Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 43: Part 1 - An Audience with the Queen

"He put his mouth where?" Liara exclaimed

"Please don't make me say it again." Verushka blushed, endeavouring not to melt into the floor.

"In the pantry?!" Mina scrunched up her face with undisguised distaste.

"Well, perhaps he was hungry." Liara grinned facetiously.

"Liara!" Both maids shouted in horror.

"Don't, 'Liara' me. I'm not the one soiling our sacred space."

"I wasn't 'soiling' anything." Verushka scowled, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. "I don't even know why I told you two."

"Sure you do," Liara affirmed, reaching over to swipe the untouched pancake from her friend's plate. "Mina weaselled it out of you. And if you hadn't wanted to be found out, you shouldn't have called Mel to clean up the pantry, because she was obviously going to confide in Daniel who told Cynthia who mentioned it to Jeff who blabbed to me."

"I didn't call Mel!" Verushka wailed in her defence. "It must have been Cain."

"The result is still the same." Mina shrugged. "You can't keep secrets from me."

"Speaking of Cain," Liara commented between mouthfuls of maple syrup. "Don't you have to go meet him and the Queen soon?"

Verushka nodded and quickly grabbed two slices of toast with a thick slab of cheese in the middle and shoved it in her mouth as she headed for the door.

"You know, I still don't understand why you don't melt that cheese like every normal person when you make cheesy toast." Mina called out, clearly worried about what was now a regular occurrence.

"It's madness I tell you. Madness." Liara concurred.

Verushka rolled her eyes and waved back at her friends, glad for their quick moment of peace in a usually busy kitchen. "Bye! Wish me luck."

"I don't know how much more luck we should offer you. Any more felicitations and Her Majesty will need to sanitise her sitting room."

"Liara!" Verushka screeched as she fell through the large kitchen doors onto the other side. Picking herself up, she dusted the bread crumbs off her Buckingham Palace apron and ignored the muffled laughter behind her.

Throwing on a large overcoat to hide the royal insignia Verushka walked quickly in the direction of Pall Mall. She hesitated for a moment to appreciate the morning light as it reflected off the large glass windows of the Palace as she approached its open U-shape that was somehow inviting and forbidding at the same time. Verushka listened to the nearby fountains of St James Park that soothed the constant rumble of wagon wheels in the dirt and wondered at all the people who wished and dreamed of seeing within those royal walls, and those who dared not even dream it.

To her right was Green Park, where she had caught Victoria's eye the day before in the crush of the crowds and her life had immeasurably changed. And, now she was about to venture where no bastard born kitchen maid was ever to have likely ventured before. Her heart beat beneath her breast in tandem with the clambering of carriages down the road. Was she even ready for such an upheaval to her existence? She questioned the beating of butterfly wings in her stomach. Whether she was or not, Queen Victoria was waiting for her and even Verushka knew that one should never keep a Queen waiting.

She stashed her coat behind an overgrown fern and greeted the nearest guard with a tentative smile as she entered the Royal Mews. Several horses pawed in their stables as the morning's oats and hay were tossed and grooms busied themselves with polishing their prime stock. Multitudes of staff traversed the courtyard in a flurry of activity as an odd pack comprised of a greyhound, spaniel, and deerhound nipped playfully at their heels.