A set of uniforms and food were left by their doors when William checked in the morning. Doris sleepily got ready in her own and pulled her hair up into a high pony tail on her head. It was just a thick dress that went to her ankles and an apron. Absolutely hideous, but warm enough and that was all that really mattered to her.
He didn't say much to her as they ate-or when he left to find where he was to be dressed in a grey button down and trousers. Doris followed the small map on her letter and felt goosebumps line her arms. This place gave her the creeps. It was all gray and felt hollow. She passed people but they paid no mind to her as if she was just a part of the wall decor. She was used to that back in the palace, but it felt strange here. In the daylight, she could see all the imperfections she missed when they first came.
Cracks along the floors and walls, she wondered when the last time Enzo had seen this place. Did he know it looked like this? Or was there not much for him to do about that? She found it hard to believe he wouldn't want to at least put a little more care in the place he ruled over.
"Are you Isabelle?" A small voice said, halting her steps down the hall. Doris looked over to see a young girl poking her head out of a large door. Doris nodded. "Perfect, come with me. I'm Millie."
The girl looked a bit younger than Doris, but she didn't act like it. It was as if only her voice gave away the truth with how mature she wanted to appear. "This is where you'll be stationed." The girl led her to a table with a line of empty bottles and one large full one. "There's nothing to it, you just read the paper set with each bottle and fill the number of pills in each one. After you fill a batch, make sure all the labels are correct before you carry the basket over to the finished area."
Doris took a seat at the table and glanced around at the other girls who were busy with their own bottles. They looked tired and worn, but not completely unhappy. "Please make sure to check the labels, that's the most important part. We can't have the wrong medicine labeled, ever. A mistake like that could turn fatal."
Doris nodded. "Okay, seems easy enough to remember."
"If you think you can work longer than the training hour, be my guest. We have thousands of bottles that always need to be filled. I'll come check on your work before you finish the first basket." The girl nodded and turned away to walk through the room.
An older woman with bright red hair leaned towards Doris once the girl was out of earshot. "Don't worry, she looks younger than she is."
Doris turned, a bit surprised but eager to earn friends already. They seemed friendly enough, it was even better if they liked to talk "Oh? How old is she?"
"She's 22, believe it or not." The woman laughed, her eyes never left the bottles.
"No! I thought she was 16." Doris glanced at the girl who was already in another conversation across the room.
"Everyone thinks that. She can get really mean just to prove a point and remind us that she's in charge." The woman rolled her eyes. "I'm Beck, by the way."
Doris smiled. "I'm Isabelle, lovely to meet you."
"We were excited to get another girl down here! It's been a while but we heard news yesterday you were coming with your husband."
Another girl sighed loudly and leaned towards them. "Is he handsome? All the men here are like toads."
Doris blushed a little. "I-I mean, yes."
"Mia! Don't ask her if her husband is handsome! Of course he is to her, she doesn't need you drooling over him." Beck rolled her eyes. Doris took the minute to read over her note before she started to count the pills and bottle them.
"He brought his cousin, too." Doris offered quietly. The girls giggled at the idea.
"How far did you travel from?" Mia asked. Doris chewed on her lip. She knew that to gain their trust she had to give them answers instead of shutting them out. The more talkative they were, the more likely they would tell her things that they thought were harmless to a girl like her.
"Oh, we used to live in a small village near the palace. It was always so horrible there compared to the rest."
Beck gasped. "Oh! Did you hear that the prince from that palace is in the north?"
"Really?" Doris said, shocked. "I hadn't heard! We've been traveling nonstop-which prince is it?"
"Oh, I think it was the William one. I really don't know which is which but I've heard he's been an animal to the rogues and many are trying to stop him. Did you ever see any of the princes where you lived?" Mia asked.
Doris swallowed as she continued bottling the pills. "How strange... but no, I never saw any of them. They barely came into the villages, if ever." Doris said.
"Isn't it so strange? It's a shame you never got to see him. There's been so much gossip in the past few days because of that man but no one has even caught him yet! We're all trying to guess what he looks like."
Doris sat up a little. "Gossip?" She glanced around and leaned closer to the two girls. "I've been in a carriage for days with two men that barely talk,"
The girls' eyes widened in pity. "Oh, you poor thing. I couldn't imagine going days without a good conversation! Men are the worst when it comes to that." Beck rolled her eyes at the thought. "Well, the things I heard would last us days to talk about." She laughed.
Doris's hand tightened around the bottle she was holding. She laughed with them and glanced at Millie to make sure she wasn't heading near them yet. "How long have you two been here?" Doris asked causally. She didn't want to seem too eager. If William was as quiet as he normally was, it was up to her and Patrick to get some sort of answers out of these people.
"Mia and I came around the same time about a year ago-almost two years." Beck smiled. "We both got moved down here from mixing which was a terrible job. Our arms felt like jelly at the end of the day!"
Doris smiled as they laughed together. She suddenly missed Beth and wished she was here-but at the same time she was glad she wasn't. There was so much to see and do, but none of it was worth the risk when it came to death.
"Oh, you know what I heard yesterday about the prince?" Mia lowered her voice, Doris leaned closer. "I heard he killed one of the men that was sent to assassinate him. He somehow found him and hunted him down, they found his body in the woods the next day."
Doris did her best to look appalled. "Oh my... how gruesome."
"Yeah, the other two think they're next. They've been blabbing to everyone to watch their backs but there's no way he would come here." Beck filled in.
"Did the rogue leader send them after him? I heard the princes were dangerous men." Doris said with wide eyes as if she couldn't believe the sort of gossip she was hearing. She did the same face often with Beth whenever she told her something risky.
"Oh no! Lord Enzo has been ordering them to stop but apparently someone from his own palace has offered a large bounty on his head-"
"Girls! You're paid to work, not talk." Millie scolded. Doris quickly started filling the bottles again and felt a deep sense of annoyance raise inside her. If she had only gotten a few more minutes, she might have been told more crucial things. Her mind grasped on to what she had been told-and she knew instantly who had put a bounty on William's head.
The Luna Queen. It had to be. She was the only one aware of where they were going besides his family, and she was the only one Doris suspected.
The two girls return to lighter gossip after an hour about people she had never met. Doris engaged just as much as she had with the William gossip, even though she knew it wouldn't leave her mind.
They saw her as a girl just like them and confided in her instantly. She was a girl like them, she was a maid who had met hundreds of maids before that always did the same thing when they saw her-even if they never saw her again. She supposed she just had a face they trusted.
After Doris realized they had nothing else to offer, she waved over Millie.
"Done already?" Millie took her sweet time looking over every single bottle before she nodded in approval. "Good, tomorrow you'll have your first full day. Work starts mid morning, don't be late."