Chapter 3 - The ways of a maid
Alden was really a genius. Somehow, he turned his own shirt in a presentable button up long sleeves white dress. Since Alden was over 1.8 meters tall while Lillian was a little bit higher than one meter, the shirt, now a dress, made it to her knees and fit her perfectly. He had spent the night before adjusting it with a sewing kit. Lillian just found about that when she woke up. No, they were outside, in the laundry area. They had few weeks before the arrival of the baby prince. Lillian must learn everything she can as fast as possible.
“After washed, we must lay it out to dry, this way” - instructed Alden, while hanging the Lillian’s dress on the clothesline.
Lillian tried to copy him, but she couldn’t reach the line. Alden sight and turned one of the baskets upside down. He helped her step on it, so she could make it to de line. She managed to hang the pillow sheet, but it soon was taken away by the wind. She had forgotten to pin it.
After that, Alden took her to the fountain. There they could practice brushing the clothes with the very pillow sheet that had landed on a mud pod. Somehow, Lillian brushed it so hard that hole opened on it. She sure had a lot of energy for such a tiny body.
The same morning, they went to the kitchen to prepare a meal. Scrambled eggs and ham, not that hard. Except that Lillian lost the ham somewhere the way from the storage to the kitchen and added soap to the pan instead of goat butter.
Alden started to worry, not only for Lillian’s sake but for the own prince’s life.
“Alright, Lilly.” - Alden started, he decided to give her a cute nickname. He knew Lillian wasn’t her real name, but at least she could own a nickname - “I think we should try to work on you already know. Tell me, what kind of activities you had when you were in the village?”
“W-well, Mr. Alden…” - Lilly stuttered, too ashamed to look at the so perfect skilled butler. - “I spent most of my days playing around with other kids. Gathering berries in the woods, swimming in the river, attending to schoool…”
The last information clicked Alden.
“So I suppose you know how to read. And must be able to teach about wild stuff, like plants and animals.”
“Yes, Mr. Alden! I loved reading about our village surrounding flora! Since Airwood is close to a river, there were a great variety of frogs, and bugs, and birds, and…” - Lilly’s voice lowered while her eyes started to water. Alden promptly took a scarf from his pocket and dried Lilly’s eyes.
“I know you must miss your home” - he said after finished cleaning her face and handing her the scarf - “But now, you need to be strong. In few days, a baby much more vulnerable than you will be under our care, and by this time you have to be ready to take care of herself and him. You don’t need hurry to learn everything, I can take care of most of it. However, I will need your help too.”
Lilly’s face got full of worry. How could she be of any help? They would be lucky if she didn’t make it more difficult, or even worse, caused trouble for Alden, who have been so kind to her.
“How could I be of any help, Mr. Alden? I can’t even perform simple tasks like washing and cooking…”
“But you are a loving smart girl, Lilly” - Alden said with a kind smile. Looking at his green eyes made her heart pound a little bit.
Alden took Lilly to the farm, where some new born animals were. Alden observed Lilly handle chicks, piglets and calf. If she was capable of being that gentle to small animals, that most of people don’t value that much, handling a baby should be ok. But he would make sure to watch them closely in the beginning, Alden thought after Lilly had tripped on a chicken and dropped all the ration on the barn’s floor. They would have to wash that dress, now covered with chicken waste.
Lilly changed to her own dress, the one she had been wearing the moment she arrived to the palace. It was possible to see it was light blue with small white flowers all over it. As for the improvised dress Alden had turned his shirt into, Lilly managed to wash and hang it without major damages. There was a button that got lost, but Alden took it as opportunity to teach her how to sew it back.
Back to their living quarters, Lilly was practicing her sewing on the dress-shirt button when Alden approached her with a pile of paper sheet. They seemed to be schedules and instructions. Things like “change diapers”, “baby bottles”, “nap and story time”.
“Alright, Lilly.” - Alden said visibly tired. He put a lot of effort on what he was about to explain her. - “Here is our mission planning.”
Lilly couldn’t hide her excitement every time Alden mentioned “mission”. That made everything look important but really fun as well.
“I am all ears, Mr. Alden” - Lilly straightened herself up on the chair, showing he was more than ready for that. Alden found that silly behavior very cute.
“The plan follows this way. I will be in charge of heavy work in the beginning. One of us must watch the prince while the other takes care of laundry, cooking and provisions. If I let you handle this, the prince won’t have enough clean clothes or food in time for his meals.” - He had said it with no intention to offend her, but she got a little offended. Even though he was right about it. - “You be responsible for things like feeding, bathing and sleeping. As well as the organization of the insides. You must keep the room tidy. If one of the maids find it out of order, we could be in trouble.”
“I have a question, Mr. Alden.” - Lilly said raising her hand.
“Yes, you may ask anything”
“With so many maids and butlers around, while we have to do all of it by ourselves?”
“That’s what demands the Wind Godness will.” - Alden forgot that Lilly didn’t receive the full education and context of this role. So he thought it would be better to explain their kingdom’s rules in details. - “The Wind Godness wishes every ruler of our kingdom grows humanly. When princes and princess are raised only by nobles or people that have grown in the palace, a lot of issues can show up. Jealousy, greed, corruption, sense of superiority… all these dishonored things can grow when sheltered between the walls of the palace. It’s hard to bring the sense of the real world in an environment like that. There’s also the fact that our monarch’s partner must come from another country, so it would make the heir’s education even more unpredictable. Being raised by our own country’s commoner is a way to make sure the hair will grow as humanly as possible. I short, we are kind of overprotective mom and dad.” - Alden finished with a playful smile. Lilly shivered and Alden laughed.
“Haha… I am just joking about the mom and dad thing.” - He patted her head. - “In fact… I could never see you like that. And you shouldn’t either. Between us, you can be like a big sister.” - he said softly. “So see yourself like that, okay? A loving sister to our little price. Make the best of it.”
A sister… Lilly wasn’t sure she could see herself that way.
They spent the rest of the following weeks revising their planning while Lilly got some practice. Everything Alden noticed Lilly was capable of doing herself, he would adjust their planning. At some point, they manage to divide their job in a ratio of 65 and 35, being the bigger part Alden’s responsibility. Alden was pretty comfortable with what they got, Lilly was not tho. She tried to convince him to share the burden equally, but she lacked any argument (and skills) that could make it possible.
Alden ensured her it was not that much. In fact, he was such a capable butler he could possibly get 85 per cent of the tasks and still perform them very well. However, it would be no good for Lilly, and he knew it. Lilly was still too young to notice Alden’s intentions. He organized everything thinking about the baby prince and Lilly as well. The girl would go through lots of unpleasant experiences, not only from their hard job but her own development as well. She would go through puberty in an environment not suitable for that.
If anyone was to calculate the real ratio of these responsibilities, Alden had gotten way more than 85 per cent. But it was for the best that Lilly didn’t know that.