Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 1: Cain, Seventh Duke of Bexley

In a time of poetic conversations, sumptuous ball gowns and aristocratic men... dwelled three maids. And by maids, I don't mean quiet, delicate country girls who donned a bonnet and an apron, I mean working kitchen-hands who wore female garments as if they were men's trousers, who had a powerful right hooks hidden beneath demure innocence and laced with wit as sharp as a Toledo blade.

These feisty lass's names were Mina, Liara and lastly Verushka. Circumstance had placed them below stairs but destiny was due to take them in odd and exciting directions. One to the stage, the other to the young Queens secret guard, and the last of the three was to venture to the inevitable glittering ballroom, but all paths were to lead to a charming and devilish Rake. For, much more is stored in the kitchen than eggs and flour - in the Bexley House, there is Persuasion in the Pantry.

Chapter 1

"Verushka!" her friend Liara hissed.

"Huh?" Verushka jumped awake startled, "What?"

"What? You ask?!" Liara replied incredulously, "You're the pantry maid, that means you bake the bread, not form a close personal relationship with it by sleeping together!" she continued.

"But it's so early!" Verushka complained as she yawned widely, "The sun's just come up."

"You'll be lucky to see the sun come down. Madam Sheila is having a fit, she's been asking where you have been." Madam Sheila was the tyrant of the kitchen. Rumour had it that she had a soft heart but the girls were yet to uncover it.

Noises of footprints echoed on the cobbled floor of the corridor and Liara darted to Verushka's side pulling her up and to laden her with bread trays. "Mina, is trying to hold her off," Liara informed her quickly. Verushka raised an eyebrow, Mina was notorious for sticking her nose into the elders business, and the only way she was going to stop Madam Sheila was with one of her lectures...and that never went down well.

A roar then promptly sounded, resounding through the stone, "What do you mean?! I hired that lazy child to bake the bread before the sun comes up. Its already six in the morning, the noble family are waking up and I will bet five pounds that she is less awake than THEY are!"

"She's just coming Madam. But the real point of concern is the time the bread must be set to rise. You yourself have noted the time Lord and Lady rises. I think..."

"That is the real problem Mina. YOU, child THINK too much."

Liara's groan drowned out the sound and she rolled her eyes saying "I think it's time for me to jump in. Follow me in a moment," she said turning to run along, stopped for a moment to throw a cloth over Verushka's shoulder and smear flour over her cheeks and then took off down the hall.

"Madam Shiela!" Verushka heard Liara exclaim. "How lovely to see you this bright morning. Except, the bread you see, is having difficulty rising!"

Mina coughed rather severely and Verushka ran down to meet her fate once again, as she did most mornings when she had stayed out late taunting the stable boys that night and when the sun warmed the spot behind the bread stacks so perfectly. Verushka should have known then, that that immediately meant trouble.

Madam Shiela's reprimand was loud, terse and well practiced. Verushka was surprised that she could still manage such depth of passion when she had to yell at the girls all the time; Liara for sleeping behind the stacks, Verushka for reading behind the stacks and Mina for her perpetual preaching. However today's sermon from the headmistress of the kitchen was a touch more frantic.

"Of all days to be sleeping, Verushka! Especially when there is work to be done and we are already lacking one housemaid today. What a time for her to fall ill, when the young master has returned!" the Madam screeched.