Maiden of the Forest

Chapter 22 - Meeting Sir Peter and the Grand Duke's Trial

Stepping through a pair of large oak doors, Ella was introduced to the Royal Guards' living quarters. The inner room was huge, the space occupied by lovely furniture of the deepest evergreen and dark cherry wood. Floral arrangements stood by the floor to ceiling windows, the curtains pulled back by large yellow ropes to let in the sun. Servants, both men and women, were already busy bustling around with breakfast trays, dusters, and handfuls of clothes and towels.

Ella heard laughter coming from a doorway on the other side of the sitting room and noticed through the opening that it was a dining area where some of the guards were eating breakfast or just mingling around. Twenty long tables were in this room, seats accommodating both the guards and their families - unlike the palace guard who lived in the town when their shifts were done, the Royal Guard and their families lived in the palace so as to assist the royal family at any time.

Since there were twenty divisions, Ella knew that only five of the twenty worked specific shifts and Kit assured her at breakfast that the fifth division worked in the evening hours that day. Peter was around here somewhere but where was she going to find him? Sighing, she walked past the dining room towards the private chambers belonging to each division, finding the door labeled with a number five just as Kit had instructed. It was partially open already and voices were coming from within. Ella swallowed. This was it. Pushing the door open, she walked inside.

A long hallway was open before her with smaller doors on either side. These were not labeled but thankfully all of them were open. Ella peeked into the first room only to have the other servant, Ruth, nearly slam into her with an armful of sheets.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," Ella apologized, backing away.

Ruth, a short girl with long dirty blonde hair and startling blue eyes as round as coins, peeked over the linens. "Who are you?" she asked curiously.

"I'm Claire," Ella said, catching herself just in time before saying her real name. "I'm new. Daphne and Beatrice suggested I work on the beds with you. Is that alright?"

"Oh, um, sure," Ruth muttered, juggling her bundle. "Do you need me to teach you what to do?"

"Simple instructions will do," Ella answered.

"Right, well, in the cabinets next to the window nearest to the bed are the extra sheets and bedspreads. Take off the old ones, replace them with the new, and set the old ones at the end of the hall in that big basket down there," Ruth instructed, pointing. "You can start at the end of the hall and work your way into the middle."

"Sounds easy enough," Ella smiled. "Thank you."

Ruth nodded before bustling off to empty her hands. Wandering down the hall, Ella kept her ear open for any mention of Peter's name.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright, Jane?"

"I'll be fine, Peter," a woman answered kindly.

Ella tripped over her feet. Peter! He was in the room to her immediate left! Her heart taking off in her chest, Ella crept towards the open door and peeked in. The scene before her was obviously a private one but she couldn't bring herself to look away. A young man with blonde hair was bent over a fairly beautiful woman with curly red hair cascading around her pale freckled arms, his lips lightly brushing against her forehead. The woman's cheeks were flushed as if she had a slight fever, the covers of the bed pulled up over her chest almost to her chin.

Even though he wasn't standing straight, Ella surmised from his limbs that Peter was around Kit's height though his build was definitely that of a soldier's. His skin also hinted that he spent most of his days in the sun, the coppery tone making his light blonde hair and deep green eyes leap from his features. He was dressed in a gray uniform, a rapier resting on the side of his hip.