"She amputated assassins, audacious servants and one governess, the king is the one that killed them." Lord Benwick corrected. "Contrary to what people say, I am beginning to think that Sigrid Thorin was the right choice for the position of Roland’s main wife. With her by his side, it will be much more difficult for Rina’s sons to steal the throne."
"She is also wise, she made sure to nip he secondary wife problem in a bud, I guess she doesn’t want to have a Rina problem in her own marriage." Lady Elvira said.
Lord Benwick nodded, in his opinion, Sigrid had played the king like a fiddle to get what she desired. He wanted to have a meeting with her and get inside her head to see what other tricks she had up her sleeve.
If she was wise and useful, she could be pulled into their circle.
"I wonder if she is already telling her grandfather about Rina’s crude actions, the king’s court will be so interesting in the days to come." The queen laughed. "We don’t have to leak the story but if it does get out, we should fan the flames and blow it up. A secondary wife attempting to murder the children of the main wife is a crime punishable by death, maybe I will finally get rid of that whore in this way."
The queen was aware of Rina’s background, the king had tried hard to bury it but information like that had a way of finding its way to the surface.
Someday, she would unveil the rotten background of Rina and pull her down mercilessly.
**************
It was only the second day into her newly married life and already, the crown princess Sigrid was back to her old stomping grounds on the estate of her family and her fan was dancing in the air, ready to see some more blood.
This was because she had arrived just in time to find Mirena morally kidnapping duchess Mila in an attempt to stay on as a servant on their estate.
There were two types of servants among the nobles, those whose services were bought and paid for with a fee and those that sold themselves like slaves, their life and death was up to their masters.
Mirena had sold herself to the duchess to escape a life of torture from her aunt and uncle, at the time, she was only twenty years old. She was nearing fifty now, life with the duchess was all she knew, to be forced out out of the blue did not sit well with her.
She was on her knees, crying and reminding the duchess of all the tough times they had been through together, especially at the Eastern boarder.
The other servants were feeling sorry for her, a few were even looking duchess Mila with open contempt, forgetting the difference in their statuses.
"It looks like I almost missed a good show." Sigrid strolled towards her grandmother slowly.
Her fan was spread out, it looked like a normal hand fan, the color was simple, ordinary black with no single decoration except the three drops of red blood that appeared to be permanent stains. Nobody could tell that the tip of the fan was as deadly as the sharpest sword in the kingdom.
"Bring me a chair." Sigrid commanded.
She stood by her grandmother’s side and looked at Mirena briefly before turning her eyes to the rest of the servants. They had assembled out near the flower gardens on the duchy, a few were on their knees just like Mirena.
"Siggy, why are you here?" the duchess asked.
"My husband was called away to calm a disturbance in the land of mist, I came by to see you because I missed you grandmother." she put her hands on the shoulders of the duchess and massaged them lightly without applying any pressure. "What is going on here?"
"Lady Sigrid, please implore the duchess not to terminate my employment. I have served the Thorin duchy loyally, the duchess even more and I consider this to be my home, where..."
"Crown princess." Lanai cut in out of the blue.
The chair was brought by John, Sigrid’s brother rather than a servant. Sigrid smiled at him and she sat down, crossing one leg over the other. Lama brought her a cup of tea as she was adjusting her body to a more comfortable position. Sigrid would have preferred a soft sofa or office chair to the hard wood chair she had been given.
"Mirena, when you address the crown princess, make sure to do so correctly." Lama added to Lanai’s word.
Sigrid raised the small cup of tea to her lips and smiled, her maids were learning quickly how to adopt the right attitude of a crown princess’s maid. They had also dropped the ’miss’ title when addressing Mirena.
Mirena’s lips drew together firmly, showing her unwillingness to address Sigrid as crown princess after all, she had come to consider herself as part and parcel of the duchy, like one of the family.
This was because she was referred to as miss Mirena, a class above the other servants and she often called Sigrid, Siggy or lady.
She squinted in Lanai and Lama’s direction, seemingly unhappy with the way they had used her name, without the addition of the ’miss.’
"Grandmother, do you see it?" Sigrid asked.
The duchess nodded, how could she miss what was so obvious, how had she not seen this side of Mirena? She seemed to under the belief that she had some rights and a sense of entitlement.
"Grandmother, why is Mirena on her knees?" Sigrid asked, pretending to be unaware. She realized that she needed to be the one to give her grandmother the necessary push on this matter.
Duchess Mila raised her head right as Iryne came through the door and joined them at the table under the shade. She handed over the list of servants that were being let go of the duchess.
"You came just in time crown princess," The duchess put emphasis on the title, "As a way of celebrating your wedding, we are letting go of some of the servants, especially those with older parents and children. I do believe that it is about time that they enjoyed the good fortune of living with their loved ones."
Sigrid put down the cup. "Oh, I think you mentioned this to me, they are going to be given enough income to live on for half a year, Mirena will be paid enough for a full year and she is to be given a house in Duchester village.
I think it’s a very good idea considering the fact that Mirena here had a baby out of wedlock twenty five years ago. Grandmother, you have been taking care of that child all these years, it is high time Mirena and her daughter are reunited.
You have even given them a house, you are truly generous." She looked at Mirena and smiled. "Mirena, isn’t my grandmother the duchess generous?"