valerian empire
When Daisy was asked by the Valerian Lord to guide Katie with the mansions work as she would officially start working from the next day, the elderly woman was taken a back for a spare second.
A maid was equivalent as a servant for the higher class people and Katie wasn’t invited here as guest. Why would the Lord do such a thing? Most of the servants in the mansion were good but not all were nice.
“I will leave her in your hands then Mrs. Flynn,” Daisy heard the Lord say and she bowed her head.
Katie took in everything as Daisy explained going through the mansion. As a guest she hadn’t explored the mansion as she had been mostly holed up in the room or in the garden but now as the maid she could see how beautiful the mansion actually was. It looked bigger with the high ceilings that had paintings done on it.
Behind the mansion there was a passage to enter the underground area.
“Is this the one that leads to your chamber?” asked Katie as they walked through it. Even though there were torch like fires burning on the either side, the place looked darker because of the black walls.
“It is,” Daisy replied with a smile noticing how Katie had referred the place as ‘your chamber’ and not the servants chamber, “Every maid or servant who works for Lord Alexander resides in this place but not the generals and commanders. I think you know that already.”
“Yes,” Katie replied. Lord Alexander had mentioned about it when he was setting few rules to her before she left with Daisy.
The chamber was sectioned into two after the common hall, one for males and the other for the females.
Few maids who were gossiping stopped to see a new person in the underground. On the other side she could feel men’s gaze upon her who were present.
“Everyone, this is Katherine and from now onwards she’ll be helping us out around the house,” the elderly woman introduced Katie to the group of people.
“Isn’t she the guest Miss Sylvia brought here few days ago?” one of the maid asked.
“Yes, she was but-” the elderly woman was interrupted by another maid.
“Did the Lord finish fucking you and turn you into a maid?” She had brown curls that fell past her shoulders and her eyes that were the color of olives.
“W-what?” Katie felt her eyes widen hearing the unexpected question thrown at her.
“Hold your tongue Matilda before I report your behavior,” Daisy warned the girl and saw Matilda grin. Katie noted that the girl could be an appealing person to men’s taste with her good curves.
“Looks like you haven’t,” Matilda commented as she exited the common hall.
“Don’t mind her Miss Katie. She has one crude tongue,” Daisy apologized with a frown on her face.
“Daisy is right, don’t be bothered by her,” a girl came forward around her age and giving her hand to Katie with a big smile, “I am Cynthia and this is Fay.”
“Hello,” Katie shook hands with the girls a little nervous now. Did everyone think that she and the Lord had done it and that is why she was here?
“Oh, look at the time! I need to take the tea to Lord Alexander’s room,” Cynthia said looking at the clock on the wall.
“You need not worry of it from now,” Daisy said and turned towards Katie, “You will be responsible for taking tea to his room and other things which were previously mentioned.”
The smile on Cynthia’s face fell and her brows furrowed.
“But-” Cynthia spoke and Daisy raised her hand.
“Weren’t you the one complaining you had a lot of work on your plate. Now. Corey,” she yelled the name, “Can you show Katie the way back.”
A tall, young man in his early twenties got up from the far end of the table to walk towards them.
“Come on,” the man said leading the way out. With a small bow Katie followed the man named Corey.
As she walked through the lightly lit passage she lifted the front of her skirt a little to avoid it from getting dirty.
Was staying here a good idea, she thought to herself. The most important thing was if she could survive but a month would pass by easily, wouldn’t it? She could handle a month, she nodded to herself.
“So when do you start working?” Corey asked her.
“Early in the morning tomorrow,” Katie replied him and heard him humming a song while they came out of the underground feeling the cool air.
“Has grandma told you about the rules that has to be followed?” he asked her and she looked at him with a frown. Wait, she did remember Daisy mentioning that she had a grandson, “Hello, you there?”
“Ah-sorry, what?” she asked apologetically.
“I asked if you were told about the do’s and don’ts here in the mansion,” Corey repeated himself looking at her and saw her nod, “Hmm, I’m still going to run through some of them to make sure you know it. One, listen very carefully to your superiors. Two, don’t ever get in the way of the Lord. Three, don’t get into trouble with other workers here because that will earn you the night in dungeon,” he said patting her shoulder friendly.
“Got it,” she replied.
“Just for curiosity, were you really a guest?” He asked and then added seeing her change in expression, “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“I lost my family recently and I was brought here. I needed a job and the Lord was kind enough to offer me one here,” she answered keeping out the details of the cause of her relatives death.
“I am sorry to hear it. You know if-” he was interrupted by a girl from the first floor.
“Hey, Corey! Mrs. Hicks asked for you,” she looked at Katie and asked, “Who is that?”
“This is Katie, she’ll be working with us,” he replied. The girl waved at Katie which made Katie wave back at her awkwardly, “That is Dorthy. Alright. I’ll see you around then,” he said hurrying his way inside the kitchen like a whirlwind while Katie went back to her room.
Katie had got used to waking up late and found it a little difficult to wake up early instead wanting to sleep but she woke up anyways.
Mrs. Hicks was the woman who was in charge of the kitchen and she sure yelled loud enough for everyone to scurry and work as quick as they could. It was noisy yet lively in the kitchen where it made her worry and loneliness fade away momentarily.
Corey worked as a helping hand in the kitchen and it made it easy to breathe when she first stepped into the kitchen after she was done watering the plants inside the mansion. On the first two days he had taught her on how to set things and helped her in getting the trolley ready with breakfast.
It was her daily job to deliver breakfast to Lord Alexander’s room every morning. Previously Daisy was the only one who was allowed to enter the room during his absence and now Katie. Areo was one difficult cat when it came to giving him a bath, she would run around the bathroom to catch him as he was stubborn to get cleaned.
Other than that she watered the plants in the mansion and liked helping in the kitchen as it was always fun to hear people teasing and laughing but that came with Mrs. Hick’s scoldings. Another reason was that she had made friends there.
Katie couldn’t say she got along with all the people in the mansion. There was the second in command, Oliver who always caught her free and would reprimand her for dawdling around. It felt like he enjoyed picking faults and was just waiting to criticize her at every given opportunity.
Then there were maids who spoke behind her back of how she had slept with the Lord and that was why her room was next to his. She had thought about going to the Lord and asking him to let her live in the underground but she didn’t want to.
Was it wrong to think that she was in some remote way special to him? The thought made her happy. But then there were days when she saw women going to his room at night. She told herself not to expect more and to be happy by just staying next to his room.
No matter how handsome he was their status’ was a universe apart. He was a Lord. A vampire.