Chapter 1

Somewhere in Europe in the middle ages…

When there were proud castles and kingdoms.

When there were the richest rich and the destitute poor, but also the despised slaves.

Then there were the great lords and the little servants.

When the poor dreamed of a better tomorrow and the rich the delicious and musky food of their lunch, and then their dinner.

The poor were as thin as branches, pale as the death, and the rich fluffy and rosy as freshly baked chunky buns.

In one of these kingdoms lived a noble family, the famous Lynn.

The family members were the lord of the family, Augustine, his wife Margaret, and their three children Anthony, Emily, and Adela.

They lived in a stone, two-storied mansion. They had stables for their thoroughbred horses, warehouses for the crops harvested from the vast expanses of land they owned, and well-maintained sheds for their luxurious carriages.

There was a huge garden with a large stone well in the center, so intricately decorated that it looked like real jewelry in front of the house.

There was another well at the back of the house, near where the stables were located. But it was smaller and poorly built. The servants mainly used it for their personal use, but also to water the horses.

Lord Augustine was absent from the house all day for his work with his son. Anthony was already in his twenties and was slowly starting to get into his father's job. The young man didn't like this, but he couldn't go against his father's wishes. He preferred to lay down all day under the shade of a tree or go swimming in the nearby river.

Mother Margaret was sitting with her daughter Emily all day in front of a large window and embroidered her daughter's dowries while gazing at the magnificent view that stretched out the window.

"You are already eighteen," she was saying to her daughter from time to time. "It's time to get married. You should have gotten married already. I am sure that as soon as we are done with your dowries, the grooms will queue outside our door. You will see." And singing softly, she continued the embroidery.

"Yes, mother. This is what the grooms are waiting for to come and propose to me. My dowries." Emily replied with a dose of hidden irony and bitterness in her voice.

Her mother didn't understand her daughter's mocking mood. She thought she agreed with her. Emily, of her sight, could not handle her mother's so much nonsense. She was suffering being with her all day. Every time, it was difficult for her until she managed to communicate with her. She felt immense loneliness and wished with all her soul that soon, someone would come to ask her to be his wife and leave once and for all from there. But for now, she was doomed to spend all day with her mother, embroidering all day long.

On the contrary, the other daughter of the family, Adela, was spending the whole day alone. Although only a year younger than Emily, she did not spend much time with her. Because then she would have to hang out with their mother, and she could not stand that at all.

On the one hand, she admired Emily for her so much patience, and on the other, she felt remorse for her. But despite her regrets, she didn't want to help the situation at all. She had no patience at all.

As a family, all its members were not very good-looking people - an almost ugly father with thick brown hair and mixed tufted eyebrows, a slightly thick nose, and thin lips. Over the years, he had started to gain weight, which resulted in his somewhat swollen face, and a slight dewlap had begun to stand out under his chin. A mother whose empty gaze offered her no charm and a skinny body juiceless. A son that boredom made him lazy and indifferent. Despite eating a large portion of food, he was thin as a twig. The eldest daughter was a bit stumpy with swollen cheeks and a slight dewlap. So any beauty, if there was any, was hidden below the accumulated fat. Poor Emily was so frustrated with her life that she ate in secret every time she was alone. Food and sitting all day in front of the window turned into a fatty girl.

Conversely, Adela was as thin as a twig. Not too tall. Not very beautiful. Generally, she had it all, not much.

Not too long hair. Not too big eyes. Not very well-shaped lips.

The only positive is that she did not have a huge nose.

They all ranged in brown, an ordinary, indifferent color. Brown hair, brown eyes. Nothing special, nothing rare.

A non-unique family by itself but was made special by its wealth, its prestige in the kingdom. The family was famous for their wealth, as well as for how they looked. All the grooms longed for the family's wealth but did not long for her eldest daughter at all. They knew full well that the father and master of the family wanted to marry first the eldest and then the youngest daughter. With these features, there wasn't a groom willing to approach the house.

But the mother did not see this. To her, her children were beautiful. And with patience and perseverance, she embroidered his daughter's dowries all day long, and Emily had to sit with her.

Adela systematically avoided them. She spent her hours wandering in the mansion or stuck in a window looking out the back of the house where the stables were but mainly where she saw the maids walking fast performing their daily duties.

At first, she looked at the coming and going to do their jobs since she had nothing to do. Everything was going well. In that way, she was killing most of the hours in the day. Maybe it was a little fun, too, until she noticed the young man who took care of the horses and the stables.

He probably was one to two years older than her. First, she noticed his body that was husky from the hard and daily work in the stables. And then she noticed that he was very handsome. She fell in love with him. It had been almost a year since she had seen him for the first time- exactly ten months. This year the desire to see him face to face entered her head.

She was desperate to find out if the image she formed, looking at him from the window, matches the young man's actual appearance. And that would only happen if she saw him up close.

So she forced herself to come up with an idea; To find the way.

She was thinking for two days and nights. And finally, she came up with an idea. "Yes, that's it," she said out loud excitedly.

She had decided to try it, but she would need Agnes' help. The little and faithful maid of hers.

It is a whole story about how she got Agnes. One day, when Adela went shopping with her father two years ago, it happened to be a slave market day. Adela had never been to a slave market again. So, she was curious to see how the process of selling a slave was going. The slaves, one at a time, climbed on a platform so that everyone could see them. Even better for the potential buyers, the slave trader even stripped them to convince them that the "merchandise" had no flaws.

Adela got bored after the first slaves' sale and was ready to tell her father to move on when Agnes took the podium. With her eyes open-widened, a terrified little girl was looking at those who devoured her with their own eyes. When the slave trader forcibly undressed her, tears flowed from her eyes, and with her small hands, she tried to hide her nakedness. Adela felt compassion overflowing inside her for this little one. "How old was it possible she? Ten years old?" Adela thought. "And they oppressed her?" With discussion, she watched the men looking at the little one, licked each other, and decided. She would buy her. She told her father, and he agreed. Adela approached the podium, ignoring any protests from the men, went straight to the slave trader, and asked him.

"How much do you want for the little girl?"

The slave trader saw it as a golden opportunity to get more money.

"Fifty gold coins."

Hearing the price, Adela laughed.

"Are you kidding me? I watched for so long the bargaining that took place for the slaves you already sold."

"Yes, but she is very young, and you will have her for more years, so she costs more."

"I will give you five gold and the remaining forty-five in silver coins. And again, it's a lot more than she worth."

The slave trader realized that the girl wanted the little one and believed that he could get the gold he asked for.

"The price is what I told you, fifty gold, and you take her or leave her."

Adela understood the slave trader's game and reciprocated it.

"Very well then, you can keep her and sell her to someone else," she replied and turned her back on him, ready to leave.

"Okay, okay, it will be what you want it to be," she heard the slave trader say submissively.

The deal was closed. Adela paid him, she took the little girl by the hand, and they left.

When Adela spoke to the little girl, she realized that she did not understand anything she said. The little one only looked at her with big eyes, with adoration. For her, Adela was her savior, her guardian angel. When they got home, they washed her, fed her, watered her, and dressed her in regular clothes, throwing the rags she was wearing into the fire.

Her little face shone. Beautiful girl. The only problem was that they could not understand her. He did not understand anyone or anything. All she cared about was not to lose sight of Adela. Anywhere Adela was going, the little girl was behind her. They failed to detach her from Adela. Even the night she was putting her to sleep in the maids' dormitories, Adela found her sleeping rolled up on the floor outside of her room in the mornings. It was then that she decided to keep her as her servant. At first, the situation was challenging, that they could not understand her language, and the little girl could not understand theirs. As the months passed, the little girl began to learn the language, and the impossible had become possible. Adela realized that her name was Agnes and was in the slave market after being kidnapped by pirates.

Little Agnes was now twelve and entirely loyal to Adela. She adored her so much that, if necessary, she was willing to sacrifice her life for Adela's sake. Now that the time had passed and Agnes had gotten used to it and had thoroughly learned the language, she wasn't under Adela's dresses anymore, and she was no longer afraid. However, she always adored Adela and was completely loyal to her.

Adela loved the little girl, and she never took advantage of the cult she had for her, and Adela sincerely appreciated her attitude. She understood that Agnes had a good character, honest, and was very grateful to them. And that pleased Adela. Her instinct had led her right when she decided to buy her. And now would be her valuable ally.

She went to find her and told her about the plan. She wanted to put it into action as quickly as possible.