Young Writers Society

Verena followed Princess Aliyah, trying to imitate the loyalty of puppy dog. She glanced over her shoulder at the now shut doors of the room they'd just left. It felt a little bit like she was abandoning James. Not that she'd had much choice, this was the mission and they had to make do with what they could in this unfamiliar world and time. For the moment she was at the beck and call of the princess and the other two members of the royal family.

She tried to recall the folder she'd neglected to really properly study. Their target was a member of the royal family, he knew it wasn't the princess. Possibly the Prince or the small Crown Prince. She briefly wondered if they’d been sent to the wrong time. The Crown prince was far far too young to make any radical decisions that would damage her country. Much less be assassinated.

Verena decided she'd have to ask James later tonight and pushed all thoughts aside of the mission, and bring all forward of being a dutiful loyal lady in waiting.

They came upon two brightly lit French doors that were opened by two members of staff, who almost looked like their entire job was to simply stand at those particular doors for whenever they needed opening.

Once through the doors, they were greeted by a cheerful garden, and slowly brightening skies. The rain cloud must be moving on. Verena wondered if rain was a common occurrence, and if they often had tea in the garden.

A chorus of chairs being pushed back and polite formal greeting echoed from a small circular table. It was set with simple elegant floral arrangement and surrounded by about three other women. each dressed in a similar style to the Princess. Clearly she as the one who set the trends of dress. Verena made a mental note to scout out a dressmaker to make something similar. Her job was to fit in. The last thing a spy was supposed to do was stand out.

She felt eyes scanning her from head to toe, a slightly malicious gaze disguised behind a polite and kind smile. Verena eyed the ladies intently, masking her thoughts behind a thin veil of curiosity. The Princess stepped aside, waving a hand in Verena's direction.

"This is Lady Vanessa Parker, my newest and last lady in waiting."

More polite nodding and a few" Lovely to meet you Miss Parker" and "May we call you Vanessa?" were quietly thrown at her.

To Which she nodded and smiled back and batted back "it's lovely to meet you as well" and "Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way."

The three ladies turned out to be noble women from all different sides of the country

One from the East, Lady Slyvia Cunning, one from the West, Lady Rodina Bothsworth, from the North hailed Lady Fiona Ausley. Verena wondered if they were currently located in the south, or if she was the Lady in waiting from the south, and this place was somewhere in the middle of it all. A map of the Country would have been a helpful addition to the mission files.

With that they were all sat at their respective spots at the table and tea was served. Conversation started as if nothing had changed and Verena had been here all along.

This small meeting felt almost like a cult, a cult that worshiped and bent to every whim of the Princess. It was fascinating. A facade of knives and lies hidden behind sweet smiles carved in masks. Poison laced on the rims of delicate tea cups held in sharp-nailed fingers.

She had a feeling she was going to enjoy this newly found society

Between sips of tea and bits of small sandwiches and pastries, gossip was tossed to and for. Carefully crafted and catered to the Princesses response's. Verena said only enough to satisfy and observed the rest. This was her learning opportunity to figure out how this worked. How the social classes and cliques circled each other and what was prey and what was the predator.

A few of the ladies inquired about her background, to which Verena provided short answer, locking in them in her mind to relay to James later. If you were going to lie, you had to do it right. Half truths where the best. Kept things more on track. If you lost track of your lies, you lose control.

The afternoon faded into a golden sky, and they were excused as the Princess stood.

Verena quickly excused herself, half feigning the lie that she was tired from the journey and needed rest. It was true, she was tired, but not from any journey. Unless stepping though some crazed, techy, and somehow unmagical portal counted as an exhausting journey

Verena found herself back to her chambers, noting small nooks and crannies that could be useful for spying, or servants passageways that'd be easier to get around in.

She paused at her doors and glanced down the hallway towards James room. There didn't appear to be any light coming from under the door. So he was either out, or asleep.

She decided to bother him in the morning with her newfound information, or as he would say "their story lore."

She twisted the bronze handle of one door and pushed it open, entering what appeared to be a void of darkness, the only light leaking in from the doorway where she stood, masking her shadow in a halo.

Stange, she thought she'd left at least one light on. But she'd been dragged out in such a hurry maybe she hadn't

Something ticked her conscious, and she stepped inside and gently shut the door, relaxing her body as her senses heightened. Mentally she mapped out the room, waiting for her night vision to kick in.

The floor creaked behind the couch directly in front of her. She slowly crouched, a sly smile building on her lips, then crept forward silently. Someone was playing a trick on her. Unwise idea.

Just before she reached the couch, a figure leaped out from behind it, tackling her. She ducked and tucked herself closer to the couch, then sprung as the ambusher sailed over top of her. Then wrapped her arms around him and twisted so she ended up pinning him to the ground.

The figure groaned in disappointment, blowing the hair out of his face," Aww, how come I can never sneak up on you. How'd you even do that in a dress?"

Verena smiled and jabbed him in the chest," I think you should asking why you keep trying to sneak up and me when you keep failing to do so."

James shrugged, "worth a try, and I got bored of exploring the manor. Kind of explored most of it."

She stood, brushing off her skirts and stepped away from him, and flicked on the nearest lights.

James whimpered and covered his eyes," a warning would have been nice. Now my eyes hurt."

Verena pulled the large hair pin keeping the braids up on her head, holding it between her teeth as she untangled the braids," At least you don't have nigh vison goggles on."

James squinted at her," what does that mean?"

She raised her eyebrows at him, but simply continued untangling her hair.

James continued laying on the floor.

"Soooooo," he mused, "how's the Princess."

Verena plucked the hair pin out of her mouth and set it on a vanity, then started unclasping the various pieces of jewelry she'd been put in.

"She's alright. The other Ladies in waiting are quite interesting."

James tapped his fingers on the wooden floor, "how so?"

"Their like a cliques of high school girls who dent include any outsiders in their outings. Expect im pretty sure they all are competing to win the Princess favor"

"Oh. Sounds. Fun?"

Verena snapped open one of her suitcases and pulled out a pair of night vision goggles and a stealth suit consisting of black cargo pants and a thin black neck. "it's actually quite entertaining."

"If you say so." James sat up, peering at her suitcase. "what's all that stuff for?"

"Nightly intelligence gathering."

"OH. So, spying."

She examined the goggles, "that's one way to put it. "she glanced at the door. "you should go back to your own room. I have things to do."

She heard James huff and stand up, "alright. Have fun spying on everyone. While your at it actually. There's this cute maid I saw earlier, she-" Vanessa lightly picked up a pillow as James droned on and viciously chucked it at him.

She heard it land with a puff, as he yelled a muffled ,"Hey! I was kidding." Then followed it with another pillow as he scurried away chuckling.

After tucking away her various layers of skirts, corset, which took far longer to take off than she'd anticipated, what she supposed were the Victorian version of underclothes. She donned her usual set of modern clothes. Turned the light off, and set the night vision goggles on her head.

First thing on the list, get a general layout of the mansion and its exterior surroundings. She'd already had a brief look at servant hallways and nooks and crannies. Her eyes adjusted to the darkroom and she flicked the goggles over her head.

Verena stepped over to the nearest window, brushing the curtains aside and popping the frame up.

A decorative sill sat on the bottom of the window, protruding out from the wall, below sat a line of protruding and curving stone that circled the building. Defining the floor she stood on verses the floor below. Looking left and right showed various other windows that were either as dark as hers, or warmly lit.

She ducked back inside and quietly closed the window. Deciding that the best plan of action was to find out what rooms where occupied and by who. Before she decided to scale the circumference of the building.

Exciting her room, she saw James was still up, lighting poured out from under his door. She turned the other way, testing the old floors for oddly creaking boards. The hallway went past the hall that lead by the stairs, to a dead end lined with two doors.

A quick investigation rendered them empty, filled with cloth covered furniture. She backtracked to the hallway that lead to the stairs, it was filled with various portraits, a dumbwaiter hiding under one of them. Reaching the stairs she skirted them, searching for any staff that might be lurking around. No shadow graced the stairs. She past it and found the Royal quarters of the house. Which from the outside was a long hallway with a set of fancy wooden double doors at the closest end. She could snoop those later

It seemed like most of the residences of their wing had retired for the night. The stairs lead to the ground level of the building, the second of three, the third being the basement, where most of the servant quarters and other services that needed to be kept mostly unseen were hidden away in. She did a quick sweep of the ground level, finding nothing of dire interest. Mostly entertaining rooms, the kitchen, a library and a rather large parlor, the one she'd met the princess in.

Verena swiveled on her heel to retreated back to her room, when her ears picked up hushed voices, and she crept closer to the door. The voices were far it the room, to far to hear anything other then simple garbled sound. She frowned. Going by the tones it came off as a simple conversation between a couple.

Verena decided to leave it and went back to her rooms, familiar enough with the creeks and cracks in the floor to go there with a moderate walking speed.

Early the next a small maid arrived at her doors. Introducing herself as Joyce, her assigned maid. Verena almost convinced to not help her get dressed. But relented and let her help. realizing that might strange gossip. She was a lady in everyone else's eyes, and that was the norm. Once the debacle of getting dressed was over, she was summoned to the Princesses quarters.

The Princess quarters were dressed far beyond what she'd imagined. She'd figured they been a far more extravagant version of her quarters. But instead they were decorated with what Verena named, Simple Luxury. There was elegant but simple furniture spread though out the room. But if one looked closely at any of the decor or furniture, or had the eye to tell. You could figure out that it was made with either expensive goods or quality fabric. Nothing about the make of anything in the room was simple, but pure elegancy.

The other three ladies were buzzing about the room, the Princess still sat in her bed, breaking fast. Verena studied the other ladies, unsure of what her duties really were. The women were gathering various bits and bobs of what looked like an outfit ensembles. She strode over to them.

"How may I help?"

The woman named Slyvia turned to her, holding a dark purple bodice with beading in her hand,"we're deciding on her highnesses dresses for todays events. We've finished the one for the morning,"she guestured to a light blue conservative dress laying on a chair, covered in matching acesscesories,"now we're deciding if she should wear green or purple to the oprea tonight. I think Purple would go with her complextion quite well, especially in the dim room. It would make her glow."

Verena gently took the bodie from Syvia and examained it, glancing at the princess who was watching them with delight. The green bodice was being held by another Lady, Rodina, it was a spring green. Not a very evening event colour."I think we should go with the purple. Your right about making her highness glow."

Slyvia nodded in agreenment,"Good, thats three to one Rodina"

frowed and set the bodice down,"Fair I suppose. I'll fetch the skirt."

Lady Rodia scurried off to another room, presumabily where the closet was located.

An hour of dress activities later the Princess was ready for her morning stroll, whcih consistered of her and her ladies walking though the garden, parasole in hand, and exchangeing the latest gossip.

The garden was fashioned after a maze, in the middle a pond filled with various wildlife, ducks, a few turtles, a heron fishing at the far end. Gracefully walking though the rushes as if it was scared to step on anything.

She walked along side Fiona who was engaged with a conversation between and Rodina, the Princess in front of all of them, lended a comment here and there. Verena simply listened.

The apparent gossip of the land cantoned around the contrast to the Princess, or more so, comparing how the other ladies ought to take from the Princess example. Who was clearly the epitome of grace and decorum.

Verena zoned out, enjoying the lull of nature, she set her brain on auto pilot and gazed across the pond. A handsomely suited man was leaning on a tree across it. He waved in their direction, She ignored him, figuring it was some suitor of the ladies, but none of them noticed. She looked back, and the man waved again, tipping his hat. She frowned, they continued to walk closer, the path circling the pond.

The mysterious man tilted his head up, eyes still on Verena, and she studied him, recognition clocking in as his eyes sparkled. "James! "she harshly whispered, shooing him away with her hand held down by her skirts.

Instead he pushed himself off of the tree as they approached, bowing," hello Ladies"

The all stopped talking and turned, almost in unison, much to Verena's dismay, towards James. He smiled and tipped his short hat at the Princess," your highness" She studied him curiously, "And who might you be young man."

James sided up to Verena, who groaned inwardly and pasted a smile on her face. He eyed her once more, a sparkle in his eyes, then turned back to the Ladies. "I'm Chadwick Rodsworth."

"This is my butler," Verena ground out the word butler as specifically as she could. Saying it at James face," He also happens to be a childhood friend, whose far to prone to forgetting what's proper." The jest like familiarity covering for her, as she nudged James away from her.

He shifted his weight away from her, but didn't physically move his person. She ignored his puppy dog eyes. He swore he never initially made them, as she put, "big and round", but she was pretty sure he was lying.

He smiled once again, "lovely to meet you ladies, I'd ask which one of you is the princess, but its apparent. Not that that the rest of you aren't pretty." He winked, Verena fought the urge to flip him. The Ladies in waiting giggled, Princess Aliyah polity covered smiled, as any proper married woman would.

Verena eyed the Princess, who seemed all around pleased, if not amused.

"It's is very nice to meet you Mr. Rodworth, Thank you for accompanying Verena here. How have you found things."

"Quite wonderful, the grounds are tediously kept and beautiful."

She made a mental note to talk to James later.

She cleared her throat and looked at the Princess, "shouldn't we get moving? We'll run out of time after luncheon for the opera preparations!"

The Princess considered this, "I supposed your right, I hope you don't mind us leaving you, Mr Rodwick."

"Not at all." James raised an eyebrow at Verena and tipped his hat," My Lady has tasks I must complete. Lovely being able to be in the grace of your presence Ladies."

And with that he sauntered off the way they'd come, whistling to himself. The Ladies in waiting watched him with a ignited spark of curiosity. One that sparked a hint of annoyance within Verena.

They continued on their path, conversation tinted with flirtatious notions whispered between them. The Princess mostly stayed out of the conversation, stating she was too happily married to have any talk, but that of a matchmaker.

Verena spend the rest of the walk, and luncheon half plotting how to reprimand James and half making up defenses to whatever unwanted gossip that could spring from his actions. Although she hoped they'd be taken as friendly banter. Hope being the main focus in that sentence. She didn't trust these ladies.

Preparation for the opera took place not long after. Which consisted of the Ladies helping the Princess prepare. An exciting flurry of hair, makeup, and dress, of which Verena was wholly alien to. Afterwards, they got ready themselves. Each carefully chosen dress and style complimenting the Princess just enough so they matched, but didn't outshine her.

She was informed that they were allowed to bring a companion to the opera and gala, so long as that person didn't interfere with their other duties to the Princess.

Verena supposed it was easier to keep an eye on James if he was in the same place as her, maybe he'd behave himself a bit more if he was in a highly populated area. She made a mental note keep an eye on his pastry consumption