The Tale of a Princess Kidnapped by Pirates

Chapter Ten

The rest of Ro's week was slow and full of Evangeline's nagging. She was incredibly angry that Ro got a seat at the Kings table, and Theodosius seemed to be entranced by her. The morning after the meal, she stormed into the maid's quarters to fish out Ro, who was exhausted considering she did not collapse into bed until the early hours of the morning. Ro thought Evangeline was going to strike her as she stormed up to her with fury in her eyes, but strangely enough, she did not punish her. Instead, she declared that Ro was now going to be her full-time personal maid.

However, this proved to be a trial in itself, as Evangeline expected Ro to attend to her at all hours of the day and night, and she had to put up with the constant moaning and berating's delivered by Evangeline making her feel worthless at times. Ro took it with dignity though, and knew that Evangeline was just jealous, as Theo had called her beautiful and talked to her all night, whereas he hardly even looked at Evangeline who kept inserting herself into their conversation desperate for his attention.

Whilst Evangeline was always putting Ro or somebody else down, Ro was expected to complete frivolous tasks such as rearranging her wardrobe in colour order, then as soon as she was done, rearranging it by item. Ro just did everything she was told and listened, relieved when she had a few minutes to herself as Evangeline was meeting with her friends or dining with the Royal Family. Evangeline had banned Ro from even stepping foot in the majestic dining room ever again. However, even through all her faults Ro was sure Evangeline had a good heart, as she believed there was goodness in everyone, which she was sure her mother installed in her as a child. The face of her mother was blurred in her mind, as if she were under water, but Ro took hope in the fact that she knew she had a loving family somewhere out there.

Dionne was ecstatic when she realised she no longer had to serve Evangeline, but made sure to warn Ro not to take any other of her jobs. She did not want to be replaced by the new girl! Viola sympathised with Ro and often waited up until she returned to bed at night. She was confused and in awe of her continuous positive attitude – so much so that she had started to call her Sunny. On the odd occasion Ro had a spare moment, Viola had taken to re-teaching her how to read and write. Ro made sure to pour over the book Viola had given her to practice her reading, and found that she was starting to get the hang of it again. Her love of stories rushed back to her making her determined to learn the skill properly.

Ro stifled a long yawn as she brushed Evangeline's hair for bed. She had to have one hundred strokes every night to keep her hair silky and shiny. She did have beautiful thick hair falling to her tiny waist, and it was dead straight without a single kink. It was a deep chocolate brown in colour, and glowed like roasted honey in the soft candle light.

"I have lovely hair, would you not say so Ro?" Evangeline questioned whilst staring at her reflection in the ornately carved mirror.

"Yes... you are indeed very beautiful Evangeline." Ro replied friendlily.

"Oh you are too kind, but I already knew that Ro." Evangeline giggled as if she were not expecting a compliment.

"Ninety-nine... one hundred." Ro finished with a bright smile, dreaming of her dinner that she had yet to eat.

"Right, well I need to sleep now, so scurry back to whatever hole you crawled out from this morning." Evangeline sighed whilst still absorbed in herself, dismissing Ro with a lazy waft of her hand.

"Of course Lady Evangeline, sleep well." Ro curtsied before making her way out of the room.

Slowly she made her way back to the servant's quarters, feeling quite exhausted and ravenous after a long day of attending to Evangeline's every wish and whim. Her body ached because of the late, disrupted nights, and because the day before Evangeline had asked her to clean the ceilings, which she could not reach, so she had to stand on a chair and stretch upwards, but unfortunately she slipped onto the cold, hard stone floor. She hoped that the other maids had not thrown out or redistributed her dinner yet, although it was bound to be cold considering she was hours late.