151 Dorota

The woman had a motherly appearance, wearing a white dress that looked like the sort that maids would usually wear.

She had smiles lines near her lips, and although she was middle-aged, when she smiled, all the signs of age flew away, leaving a pleasant woman who was clearly very happy.

After she exclaimed, the others broke out into giggles, while Liz couldn't help but look down, slightly embarrassed at being stared at and commented on by so many people.

Noticing her awkwardness, the elderly maid smiled and said, "Please don't mind. William is the apple of all of our eyes. When we saw on TV that he liked someone, we just couldn't wait to see you! You've been the major topic of discussion on the island since that conference! Now that you're here, we will make sure that you feel at home!"

"All right, all right, enough, Dorota! She just got here, you don't want to scare her away, right? Let's go in, first!"

"Of course! I've prepared the room right beside William's for her, as per your instructions!"

As the elderly maid answered in this way to Keren, Liz couldn't help but glance towards her and raise her eyebrows.

In response, with a giggle, Keren ran up the stairs and pushed open the doors, which swung open with a loud noise.

With this, the other maids dispersed, with the elderly maid also leaving before saying, "We will definitely have time to talk later…first, please settle in, and don't hesitate to ask if you need anything!"

She really did remind Liz of her mom, and from the way she was interacting with the other maids, Will, and Keren, Liz could tell that she was definitely the head maid here, who was also very close with the latter two.

Before she could think more on the matter, she was mesmerized by the castle once again.

She had only ever seen castles on TV or in movies, and she had never thought that she would ever see one in which people actually lived.

It was built out of large, individual, grey colored stones, and the style was largely Victorian, resembling the palace of the Queen of England which she had seen on some TV program.

From where she stood, when she raised her head, she couldn't even see its top, but from the doors which seemed to be 50 feet tall, she estimated the castle to at least measure 200 feet in height.

Also, there was a certain atmosphere of decadence that accompanied the whole area, as if she had stepped back in time to when King and Queens ruled the land.

Lush lawns with carefully placed trees and flower gardens could be seen all around, and there was a large driveway with over 10 luxury sports cars casually parked outside.

Yeap. The plane must have definitely crashed, and she must be dreaming while waiting to leave to heaven.

"Come on! We'll give you a tour later!"

Hearing Keren's slightly impatient voice, Liz broke out of her reverie and gingerly climbed the steps that lead to the castle, almost sure that they weren't real.

No one could be this rich, right?

Rich enough to have a private island, and a private castle this big?

After entering the large doors, Liz once again stood and stared, speechless.

The ceiling was at least a 100 feet high, with beautiful chandeliers that seemed to be from the previous century hanging down and illuminating what appeared to be the 'living room'.

There was a large fireplace which was big enough for a man to sleep in opposite the door, and there were 2 staircases at 2 ends of the room which led up to a floor that seemed to contain the bedrooms.

To the right and left, there were 2 doors each which were made of the same material as the main doors-some kind of wood that lent a royal look.

4 large sofas were arranged around a table near the fireplace, while there were bookcases, paintings, and other furniture items placed around the at least 4000 Sq. foot room.

Keren had already walked forward and settled on one of the sofas, before raising her legs and placing them on the table, not bothering to even remove her heels.

This actually broke Liz's feeling that she had entered a place that was on a different dimension, as something like this was so human that it served to bring her back to reality.

"You know what Dorota will say when she sees you doing that…"

As Will said this, Keren grimaced and removed her legs and sat properly, making Liz once again wonder how this woman seemed to hold so much power.

Will had also walked towards the fireplace, but glancing back and seeing that Liz was still standing near the entrance with an unsure expression on her face, he walked towards her.

Indeed, Liz was quite uncomfortable while looking around, but when she saw Will walk towards her before taking both of her hands in his, she relaxed for the first time since landing on this island.

His touch just had that calming effect which worked wonders, and when she focused on her small smile, she completely tuned everything else out and smiled.

"I know this is all daunting, but I want to tell you that you can be completely comfortable over here. This is where we grew up, and although Keren sprung this on us, I'm glad she did. If you want to find out more about me, this is the best place. I promise that we all will do everything in our power to make you feel comfortable. Just one thing. Ignore those maids."

As Will said this, Liz broke out of her immersion in his words and looked to the side to see a gaggle of maids staring at them both with their heads bent to the side and their palms pressed together, as if they were watching some sort of romantic movie.

When they noticed Liz looking at them, they dispersed again with embarrassment, making themselves look busy.

And in their panic, they didn't notice that 3 maids had chosen the same vase to clean, and 3 others even began fighting over the same small spot of dust.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Hey guys!

First of all, thank you so, so much for all of the wishes! They really warmed my heart :D

Secondly, I have some bad news: as this is the audit season, I'm under a much greater workload than usual, so writing 2 chapters a day has gotten really difficult. I was still trying and plodding through, but I realized that that needed to change when I slept on the computer last night while writing :(

So, for now, until the workload goes down, I'll be posting 1 chapter/day at least, and 2 sometimes when I find free time. I'm really sorry about this, but I really hope you all understand.

The bonus goal remains the same: if we get to top 20, I'll be sure to release 5 bonus chapters.

(continued in Author's note, as I don't want this to cost stones)