Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 45: Part 2- The Turning of the Key

(A/N: Go get some tissues. Trust me you'll need them. I'll wait............ ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ got them? Good. Let's continue.)

The garden was empty of anything other than clandestine lovers and Verushka's search for her brother continued. She raced down the thick burgundy carpet that had once been stained with a tureen full of stew during the Season's first ball. Where she once dutifully shuffled down the corridor to serve dinner, now she was tripping over the folds of the well-scrubbed runner to protect the Queen. Verushka cornered the last hallway in a skid and flung open the doors of the pantry.

Dinner and aperitifs had long since been served and the kitchen was empty except for Mina and Liara who were chatting over a crusty baguette and cream cheese.

Liara raised an eyebrow at her entrance and Mina scowled.

"Where have you been exactly?" the eldest maid questioned.

"At the ball," Verushka panted. "I can't stay, I need to find Jacob. Have you seen him Mina?"

"No," Mina answered curtly enough that it stopped her friend short.

"What's wrong with you two?"

"Don't you remember what today is?" Liara questioned with a furrowed brow.

Verushka paused, catching her breath and then noticed a small stolen pastry in front of Mina with a single candle. "Oh my, I totally forgot that it's your birthday Mina. I have been so busy preparing for the engagement and the wedding and studying that it slipped my mind."

Liara sighed.

Mina was the first to find her voice. "It's not only me. We haven't seen or heard from you in two weeks, when you promised that you would meet us tonight. Liara wanted you to be for her to help prepare for her assessment at the Crimson Guild this evening."

"Oh, I didn't realise that was tonight. I have every moment of my day scheduled with either dress fittings or debriefings and I haven't really had any time. Anyway, I'm here now." Verushka pulled up a stool hastily.

"Yes, you're here. But now I have to go. You're too late." Liara eyed the large ticking clock one last time as if she hadn't memorised its surface as she waited for her friend in anxious expectation. There were times when Liara had screamed her frustration and times that she would spit vitriol in an attempt to deflect her own emotions, but when she was past hope and the situation was beyond salvage, she went quiet. With every second that had ticked on the clock that had once marked the passage of their youth, she sealed her heart. Brick by brick. Minute by minute until Verushka could no longer crawl back in.

"How could you do this?" Mina spat out the words with all the anger building over the last few hours. "I don't know what's happened to you. You couldn't spare a few moments away from your precious friends or your new life to be here when we need you. Do you even think about how upset Liara was waiting here? This meeting is a really important step for her. She needed you!" Mina launched into a tirade on her friends behalf, hurling accusations like barbed arrows from a quiver of anger and emotion. "What's the point of having all this money and power if you lose yourself in it?"

Verushka swiftly got up and took a step back. "I can't talk to you when you are like this. You can't tell me what to do and how to act." She felt their words surround her like cages and shackle her like chains; the restraints were her old familiar friends. The girls had always tried to protect her but their constant need to stay connected suddenly felt like ropes that bound. Everybody needed something from her. The Queen, the Duchess, Mina, Liara, and suddenly she couldn't breathe. "You have no idea what I'm dealing with," she replied icily, her breath misting the air and dimly she wondered when the pantry had grown so very cold.