Hailey finally finished all of the breakfast dishes and was set the task of stirring the vegetables for the soup so it didn’t burn. It felt good to have her hands out of the water. She grabbed one of the longer spoons she had just washed and set to work keeping the onions, carrots and celery from burning.

“I think they are ready,” she told him. He came and glanced over her shoulder.

“Good. Keep stirring. You will have to chop a fresh batch if you burn any of those.” Her hands ached at the thought. She had only had to peel the carrots. Bruce was much faster at chopping that she was and she would definitely have a blister by the end of the day. Bruce was taking too long getting the covered pot of stock from the pantry. She added a little water that she had nearby. The pot hissed and steamed. A cloud went up and Bruce came back with a large pot. “What was that?” He asked her.

“The little minx put some water in,” Esmerelda told him.

Bruce looked in the pot that Hailey was stirring. “Probably a good call. We didn’t want it to burn after all.” He poured in the chicken stock he had made the day before and dropped in a handful of salt.

Esmerelda looked frustrated. She clearly had hoped to get Hailey into trouble. Hailey was feeling good about the day, though. So far, she hadn’t spilled anything, dropped any dishes or burnt any food. Hailey thought about the porridge this morning and smiled to herself. Esmerelda could not say the same.

The familiar ache in Hailey’s feet was back before too long and they hadn’t even made it to lunch yet. The nobles would surely be there soon. Esmerelda disappeared to put on a fresh dress and apron since she would be helping serve the meal to the nobles.

Hailey put out stacks of clean bowls. “What do you think the princess will be wearing?” Margaret asked.

Hailey smiled, trying to think if she could remember what Aurora’s favorite color was this year. For almost a decade it had been pink. How fun must it be to have dresses made for you like that.

“Lavender,” Margaret said decidedly.

“Azure,” said Hailey, though she thought that Margaret had probably already won that battle.

“Bruce, do you have any of that cake left?” Hailey turned to see a young man standing in the doorway. He was one of the men who had been helping to set the tables. His black and white uniform marked him as one of the ones who would be serving the meal today.

“After my cake already?” Bruce asked him. “Before you’ve even had your midday meal?”

Esmerelda came up behind the young man. “Surely we wouldn’t want Greg too weak to perform his duties.”

Hailey was relieved to see Esmerelda in the new outfit. That meant that she would be out of the kitchen and away from her.

“I know I’ve got a few scraps around here somewhere,” he said. He found the bowl and put a few pieces on a plate for him. Greg ate happily and handing the plate to Hailey, left the kitchen.

“Hailey, bring the pot over. We should be ready to start spooning it out,” Lavina said.

Hailey picked up the pot and carried it over to the counter. As she was walking, Esmerelda dashed forward. “It looks to heavy for the little girl,” she said and then pretended to take some of the weight from Hailey by holding the bottom. She put no pressure on the pot at all.

“That’s very kind of you,” Lavina started.

Esmerelda began pulling on the pot. “Hurry, Hailey. It’s getting heavy.”

She didn’t need the reminder. Hailey’s arms were shaking with the effort. The uneven tile that Hailey had tripped on a thousand times was ahead of her, but Hailey concentrated. She just had to make it a little bit farther. “Put it on the counter, and then we can slide it down the counter,” Hailey said, feeling her grip begin to slacken.

“We can carry it that far,” Esmerelda said.

Hailey groaned and tightened her hands around the handles of the pot. Forgetting about that tile, Hailey tripped. She caught her balance before the pot fell, but some of it sloshed over the side, streaming down the front of Esmerelda’s clean dress. A wave of soup came back at Hailey, but she pushed the pot onto the counter. It poured over her arms and hands.

Esmerelda screamed.

“Esmerelda are you ok?” Lavina was by her side checking for burns. “What happened?”

“I tripped,” Hailey said lamely.

Esmerelda played her part well. “I think I’m ok,” she said to Lavina, her beautiful brown eyes wide with concern. “Maybe I should go take a cold bath so that I don’t get any blisters, but I don’t want you to suffer. We have so much work to do.”

Lavina fell for the act. “Do you think you could make it to the bath yourself?”

Esmerelda nodded. “I’m sure I could if you can manage here without me for a while.”

Hailey ground her teeth. She wouldn’t have spilled if Esmerelda had let her put down the pan. Lavina frowned at her. “We are short staffed as it is and now Esmerelda will not be able to perform her duties. Get yourself cleaned up as best you can here and then you’re going to have to work on the fireplaces.” The look in Lavina’s eyes made Hailey feel sick. “Before you go, clean up this mess. You’ve managed to get soup everywhere.

Hailey looked down. Soup covered the floor.

“You’re lucky that it is a multiple course meal. If we had only been serving the soup tonight, you would be starting a new batch right now.”

Hailey blinked back tears. She hadn’t meant to drop the soup, hadn’t meant to hurt Esmerelda. She had been doing so well in ignoring her today. From across the kitchen, Margaret was rewashing bowls that had soup slosh over them when Hailey had put the pot down. She gave Hailey a pitying glance, but Hailey didn’t even want to look at Margaret.

Hailey used a rag to clean the soup off of the counter and then worked on the floor. Why did everyone assume that Esmerelda was perfect. Just because someone looked perfect did not mean they actually were. Hailey cleaned the floor as Margaret brought over the cleaned and dried stack of bowls.

“The soup is getting cold, and the nobles are waiting,” Bruce grumbled. Hailey finished the floor as quickly as she could manage. She didn’t want anyone else to trip and fall.

As Hailey rinsed out her rag for what felt like the hundredth time, servants all dressed in crisp black with white aprons filed into the room and began taking toys of soup. They balanced them perfectly, making Hailey’s earlier clumsiness look even worse.

Hailey left the kitchen with an ash bucket, and a small broom and dust pan in tow. At least most of the work was done, but cleaning out the fireplaces and prepping them for the next time a noble was in that room was never a job that Hailey particularly liked. Esmerelda seemed to have a knack for being able to talk to anyone, to convince anyone of what she wanted. Hailey couldn’t help hating her. She knew it was wrong, but this had been the last straw.

“I hate you, Esmerelda,” she mumbled under her breath. She had washed her hands and arms, but the fabric of her dress continued to stick to her skin. She frowned, realizing that ash would soon be sticking to her dress where the soup had spilled. She needed a bath and had no time for one. She carried the ash bucket to the royal quarters, feeling nervous. She didn’t like to be in this area of the castle. The kitchen felt so much more like home to her, even when Esmerelda was taunting her.

As she swept out the ash in the king and queen’s bedchamber, she realized she had forgotten to bring a stack of logs with her. Sighing heavily, Hailey returned to the kitchen to find the leather strap to carry the wood. She tried not to make eye contact with anyone in the kitchen, but the leather strap was missing. It was usually on a peg outside the kitchen doorway. She poked her head into the kitchen. “Has anyone seen the firewood carrier?” she asked.

Lavina sighed heavily. “We’ve got too much to do in here to be bothered with more of your problems right now, Hailey. You’re a capable girl. Figure it out.”

Hailey walked away. She knew that Lavina had too many things to worry about at the moment, but the words still stung. She hadn’t meant to create such a problem. She should be in there helping. It wasn’t fair. This whole day had gone so terribly wrong that Hailey wanted to crawl back into bed and start over.