53. You're trying too much.

Elena walked into the slaves quarters majestically and behind her was the head of slaves, Florence. As soon as Elena walked in, everyone of the slaves stood up and bowed their heads as a form of respect to her, since she was the next Luna. Elena looked around, then she looked at the slaves one after the other. When she set her eyes on Winifred, she spoke.

"Can't you see how your other slaves are, do you think you're special than they are or something? Are you forgetting your place in this palace, you human slave? Bow your head and give me the respect I deserve or do I force you to?!" She said sternly to Winifred who stood far away from her. She was at the far end of the room.

"Are we just supposed to bow till you're done doing whatever you came here to do?" Winifred replied her, which made other slaves to begin to murmur. No one dared to talk back at Elena, but she just did and this wasn't unexpected of her, it was Winifred after all.

"Winifred!" Florence snapped at Winifred immediately she was done talking. "Do you not know that this is a grave offence? How dare you see the queen to be and not bow to her in respect, do you want your head off your neck, you good for nothing human!"

Winifred rolled her eyes before replying Florence nonchalantly. "You're doing too much, head of servants. You're trying too hard. Rest a bit, stop kissing her ass so much. When she becomes queen, which we don't even know yet if it'll happen, you cannot be her personal maid. So, stop stressing yourself unnecessarily."

As soon as she said those words, the other slaves gasped as most of them raised their heads to look at Winifred, then at Elena and Florence. There was a look of shock on both Elena and Florence's faces, as they did not expect Winifred to say such thing, it was utterly disrespectful, even they agree.

"You wench! I hate you so much with every fibre of blood in me!" Elena finally yelled when she got a grip of herself. She pointed at Winifred from where stood. "Just let me become the Luna, I'd show you your place on this palace! That your running mouth? I'd lock it forever for you and I don't mean that in a figurative way!" She exclaimed each word angrily. Then, she turned her back to leave.

"Oh, my lady. Don't mind her. Don't let her words get to you. That's what she's planning. So that her words can get to you, then you leave in anger. Calm down, my lady." Florence said to Elena, trying to persuade her to remain calm. Most of the slaves rolled their eyes as they watched them, Winifred included.

It was not a thing of secrecy that Florence had been trying to win Elena's heart, so that when she is made the Luna, she can be made Elena's personal maid. To be a queen's personal maid is a very important task on the palace that everyone knew of. The queen's personal maid is not treated like a slave. All she does is to follow the queen about and to help her make little decisions when need be. Florence saw this as an opportunity to make people respect her more and bow to her, so she was trying to do all her best to make Elena pick her.

And she was trying too much.

Elena cleared her throat when she reasoned what Florence said. Then, she turned back and faced the slaves again. Her face looked more calm by now. "My main reason for being here in the first place before that wench interrupted was to inform you all of my wedding with the king which is coming up soon, and you know that already which means I'm your Luna." She said and smiled to herself as there were murmurs here and there. "I see that you lots have things to say. But maybe when I'm done, you all can come out here to say whatever is on your mind that is making you speak when I am speaking! Since you all think you can just talk now!"

Immediately, everywhere in the room went silent again.

"I thought as much. Good. As I was saying, I am informing you now beforehand because I would not want any of you to cause a nuisance at my wedding that day. If anyone tries something dumb that day, I'd make sure they're as good as dead whenever I am done with them." She said. Then, she remembered something and added. "Don't think this would be like Alice's marriage where you all were allowed to enter and leave the palace halls as you please. No, it won't be like that, there are even some of you that won't be opportune to so much as Grace outside of that hall because a lot of you carry ill lucks around and I would never allow it in my vicinity.

She kept on talking on and on about the dos and don'ts of her wedding ceremony. She made sure they listened to her clearly and in the end of each warning, she would threaten them. When she was done speaking, she turned to leave again as Florence followed closely behind her.

Immediately she left, the slaves began to talk loudly to one another in twos and threes about Elena becoming the next Luna.

"This doesn't sit right with me, honestly. It's going to be a living hell for us if someone like her becomes queen, I can already forsee this extra suffering, maybe we'd be kissing her feet whenever we see her or she'd feed worms to us should we dare say something she doesn't like." One of the slaves said to her friend.

The other one replied. "I'm telling you. She's not queen yet and she has started being bossy. So, what about when she eventually turns queen?"

"She'd chop our heads off when we make slight mistakes in the palace, trust me on that. This palace is about to be filled with headless servants and you know who she's going to start with?" Another one replied.

"Winifred!" They all chorused.

Winifred stood at the end of the room staring at them one after the other and listening to what they were all saying. She sighed as she thought about Elena turning the next queen. She didn't like it either, and that development was not a good one for her. If Elena turned queen, no one needed to tell her that she would suffer. First, she would stop her from being Prince Arthur's personal slave and then, she would give her mighty works to do in the palace, and that's being lenient. She might have her mysteriously poisoned one day even. Just the thought of that pissed her off even more.

"Why didn't you all speak when she was here?!" Winifred suddenly said at the top of her voice for all of them to hear. "All these complaints of yours, why didn't you tell her about it all when she was here?"

One of the slaves scoffed before replying Winifred. "You think everyone can talk back at the royals like you do?"

"Or do you think it's even something to be proud of? You're only let off the hook everytime because the king protects you." Another one told her.

"And why can't you talk back at her? Isn't she someone like you? Just because she was lucky to be born in a rich home doesn't make her greater than you all. She's not greater than us, well, let me speak for myself. She's not greater than me." Winifred tried the ladies that were already battling her with their eyes. They eyed her scornfully. Though they knew what she said was true, they didn't want to make it obvious that they agreed with her.

"She's right though," one of the slaves replied and heads turned to her direction. "But her being right doesn't mean we can stand up to her. She's the queen to be afterall, and nothing can change that fact. Not even in our dreams."

Most of them agreed with them as they continued their discussions about her. Winifred just shook her head and sighed as she continued to arrange the scattered clothes on the floor. She was on this when a female walked in.

"Hi? I'm asking of some Winifred girl. I don't know if she's—"

"Here I am," Winifred stated to her.

"The prince asked you to come over to his room right away. He says he needs you not to take long before you answer him." She stated and walked out of the slaves quarters without any word. She didn't even wait for Winifred to reply before she left. The servants started to murmur and gossip amongst themselves about Winifred and the King while Winifred herself just scoffed, knowing fully well that they were all just jealous, wishing they were her.

"Uh," Winifred said to herself as she dropped the clothes she was arranging and walked out of her room to go meet the prince that requested for her.