing."

"I can't help it," Oris said slyly, through the handkerchief she kept pressed against her mouth. "After today I might be dead, it is best that I am as happy as a lark before then. Don't you think?"