A Good Housewife

The next morning, Milena didn’t need any help in waking up. In truth, she found herself awake very early before sunset. As expected, she couldn’t sleep well in a new bed, no matter how fancy the mattress and bedding were. Instead, she woke up, took her time brushing her hair and re-reading her notes. 

The night before, a little bell had been given to her so she could the maids at any time; she tried it and indeed, two girls that had most likely been standing outside just in the case immediately walked in. Milena decided to take her bath already, and have some tea before breakfast. It was another sunny day that was coming up, and she enjoyed the sunset for the first time in a really long time while getting ready.

“Lady de Crescent?”

The little voice that was heard behind her door surprised her. Prudence, the youngest de Iris sister, showed up, all dressed up already. She was a cute girl, with a tall and skinny figure, a pretty face and a shy outlook. Her brown hair had been braided into a simple style, and she had picked a light green dress that complimented her eyes. At only fifteen years old, she was the youngest among all the candidates, and also the most unlikely to be chosen. She was the third girl in her family, without much power and her education wasn’t enough to be a princess yet. 

She walked up to Milena, who was having her hair done by one of the maids in front of the dressing table and doing her makeup and bowed politely.

“Good Morning, Lady de Crescent.”

“Good Morning, Prudence,” replied Milena, looking at her in the mirror. “Please, you can call me Milena, we will be in-laws soon!”

Prudence nodded and blushed shyly. Milena liked this girl. She was quite pure and honest, and easy to decipher. She was pretty sure she had a long-time crush on Lucian, too. The young Prudence, taking the invitation to be at ease, grabbed a stool and sat next to Milena.

“Did you sleep well? You’re up early.”

“Only so much,” sighed Milena. “You too, apparently.”

“The room is bigger than the one I have at home, it feels a bit intimidating. I miss my dog, too.”

Blanche was still curled up under the bedsheets, as she had snuck back in as soon as the maids had done it. She liked to sleep a lot, even more than her best friend. Milena couldn’t even tell which appearance she had taken, the bedding looked perfectly flat.

“I understand, I hope we will get used soon.”

Prudence nodded again, but it was obvious she had something to ask her. Milena decided to give her a little push.

“What did you think of last night’s dinner?”

“I felt a bit out of place, to be honest,” said Prudence. “Everyone was answering so smartly, and I felt uneducated.”

“Who would you say stood out the most?”

“Lady de Narcissus was very knowledgeable, but Lady de Rosella felt like she was controlling the conversation,” said Prudence with a frown. “She looked like she knew everything!”

Milena rolled her eyes.

“Lady Valentina didn’t show off her knowledge, but her conversational skills.”

“How so?” Asked Prudence.

“Every time she needed to intervene, she was repeating a part of what the previous speaker had said, and adding a questioning to it, or pulling someone else to speak. Though she did speak a lot, Lady Valentina’s strength was her non-verbal skills.”

“Her non-verbal skills? What do you mean?”

“When you are part of a discussion, half of the discussion isn’t about what you say, but how you act. The tone we use, where our eyes look, our demeanor, how we listen. Lady Valentina is an expert at all those. While Lady Verona and your sister held the most knowledge, Lady Valentina managed to attract the conversation around herself thanks to all her non-verbal skills. Try to remember everything they said, and think about what Lady Verona said as if she had said it alone and in the dark. If you add it all up, there wasn’t much about the actual subject.”

Prudence looked absolutely stunned. She took a few minutes to do what Milena had suggested, while the young Duchess added the finishing touches to her outfit. She had picked a  thicker dress as the room they were going to have breakfast in would be colder, and a jacket. For this morning, she had a plaid patterned dress, with an extra layer of thin fur.

“How do you do that?” Asked Prudence. “Lady Valentina’s non-verbal skill?”

Milena chuckled. They were ready to leave and walked out of her bedroom together, Prudence following her closely, excited.

“It takes a while to master it to the level Lady Valentina is. But there are some basics that not everyone knew last night. First, always act as an active listener. Look right at the talker, in a natural way, but to show you’re listening. Also, always orient your body to who you are speaking with, to show you are fully focused on them. It is good to gesture your listening a bit too.”

“To gesture it?”

“Nodding slightly to show you agree to something, do some little intonations like hm-hm, or right, to show you’re following what they say. Also, try to keep a natural, confident smile, it shows that even if the person talking isn’t you, you’re confident in the conversation. Your hands, too. Yesterday, a lot of us were focused on our manners, but Lady Valentina was moving her hands a lot to show people, use her fingers, slightly change position. It is a bit tricky to master, but it made her look a lot more confident.”

Prudence kept nodding, focused on every word Milena said. At the end of the corridor, they met with Clorence, her older sister, looking very refined in a gorgeous pale purple dress.

“Prue, did you go to disturb Lady Milena so early?” She asked with a little smile.

“I was… just curious about some things!” The younger sister defended herself, blushing.

Clorence laughed, walking on the other side of Milena, greeting her properly. Though they had never been very close before, Clorence and Milena knew each other since long before and could skip the usual formalities to speak comfortably.

“Prue is a real fan of yours, Lady Milena,” she said. “She admires you since the hunting incident, a while ago, you’re basically her hero.”

“Cloe!” Protested her younger sister, red as a beet.

“Thank you, Lady Prudence,” chuckled Milena, “but I’m not sure taking a bullet and almost dying is worth such praise!”

The two girls laughed, while Prudence didn’t dare add anything, in case her older sister found a new way to tease her. Clorence was much taller than her sister, but they were very alike, except for the fact that the older sister had black hair and cut it in a long bob, only held by a headband decorated with a glass flower from Milena’s glass business.

“Are you excited for this first real day of Selection, Lady de Crescent? I found last night’s dinner particularly interesting, though I was wondering why her Highness was so passive…”

“It was only the first one,” said Milena. “I think she will start judging us from today on. I believe my cousin would already be home by now otherwise.”

Clorence nodded, remembering last night's issue, and the still-unresolved matter of Helena’s betrayal. The young Duchess hadn’t interacted with her cousin yet in the Castle, but she couldn’t wait to see that.

The three ladies arrived in the large room where the breakfast was to be held. Half of that room was actually more of a veranda, and an indoor garden. Hence the whole area was very green, but also rather cold. Exactly the opposite from the previous dinner… Once again, the Queen was testing their abilities to remember about the tour of the Aisle, and their abilities to pick the right clothes for that. Milena was perfectly prepared, her extra layer of fur would be enough to cover her. 

Of course, the Vampire Ladies didn’t have to worry about being cold indoors, but they had another challenge: being up during the daytime. Milena couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Rachael, Verona, Chorea and the young Bella, the four vampire candidates, when they showed up. It was already hard for her as a dhampir, but she could only imagine the ladies with red eyes were probably dying to crawl back to their beds. 

However, it was among the Queen’s skills to be able to handle gatherings at any time, day or night. The future Queen’s condition would have to accommodate her guests, whether they were vampires or humans. The Queen herself looked completely fine. Milena wondered if years of practice had allowed her to be a day lighter or nocturnal at wish. She would most likely do the same test for the human ladies with a night outing soon…

Philomenie and her friends arrived last, though, surprisingly, they arrived as a group, including Helena, standing quietly at the back. Milena couldn’t help a little smirk. She could only guess Philomenie had decided to make sure she would be at the right place on time that morning...

“Good Morning, Ladies,” said the Queen as they had all arrived. “I hope your first night was comfortable. Please do let the staff know if you need anything.”

For a while, everyone was busy greeting each other, exchanging trivial talk about the Palace, the weather and their first night, so the breakfast was served in a relatively good ambiance. This time, everyone was free to sit with whoever they wanted, as there wasn’t any seating plan, or even a proper long table. Little round tables for groups of four or five were spread in the room, so everyone naturally sat with their friends or allies. Milena was flanked by the De Iris sister, while Rachael and Philomenie sit with their vampire and humans friends respectively. The only ones who did not belong to one of the three groups were the De Camellia sisters, Bella and Aurora. Once again, the difference between the two was blatant: while Bella had a very modest and simple outfit, her older sister had gone all out with a luxurious dress that barely fitted the time and place. 

With the current seating, it was obvious the two sisters had their own agenda.

Meanwhile, the Queen was sitting along at a little table but on a chair that was sort of a low-key throne. Milena was certain she had done this on purpose, to see who would sit with whom. There wasn’t much surprise, though. 

Like the previous night, the Queen launched the conversation, on a different matter, the housewife talents of the ladies. Milena would have rather been on her bed at that moment. One thing she really wasn’t confident about involved anything to do with home economics… She was a terrible cook, had little interest in matters of taking care of a house, and wasn’t even good at sewing or planning meals. When Philomenie started bragging about her embroidery, Milena had a hard time not rolling her eyes. She then moved the conversation to her cooking skills, making Milena even more annoyed.

“Actually, your Highness,” said Philomenie, “I took the liberty to get up early this morning to bake those!”

At that moment, two maids came in, each carrying a big tray of pastries looking perfectly fine. Milena and Rachael suddenly exchanged looks over their friends’ shoulders, both experiencing the exact same annoyment at their rival. Rachael even mimicked the action of vomiting, and Milena sighed, wondering if it would be acceptable to crush whatever she was supposed to eat with her spoon…

“What a delicate attention, Lady de Winter,” said the Queen.

However, she didn’t ask to try it or even invite anyone to. The pastries were split between the four tables of candidates, and Milena glared at the cute-shaped strawberry buns, looking awfully sugary and sweet, thinking she had never been so disgusted at any kind of food before. 

All of Philomenie’s friends jumped on the occasion to flatter her skills, but of course, none of the vampires touched it, and at Milena’s table, Prudence and Clorence drank their tea quietly. Only Aurora de Camellia took one, saying it was just fine.

“Lady de Winter, what would you say is the best asset a wife should have?” Asked the Queen, sipping her cup of blood.

“Oh, I would think of a good ability to plan things! It requires an awful lot of time to plan, prepare and get everything ready on time! I wouldn’t want to be late or leave things messy because I couldn’t think about things long enough before. I love to take little notes and keep a tidy agenda for everything!”

Of course, all of her friends were ready to agree with her, saying how organized she was and complimenting her habits. The Queen nodded but didn’t say anything else.

“Ladies, what do you think? Anyone else has an answer to offer?”

Immediately, the girls went on to bicker about their abilities to pick the right color of napkins for each occasion, debating about which flowers fitted a night dinner best, or how to pick the best plan an outing with their future husbands. Milena had never imagined there would be one topic she would be so bored about. The only interesting thing was to watch the young Prudence diligently applying her advice from earlier, mimicking Valentina’s usual behavior, and actually being good at it. She discussed it at a low voice with Clorence, chuckling about what a fast learner the young de Iris lady was.

The Queen actually caught them whispering and having fun, and her red eyes caught hold of Milena’s with interest.

“Lady de Crescent. I don’t believe I have heard your opinion on the matter yet. So? What do you think a good housewife needs most?”

Milena thought about her answer seriously, but after half a minute of reflection, she had one face in mind, as the only valid and honest answer she could give, so she said it.

“An excellent Butler, your Highness.”