Masquerade ✔

Chapter 7

"Clara!"

Clara was walking away from Araminta's chambers—her mistress was still sleeping, and after the excitement of the previous night, Clara didn't want to wake her—when Clara heard her name called from behind her. Turning around, she saw Lucretia running up from behind her.

"Good morning, Lucretia," Clara greeted. "What's going on?"

"Have you talked to Araminta this morning?"

"No, she was still sleeping. Why?"

Lucretia fell into step next to Clara, steering her back up to the dining room where the dinner occurred the previous night. "Well, first off, Lady Llewelyn wants us to reset the entire dining room back to what it looked like before last night."

"Typical."

Lucretia snorted. "True enough. But there's more."

The pair reached the dining room. The dishes and mess from dinner were all cleared up, but Clara and Lucretia were now tasked with swapping the china back out, changing the curtains back to their original color, and making sure the entire room was spotless.

"What else?" Clara asked, starting to carefully stack china on a cart.

"We're going on a trip."

Clara paused, teacup in hand. "A trip? Where?"

Lucretia sighed. "The Norrington airship manor."

Clara almost dropped the teacup, grasping it in both hands to keep it from falling. "You're not serious."

Lucretia shook her head. "Apparently, Mr. and Mrs. Norrington invited Araminta to stay for a week and get to know the family better."

"So, why are we going?"

"Well, you're going to wait on every need Araminta has," Lucretia said.

"Which will probably be a lot given that we'll be in a completely different space with completely different things and she'll be trying to impress her future husband," Clara grumbled. "But go on."

Lucretia gave a tight-lipped smile. "Right. And, well, I'm going because Lady Llewelyn wants someone to keep an eye on the two of them. Make sure nothing, er, inappropriate happens."

Clara didn't really want to think about inappropriate things happening between Araminta and Harrison, but at the same time, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. "What are we in, the dark ages?" she asked. "They need a chaperone?"

Lucretia shrugged, a frown on her face. "I mean, it is an arranged marriage," she pointed out. She didn't sound happy.

"I suppose." Clara sighed and finished getting the china on the cart. "So what does this mean for us?"

"Packing, mostly," Lucretia. "We have to make sure we have anything that Araminta might want during that week."

"So, what, we have to bring the whole manor?"

"Unhelpful. It also means that we have to prepare ourselves for staying a week at the Norrington manor."

"What, we don't get to go home?"

Lucretia shook her head.

"According to who?"

"Lady Llewelyn. She wants things to go perfectly, and apparently she thinks us being there all day and all night is the way to make that happen."