16 A Young Maid

It was the time when the moon was high, Lady Croff had given the instructions to the new maid and sent her towards Princess Johanna's room.

Jane was excited and nervous, the job she was given meant a lot and wouldn't have been assigned to a maid like her if she didn't have Lady Croff behind her.

"You are still young, but there is not much to do in the night shift of maids. Do not worry and simply do what I have asked."

These were the words Jane was told by Lady Croff, they reassured the fifteen year old and she playfully walked towards the princess' room.

Jane's footsteps slowed down when she reached the chamber of the princess. Strangely there were no guards stationed outside.

And when Jane saw the slightly ajar gates and heard some muffled whispers, a small drop of suspicion arose in her mind.

Jane was hesitant at first but then she slowly placed a hand on the gates and peeked inside. The gate creaked a little from her weight and Jane's eyes met with the two ladies inside.

Everyone froze.

Inside the chamber, Princess Myrtle and her lady in waiting were standing near a chest.

Jane's heart shuddered and she quickly closed the gates shut. She didn't need to know the details to understand what was happening. There are all sorts of tales about the palace that circulated outside.

The people of the palace are said to be wicked and scheming, and for Princess Myrtle to be here at this time of the night when there were no guards, it only meant that her intentions were not good.

As soon as Jane turned to leave, a hand grabbed the collar of her gown. She was pulled inside in a rough swift moment and Myrtle's gaze silenced any scream that might have come from within Jane.

Myrtle hissed.

"You are not going anywhere now,"

She was half a foot taller than Jane, when she stared down at Jane with those narrowed eyes, Jane knew better than to resist.

Her eyes turned moist, but she said nothing.

"Who are you?" Myrtle asked,

"I-I am the new palace maid, your highness." Jane tried to force her hands to stop shaking.

"And, what did you saw?"

"N-nothing..." Jane swallowed back her tears.

"Your highness!"

Myrtle glared back at her lady in waiting, and angrily gestured to her to keep her voice low. Jane noticed that in this dim lit room, Princess Johanna was sleeping soundly in her bed.

The lady in waiting approached them with a red envelope in her hand and handed it to Myrtle. With curious eyes, Myrtle quickly opened the letter and pulled out two sheets of paper.

Her eyes narrowed as they skimmed over the letter. She looked up at her lady in waiting.

"Read it,"

The lady in waiting quickly nodded and began to read the letter. She opened her mouth to say something then frowned, even though she, unlike Myrtle, knew how to read, this letter didn't make much sense to her.

"What are you doing?!" Myrtle was growing impatient,

"Pardon me, your highness but this letter is strange...I can't understand what the writer has tried to imply here...," the lady in waiting paused as she read further, "But there is a mention of escaping the palace!"

Myrtle widened her eyes in surprise.

"This is wonderful, my lady! We wanted the princess to leave and now she might-"

"Shut up, are you an idiot?" Myrtle rolled her eyes, "I am not going to let all my effort go in vain because the princess decides to leave now!"

A faint sound of the bell echoed in some far place. Myrtle let out a frustrated sigh, and shoved the letter and envelope in Jane's hand.

"We must leave, make sure the princess does not escape and if you speak a single word about this to anyone then you are dead!"

With those words, Myrtle hurried out with her lady in waiting.

'But if this letter was that important, why did you leave it with me, my lady?'

Jane's heart hammered in her chest as she watched the letter in her hand.

What was she supposed to do with it? Burn it?

But the letter could be important...

It was a crime for a servant to read the letter addressed to their masters, but Jane saw no other choice.

She gave a quick glance to the letter, the message written here was indeed strange and hard to understand.

Johanna shifted in her bed making Jane's heart stop. But thankfully the princess was still asleep. Jane thought for a while then pocketed one part of the letter and placed the other part back inside the envelope.

Jane carefully placed the letter beside Johanna and ran away from the room.

A whirlwind of ominous thoughts swirled in the back of her mind as her heart was drowned in turmoil, Jane's eyes welled up with tears as thought about the consequences of what she had done.

Myrtle would never be punished for she has the emperor's favor.

But Jane was just a maid.

"Calm down, Jane." she whispered to herself, "No harm will befall if you hide a mere letter."

Or she had thought.

When the next moon shone high in the sky, and she was passing through the hallway, she saw Johanna and Izekiel. Her bones have turned cold when she saw the emperor leave her wife to die.

The need for Princess Johanna to escape finally dawned upon her, if anything happened to the princess it would be as if Jane had killed her. She knew that she could not save her or go against his majesty, but when she was conflicted and on the verge of crying, Jane saw the captain of imperial knights.

All these memories flooded inside her as Jane was kneeling in front of the princess.

"Okay...okay, stop crying" Johanna caressed her back, "Why don't you tell me your name?"

"It-It's Jane," Jane sobbed, "your highness."

"Don't fear, just tell me what happened?"

Jane wasn't sure on where to start, after a minute of trying to control her emotions, she gave a brief account of her encounter with Princess Myrtle. But of course she didn't say her name because she valued her safety.

"Forgive me, but I can not tell you the name." Jane pleaded, "I was scared and so I hid the letter, I didn't know it would be so important! I didn't know her highness' life was on the line...the content barely made sense...so I thought..."

Despite the broken account of things Jane provided, there was a look of realization and understanding in Johanna's eyes.

"Forget that now, just don't do anything like this in future, okay?"

Jane nodded,

"I never thought...never thought that his majesty would do that. B-because when I saw her highness and his majesty in the enchanted garden..." a red blush crept over her teary face, "I-It seemed like..."

Johanna froze.

"Why are you turning so red??"

Jane clasped her hands over her mouth.

Johanna placed her hands over Jane's shoulder, her heart was racing and her mind was wandering to all sorts of possibilities.

"Jane, what did you saw???"

At that exact moment, there was a knock on the gates. Lady Croff narrowed her eyes at the scene in front of her and said,

"Her highness, you are summoned."