Rosie's Games

131  Famished 4

"Did you have a hand in what happened earlier?" Dame Fraunces did not hesitate to ask the moment Rosie walked into her carriage. She had invited Rosie to have tea.

"Is there any reason for me to burn a carriage?"

"Stop lying!"

"I am merely asking you a question Lieutenant. Is there any reason for me to burn the carriage that carried our supplies?"

Dame Fraunces snorted. "You know why— "

"I do not understand— "

"You deliberately burned the supplies to prove a point!"

"Prove a point? Is there a need for me to prove a point?"

"You— Did you know that the servants would surely suffer because of what you did?"

"But Lieutenant…" Rosie smiled. "It was you who decided to let the servants eat once a day."

"You— " Right then and there, Fraunces realized that the woman had trapped her. Rosie gingerly asked about letting the servants eat only once a day to make it look like it would be Fraunces who had the final decision on the matter. In the end, Fraunces was not able to refute her words and just invited Rosie for tea instead. It was a very embarrassing situation— something she was not prepared for when she was informed that she would escort this woman instead of Rosalind Lux.

Speaking of Rosaind, Fraunces heard that she had been declared missing and her family had not even bothered to have a burial for her. This only showed how unimportant she was.

Now that Fraunces had thought about it, she immediately felt better. She was right all along. Everyone who would dare to get close to the young master would perish. Now, all she needed to do was wait for this woman to have the same fate as  Rosalind.

And just like that, the group continued on their journey. Because of what happened, the maids stopped bothering Rosalind and would just  do the bare minimum to serve her. They gave her food and water, yet never provided her with hot water to wash. Every time, the water they gave her was cold. Of course, Rosalind did not mind this as she would immediately Bless the water and make it something that could make her skin even better than it already was.

However, because of what happened, the convoy now had to go to a nearby town  to restock. This would delay their journey even further, but to Fraunces, this was all worth it as they needed to keep everyone healthy. She did not want to encounter any more problems on this trip.

"What do you say the name of this town was?" Rosie asked a maid named Tabatha. She was the youngest among the four maids that the Duke left. Her twin braided hair was cute and perfectly matched her small heart-shaped face. Tabatha should be about fourteen turning fifteen soon, yet, her body already looked like that of an eighteen-year-old woman.

At first, Rosalind could not believe her ears when the maid told her her age simply because her bosom was healthier than Rosie's!

"This is a small town in Lonyth. It's called Nanorvik. It is a mining town, yet an accident in the past year affected the town's population. Still, this town is still popular because of the travelers that would come by to buy supplies."

Rosalind nodded. Since the fire incident, the maids had started to converse with her. She knew that it might be because of boredom, but she enjoyed talking to them and asking them about the North. All of them were born and had families in the North so their knowledge was very helpful.

Rosalind looked outside just as the carriage passed the large gates made of wood. She immediately saw a tower on each side of the gate and noted that no one was there. Not a guard. Not a soldier.

She thought this might be because of that calamity that Tabatha told her about.

There was a knock in the carriage and another maid walked in.

"Young Madam, the Lieutenant said that we will have to stay in this town tonight, but she is advising you against leaving your carriage."

Rosalind nodded. This was the other reason why Fraunces did not want to go to the town in order to replenish their supplies. She did not want to leave any traces of Rosalind. The Duke must have instructed the woman to be careful about this.

"Tabatha and I will be guarding the carriage tonight, along with two guards, while the Lieutenant buys more supplies for our journey."

Again, Rosalind nodded. In fact, she was very curious about this town. This would be the first northern town that she was able to visit. She wanted to explore the town and perhaps enjoy some tea, but she knew that it would be dangerous. She did not want to expose her identity.

"Can you tell me about this town?" Rosalind asked Tabatha and the other maid named Jenemay.

"Ah… this town only has two stores, two pubs, and one restaurant. This is not really that big. The people living here are mostly miners, but the mine collapsed last year because of some incident, so a few families chose to leave," Jenemay answered her. "I heard many people died because of that incident."

"Sister, it is not good to talk about the dead," Tabatha whispered.

"I am not talking about them. I am talking about the reason why it happened. I heard it was intentional and that was because the miners refused to leave this area. A Duke from Lonyth owned this town. It was said that the young Duke wanted to develop this place into a new attraction as it was the nearest town to the south, but the miners refuse to leave. So… he deliberately caused the accident instead."

"What are you talking about?" Tabatha asked, horrified.

"Aish… what are you so scared of? It is only us in this carriage. Moreover, that Duke is not here. He wouldn't know!" Jenemay laughed. However, her laughter stopped when another maid knocked on the door.

"We have a problem! We have a problem!" the maid said.