Noble Capture

Chapter 1: Cinderella

The mountains of Scotland's Highlands are a beauty to behold, with their lavish green fields and peaks that touch the skies. This is what Princess Anya Elizabeth Mary Coventry has been waking up to for the last three months, ever since she was kidnapped. She now works as a kitchen maid in an enemy's castle.

Anya could remember it like it was yesterday.

They ambushed her carriage when they were about to exit the forest. Men in dark clothes suddenly appeared out of nowhere and quickly overpowered them. All her guards died trying to protect her. If only her father had let her stay in the camp, she would not be a prisoner of some barbaric scot. Her only saving grace was that they did not know she was the English Princess.

They thought she was the lady-in-waiting for the Princess, who escaped. Wearing her clothes, Maggie was lucky not to get injured as they tried to flee. She told Maggie to run and get help as she would only drag them down with her wounded leg. Anya's only prayers are that Maggie did indeed get help and that her father is doing all he can to rescue her.

"No time for tears," Anya said as she wiped her face and buried her sad heart. She had work to do.

Anya went to the kitchen from the bedroom she shared with the two other maids. She thought of that fairy tale her mother read her when she was a child — the one about the cinder maid who married a prince and became a princess. Anya chuckled to herself as if only fairy tales were real. In the real world, the Princess becomes the maid.

There was more mayhem today than usual. So, Anya observed as she reached the kitchen. The noise and clutter from the kitchen could be heard from miles away.

"What is going on?" Anya asked Bradana, a fellow maid and roommate, but before she could respond, a rich voice spoke.

"You over there, take this tray to the Great Hall," said Greer, the head cook, pointing to Anya.

"M'lord is back from battle, victorious. Lady Elspeth ordered us to prepare a victory feast. This evening, and with no notice!" Lamented Greer.

Greer was a short white-haired woman approaching her late sixties who always complained about the clan chief's aunt, even though this was not the first time Lady Elspeth ordered Greer to prepare a feast without notice. As a result, everyone secretly called her the besom in the kitchen.

Anya quickly took the tray from her before she directed her anger at her. Greer was also infamously known for her fits of rage, along with her selective memory.

"Truly a Cinderella," Anya said under her breath as she carried out her task while lamenting her misfortune.

Anya's days as a kitchen maid were hard and long. As the Princess of England, she had no menial work experience. And this was why Geer hated her so much, as she was a disaster when she started working. Geer always called her bonnie eejit.

The Scotts were initially suspicious of her identity as a maid until she explained that they selected her to serve the Princess from infancy as she was the daughter of the Queen's maid. Hence, she had no work experience besides being a lady's maid.

The past three months were the toughest she had ever faced in her 19 years.

Only her sheer force of will to escape kept her going. Anya has always considered herself highly clever and resourceful.

Eventually, she will escape this hellhole and return to glorious England.

Right?