Chapter 19: BP001-P16 – Pralines 01 – Meiandra Arvis

Meia noticed that the other maid had returned. Immediately she took her place at the door again. She had not been away for a long time and now that she was back, the fidgety one seemed to be getting nervous. She squinted over at her several times. She probably wanted to check whether her colleague had noticed the damage to the palm tree. It certainly was visible. Fortunately for her though, her colleague's was constantly looking straight ahead. So she could not have noticed it yet.

~Do they always have to stand there?~ It seemed a bit exaggerated and also unnecessary. There was not even anybody here.

As if Meia had called for it, several voices came into the courtyard on the left. It sounded as if guests had arrived.

A glance confirmed this assumption. On the very other side of the house, a group of four people came into the courtyard. A familiar person was among them.

It was the butler. He led the group towards a table. They seemed to be important people. One of the men wore a red suit and leather gloves. The woman's dress was so long that it dragged across the ground behind her. By their clothes, these people were undoubtedly important.

Meia saw that the woman began to turn her head to take a view of the courtyard. Quickly she turned away before she would notice her.

It was uncomfortable sitting here alone.

It was also so that she had nothing to do that would justify her presence. Unfortunately, the cappuccino was already depleted. At best she could pretend to drink something. But even that would not change the fact that she was sitting alone at this table. To them, she certainly looked like she was left behind. And technically, that was exactly what she was.

~And now?~

While Meia contampleted her situation, the butler said something to which the woman started laughing loudly, and then the two men started laughing as well.

Almost out of reflex, Meia sneaked a peek at them, but what she saw let her sunk down in her chair.

The butler was pointing in her direction. He was pointing at her.

Her gaze dropped to her lap. They were still laughing. Aimlessly, she played with one of the seams of her dress. They did not stop. It certainly was not about her. It must have had something to do with the garden. The butler had certainly pointed to the garden. If only she had heard what he had said....

It was probably better to leave. After all, she had nothing to do anymore and she had been told several times that if she wanted something, all she had to do was ring the handbell. Her current wish was not to be here any longer. Hesitantly, Meia reached for the bell, while she continued to watch the people surreptitiously.

With the ringing of the bell, a soft tinkling sounded across the courtyard.

One of the maids immediately came to her. Again, it was the one with the Bordeaux eyes and the perfect make-up. Meia was really starting to wonder why it was always her who had to do everything while the other loafed around in the doorway. She had not even flinched when the bell rang, even though she had observed how she had grabbed it. Now that Meia thought about it, maybe she should have made a hand signal instead? After all, the distance to the door was no more than ten metres.

"Miss Arvis, how can I be of service?"

"Erm..."

Of course, Meia knew what she wanted from the maid. She wanted to get away from the table. She was bored and wanted something to do. Unfortunately, she had not thought about how exactly to express it, because she could not tell it to the maid in such an uncouth way. It was necessary to convey her wishes packaged in an appropriate manner.

While Meia tried to sort out her thoughts, the maid waited patiently, but slowly moved her head closer and closer with a look that seemed as if she was trying to read her wishes from her eyes, or in her case it was more as if she was trying to suck out her soul. Her fearsome aura had unfortunately not changed since the last visit to the table. It prevented Meia from thinking. She could only stare back. The soul stealing was evidently already in progress.

"I-I would like to... I want to...", Meia murmured in horror.

"Huh?" came from Maid as a short questioning sound.

It was a sound as if Meia had already said something and the maid only wanted her to repeat it again because she had not understood it acoustically. However, for her it sounded like a threat that it would be better not to repeat it again. It was like a sound a thug would make when you had said something wrong.

"C-c-can I go to the bathroom?", Meia meekly asked the tabletop for permission as she nervously tugged at one of her sleeves.

"Of course you can. Please follow me."

The maid sounded very friendly, which made Meia look up, allowing her to watch as the maid made a wide gesture with her arm to indicate the direction of the walk. Following this, she turned her head back towards her and Meia could see her face. From that second onwards, she did no longer feel as if she was voluntarily following her to the toilet. It felt more like it was a demand from her to better come along because there were too many witnesses here. Besides, going to the toilet was not what Meia actually wanted either. She did want some kind of activity. The maid might have been intimidating, but she would not be brought down so easily.

"Ca-Can you tell me what time it is?"

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"It's 5:58." the maid replied without looking at a clock first.

According to the text from the arrangement letter, the party would start at seven in the evening. Accordingly, she still had a good hour in which she would not have to be in the courtyard.

"I-I'm bored."

"You would like to indulge in some pastime?"

"Yes."

"I'd be happy to suggest something, Miss Arvis. In what direction would you like it to go? Relaxation, sports, would you like to swim perhaps?"

~Sport is out. Swimming is also sport, so that's out too. Swimming is out anyway.

"Relaxation?"

"We have a tea room, a cigar room, we have a spa in the house with different kinds of baths. However, our masseur is unfortunately not present today. I can give you a massage myself though, if that is what you would like?"

Most of it sounded boring. Meia would bathe all the time, but there was not enough time and she did not want to lie naked in the bathroom in a someone else's house. ~A massage...~ In general, that might be satisfying, but not for her. She would definitely have to undress in that process as well, and then she would be touched all over by a stranger. It sounded like she would massage her herself, which made it even worse. Lying under her gaze sounded like pure torture.

Meia shook her head in disapproval.

"Better something else then... The decet for the evening is already on site. Provided you wish, they can play for you?"

~Decet? Musicians?~ It seemed like she was offering her a private performance. So she would force the musicians to play just for her before their actual programme began. There was no way she could do that to them. Furthermore, if she did, she would be sitting alone in front of the musicians. When a piece ended, she would be the only one clapping. No one would sit with her because she would seem so conceited that they would rather not be associated with her. The music would over time draw more and more attention to her. People would notice that she didn't know anyone here and also would not wonder about it, as unlikeable as she would seem. Later no one would want anything to do with her. Everyone would avoid her. So making use of the musicians would not be a good idea. Apart from that, she did not feel like listening to music that she would listen to later anyway.

Meia shook her head again.

"We also have a reading room. Would that be more to her liking?"

It was more to her liking. Not that an hour would be enough to read anything, but it would certainly be interesting to see what literary treasures the private collection of a real nobleman would hold.

"Yes, I would like to go to the reading room."

"Very well, then please follow me."

Meia stood up and grabbed her hat. The maid waited until then, then she moved the chair, then she waited again until Meia took a first step away from the table herself, and only then took the lead. It seemed she wanted to be sure that Meia was ready for any action.

On the way to the house, Meia stayed close behind her. The uniform she was wearing was very complicated and made up of several different fabrics. It was mainly white, but there were brown leather parts everywhere and straps holding everyhting in place. The skirt part was not windproof. Around her bottom were several rings of ruffles. All in all, the uniform was cute - and far too cute for the woman who wore it. It was in stark contrast to her supposed character. It seemed as if she had been forced to wear it.

As they arrived at the door, Meia could see the maid nodding discreetly to the fidgety one. It was probably some kind of hidden sign. The fidgety one watched it closely and even followed her with a turn of her head, but she did not react otherwise and continued to doze. It seemed as if she was mentally somewhere else at the moment.

The uniforms of both were almost the same, but there were differences in their clothing. The fidgety one wore sandals and had a bag like a waiter would carry. This woman did not. She was quite tall as it was, but still wore high heeled shoes and was in this way a whole head taller than Meia. Her legs seemed long and a leather bag was strapped to her left thigh with a tight strap. Meia saw a leather pad and an expensive-looking fountain pen stuck in it.

The better housemaid noticed that her signal had not arrived and made another and this time very obvious nod in conjunction with a growl.

The fidgety one noticed and started moving. She followed them into the hallway, grabbed a tray from a trolley and went back out with it.

The nod had probably been a sign that Meia would not return and that she could therefore clear the table. Meia found it quite interesting to see how the two of them worked.

.../ End Part

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