8 Not a single dress

How can it not hurt?

Mitchell shook her head and quickly wiped her tears. She needs to finish up applying the medicated oil that the butler passed to them.

"Lady Adelaide, please bear with it a little more. I am almost done," Mitchell was quick with her hands and finished up wrapping up all the bandages.

While she was doing that, Manson was walking extremely quickly to the Duke's study and knocked on the door.

The door opened and Manson saw that it was Albert. Albert raised his eyebrow at the appearance of the new maid assigned to the young lady and asked if there were any problems.

"The lady does not have a single dress to wear," Manson glared at the butler. She was quite indignant that the butler allowed such a thing to happen.

"Not a single dress? That is not right. I recall Lady Rosabella would always send dresses to the young lady," Albert retorted but then he remembered the sight of the young lady's room and stopped his sentence short.

He then remembered that every time he saw the young lady, she was either at a distance peering at the Duke and him or being disciplined by the other maids under Lady Rosabella. Both the Duke and him had never gotten the chance to take a proper look at the young lady. How can he be so sure that the dresses he saw her wearing were new and clean?

Seeing that Albert was speechless and lost in thought at the door, the Duke called him from behind his desk.

"Albert, what is it?"

"Milord, it's the new maid assigned to the young lady." Albert stepped aside for Manson to enter the study.

Manson stepped in and bowed before she explained her reason for coming into the Duke's study.

"Duke Avington, the young lady does not have a single clean dress to wear. We have just finished helping her with her bath and when I opened her wardrobe, I found that all the dresses were either too small or too dirty for the young lady to wear."

"This morning, she ate very little. She only touched the piece of bread on the plate, and she did not even finish it. The young lady is a growing child, she needs to eat healthily and wear clean clothes if not she would easily fall sick. Her bedroom is in shambles as well, with so much broken furniture littered around the room. The young lady could hurt herself, please do something about this."

Manson said everything she wanted to say in one breath, only realizing that she used a lecturing tone towards her employer after she finished. Widening her eyes in shock at her own behavior, she bowed to the Duke and apologized.

"Forgive me, your highness. I have misspoken, I was just angry at the young lady's situation that I-"

The Duke raised his hand and stopped the maid from continuing. He has no right to be offended by her words. All that she said was true and he knows it well enough, but he didn't have the time to ensure the wellbeing of his only daughter.

It was his fault.

"Albert, cancel whatever that is on schedule for today. Prepare the carriage, I am heading out."

Albert widened his eyes at his master at the sudden command. Although there are some important meetings scheduled, they were nothing too urgent. Albert was more surprised that the Duke actually pushed back his work. This was a first in Albert's memory.

"And you, come with me." Duke Avington told Manson and he made his way to his daughter's bedroom. Manson quickly followed the Duke as they made their way back to Adelaide's bedroom.

"Young lady, the Duke is here," Manson announced before opening the doors to her bedroom and stepped aside for the Duke to enter.

Mitchell had just finished with the bandages and was trying to salvage whatever she could from the wardrobe when the Duke entered. The Duke saw all the clothes on the floor and frowned at the mess. Mitchell greeted the Duke with her head bowed, somewhat scared of the stern gaze.

"Daddy?" Adelaide was surprised at the Duke's appearance. She knows how busy this man is because that was the reason why he neglected his daughter for so long and yet, he is standing before her.

Hearing his daughter call him, the Duke returned his gaze back to her and saw the towel wrapped around her thin body filled with bruises. His stern gaze softened, and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Aren't you cold wearing that?"

What kind of question is that? Adelaide almost laughed at the question but seeing how serious the Duke was, she held herself back.

"I'm fine, Daddy." Adelaide tugged the towel around her tighter so that it wouldn't drop. It would be pretty embarrassing if it did in front of the Duke. Adelaide wouldn't be able to face the Duke if such an embarrassing situation were to happen.

Seeing her tug at her makeshift dress, the Duke narrowed his eyes at the towel before walking towards the dresses that Mitchell pulled out to salvage.

He bent down and picked up some of the dresses from the ground. It was obviously very dirty and there are even tears on the dress. The Duke could not help but feel angry because the dirt stains on the dresses included dried bloodstains. He concluded that those must have come from when she was being beaten.

He could not help but clench his fists at his incompetence. He turned his head to look at his daughter who was sitting on the bed. Their eyes met and Adelaide, not too sure why the Duke was staring at her, smiled at him.

The Duke turned back to the dresses and picked out the least damaged one. Handing it over to Mitchell, he told her to put it on. Mitchell did not dare to argue as the Duke's face was murderous and so, she quickly led the young lady to the bathroom to change.

After changing, Adelaide stepped out.

The Duke then had Adelaide and the maids follow along to the carriage that was prepared at the gates of the mansion.

"Daddy, are we going somewhere?" Adelaide could not help but ask in a frightened voice.

She had bad memories from her past life where her brother would bring her out and abandon her somewhere. She would then have to find her way back to her house by herself. She remembered feeling so scared because it was dark and cold. She felt so alone and frightened that she would die outside. Nobody would know if she died or not and Adelaide feared that.

It wasn't death that she feared. It was the confirmation that nobody truly cared if she died or not and the fact that her presence was never important to the family she held so dearly onto.

Eyeing the big carriage now, she turned to the Duke. Is he finally sick of her and wants to get rid of her? Is she going to get abandoned again?

"We are going to Madame Bleu," the Duke told her and helped her up onto the carriage. The maids, hearing the destination, could not help but feel extremely excited. After making sure the young lady is seated comfortably, they went to the other carriage and they headed off, ignorant of the fear in the young lady's eyes.

After all, they are headed to Madame Bleu. How can anyone not be excited after hearing that?