Still bowing, Jayden lifted her head to reveal her bright smile, her face directed towards Synthia before immediately shifting towards Abby.
"So, shall we leave?" She said, now straightening her back, her arms out wide motioning her to move when she was ready.
With a nod and a bright, upbeat smile of her own, Abby accepted the offer and stood out of her seat, taking the first few steps again, their gaze meeting each other once more, a mutual, devilish glint of pure satisfaction in their eyes as Jayden safely escorted her through the busy, bustling crowds of the mansion.
Abby was with her, by her side again and she could not have been happier or more satisfied, she was her best friend, almost even like a little sister to her. Seeing her by her side, safe and unharmed made all of the built-up worry and anxiety bottled up and lurched deep down in her heart all slowly fade and flow away down a calming river of bliss.
She felt a mutual bond with her and a warm feeling in her soul, the look in her eyes was exactly like how she remembered it, despite the fact that they could still not use their mind-link. She could not have been happier, everything was going exactly according to plan. It seemed like she was still the Abby that she knew and loved, she correctly remembered the secret word and immediately caught on to each other's plans and acted immediately, which lowered some of the other doubts in her mind.
More than anything, she wanted to stop everything that she was doing and give Abby a long, heartfelt hug but in her current situation, she was well aware that such a thing would not be appropriate and would most likely lead to her execution.
She took a deep breath and inwardly shook her head.
No matter how she felt, now was definitely not the time to celebrate and become careless, many things could go wrong and there were still many questions that were unanswered. She concealed her deep thinking serious expression under her poker face and only showed her side of pure happiness on the outside.
"Follow me young mistress, Abby,"
Under the proper procedure, Jayden had to be the one walking in front, which of course she did, putting on a face of confidence as she strode through the busy crowds shoeing away any people brave enough to try and approach them.
However, In reality, Jayden had absolutely no clue where she was going. In her mind, the entire mansion was still a complete mystery to her, a giant labyrinth where the only way she would know where she were going was if she were to memorize each of the distinct hallways, which she of course did not do.
The only thing that she knew for certain was all of the exits in the dining room and which exit belonged to what class, but once they get outside, she would have to whisper and rely on Abby for directions, hoping that after all these years, she had memorized the path leading to her own room.
Jayden and Abby's teamwork was absolutely perfect and effortless, each playing the correct role almost like they were reading each others minds, which would have been the case if they still had the use of their mind-link.
As they walked past a few of the servants on standby, although it was subtle Jayden managed to pick up on their change of expression as they were trying to contain their emotions, their fists and teeth clenched harder, their entire body becoming tense and slightly shaky, some of their eyes growing wide while others narrowed down into slits as they stared at Jayden and Abby walk by, the emotions they were feeling no doubt being shock and anger.
Jayden was no mind-reader, but in this case, she was confident in being able to read exactly what they were thinking.
'W-what! This fucker!? How dare he do this!? Does he plan on raping the young mistress!? Such arrogance! Who does he think he is!? How low has he sunk!? Who allowed this!?' Jayden thought trying to imagine what was going through the servants' minds.
Unbeknownst to her, her guess was in reality very accurate. Yet, despite all of those thoughts and bottled-up emotions, they were not able to do anything. Their status was too low to stand up to him and it seemed like some sort of direct order.
They had no excuse to stop them and they had no wishes of losing their jobs just for the chance at protecting Abby, someone who they had known as the devil until a few hours prior when they were informed that she had redeemed herself and that they should stop their old way of thinking and treat her like a normal member of the family, something that all the servants accepted on the outside yet most did not accept on the inside, still bearing some type of resentment towards her even after all these years.
They both walked by the line of servants, them seeming tense yet not doing anything about it or even following them as they were forced into staying firm in their position as they watched Preston and their young mistress go through the third exit of the room, the one reserved only for Reid family members which Jayden assumed to be the correct one since Abby was with her.
As Jayden exited the room, she could not help but take a glance back, some of the guests had already finished their food and begun dancing, romantic music filling the air and drowning out a large portion of the crowd's voice. The red fireball in the sky had suddenly gotten even redder and brighter dying the entire room an even deeper, romantic red. When she focused her gaze towards the back where she once was. Abby's parents seemed to be talking to each other, having one of their passionate moments, it not clear if they were blushing or not due to the red tint of the room.
And, to the left of them was where Jayden's eyes fell intently, her full attention on Emilia, Abby's sister and if she seemed to have something up her sleeve. Yet, what Jayden saw was something fully expected yet unexpected at the same time.
She was not at all looking back at them. But instead, she was simply eating her food, looking at the crowd ahead of her with bored eyes, paying them absolutely no heed making Jayden feel somewhat comforted as she took a deep breath and walked away into the lavish yet empty hallway ahead, Abby quietly following from behind.
Now that they were almost completely secluded, the atmosphere became tense and slightly awkward as they were still assuming their roles of master and servant, them walking 1 foot apart, Jayden leading the way.
Hence, Jayden found it to be the perfect opportunity to break the ice and finally talk to Abby, yet still not comfortable enough to speak in a normal voice, so she just talked In a low, whispering voice so that Abby would be able to pick up on it with her enhanced hearing yet not loud enough for most people around them to hear unless they had a hearing ability or some sort of special hearing device.
"Abby, can you activate your mind-link, it would be much better than whispering," Jayden murmured, walking aimlessly in the hallway without a clue where she was going.
"No, for some reason it had stopped working… I'm not sure why, but I'll explain everything I know to you when we get to my room… You and my lord must have been so worried about me and you come here and see me seemingly having a good time… You must have lost some of your trust in me…" She whispered back, her face turning slightly sour.
"Hahaha! Don't be silly! If l lost trust in you I wouldn't be here right now and would have already fled and given up on you," Jayden responded, making Abby's gloomy face cheer up with a subtle blush.
"Thanks… It really means a lot to me…"
Suddenly, Jayden and Abby heard sounds coming from straight ahead, the sound of 2 servants discussing amongst each other.
"2 parties in a row… This is really tiring… I just want to get some sleep, is that too much to ask?"
"Ehhh! Stop your whining! They're paying us extra so it's no big deal! Just suck it up!"
*Yawwwnnn*
"Yeah, I guess you're right… I know that we're both new but I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to this… I just hope I'll be able to survive for the rest of the night before falling asleep on the spot…"
Jayden and Abby's faces immediately went back to normal without hesitation, the voices were coming from the direction they were going and they needed to keep up their facade and make sure no one was catching onto anything.
"Hey, Abby, do you remember where your room was and how to get there from here?" Jayden whispered in a low voice, talking fast so she could receive the information before they turn the corner and see the 2 servants discussing.
"Left, Right, Left, skip a turn the go right, skip 2 then go left and my room should be right there," Abby responded with no hesitation, Jayden nodding back to her with an okay, completely amazed by Abby's memorization skills since she knew that it was her first time in years in her family mansion.
Jayden even doubted that she would be able to be even half as good at giving directions in her own family mansion that she was no doubt more familiar with.
"It's only for 1 more night, I think they're giving us a day off tomorrow. They're probably going to get next weeks servants here early to give us a break,"
"Really? That would be heavenly!"
As soon as the two men turned the corner, their expression immediately tensed up, not a single word being uttered from their mouths as they both took a deep bow with a hint of embarrassment as they did not at all expect such a person to be walking in this section of the mansion that was usually reserved for only servants.
A few meters away from them walked 2 people, both of whom they recognized, nervous sweat running down their face that was looking intently at the red carpet ground below them.
"Greetings young mistress Abby, it is an honour to be in your presence," They both spoke at the same time, completely in sync.
"Thank you so much for your kind words!" Abby nodded at them with a smile.
The 2 men had a hard time believing their eyes as they struggled to control their breathing.
The second person they noticed was someone that they knew all too well, a person who had just recently joined the workforce at the same time as them, and from the few moments they had seen each other, they were more than able to know that he was an absolute degenerate scum unlike they had ever seen before. They could not believe or fathom that someone like him was put in charge of escorting the young miss, there must have been something wrong, maybe she was being taken hostage. All that they knew was that there was no way that he was not harbouring any ill intention towards her, something that they inwardly and morally could not bear.
They both looked at each other with a nod of mutual understanding, they needed to save her, they were both more than willing to risk their positions in the household.
Not only so they could receive money and compensation for their quick thinking and bravery which was definitely part of it, but because they genuinely did not want to see her hurt.
Although they were new servants, they were well aware of the hatred and history behind who Abby was. But, unlike most other servants, since they were new, it was easier to disregard those facts and look at what she was today. And from how she had treated them earlier, she seemed to be an extremely kind, caring soul and they could not bear to see her raped or even hurt.
"Preston! There you are! What do you think you're doing here! You were supposed to be back at the kitchen ages ago! The head chef was looking all over for you and is damn near ready to kill you!" One of them spoke, lifting his head as he stared at Preston's smug-looking, deep green, confident eyes which made his blood boil, concealing it under his serious expression.
The man was in fact not lying, Preston did not belong to the team that would remain in the dining room on standby but to the team that would constantly go in and back in and out the kitchen to bring the food, meaning that he clearly went against orders.
His friend's quick thinking made the other man have a smile on his face as he had completely forgotten that the chef mentioned such a thing.
"Oh, I deeply apologize for that, I was actually on my way back when young mistress Abby personally requested me to be her escort around the mansion. Can you please pass that message on from me to the chef? That would be much appreciated, I'm sure he would understand," Jayden replied with a casual smile that had a hint of nervousness.
The two men's eyes immediately went wide, filled with shock and disbelief that they were not able to keep suppressed as they struggled to speak out any words, their eyes immediately shifting towards Abby to see her expression and if Preston was in fact telling the truth.
"What's with the weird looks? What's going on? If you are wondering if what he said is true then yes, I asked him to be my escort, do you have any objections?" Abby asked with a face filled with confusion and a hint of authority, making both men become extremely tense, even more sweat running down their faces as it now looked almost like a flowing river.
"N-no! Not at all, young miss! We were just nervous and honoured in your presence. We promise we meant you no such offence my lady…" The other man spoke, their gaze once again shifted back towards the ground, drops of sweat going on the crimson carpet below.
"It's fine, I know that you meant no such thing. I will be off now, please resume your work!"
Although they were not able to see Abby's face, they felt the warmth and kindness in her voice, making them feel even more regretful for not calling out Preston when they had the chance, all due to their fear and nervousness at the time.
"Thank you for your kind words young lord Abby! We promise that we will not let you down or disappoint you!" They both spoke in unison once more, completely in sync as they looked up only to see Abby and Preston's backs walking in the distance.
Taking long, deep breaths they both took a look at each other with a serious yet gloomy look on their face.
"Bro… We need to do something, I really can't let this slide… I know what this man is like... I know what he does... I swear if he even touches the young mistress, I'm gonna-"
"Yeah I do too and I feel the same way, but we need to calm down a bit. We don't have any evidence against him but we would be able to not only fire him but end his entire bloodline if we caught him trying anything on the young miss. He deserves it and the young miss is too innocent to realize his true intentions. It's not just about the possible rewards,"
"Agreed, hopefully, the chef won't be too angry if we're a bit late… let's follow them from afar…"
Nodding at each other with a solemn glint in their eyes, they both made up their minds to ignore their current orders in order to trail them both from a distance just in case Preston tried to pull anything on their young mistress, something they were almost certain that he would do...