Love In The Palace

Prologue

-unedited, be mindful of grammatical and spelling errors-

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"Jade! Jade!"

"Yes, Madam!"

"What's taking you so long?! Hurry up! Clean the floor! Prepare new sheets for My Lord's sleeping chamber! Mine as well!"

"Y-yes Madam." I sigh, keeping aside the mopping cloth in my hands. Seems like I'll have to clean the front yard and the gates later. I head over to My Lord's sleeping chamber. I've always hated to be there. I know that he's got something towards me. He's always been looking at me inappropriately, pretending to accidentally bump into me often. But I can't say anything, or the jealous Madam will take it out on me. Despite knowing that My Lord's never a faithful husband, she chooses to defend My Lord than me, this lowly servant. She'll lose face knowing that My Lord would rather touch me than sleeping with her. From what I've heard, it's been half a year since My Lord summoned her to his sleeping chamber.

I carefully carry the new sheets over to My Lord's room at the second floor. Luckily he's not there, maybe out to do his duty as a government official.

I push open the windows, the sunshine breaks through. The fresh air seeps in, the smell soothing. I look at the silhouette of the mountain far away, starting to miss my parents. Are they still alive? I should be hating them for selling me. But I know, it's for our survival. I might have died if I were to stay by their side. They too, would've died with me as an extra burden.

"What are you doing?" I'm snapped out of my daydream, turning around to find a black-haired brown-eyed girl, looking the same age as me. Her hair is half-pulled up, decorated with yellow ribbons while some delicate-looking white magnolia flower and pearl pins snuggle comfortably on her nest of hair. In her hands are some snacks I can never savor in my whole life, which name I could never memorize. She's the only daughter of this family, the Leanne family, Lily Leanne.

"C-cleaning, My Lady."

"Then clean properly!" She throws the rest of the cake on the floor before purposely kneading it with her foot, completely destroying what could've been a life savior to someone else. Smirking, she turns her back on me, giggling away as she exits My Lord's sleeping chamber. I'm used to it, to people in this house bullying me. It's already nothing, since they can't come up with something new to torture me with.

I finish doing what Madam has asked me to, then move on to doing other senior servants' work, then....mine.

"Jade!" A light voice, calls out my name from far behind. I turn around, finding a pale-skinned girl with freckles on her face, her eyes brighten up in delight.

"Rowena!" She lifts up her skirt slightly, running towards me with something in her rough hand, caused by too much house chores. Mine too, are no different. Rough, peeling skin with red patches. Sometimes, even in the winter, we have to wash the clothes out in the cold. The cold-as-ice water is tormenting, but we can't help it.

"The kitchen lady gave me this! Let's share!" She opens her hand, in her palm are two pieces of some snacks, which reminds me, I have yet to take my dinner due to how busy this whole day has been. I gladly take one, biting it, letting the sweetness explodes, creeping into every corner of my mouth.

"It's so delicious!" She says, smiling. I return her smile, lifting the basket of dirty clothes up, holding it tightly.

"Washing clothes?" Rowena asks.

"Yeah."

"But the sun has set!"

"I can still see. Now, I'll go first!" I exit the huge house via the backdoor. Slowly pacing my way to the river, I overhear some people gossiping about the palace is going to hire more young palace-servants as the senior ones have been released. I always wonder, how big is the palace? How does the life of a palace-servant feel like? This house is the biggest in this province and I've never been to the capital. Like what they call, I'm just a mere frog in the well.