Queensmen

Chapter 16

~Hopes~

"Mistress, you should try this tea. Keziah said the other day that it tasted like mint and morning dew," Andrea gushed, a teapot grasped in her gloved hands as she leaned forward with an eager smile.

"This servant does not think that it would be best to pour tea in a moving carriage," Seline said with a crossed frown, her grip on the teacup Andrea had forced into her hand seconds ago tightening. "It is not proper."

"If you worry about ruts and potholes then fear not," Mayree said cheerfully while extending her own teacup towards Andrea. "The Emperor just commissioned workers to build this road some months ago. It goes straight from Asharath to the capital city and was just opened. I assure you that that the wheels of our carriage will not so much as shiver."

"That does not mean it is less likely for hot tea to pour on our skirts," Seline argued as Mayree sipped from her cup and Andre cackled in delight, not once looking up or raising her voice. "Mistress?"

All three girls turned to Oris.

Great, she thought, her gaze levelling on Keziah who sat quietly beside her, hands clasped and dark eyes fixed on the carriage floor. Why can they not be more like her?

"The tea is quite lovely, and refreshing." She had had some some days ago when the envoy had stopped to picnic by a lake they had come across. "But it wouldn't be nice if any of you got burnt because of an accident. Why don't you reheat the pot later when we come to a stop? That way we can all enjoy it."

Immediately, Mayree and Andrea looked visibly sobered and bowed their heads. "Yes, Mistress," they said together.

"Yes, Mistress," Keziah and Seline chimed along before the other girls' voices had even started to fade away.

Andrea forced another bright smile to form on her rosy lips as she set the teapot on the long panel that jutted out of the carriage from beside her, even going as far as strapping it down.

Mayree patted the girl on the shoulder and offered her a sympathetic smile along with one of the sugar cakes bundled in the cloth that sat on her lap.

Oris smiled at them and leaned back in her seat. After a week and some, she had gotten to know them well. She almost laughed when she thought back to the days when she needed eye color to differentiate them. They all had such distinct looks and personalities, that she found her struggle back then amusing.

Seline was ordered and curt to a fault. She rarely smiled, didn't seem capable of having fun and spent most of her time waiting for commands. She was only fifteen summers old and the fifth daughter of a jeweler who had been up to his neck in debts. She was sent to the palace to reduce the number of mouths her father needed to feed as well as earn enough salary to support her declining family.

Mayree was the oldest at eighteen summers. She had taken up a sort of mothering role for the group and was the glue that kept the girls together. She was knowledgeable about several things but only gave input when an issue directly involved her. She came from a long line of maids on her mother's side and hence was serving five years in the palace as a sort of christening before marriage.

Andrea was the youngest at thirteen summers, the most joyful and quite generous with affection. Her mother had been the companion of a high ranking consort in the Inae royal harem and used her connections to secure her daughter a position in the list of girls to be the personal attendants of the emperor's potential brides but an incident got Andrea relegated to maid status for an uncertain duration.

Keziah was the most elusive of the group of four, silent and soft-spoken. At sixteen summers she was already an orphan. No other detail was known of her past other than the fact that she was sold into palace because her family had committed an unspeakable crime.