Fresh Air

Chapter Three

The next day Rosette was cleaning the dining room when Carlotta came in a flush.

“Oh, chid, there you are Rosette,” she said putting a hand to chest to calm her beating heart.

“You were the one who told me to clean the dining room,” she said laughing.

“Hush. Eric found a girl on the beach, washed up in a shipwreck,” she said excited. Rosette felt her heart drop into her stomach.

“Okay?” asked Rosette confused.

“Well he brought her home like a little lost puppy and she’ll be staying with us for a while. Can you go fetch a dress for her? One that will suit for dinner?” she asked. Rosette looked around the half cleaned dining room.

“The dining room?” she asked confused.

“I’ll get someone else to clean it. You are the girl’s size so go find a dress that will fit,” she said. Rosette sighed and made her way to the upstairs bedrooms. One was a guest room where they store some dresses. She looked in the wardrobe and the only dress that would fit her was a pink one so she brought that down to the baths and handed it to Carlotta.

“Thanks dear, now can you go check on your father?” Rosette sighed; she was beginning to feel this lady was purposely making her run around the entire palace.

“Father?” she asked knocking on the door. She looked around and saw the kitchen was getting really messy. That meant he was trying new recipes out.

“Ah, Rosette did you hear about the new girl?” he asked.

“Yes, I was sent to check on you,” she said.

“I’m fine, so is the food,” he said, “well it was before I started boiling it.” He laughed at his joke. Rosette looked at the pot nearby that had an octopus sticking out of it.

“Right, well I’m going to go now,” she said and left the kitchen. She decided to head back to the dining room and help whoever it was finish cleaning it before dinner began.

There was no one in there; Carlotta probably forgot to tell anyone to come. She went back to cleaning and was setting the table when someone walked in.

“Not done yet?” came the voice of the elderly man who annoyed Rosette so much.

“No, sir. Just finishing up, though,” she said. She was placing the forks down when Eric walked in. Rosette glanced at him before leaving the dining room. On her way out she saw Carlotta walking down with the shipwrecked girl. She had red hair. Rosette froze and stared. Could this be her? Is this why Eric brought her to the palace?

“Come on dear, dinner will be served soon,” said Carlotta. They both caught sight of Rosette and the girl stared confused.

“Rosette, this is the girl Eric found,” Carlotta explained. Rosette nodded, “she’ll be taking care of you the rest of your stay. If you need anything go to her, okay?” she asked looking at both of them. The girl nodded.

“Yes, m’am,” said Rosette before walking back down the hall and putting her cleaning materials away.

It was after dinner. She heard her father had gotten into some deep trouble, he mentioned something about a devil crab. She was heading down to the dining room to fetch her new responsibility and show her to her room and help her get ready for bed.

The girl followed her and when Rosette opened the room where this new girl would be staying her eyes went wide and she looked around in awe.

“This will be your room. This is your wardrobe, you can wear any of the clothes in here,” said Rosette taking a night gown out of the wardrobe and putting it on the bed. The girl walked over and looked out the window to the ocean.

“You can’t talk, can you?” asked Rosette after a while of observing her. She turned to face her and looked down and nodded her head.

“Oh, well if you ever have trouble with anything, get me and I can help, I’m pretty good at charades,” she said, “do you need anything else?” The girl looked around then shook her head.

“Well, good night,” she said and went back to her room. As she was about to walk in she was stopped by Carlotta.

“Tomorrow Eric will be taking the girl out to see the kingdom so in the morning you will need to get her ready, then in the evening get her ready for bed again. Other then that you will have the day off,” she said. Rosette nodded and headed into her room. She took her shoes off and sighed as she sunk down onto her bed ready to be done for the night.

A knock came on her door. She groaned and called out, “Come in,” she didn’t want to get back up. To her surprise the prince came in through her door and he looked around her room before fixing his eyes on her.

“It took me a while to find your room. I don’t think I’ve ever been over here before,” he said making his way over to her, “can I sit?” She nodded and he sat next to her on her bed.

“I thought everyone shared rooms, why don’t you have a roommate?” he asked.

“Odd number of girls, I was the last one here so I got my own room,” she explained.

“Oh, well it’s a …” he glanced around the room, “nice room.” Rosette laughed.

“Right, nice,” she said rolling her eyes. If you could sum up her room in one word it would be ‘brown’. Everything was wood and she had brown sheets and brown curtains, literally everything was one colour.

“Is there a reason why you were trying to find me?” she asked looking up at him and he turned his attention to her.

“Yes, I wanted to ask what you thought of the girl I found on the beach,” he said.

“Why would I have an opinion on her?”

“Well aren’t you in charge of her?”

“Yes, but it’s just another job.”

“Can I please just get what you feel about her, no questions about it? I really want to know what you think.”

“Okay she’s pretty, not beautiful, just pretty, and she seems to be lacking something in her head,” she said honestly.

“Yeah, I got that as well, except the first part, I thought she was beautiful at dinner today,” he said, “but you picked the dress out so some credit goes to you.”

“Right, but this isn’t the girl you’ve been looking for. This girl is a mute,” she said.

“I know, but I felt like I’ve met her before,” he admitted.

“Maybe you have when you were younger,” she suggested.

“Maybe. So I was going to go out and play with Max now, would you like to come?” he asked.

“Oh, no thanks, my feet are killing me,” she said shaking her head and looking down at her feet.

“Okay, I will see you later,” he said getting up.

“Night,” she said.

“Night,” he said as he closed the door and left. Rosette laid down on her back and sighed at the feeling of finally being able to relax.

“What girl is going to show up tomorrow?” she groaned and then changed and went to bed.

The next morning, bright and early, Rosette was in the new girl’s room helping her decide what to wear. The girl had gone through everything in the wardrobe and couldn’t decide what to wear. Rosette sighed and grabbed a random dress.

“Wear this,” she said shoving the dress into the girl’s hands. The girl looked it over before smiling and stripping her nightgown. Rosette helped her tie the dress up before sitting her down at the vanity and picking up her brush. The girl made a surprised look on her face as she started brushing her hair.

“I didn’t hurt you did I?” Rosette asked, noticing her reaction. The girl shook her head then pointed at the fork on the vanity. “That’s a fork…it’s an eating utensil,” said Rosette confused and going back to brushing her hair. The girl made an understanding face and sat there patiently while Rosette tied a big blue bow in the back of her head then placing the brush down and walking over to the wardrobe to get shoes for the girl.

She carefully put them on her feet and then led the girl out of the room and down the stairs to the foyer where Eric was waiting. He saw them come down and smiled.

“You look great,” said Eric taking the girl’s hand, “thanks, Rosette.” Rosette nodded before leaving and taking her well deserved time off.

After taking a nap she made her way to the beach to swim. Not everyone knew how to swim but she observed a few people do it and picked it up pretty naturally. She shed her out layers of clothes before getting on top of a rock nearby and jumping gracefully into the water.

She swam around for a while before heading back to the beach. She was soaking in a little sun she could before she heard a bark and a large tongue lick the side of her face. She smiled and sat up as Max happily jumped around her.

“I know, Eric isn’t around to play with you, come on,” she said getting up and throwing her clothes back on. She grabbed a stick and threw it for him. He barked and chased it down before brining it back. She did that pretty much for the rest of the day before Grimsby came by and told her the Prince and the girl had returned. She nodded and walked back into the house with Max leading the way.

They entered into the foyer and Rosette couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the state the two of them were in. They were both sopping wet and dripping onto the floor. Grimsby raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask and Rosette rushed Max along before walking over to the girl.

“I think you’d better come with me,” she said, “you both smell like pond scum.”

“Yeah, we fell in the lake,” Eric said sheepishly.

“Oh, right, well, I suggest a bath,” she said smiling and trying not to laugh, “come on.” The girl started walking when Eric stopped Rosette.

“By the way, I found out her name is Ariel,” he said.

“Thanks, now I can stop calling her ‘hey you’,” she said. He laughed and motioned for her to go. Rosette caught up to Ariel and drew a bath for her while she fetched her nightgown.

Rosette helped Arieli with her bath and tried to figure out what they had done on their day out.

“So you got a tour of the kingdom?” she asked as she washed Ariel’s hair. She nodded and blew some bubbles. How old is this girl? She’s never seen bubbles before? “Did he take you through town?” Ariel nodded. “Then to the lake. Did you take a row boat out?” She nodded again. Rosette was beginning to realize Eric took Ariel to do all the things she had just taken Eric to do.

“Romantic boat ride in the middle of the lake. No one else around. I bet he kissed you,” Rosette said seeing if it was exactly like her time with Eric. Ariel tensed up then became sullen. “He didn’t?” she asked. Ariel shook her head and turned to look at Rosette. “What?” she asked confused as to why she was looking at her that way.

Ariel shook her head and returned to playing with the bubbles. Rosette just shook the look off and finished cleaning her. Once done, she gave her a towel and she changed into her nightgown. Rosette led Ariel back to her room and wished her ‘good night’ before heading towards her room. She was just about to go in when she was stopped by Carlotta, once again.

“Do you think you can clean the foyer?” she asked. Rosette nodded and made her way to the foyer with some cleaning materials. She started mopping up the puddle of water on the ground and when the front door suddenly opened and Eric came in with a brunette on his arm. Grimsby came down the stair case and over to Eric.

“Eric, who is this?” asked Grimsby walking over. Rosette stopped working and watched as Eric and the new girl walked over to him.

“This is the one I have been looking for,” he said turning to her, “she’s the one that saved me.”

“My dear, congratulations,” said Grimsby taking her hand. She smiled and looked up at Eric.

“We wish to be married tomorrow. Tell everyone to get the boat ready and someone tell Louis to prepare a feast for tomorrow,” said Eric monotonously. Rosette took note of his tone and could tell something was off.

“Of course. You, girl, show this beautiful young bride-to-be to one of our guests rooms and make sure she has everything she needs,” said Grimsby. Rosette cleaned up her cleaning supplies and put them in a nearby closet before walking over to the new couple.

“If you’d follow me miss,” she said. The woman smirked at Eric before following Rosette up the stairs and to her room. “If you don’t mind me asking, what is your name?” she asked as she held the door open.

“Vanessa,” said the woman as she made her way inside.