A Deceptive Beauty

Chapter Four

"I forgot to give you your jobs yesterday. Please accept my humblest apologies," Mary said to the six girls.

"It's alright. People forget things," Charlotte replied, speaking for the whole group. Mary gave her a gracious smile.

Mary grabbed a slip of paper from the pocket of her dress. There were more white edges peering from the top of her pocket, signaling that there were more pieces of paper in her pocket. The paper was a little crinkled but Mary unfolded it and smoothed it out.

"Just to remind you, you will start these tasks tomorrow. You do not need to finish all the cleaning today, but anything having to do with food must be completed. Now, let me start," she said, finally giving everyone else their chores.

"Valencia, you are cleaning the Great Hall, dusting the drapes and curtains, serving the food, and cleaning the tapestries," Mary read Valencia's list of chores.

Valencia mouthed words, catching Belle's attention. Belle could catch a 'cleaning' here and a 'serving the food' there while watching Valencia silently recite her chores to herself.

Mary took another slip out and read from it.

"Lenore, you are to clean the stables, wash the dishes, switch the bed sheets, dust rugs, and replenish the candles," Mary said to Lenore.

Lenore had a slightly troubled look on her face, but it quickly disappeared before Belle could make sense of it. Maybe it had something to do with cleaning the stable. Or that she had five jobs, rather than the four the duke said that everyone would have. Maybe she had five jobs because she wouldn't end up spending a lot of time doing those chores, therefore she'd need to have more jobs to be nearly equal to everybody else.

"Elizabeth, you are to wash clothes, clean the living rooms, clean up after meals, and also help with serving the food at mealtimes," Mary read from another slip of paper.

Elizabeth did not looked pleased. She pursed her lips in a scowl. Belle could understand why she would feel that way. If she was a marquis' niece, she'd probably be very wealthy and had servants to work for her. Rather than her doing the work herself. It was probably a dramatic change for Elizabeth, to switch to being a servant.

"Charlotte, you will help with the gardening, clean the welcoming room, set the table at mealtimes, and clean the ballroom," Mary continued.

Ballroom? Of course, no castle was complete without one. Or, at least, she assumed. Belle wondered about how it looked like. She remembered brief flashes of a lit, golden room where people in dresses and suits danced around, but she questioned whether they were dreams or memories.

The maid spoke again, interrupting Belle's thoughts.

"Elise, you will help wash the dishes, scrub the stairs, clean the dining hall, and wash the windows that you can reach." Elise's expression remained neutral.

"That is it. If you have any questions or issues about anything, you can talk to me, okay?" Mary said, wrapping up her little talk. The girls mindlessly nodded, their minds off somewhere else. A place where they weren't just getting assigned jobs.

After everyone got their tasks assigned to them, they turned around and started to head back to their rooms. Elizabeth and Elise were grumbling about working, but everyone ignored them.

Belle joined the group but realized there were only five of them in total. She turned around and saw that Lenore stayed behind.

"You go ahead, I'll stay with Lenore," she told Charlotte quietly. Charlotte briefly glanced back at Lenore and gave Belle an acknowledgment. She turned around and joined the rest of the group.