Arden and Geri follow the senior maid, any difficulty with walking they had before has mostly faded by this point as the female footwear now feels familiar, and they both are able to more easily walk with the grace expected of castle maids. Arden doesn't really notice this while Geri does but simply writes it off as getting used to it.
They are led into the guest wing and into one of the larger yet currently unused to guest rooms, they arrived just in time to witness three other maids arriving in the room as well. Arden and Geri are placed in lined next to the three real maids, Geri is nervous that it seems like they're going to have to work alongside them, since that makes it more likely to be found out. Arden meanwhile is just very fascinated by this entire ordeal to worry about minor details such at that.
The senior maid stands in front of them and speaks "Alright girls. one of the northern dukes has suddenly been called here, before you ask, no I do not know why and it is not our place to know. So don't go including me in your gossip. You've all been assigned to preparing for the Duke's entourage and also catering to him for his stay"
"Alright get to work girls. I must ensure that dinner is prepared for the royals." she says quickly before leaving out the room.
All maids both real and false get to work, as they begin Geri takes a look around the room, he didn't recall the guest rooms being this high. The shelves definitely seemed higher than in other rooms for some reason. Geri briefly notes how smooth the Prince's hand is. He doesn't know how he hasn't noticed that before but the Prince is standing on the other side of the room so perhaps he's just seeing things out of tiredness. Come to think of it his own hands look kind of small in this outfit...
His thoughts are interrupted by one of the maids introducing herself to Geri.
"Hi! I'm Brenda, and this is Gretchen and Edith" she says motioning to the other two maids who each briefly pause to wave "You two seem new here, what are your names?" She motions to Arden who walks over to them.
Geri gives a nervous smile and replies "Uh.. well met milady, I'm... Gertrude" he says remembering his maid name, it is taking less effort to maintain a high voice, something he is thankful enough for in order to not think of the implication of that.
Brenda giggles "Oh no need to be so formal Gertrude, there are no nobles here, just us housemaids" Geri blushed at having acted oddly for a maid, although he was kind of amused by the irony of the maid's statement.
Luckily Arden chooses this point to pop into the conversation at this point, he gives a surprisingly girl-ish giggle as well, mirroring Brenda's own, and speaks up "Oh don't mind her, she's such a worrywart, always thinking someone important is listening in" the rest of the maids all giggle at this.
While Geri is somewhat annoyed, he is still thankful that Arden was able to at least defuse the situation. Perhaps he didn't sleep through his diplomatic and acting lessons after all. He gives subtle thankful glance in Arden direction, only to notice that the young prince looked a kind of slim and his eyes definitely had lashes, although he wasn't sure if that was meant to be surprising. Thinking back it's oddly hard to tell if he had them before, although he supposes that his charge's eyebrows wasn't top of the list of things he would look at regularly.
Brushing his eyes, Geri also notes that a big of fat has built up around where a woman's breasts would be. He didn't recall them using any stuffing, although that was a while ago. It could jut be the corset being so tight its hard to think.
"Alright uh... girls. We better get back to work, we don't want the Duke to be angry" Geri says, slightly less meekly than expected as he feels his confidence grows. The rests of the maids all agree and begin working.
Geri leans down, his hips feel different, probably because he isn't use to maid work. As he looks downwards he notices two small moulds of flesh on his chest, but ignores it as his attention is drawn to some cobwebs which are much higher than they should be. Geri has to get up on his tippy toes to reach it, which his surprisingly easy now.
"I heard that the Duke was coming to marry his eldest off to the Princess" Edith suddenly comments, Geri pauses, unsure of what to do. He was aware maids had a tendency to gossip but as the servant of a royal he was usually kept in the loop of this gossip. Meanwhile however Arden was fascinated by this gossiping.
"The duke's son is so charming is what I've heard. Could sweep just about any girl off his feet" comments Brenda,
"The princess turns down suitors all the time though, I heard that she turned down a merchant boy, an exotic foreign prince and a baron all in the same afternoon according to the cooks" Gretchen says as she sweeps the floor.
Geri brushes his now oddly longer hair out of his eyes but pays it little mind as he is constantly distracted by gossip and as such is unsure on what to do other than continue to clean. His earlier fears have mostly been rendered doormat has he finds himself cleaning the room with ease, even the Prince seems to be folding a bed perfectly. Arden's slender hands neatly run down the beds and make sure they're all fit for nobility. Geri thinks back, he isn't completely sure but he thinks that Arden might've always had those slender hands. All this cleanings, the corset and the gossip is making it hard to think on minor details however.