Chapter 11: Construction of the garden II

After a while Veronica stepped out of her room, she walked around the passage of the palace, where she saw a group of maid carrying a bunch of flowers. She stopped and looked at them, the dropped the red roses that was inside a huge basket on the muddy ground that was sprinkled with water. Veronica turned around and went outside the palace to where they were staying to see them remove the rose flower one by one and plant it in the soil, when the noticed Veronica's presence the immediately stopped and bowed their heads.

"Why are you the ones planting the garden, didn't I not make it clear that I only wanted a few maids to help me." She said her voice stern as she looked at the them, all of them were scared and unable to talk until one of the maids step forward to explain the situation.

"Milady the butler had given us the command that we should plant it ourselves, and by the way it would be an insult to the Lord that his wife was on the muddy ground planting some crops when he had plenty servants and maids to do the task."

"And even though this doesn't have anything to do about whether I am the lord's wife or not, if I want to do it then I will do it!" she barked at them where her voice was louder than expected and it shocked all the maids, even though Veronica felt bad for raising her voice at them she had already made it clear to the lord that she wanted to do the duty herself with only the assistance of a few maids, "Please call Richard for me" she said reducing her voice as one of the maids dashed out of the room to call him.

After a few minutes she was back with Richard by the side of her, Veronica turned around when she noticed their presence in the room.

"Didn't I made it clear to you and the lord that I wanted to do the construction of the garden by myself with only the help of a few maids." She asked him a little furious as he did not look apologetic for his mistake.

"Yes Milady"

"Then…"

"Milady this is the amount of maids requested, I only asked them to set up everything for you so that it would not be that stressful" Veronica looked a little bit stunned, he called this a few maids? But they looked huge, she knew now that she was in the wrong because she did not give the lord the exact number of maids that she wanted.

"Um… apologies Richard, I would only want probably three to be by my side and not this much"

"If that is what milady wants then so be it," he said before he turned around to face the maids that were already lined up, "Marigold, Abi and Kate you would assist milady with the planting of the garden but the rest follow me." He said before he bowed his head and left with the rest.

"Is there any clothes that I may change into? I don't really want to stain the gown that much"

"Yes milady there is another gown, I would get it right away" one of the maids said before she bowed her head and left.

"For the mean time while we went for her can I get your names?" Veronica asked them, one of the maids stepped out, she had a light brown hair that was packed into a neat bun, and she wore a black and white gown with brown gloves, she looked very young and had a very pretty smile, and with confidence she spoke,

"My name is Abi and the person by my right is Kate" she said pointing at the woman who seemed slightly old because of the winkles on her face, she had a black hair with a string of white hair sticking out from the rest of the hair that was packed, she let out a small smile before she bowed her head, "and the other lady that left a while ago to get your clothes is Marigold" she finished off and bowed her head.

All the maids had such respect the always bowed their heads when they were done of talking or when the wanted to leave the room, they didn't even look at their guest's face and it amused her, when she used to stay with her father the maids sometimes would look at the face of the guest and they were especially rude to her probably because she was treated as an outcast.

Marigold came back carrying a cloth that had loosed laces in front of the dusty black and white gown,

"Milady here you go," she said handing over the gown to Veronica which she took from her, "if you want to change your clothes please follow me." She said as she turned around to show the way and Veronica followed her from behind.

She followed her to a dusty place that looked very untidy, it had dirty pools of water, and liters of dirt, Veronica felt disgusted at the place, she never knew that such a dirty place could be hidden in the palace and she didn't even know.

"Milady I hope you are okay back there?" she asked her turning back to see Veronica who had her hand on her mouth as she looked like she was going to soon vomit, "close here is the slave quarters"

"Slave quarters? In such a place?" she said her voice vibrating because she had covered her nose with her hands, from the corner she saw the maid smile and her eyes were slightly moist, at some point it reminded her of the pain she had felt when she was pushed to the ground of the messy and smelly dungeons by her father, sometimes she would laugh and cry in despair but now her life had turned around because of Ashton, and she was at some point grateful.

"Milady we are here"

Veronica looked ahead to see a wooden door in front of her, and when she turned sideways to look at the maid, she gave her a reassuring smile, she held the door knob and pushed the door open. The room looked like a normal-size room, that just looked messy, clothes were spilled everywhere and when Veronica stepped inside the room and turned sideways, she saw an underwear hanging on an old wooden stick and at some point it irked her because the underwear looked like it was use.

Turning around she gave the maid a small smile before she closed the door behind her, she then immediately found a spot that looked tidied to change, she didn't want to look at the room any further in fear that she might vomit and make it look even more disgusting. When she was done of changing, she tied the knot behind the dress tighter because of how baggy the gown but it did little to nothing to help. Even though veronica felt a little bit uncomfortable because of how big it was, she still managed with it. She opened the door, seeing the maid who had leaned slightly against the wall, it looked like she had gotten tired while waiting.

Veronica let out a little cough to make the maid notice her presence and she did, Marigold immediately opened her tired eyes and stood up from her slightly leaned position to regain her composure.

"Apologies Milady, I must have gotten tired while waiting" she said immediately bowing her head completely down, she looked frightened and Veronica noticed that too.

"No need to worry," Veronica told her slightly patting before she gave her a light smile, "if you are tired then go take a day off and I would tell the butler about it, I would tell him to replace you." She completed, when she looked up she saw the maid was a little bit stunned,

"Ah-Milady you don't need to worry I not that tired, it was just I was alone and its slightly damp here for me to rest in." Veronica gave her a critical look, before she nodded at her and gave her a slight smile.

"Okay then if you say so, let's go"

They both went back to the portion of the land and had started digging off the soil and planting the rose flowers inside. Anyone that passed by, found it quiet weird that their lord had allowed his wife to go on her knees to plant flowers.

*******

After a few days the garden was completed, there were red blooming flowers planted around the portion of the land and it added to the beauty of the palace, Veronica took a brief walk in the garden and for the first time she felt that the dark and ghostly atmosphere had been brightened up. She plucked out one of the flowers from its branch and smelt it, it felt good and she felt alive and happy.

"I never knew you could do such hard work Ivy" Veronica heard a voice behind her, she turned around to see Ashton with one hand in his pocket and he had a grin on his face.

"Ashton you're here?"

"Yes I'm here where else will I be?" he through her back the question and she blush a little because of the embarrassment of asking a stupid question.

"Oh-it's not that, it's just that I rarely see you around and you're always very busy." She said hiding her blush with the red scarf that she had brought along with her, she let out an awkward laugh before she continued, "So what brings you here?" she looked up at him waiting for the kind of answer she wanted and he gave it to her.

"Ralph had told me about how hard you had worked on the garden and he was really impressed about it, so I just shifted my todays work to see what you've done. It looks quite decent." Veronica felt her heart beat rapidly because of what he said and for the first time she felt the need for them to have a ghost, even though he could be annoying some times, he had helped her through making Ashton notice her, a little though…but she didn't like the way he had ending her heart beat with just one word, 'decent' she was expecting him to have said something like 'beautiful' or 'gorgeous' but no he just said 'decent'

"Decent?"

"Yes decent, your work looks neat and I like it that way not too beautiful but also not too ugly, it's just there, you would fit for an excellent gardener"