To say the least, this wasn't the best start for Lady Melissa, as the woman desperately tried to pull herself together, seriously, out of all the days she had available to herself her body just decided to make her have a breakdown, now?
Lady Melissa called for Sophia to her room, the maid obviously being a little worried since she just had a gut feeling that something had happened, a feeling that something bad had happened.
"You're replacing me."
Those were the first few words that came out of Lady Melissa's mouth when Sophia had entered her room, the maid obviously being surprised and confused by her master's words, after all she didn't understand what Lady Melissa meant.
"I'm leaving later, and you're replacing me."
Lady Melissa said, as she could see Sophia's surprise, as Lady Melissa let out a sigh, she realized that she couldn't trust just any maid to do this for her, and although she didn't trust Sophia that much, Sophia was the best fit for this.
After all, out of all the maids working for the Shayla estate Sophia was the one who was the most knowledgeable about Lady Melissa since she had spent the most time with Lady Melissa compared to the other maids.
Sophia knew how Lady Melissa would think, she knew how Lady Melissa would act in certain situations, how she would respond, and that was what made Sophia different from the other maids, her observant nature that was easy to not notice because of her clumsiness.
"You mean that I'll be pretending to be you whilst you're leaving?"
Sophia asked, clarifying Lady Melissa's question as the maid looked nervous, and scared, though as long as she wasn't caught she'd have nothing to be scared she just needed to play her role perfectly and that the Duke and Duchess wouldn't find out.
"Great you're quick to catch on, oh and try your best not to let anyone find out that you're pretending to be me since you don't want either of us getting into trouble now, right?"
Lady Melissa said as she stood from her chair, stretching her arms and legs in the process whilst she approached her window.
"Lady Melissa, you said that you have time, please, don't do this, you said that you'll go later on, please just- just stay for a few more hours or so, Lady Melissa."
Sophia said, begging to Lady Melissa that her master wasn't going to do what she thought her master was going to do, however, Sophia's begs fell deaf to Lady Melissa's ears, the woman was already gone.
'Maybe I should check on her- no, Sophia has this, she's good enough to do this, I trust her, and besides the view from here is amazing.'
Lady Melissa thought as she was sitting on a tree branch, watching the sunset as she had already used a jacket that she had brought (which was her father's) from the Shayla estate so that her dress wouldn't end up getting dirty.
Lady Melissa couldn't help but feel like she was a coward, she always pushed her problems to the side, and all she was ever good at was constantly pushing people, constantly hurting both them and her in the process.
Yet this time, she couldn't bring herself to be the one apologizing, after all why should she even apologize to Duke Gaston? The man was the one who had chosen someone else over her- again, just like everybody else.
Lady Melissa had almost never been chosen first, she was always everyone's second option, everyone's backup plan just in case something had gone wrong, and Lady Melissa wished that for once in her life, she'd be the first option.
Everybody would want her, they would choose her, and she'd never be overlooked for once in her life, she just wanted to experience that feeling for once, not even being able to remember the last time she had been chosen first.
Though even if Lady Melissa did remember, it was probably ten years or so ago, after all, nobody was willing to even choose her now, during her grounding period nobody had come by at all.
Were things always constantly going to be this way? Even in her previous life she had always been the Crown Prince's second option- no perhaps not even the second option but the dozenth option instead.
It wasn't a lie that the Crown Prince had many girls that were ready to be on his call anytime, ready to sacrifice whatever they had needed to seduce the Crown Prince, he had numerous maidens head over heels for him.
Lady Melissa was just jealous, jealous of everybody who was people's first choice, she didn't have anyone who would call her their first choice, not the first friend that they would tell important news to, nor the first friend that they would tell amazing news to.
Lady Melissa had gotten closer with multiple other ladies based on the gatherings as well as the tea parties, but none of them would ever consider her their first choice, they had closer friends of their own.
And? Once again Lady Melissa was the only one who was left with nothing, the only person who had no friends, no one to discuss her feelings to or no one that would even discuss their own feelings with her.
The fact that nobody had even tried to visit her during her grounding period disappointed her the most, even though Duke Alphonso and Duke Gaston had visited her the day after, they could've at least tried to make an effort.
Duke Gaston was one of the most knowledgeable men on sneaking in, he, better than anyone should know how easy it was to sneak into the Shayla estate and into Lady Melissa's room to visit her at least once.
Duke Alphonso was smart, he had the brains and he could have very easily figured out which guards were slacking the most, what time their shifts were and how he could visit Lady Melissa, or even at the very least just try to visit her.