Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 46: Part 2- Wedding Bells

The side door to the stables creaked open and Verushka poked a wary head through before sliding into the sun's warm rays. She had barely moved two feet when a whistling coachman ambled around the side of the building shining the already gleaming tackle with an oily rag.

"Daniel!" Verushka exclaimed.

"Huh?" Daniel glanced up with a surprised smile. "Hey, Ver. Is that a new uniform? Looks nice. Mel will be excited to wear something different."

Verushka absently brushed at the Buckingham Palace maids' uniform she had donned before descending the stairs.

"Wha-, wait a minute," Daniel stammered. "You aren't a maid anymore. Ver, what's going on? Are you okay? I'm sure I am supposed to be driving you to the church in a minute. You're not runnin' away are you?"

"I'm fine, Dan." Verushka hastened towards him. "I promise I'm okay and I'm not running away but I need you to do me a favour. Can you take me somewhere?"

"To church?" Dan raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Not to church." Verushka bit the corner of her lip with wide, hopeful eyes.

"Yeah, of course." Dan nodded. "Anything for a friend of Mel's, and well my boss. I reckon you are going to be my boss pretty soon if we make it to that wedding of yours today."

"We will." Verushka gave a firm nod. "But there is somewhere I have to be first." She gripped the key in her pocket so firmly it created an imprint in her palm.

"Alright then, I guess I'll go grab one of our old carriages and we'll sneak out the back. How does that sound?" Daniel offered with a gentle pitying nudge that suggested he did not believe that she wasn't running scared from her own wedding.

"Perfect." Verushka gave him a winning smile. He would know soon enough that she would be back for the wedding. At present, however, any reason for haste was a useful one. She wanted this whole assassination business done with before she met her husband at the end of the aisle, and then they would both know that they were getting married purely because they loved one another and not out of duty to the Crown.

A few minutes later she was tucked into a small carriage that rattled and squeaked with the movement of every spring. Daniel must have had to pull out something from the very back of the sheds but it was serviceable and bore no hint of its previous Bexley shields.

"Hey, Ver," Daniel called as they pulled away from the Bexley grounds. "Where are we going?"

"Take me to Kensington Palace please, as fast as you can." Verushka gritted her teeth with resolve.

"You got it, Yer Grace." Daniel answered with a speed that made her wonder how he could bounce back and forth between her past identity and her future one with such ease.

When the carriage stopped a quarter of an hour later Verushka bounded out as Daniel opened the door. "Thanks Dan. Don't wait for me, I'll find my own way back. But I'd appreciate it if you kept this between the two of us, alright?"

"No problem, Boss. I won't even tell the missus." He ended with a wink.

Verushka hovered for a moment at the edge of the alleyways shadows. "Dan, don't you find it odd that I used to be a maid and now I'm a nobleman's ward and about to marry the Duke?"

Daniel offered her a kind smile as he adjusted the horse's reins. "Nothin' strange about it Ver. The Duke of Bexley loves you, doesn't he?"

"Well, yes," Verushka hesitated.

"Then nothin' else matters, and them that do care ain't really your friends." Daniel climbed atop the carriage seat once again. "Don't you worry about what the servants are saying. The Duke can do what he likes with his money and power, and if that is to marry the second best maid in the Bexley kitchens then so be it."