The next afternoon was the end of the week where the maids of the mansion had their time to clean their clothing. Along with Carmen, Vella, and the rest of the maids, Elise held a large basket of freshly washed dress and went toward the backyard to hang her laundry. Carmen swung the white cloth, giving a good swing for the drops of water to fly from the fabric, she hanged the clothes and exhaled a sigh. Turning her face, she saw Elise giving a little yawn despite her bright expression.

“Something good happen, Elly? Yesterday you took a half day off didn’t you? Did you go to a trip?” Carmen probed happily to take the next bed cloth she had to hang.

“Yes, something like that.” Elise replied with a smile. She recalled Master Ian calling her name and her smile couldn’t stay still.

“Move your hands and keep working.” Vella said in a clipped tone from the other side of the spot where the fabric had covered between them.

Elise noticed how curt Vella spoke and the deep knot between her brows to whisper toward Carmen who stood right beside her, “What happened to Vella? She seemed to be in a very bad mood.”

“You noticed?” Carmen rubbed her hand to the apron of her dress, “It happened yesterday you see, do you know the maid named Nancy?” Elise recalled the maid who had instigated a fight against Vella and nodded her head. “Yesterday that woman came to Vella’s room uninvited and trashed around the place where she had just cleaned and because of that Mr. Maroon gave her a punishment last evening to wash all the dishes by herself.”

Elise knitted her brows in worries, last night was very cold and the water must have felt like a layer of ice. “She shouldn’t have done that.” Her words were directed to Nancy. She can’t understand Nancy’s reason for bullying Vella, was it because of jealousy? “Did Vella talked to Mr. Maroon of what happened?” she asked.

Carmen shook her head, “Mr. Maroon didn’t even bother to hear her reasoning when she tried.” Maroon the butler was a stern man who closed himself on his own space. Everywhere he moves silence always ensued thus no one dared to talk back to him. Although Elise knew the butler was a little frightening, she didn’t thought of him as a bad person but nevertheless she can’t agree with him not wanting to hear Vella’s words first before passing his punishment.

“That’s too bad,” Elise whispered and bent down to take the silk handkerchief she took from Master Ian.

“That’s a very beautiful fabric.” Carmen commented when her eyes fell to the silk handkerchief and suddenly recalled of something. “That’s right, Elly what are you going to do on tomorrow? It is our day off remember?”

Elise hanged the clean handkerchief she washed well and hummed, “I will be going to visit the Church for the morning mass.”

“After that?” Carmen finished hanging all her laundry done took the bucket on her hand.

“I don’t know.” She trailed, as she usually stayed in her house Elise wasn’t used to the idea of going out and didn’t know what else to do other than reading books.

“Then how about coming with me and Vella to the market? After the morning mass we can meet each other in the market plaza.” Elise who had thought of looking around Warine took this as a chance to have a little journey and agreed with a nod.

Not too far from them, a group of maids came out from the hall and Nancy was with the group chattering of the nobleman they met in the party organized in other mansion and the rumors of the nobles when she noticed Vella, Carmen, and Elise among the other maids who were hanging their laundry.

“It’s that slut and the murderer.” Nancy spoke in spite remarking just soon when she spotted Elise and Vella.

The other maid named Lena laughed in agreement to her friend. “They say birds of the same feather flocks together, seems true just by seeing those trouble makers.”

“But didn’t you heard what happened last night?” Suddenly one of the maid behind her spoke.

Nancy and Lena both gave a quizzical look, “What happened?”

“The Lord came back last night with the new maid late at night! Maybe the rumor that the Lord took that new maid as his lover is true.” The maid stated with a dreamy look. Like any other maids marrying a noble man was one of a miracle and a fairy tale for the commoners and most of them still held the wish.

Nancy glared at the maid who ran her mouth and clicked her tongue. “Do you really think Lord Ian would bat an eyelid to a maid like us? That woman too she is only a slut who seduced the Lord who knows when she will lose the Lord’s affection?!” The maid felt wronged for being shouted at but didn’t retort back as Nancy was the head of their group. Shifting her eyes, Nancy glared at Elise who had just finished hanging her laundry.

“Calm down, Nancy like your words that new maid still doesn’t know her place.” Lena twisted the corner of her lips and whispered to her group, “We should teach her a lesson.”

Elise wiped her hand on her apron and took her basket to place it over the place where the laundry baskets were stored at. Carmen had taken a seat on the green grasses to watch their clothes being dried slowly under the warming sun.

“Winter is going to come.” She sighed, a Vampire had lower temperature than human especially her who is a low class vampire that could not control her body heat.

“We should buy a few yarn to knit sweaters and scarfs, or else we would freeze by the end of this month.” Vella said to take a seat beside Carmen.

“But knitting one would take more than a month could I make it by the end of this month?” Carmen replied again. “I’m not that good with knitting.”

“You should have started knitting in Summer, dummy.” Vella complained.

“Should I help, Carmen? I’m quite good at knitting. If it is a simple pattern it should finish by the end of this month.” Elise dusted her black skirt and took a seat beside her friends.

“That would be a great help!” Carmen cheered. “Then we should buy the yarns too when we visit the market.” Elise gave a nod and looked up at the few windows of the mansion to guess which window had an access to Ian’s study room.

“Elise,” Mila called for her name as she turned her face and stand up. “Are you finished with your break? You two should go and clean the North halls and Elise please sweep the garden.”

“Mister John is still sick, Mila?” Usually the garden would be taken care by the gardener John but since last week the man had fallen sick with an illness and hadn’t make a good recovery.

Mila gave a shook of her head, “Last afternoon I visited his house but he was still bedridden.”

“Was it a bad illness?” Mister John was one of the people she knew working in the White Mansion since she came as a child to the White Mansion. The man would often greeted her when she played at the garden and Elise remembered him as a very gentle person.

“The doctor said it was only a light fever at first but suddenly it took a worse turn, until now they still doesn’t know what illness he caught. You should also be careful Elise, the change of weather often bring sickness. You know humans like us contract more illness than others dear.” Mila stated as a person who had taken care of Elise since her childhood.

“I will, you too Mila please take care of yourself.” Elise smiled to receive a warm smile returned by Mila.