Chapter Text
Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what it outside, but what is inside that counts."
-The Peddler
xxXxx
"Hana, you're from Alon, aren't you?" Jezebel asked while looking up from the dress she was embroidering flowers on.
"That is correct. Why do you ask?" the new girl at the shop asked casually without taking her eyes from her work.
"Did you ever get to see the Baroness von Gikkingen?"
"I'm afraid not. I was raised in the county on the other side of the mountain from her father's march, and it was faster to get to the seaport without any side trips to the baronetcy." Hana snipped her thread before looking through the supplies for the next color.
Adele moaned in disappointment. "That's too bad. I've really been wondering what an ogre woman looks like."
"Oh, don't be foolish!" Jezebel retorted hotly before returning to her flowers. "When you're bribing an exiled prince into working for you, you don't offer him the dregs no one else wants. You offer him the best the kingdom has. Mark my words; the baroness is a beauty, but Prince Humbert doesn't care. He's no stranger to beating off gorgeous women, we all know that."
"Well, he cares now!" Janine couldn't resist with a deep chuckle. "The queen of Alon must love her very much if she's forcing King Lune into revoking his new title and lands if Prince Humbert can't bring her back."
"Hana, which kingdom do you think she's hiding in?" Jezebel pressed. "You're from the same country, where would you go?"
"Probably the furthest one possible," Hana mused while threading her needle, half-lost in thought as usual.
"Oh, wouldn't it be too good if she came here?" Janine laughed, making the new girl pause.
"This is a bit close to Alon, wouldn't you say?" Hana tried to reason, but the older girl shook her head with a wicked grin.
"It's widely known that our king will kill Prince Humbert if he ever sets foot in Yrael again. If I was the baroness, this would be the perfect place to hide. Either he comes and is too busy fighting off the king's men to look for her, or he'll give up and look for another king to serve since it's too dangerous for him to return. But I can't imagine any king will take him on as more than a common soldier after the way he publicly treated the Virgin Baroness."
Hana tightened the thread's end before adding details to one of the flowers on the dress's bodice. "Or if he comes, he won't be able to resist trying to carry off the queen instead of hunting down a wife he never wanted."
All the other girls gave sounds of realization and acknowledgement.
"But the queen wouldn't be able to get far. Not with another baby on the way," Adele remarked sadly. "I can't imagine her being able to leave the crown prince behind, but the king himself would be on their heels if they tried to take him with them."
Hana nodded sadly. "I think that's the real tragedy of it all. The king loses his favorite nephew, the queen loses the man she loves, he loses her and his homeland, and then the poor baroness that was sentenced to an unhappy marriage for her king's convenience until it literally drove her mad enough to run away in disgrace. Nobody truly won."
Janine nodded sadly. "Or if it does, the news isn't likely to reach us. In this kingdom or not, I'm honestly impressed that the baroness hasn't been caught yet. Nobility sticks out like a sore thumb even when they dress like us common folk. You just can't hide their high and mighty manner."
Jezebel couldn't help but laugh in agreement before the door to the sewing room opened. All the girls looked toward it before standing up hurriedly.
Mrs. Genevieve Gates, owner of the dress shop below their feet, stepped through the doorway, but not much farther before looking at the newest recruit with a worried expression. "Hana dear, I require your assistance."
"Of course," Hana agreed without hesitation, slipping the needle from the thread still connected to the dress and back into the tiny cloth in her sewing bag that never left her person. She followed without hesitation out the door, closing it behind her, and tailing the woman back to the sleeping quarters for the workers. "Did I not make my bed well enough?"
That couldn't be it, since Jezebel's was messier when they stopped in front of Hana's.
"Hana," Mrs. Gates said hesitantly before turning to the newest recruit. "I am sorry about this, my dear. I really thought I could make the budget stretch another worker for your sake, but I can't. Business hasn't been enough to compensate."
A chill ran up the young girl's heart. "… Are you dismissing me? I haven't even been with you for a week."
"I am sorry. Here is what you've earned," the owner apologized again before giving the young woman a handful of coins wrapped in an embroidered handkerchief. "Two streets down, past the tavern with the red griffon is a bagmaker's shop. I've heard Johnny complain more than once about wanting fancy embroidery on some of his work to drive up prices, and I'm sure you will be of great assistance to him. Show him the handkerchief, and he'll know I sent you."
Hana stared at the handkerchief sadly before sighing and gathering up her meager things into the bag she had brought them in with. "I don't know what I'll say to the girls."
"I'll handle them, dear. I know they will be delighted you're not moving too out of reach. Please, I want to spare you the embarrassment of having to tell them yourself," she begged with a nervous smile. "We all know it's not because your work has been lacking."
Hana shouldered her things and gave a depressed little curtsy to her former employer. "I really was happy here," she murmured in the way of a goodbye before seeing herself down the stairs. She knew she was beyond lucky to be dismissed in such a gentle fashion, and even with a good recommendation for a new job.
She sighed, wishing deep down that Johnny the bagmaker was some elderly gentleman, or at least a father with children in the business. Marriage was definitely in her plans, but not yet.
Not until she was accustomed to life in Yrael.
Her mind was snapped out of her depressed thoughts the minute she entered the shop on the ground floor.
Around the dresses and hosiery, there were at least twenty soldiers, all of which straightened up respectfully when she opened the door at the bottom of the stairs.
Her brown eyes went huge as a small hiss escaped her control. She immediately took in the details that distinguished the common soldiers that patrolled the capital from the finery proudly presented to her.
'Higher guards. King's men.'
Their captain came forward and bowed respectfully. "Greetings, my lady. As per the king's command, you are hereby summoned to the palace."
Hana closed her eyes with a resigned groan as she realized the real reason Mrs. Gates wanted her downstairs with her things as soon as possible, even if the soldiers claimed to only want her for questioning. But since there was no hesitation in the man's tone or posture, she adjusted her own to what had been beaten into her through childhood, courtesy of her father.
When she opened her eyes, there was no mistaking the bearing of a noblewoman, even if she was secretly taking delight at how startled the men were that commoner's fashion was barely a fig leaf now. "If you know enough to address me as such, then I'm sure you're aware that term of address is no longer accurate," Haru informed the captain with a direct look, one that her father had wanted her to use for all the servants instead of just the ones she didn't know. "But it isn't likely to end in my favor if I try to withhold my greetings from his majesty."
The captain was doing a better job than his men at hiding his surprise, but her acquiescence seemed to startle him even worse. "I'm… glad that you understand that, my lady. We have a carriage waiting for you outside; I'm sure you will agree that it would be best to transport you with as little fanfare as possible."
"That sounds best," Haru agreed while adjusting her hold on the bag. 'If I'm lucky, the king only wants a private audience and will be willing to send me further into his kingdom to keep me away from him if he dares to return.'
The thought cheered her up, but as the soldiers filed out first on either side of the carriage door one had opened for her to keep her from sight, her stomach felt strangely heavy as she quickly marched to that door and accepted the captain's help into the carriage with curtained windows so that no one could look in.
The loud clanging of the door's handle shutting after her felt all too close to a cell locking shut, which did not ease her anxiety in the slightest. Nor did how silent the street was since she left the shop as if everyone in the vicinity was staring, wondering who was being taken into custody as the king's men surrounded the carriage before the horses were urged into motion.
But all she could pin her hopes on, was that she wouldn't have to meet the queen.