Maid For You 3

Chapter 28

On Saturday morning, I rifled through my new wardrobe courtesy of Nikolas and picked out a navy turtleneck shirt over white dress pants paired with a warm grey double-breasted wool coat that hit around mid-thigh. To finish the ensemble, I selected one of the three pairs of shoes I was gifted—dark blue round toe pump heels lifted on a short platform. I picked out some silver earrings from my own collection of jewelry (as I hadn't received jewelry), and wore my hair down with a soft curl. Leaving my jacket unbuttoned, I took a picture of myself in the long mirror standing up in the corner of my room and sent the photo to Nikolas with the caption "love the new clothes! Thank you~". Then, I buttoned up my jacket, grabbed my one black purse, and headed outside where my ride to Lady Madeline's would be waiting.

After a 25 minute car ride, I arrived at the Rylin estate. It was not so grand at Mercucio's house or the palace, but it was still a very formidable house made of light-colored bricks and sporting tall white pillars. When I entered the home, I found the ceilings were high and vaulted and brought in a lot of natural sunlight. Because the colors consisted of light pinks and whites, the place felt brighter than the deep royal reds of the palace. A servant led me into a room with beautiful crown molding running up and down the walls with a beautiful table set with Lady Madeline sitting at it. She looked up from her cellphone and smiled when she saw me.

"Cassie!" she said, standing. "I'm so glad you could make it."

"Thank you for inviting me, Lady Madeline," I said, smiling.

"You can just call me Madeline," she said.

A month ago, I never would have thought that I'd be Madeline's guest for lunch and that she'd ask me to drop formalities with her.

"Alright, Madeline," I beamed.

"Here, allow a servant to take your coat," she said, stepping up to me. She wore a pretty blue dress that brought the color out in her eyes with matching heels.

I stripped myself of my coat and handed it and my purse to the servant who had led me there.

"I must say," Madeline started. "You look nice. Are those clothes new?"

"Thank you! They are."

"Come, let's sit and eat," she told me, walking me over to the table as my gracious host. When she'd taken her seat across from me she asked, "Are those clothes Nikotan?"

"Yeah, they are," I said, though omitting to tell her that Nikolas had bought them for me—to avoid unnecessary confusion.

"Who designed your shirt?" Madeline asked me. "It looks very Anton Petrov. But your shoes! I got more Khristin Kozlov vibes from them?"

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure they designed it then," I said, not wanting to admit that I hadn't looked into who designed which piece, but those names sounded like some of the ones Nikolas had mentioned in his letter.

Madeline rose an eyebrow. "I'm an avid Khristin Kozlov fan, but I've never seen those shoes before. Are they going to be in her upcoming collection?"

"Um, I don't know," I admitted.

"How did you get those shoes?" she asked.

"Oh, well, you know," I shrugged. "Your comments about my swimsuit at the pool party made me think I should dress better."

"And so you got your hands on yet-to-be released Kozlov heels?" Madeline asked.

"Um..."

"It must have been Prince Nikolas, then!" she looked surprised.

"Oh, no, well..."

"Don't worry," she stopped me. "I know how rumors are and how something innocent can be twisted, so I won't say a word. However, you are quite lucky to have such a powerful benefactor."

I smiled sheepishly. "Well, I'm very grateful. I really like the new clothes."

"They suit you," Madeline said. "Much more than polka-dots."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "You have a fair point."

"I think Nikotan fashion is actually quite a nice look for you. Their fashion is simple and classy and a bit conservative. They usually work in monochrome or cool colors and shy away from patterns, though they do have the occasional stripe, but never anything like floral, or heaven forbid polka dots."

"And you think it's a good style sense for me?" I asked her.

"I absolutely do! My only stipulations for you would be that I'd avoid pastels—Nikotans do like their light blues and such and I don't think pastels are great on you. I'd go for more vivid colors. You can also pull off warmer colors as well. I mean, you did wear scarlet at the Autumn Festival and while I never would have admitted it you looked quite stunning."

I laughed. "Who would of thought that the two of would end up eating lunch together voluntarily?"

Madeline smiled ruefully. "I certainly didn't think that would happen."

"I guess you never know where you might find friendship," I mused.

She looked a bit surprised, but a smile broke onto her face. "It's true," she said. "You just never know."

After we ate lunch, I asked Madeline what it was that she urgently needed to talk to me about.

Her eyes darted around nervously. "Let's go upstairs," she said. We left the room and headed to a large white staircase, and as we ascended the steps another blonde girl came into view.

Oh yeah, her sister, I thought. From Princess Calista's party thing.

"Hi Maddie," the mini-Madeline said. Like her sister, she was quite gorgeous.

"Lucille," Madeline nodded at her as she and I got to the top of the steps and onto the floor. Lucille looked past Madeline and looked at me with a bit of surprise. I forgot how pretty her sister was—this Lucille was certainly much more stunning than Luke's aunt.

"Oh, hello," she said politely. "You're Cassandra Carmichael, aren't you? The Queen Maiden?"

"Yes," I said, nodding my head politely. "It's good to see you again."

"Again?" she asked, parting her pretty lips perfectly. "Oh, you must have seen me at the Autumn Festival Ball, then?"

"Um," I smiled awkwardly. "Yeah."

"I'll see you later, sister," Madeline said. "Cassie and I are going to my room."

"Alright," Lucille said, looking at us with some puzzlement.

It's okay Lucille, I thought. Our friendship was a surprise to myself included.

Madeline opened a pair of white double doors down the short hallway, and it opened up to a large pretty room with a princess style bed off to the left side of the room, a large vanity on the other, and a couch facing the windows at the back of the room with two chairs sitting at its sides. There were two large French doors leading to a balcony outside of her room.

"Your room is so pretty!" I said.

"Thank you," Madeline told me as she shut the doors behind us. "Now come, let's sit on the sofa here and we can chat a bit."