Difficult situation

The following morning rose with Ella getting up to an empty side of her bed. She told herself to not feel anything about it, but she did feel it as though he had used her for one night only to leave her behind in the morning. Was it how it is? It was the first time for them to have gone this far with their 'Dance'.

Not minding the questions winding around her mind, she got up from her bed and followed into the bathroom to dress up. It wasn't until she had taken the shower and reached the closet, that she realized she was in her old room. Her own room. The dresses that were arranged in the closet brought her to reality. Now wasn't the time to grace out and wear the clothes she had bought yesterday, so she just took one sun-dress and wore it.

The path for the dining table suddenly seemed too near for Ella as she was finding ways of escaping it. She wished she didn't see him the whole day and she had decided to let the maids know that she would have her food in her room. She looked out for any of them to pass by her but ended up heading to the kitchen to find two of them engaged in their work. As soon as she entered the both of them stopped doing what they were doing, one of them was in the middle of chopping the vegetables, looking up to her.

The one who was chopping the vegetables said, "Would you like me to serve you the breakfast mistress?"

"Um, can I have the food in my room today?"

"As you say mistress."

"You can call me Ella."

"We are not allowed to, mistress."

"Well, I'm not a mistress here." As all were aware, the title would only give her a very close status to the owner of the place, which she didn't want the others to misinterpret.

"Shall we call you 'Miss' then?", asked the other one. She seemed to have understood the distress of Ella.

Ella smiled at that, "Miss is fine." Saying that she headed back to her room, the guest room. Though she would have resumed to live in her own room, she was at no liberty to do so without the permission of Roy. And her living there, would mean that she was accepting this, which won't do for her. Sighing she looked out the window of the room after having her meal, the view overlooked the garden outside. Just looking at it she remembered that she had to help Mr. Walker in watering the plants. She rushed out of the palace, entering the garden and looking out for him. She found him digging up a small hole around the corner.

"Good morning Mr. Walker."

"Ah, Good morning. Pluck out the weeds, we need to ensure nourishment of the trees around it."

"What about the plants?"

"Up to you. I got to water these new saplings I found. It's the hybrid one for the mango tree." He said excitedly.

"You will go diabetic with these many fruits."

"Nah, nothing's gonna happen to me. You youngsters invent new words in this world! I ain't gonna fall for that."

"It's not just a word. You better take care of yourself or I'll cut out all your fruits", Ella narrowed her eyes and said jokingly.

Mr. Walker harrumphed saying, "You go look on your smelly flowers!"

"Sure, I will make sure they follow you to your grave." Mr. Walker gasped at that and Ella laughed at his expression, walking off from him to pull out the weeds.

His voice distantly saying, "You won't plant any flowers on my grave!" She shook her head lightly, while plucking the weeds in her right hand while collecting them in the other.

Half an hour later of her spending time in the garden, a pair of shoes came into the view of Ella while she was picking up the dry leaves in the mop basket, she looked up to find a young boy fidgeting around in one place and looking at her nervously.

She got up leaving the bucket down and looked up to the freckled-face having too much hair to fit on his mane, which made it seem like he was burdening too many responsibilities at his age.

"Are you lost boy?" She asked when she saw he wasn't saying anything and she didn't remember him to be around in the house, so she thought he must have come upon here. The garden was the link through the visiting parlor and the palace of residence. Many times, it had happened that the people from the visiting area would stumble upon the garden while following the attractive colors the nature sprouted.

"Miss Ella?" She looked at him continuously, nodding then to his question when he continued by bowing his face to her almost like a real soldier, "You are requested by Mr. Knight."

Any pity she would have felt for this fake soldier was thrown away at the moment. "Why?"

"I don't know Miss Ella." Of course he didn't. Wondering if it was the matter relating to carrying out the proposition, she agreed to the boy and asked him to lead the way. While reaching the parlor, she met Daisy and waved at her smiling, but she took a few seconds to react back. Ella frowned at that and decided to inquire it after she was done with 'Mr. Knight'. It was when the boy directed inside the meeting hall, did she pause, not because she was afraid but because of the gasps and coughs coming from every direction of the hall. It was structured in an inverted 'V' form facing Ella, with Roy Knight to be standing behind the Chairman's seat opposite to her.

Before she could react to the surroundings, Roy said, "You can leave now Simon." The boy named Simon left the place with him nodding and retreating. Ella gulped slightly when she was taking in everything; the people were all same except with few new faces she didn't recognize, raking her eyes through their gob smacked expressions and finally setting it back on Roy.

"Members, I hereby proclaim the agreement for the proposition", Roy announced while staring at Ella from the moment she had entered the hall. Ella gave him a quizzical expression and looked around for any clue to what was going on, but was met with overlooking gazes on her. It was then Ella realized that she had been wearing the same dress while she was gardening and looked at herself as discreetly as possible to see the ends of her dress muddy, her hands a bit dusty and she was hiding her boots behind the dress now. She just hoped her face looked just fine, but then she realized that she was going to leave here, so it didn't matter however she looked.

"What proposition?", she voiced out the important question. Roy was observing at her and her changing expressions as the time passed in the hall; in response to her question he got up from leaning on the chair and rounded the hall to get to her. He held her hand looking, all the time looking into her eyes, pulled her with him gently to the center of the room. The Chairman's chair. He pulled out the chair for her and Ella could only watch his surprising actions but couldn't question out in front of all. So she followed suit. Satisfied Roy made her sit and took the one next to her. It was of course the Right-hand person's seat, right next to her.

He then spoke, "As the throne has been unaware of the current predicament that the corporation was going through, I summarize it that the corporation needs an agreement for a proposition to pass."

"You bet we need it!", the voice made all to look at the source, who was one of the members Mr. Thomas Park.

"Always so chit-chatty, Mr. Park. But I must mention, that the statement was solely for Miss Kingsly here. You better keep your mouth shut." Roy said with a friendly smile towards him which was nowhere close to being friendly. Considerably the man shut up and any other comments which could have followed, either got stuck in their throats or were too shocked to form any.

Ella felt Roy's gaze towards her and she looked sideways to him, which was better than looking at the surprised or angry faces, he said, "The Oil Supply unit is facing some problems. It's not the first time, but we have managed to control it previously. They are suddenly demanding triple amount than the previous transactions. We need your agreement for carrying through a proposition which would solve the matter." As he said so, few pieces from last night's conversation came into her mind, and then she was understanding the whole matter.

The very next moment Ella was shamelessly glaring at Roy not heeding to look good anyone's eyes anymore; Roy who had expected it laughed at that. He then turned back to their audience and said, "Miss Kingsly needs time to go through the whole prospectus of the deal, so I expect the members to be duly present in the next meeting." Smiling the whole time when he saw none of them move from their places, he dropped his smile and coldly said, "Leave." That did, and everyone got out of their seats to leave the hall with some discreetly passing glares at the Chairman and the Right-hand.

After everyone left Ella was now glaring at her table for thinking that she could trust this man. Simon entered the hall when each one left the hall save for Ella and Roy. Roy ordered him, "Simon, I and Miss Kingsly need to have an important chat. Make sure no one disturbs us."

"Miss Kingsly?" Simon asked confused, who was aware that the Kingsly's had never been seen since his years of employment here. He was recruited by Mr. Knight one year ago, had heard stories about the throne, but never saw any King or Queen for the throne. He had started to think that it was all a myth until now. He looked around the room once again to only find the lady sitting in the center; then his eyes widened in realization.

"Didn't you hear?" Simon nodded hurriedly at the impatient man and the furious lady, leaving the hot-tempered room quickly and swiftly. After closing the doors and standing guard outside he hoped that he wasn't fired for not addressing the Queen of the throne. He was silently cursing himself for not acknowledging the lady properly; after all how could he have known when he hadn't even known there was a lady for the throne! He was now clutching his hair by now, the passersby giving him curious glances.