Chapter 10 - All this for a Bucket?!
"Ahhh!" A loud shriek cut across the hallway and Idalia stopped in her tracks. She had only stopped working briefly to attend to Arik, and now that she was returning, to hear this made her pulse quicken.
"My dress! My vintage dress!"
"Oh, no. Miss Gwendolyn—-" Idalia could hear Ann say.
"Who is the idiot responsible for this?"
Idalia had finally made it into the hallway. With Arik strapped to her with a shawl, she watched the chaos that had unfolded on the floor. The bucket of dirty water Idalia was more than certain she had disposed of before attending to Arik, had been knocked over by a mop, leaving a messy puddle on the floor.
"It's Julie," Ann said, and Idalia looked on stunned.
She had disposed of the water in that bucket!
Ann had offered to help her because of how loudly Arik had been crying but Idalia had refused. She had not forgotten what Kinet had said about her and how the lady had reacted when Kinet's head had been placed on a spike.
Rage bled into her veins as she watched Ann's sympathetic eyes that were filled with a thousand apologies.
"But it wasn't on purpose, it was her baby. He was crying," she continued begging, slipping to her knees. "Please, Ms Gwendolyn, forgive her. This won't happen again."
But Ms Gwendolyn had turned her angry attention to Idalia, not paying Ann's words any mind.
Red short curly hair, pink lips drawn into a line of disgust, her hands on her waist as she looked down at her stained yellow long dress, then sharply at Idalia.
"You are this Julie?"
"There must have been some misunderstanding—-"
"Yes, or yes?" She tapped her heels against the floor.
"Yes, but I didn't leave any water in that bucket."
"You did. You were in a hurry to attend to your drying son, so you forgot."
The fury clouded Idalia's sight.
This?!
Her parents once had a den and she had been the heir. Petty fights were never her thing but this? Now, this was what she had to fight over? Whether she had left water in the bucket?
"I did not leave any water in that bucket."
"What?" Ann was crying already. "Do you mean that I am lying. That I somehow put water in your bucket? That I somehow have something to gain from this?"
"Your words."
Ann cried even louder. "Ms Gwendolyn, J swear in my life that I didn't do this."
Idalia clenched her hands into fists by her sides. If she still had her wolf, she would have lurched herself across the room and hit Ann squarely in the face.
She had heard many gossip about servants setting each other up to get points with their Master or Mistress. Her handmaidens had been nothing like that. It was the first time she was ever so close to such an experience.
Wow. Echelon was serving her a lot of first-hand experiences. She hated it!
"You filthy servant!" Before Idalia could even blink, Ms Gwendolyn's hand had gripped her locs.
Right.
This was the part for the Mistresses who were easily moved by tears and deceived by the simplest things.
She could have honestly just played along to her herself out of this situation, but Ann's existence simply pissed her off too much for her to think.
"What are you going to do about my dress? Your measly salary in a hundred years will never be able to pay for this!"
"I didn't destroy it so I have no responsibility to fix it," Idalia said through gritted teeth.
Play along! Her mind screamed at her. Suck up to the hierarchy!
But her body was just against and instead, she grew more infuriated as Ms Gwendolyn's grip tightened around her hair. "Let go of my hair. Who do you take me for?"
With a toss, Idalia found herself on the messy floor.
She checked on Arik and her heart rate eased a little when she realised that he was fine.
"A servant that you are," Ms Gwendolyn spat, huffing and puffing.
A crowd had already formed around them at this point. From a corner of her eyes, Idalia could see Rosabel join the forming circle.
"Ms Gwendolyn, are you alright?" A woman said, rushing towards them as the crowd parted for her.
"Where did you get these things from, Fion?"
"They are the Grand General's rescues from the black market."
"Well, one of them certainly doesn't know how to be grateful. Look at my dress, look at what she has done to it."
"That," Idalia pointed at the dress, "wasn't me. Maybe Ann can explain who it was."
"How could you—-"
Ann was crying. Again.
By Argon, this human!
Idalia rolled her eyes and rose to her feet. "But look at my dress, look at what you have done to it."
SHUT UP!
Her mind screamed at her, just as a hand swept across her face.
Idalia was stunned into silence for a moment, before an instinctive laughter bubbled through her lips.
Maybe her position had not really shown its consequences to her yesterday but now she was feeling it.
Raw.
Wicked.
She was indeed just a servant.
How ironic.
Her laughter had shocked the crowd and Madam Fion was the first to recover.
"Don't worry, Ms Gwendolyn. I will take care of this. Leave her to me. I'll punish her."
Idalia felt hands grab her and begin to lead her roughly out of the room.
"Anything is fine but do not touch my son," she warned as they dragged her out.
The laughter bubbled from her throat once again.
Servant.
The word echoed over and over again in her mind.
But what Idalia didn't know was that what they were about to do to her would make her fully understand what that word meant here in Echelon.