The Swan in the Water

Chapter Two

Liana woke up the next day to find a pair of white ice skates at the foot of her bed. She picked them up to examine them closer. The ice skates had little designs of flowers on them in a light silver that wasn't noticed unless one held them in the sunlight. Liana found them to be absolutely lovely. She didn't even want to use them lest she ruin them. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Liana called. The door opened, revealing a young maid around the age of twenty-five.

"Good morning, Miss Liana," the woman said as she curtsied. "My name is Madeline. I will be your chambermaid for the time being."

"The time being?" Liana questioned.

"For right now," Madeline explained, "I am both yours and Madame Atkins's chambermaid, for she doesn't have a second one."

"Hmm, I see," Liana hummed as she thought about the chambermaids she had at home with her parents. She didn't know any of their names so she felt no connection to them. She had to stop herself from announcing the fact that she had multiple chambermaids so she just let Madeline do her job. When Madeline was done, Liana went down for breakfast, but found Aunt Darcy already eating.

"I'm sorry, Liana, but I couldn't wait for Madeline to dress you," Aunt Darcy explained without looking up from the book next to her plate, putting a forkful of food in her mouth. Liana looked at her, wondering if she looked up at all to know she was here.

"It's fine." Liana took her seat at the table and started eating though her appetite was no better than yesterday. "Thank you, by the way." Aunt Darcy looked up and, though you couldn't see anything pass the black veil, you could tell she was giving Liana a questioning look.

"Whatever for?"

"The ice skates." Aunt Darcy looked over to Charles, who stood at her right side like yesterday.

"When did you go out to get them?" she asked him.

"Sometime last night," Charles said, "After dinner."

"Hmm," Aunt Darcy hummed in thought. "And did you use your own money?"

"Of course, Madame." Aunt Darcy gave out a large sigh.

"I'll be sure to reimburse you in your next paycheck."

"No need, Madame."

"Charles..." Then Aunt Darcy glanced over to Liana and sighed. "We'll discuss this at a later time."

"Thank you then, Charles," Liana subconsciously added. Charles smiled and bowed. Aunt Darcy scoffed.

"Don't encourage him, please, Liana." Liana nodded in obedience then started eating again. After a few minutes, she glanced up at her aunt once more, who was still trying to eat and read at the same time.

"What are you reading?" Liana asked.

"Dissertations."

"Though she has been staring at the same page for the last ten minutes," Charles casually added. Aunt Darcy immediately snapped her head in his direction as Liana fought to stifle a snicker.

"That is because they are fairly uninteresting and I'm also trying to eat," Aunt Darcy explained in a peeved tone.

"Perhaps if you ate first," Charles suggested, "you could better concentrate." Aunt Darcy then sipped graciously from her tea cup.

"Stop acting up because we have a guest," she quietly said. "You're worse than a child..." Charles gave a boyish grin and poured more tea in Aunt Darcy's cup. Liana watched with interest. The servants that lived in her household rarely said a word to the family, let alone said the things Charles did and got away with it. "Liana?"