“Hmm. No, I think the other slippers,” the mayor’s wife, Leanora Tithy, said snippily. She gestured at Jose. “Jaime, fetch my blue slippers.” Jose bit his tongue at being called the wrong name. He merely bowed at the waist and went to the master bedroom to get the shoes Leanora requested. How far he had fallen. Mere weeks ago, he had been the Crown Prince. Now, he was a servant for a tiny town’s mayor. A servant who was never called the proper name by the mayor nor his wife. At least the mayor legitimately forgot and apologized. The mayor’s wife, however, never bothered to learn Jose’s name in the first place.
Jose returned with the appropriate slippers. Leanora’s long-suffering maid, an Estrellian girl Jose’s age named Carlita, removed the lady’s slippers and put the new ones on.
“Much better,” Leanora sighed happily. She looked over her shoulder. “Klarin, we need to leave!” she called. Her husband, Mayor Klarin Tithy, emerged from the kitchen, laughing. “Klarin, you waste so much time gossiping with the help.”
“And what of it?” Klarin asked. He subtly slipped a gold coin into Jose’s hand with a wink, then did the same for Carlita. “They truly are very helpful!” Finally, with much fanfare, the man and lady of the house left.
“Ugh, that woman!” Carlita snarled in Estrellian once the door had closed. “She is so demanding!”
“It could be worse,” Jose replied, also in Estrellian. He slipped the coin Klarin had given him into his pocket. “At least the mayor is kind.”
“If it were not for the mayor’s presence, I would have left years ago,” rumbled Oswer. He was an immigrant from the northern island kingdom of Saresia, and had the olive tone skin and straight black hair to show it. As the butler for the mayor’s household, he was the highest level worker, and had been there the longest. Much of the staff was from other kingdoms, and Oswer, ever the gentleman, had taught himself all of the employee’s native tongues.
“Were it not for you, I would have taken my chances on the war-torn roads,” Jose said to him. He initially planned to work for the mayor’s house only for a few days. But while the war stayed away from Haversfort, word had trickled in that travel was exceedingly dangerous, and would be for some time. Already, Jose had spent two months as a servant.
“I am glad you did not,” Oswer said. He clapped a large, heavy hand on Jose’s shoulder. “A fine young man like you should not die in such a manner.” Jose smiled at him. Oswer was large and physically imposing, but the kindest man he had ever met. In fact, Oswer treated the children and teenagers on the staff as though they were his own, which helped to make the work tolerable. “Now, no more gossiping. Carlita, return to your duties.” Carlita nodded and went upstairs to clean the mess Leanora made while getting ready.
“What of me?” Jose asked. As a new employee, he was given a different set of tasks each day, helping whomever needed help the most. Eventually, Oswer would decide on a more permanent role for him. Jose silently hoped it would be in the kitchen and thus away from Leanora, or in the stables.
“Today, you will be working in…”