A loud slap echoed within the kitchen of the Lancaster Estate, which was followed by a round of laughter coming from the cook and the other maids. They all laughed at this pathetic woman.
Rosalie held the side of her face that was hit by the old cook. She tried to suppress her tears from spilling.
It had been over fourteen years since she started working for the House of Stahl, and up to the day her lady married into the Lancaster family, Rosalie had remained loyal to her. Just earlier, she came to the kitchen to fetch her lady something to eat once she wakes up from her long slumber.
"What made you think you just can take anything from here?" The old cook pulled her hair, making Rosalie yelp and hiss in pain. It had always been like this ever since she and her young lady had moved from the House of Stahl to the grand palace of the Lancasters.
"But the duchess hasn't eaten anything yet," she said in defense. "We can't just allow her to starve like that once she wakes up."
"The duchess?" The old cook laughed, making the wrinkles of her face more prominent. "She's as good as dead, you fool."
Who hadn't heard about how the dumb duchess of their estate fell into the pond and hadn't regained her consciousness for at least three days now? Even the doctors who checked on her weren't certain why she was waking up and if she's going to survive, as her pulse had dropped significantly.
"Don't speak like that! She will not die!" Rosalie exclaimed before lifting her skirt a little and running away from the kitchen, tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn't want to believe nor hear that her lady was dying.
The duchess could not die!
Meredith Stahl must not die because Rosalie would lose her will to live. She had been on her young lady's side ever since Merry was twelve years old. Everyone deemed her young lady as a dumb young woman who couldn't decide on her own. She even allowed her father to sell her off as payment for their family's debt.
However, the previous countess, Merry's mother said that Merry wasn't originally the dumb girl everyone perceived her to be. Only when she suffered a chronic illness for three whole weeks did the girl's demeanor change dramatically.
Now, at the age of twenty-six, Merry's mental health had deteriorated, going as far as not recognizing her own children. While the duke couldn't even be bothered to visit and see his sick wife.
Legally speaking, Merry had the title of a countess that she inherited from her mother; even the family name Stahl came from her maternal family. However, even if she was now married to Duke Ethan Lancaster, no one respected her… aside from her personal aide, Rosalie Benson.
The duke didn't marry Meredith Raine Stahl for love, anyway. His marriage with her was out of convenience, just another of those arranged marriages. He wasn't looking forward to getting married, but the royal family pressured him to take a wife eight years ago. By then, the young Duke Ethan Isaac Lancaster picked the young countess who didn't have any power nor influence to plot against him; neither could she be used by the royal family.
Recently, something came up just as Rosalie had left her lady's side. Merry fell to the waters under such cold weather. She had been sleeping for three days now, with no movement at all.
Meanwhile, inside the duchess's room…
Meredith Stahl was woken up by a bright light coming from the window. She pulled up the blanket to conceal her face, while an arm stretched to find her alarm clock on her bedside table. However, her hand didn't touch the clock. Instead, something fell from the bedside table and broke on the floor.
Her eyes immediately snapped wide open as she sat up. Only then did she realize that she was in an unfamiliar place, as if she was living in a fairy tale… with how grand the room she was in.
"What the…?"
Was she seeing things?
Merry blinked twice, wondering if she was kidnapped during her sleep; or was she hallucinating at the moment? The last thing she remembered was being hit by a truck as she was trying to escape a stalker. So, what the f* happened… how did she end up here?
Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. Wait. If she was hit by a truck, shouldn't she be dead by now? She shouldn't be able to move around like this—not to mention clothed in a nightdress. Even the nightdress she was wearing was made from the finest material.
If she had died, then was this some kind of heaven?
She slipped out of the bed and checked her reflection in the vanity mirror inside the room. Her whole body froze as she stared at her familiar face… but with a few differences she could notice right away.
Since when did her skin become smooth like a baby's bum?
Meredith Stahl, who was a thirty-one-year-old office lady, never saw her face this beautiful… nor her hair this long that it was way past her waist. Did the dead look their best only after their life perished?
The creaking sound of the door made Merry turn her attention away from her reflection, only to see a strange and unfamiliar woman entering the room. The woman looked like an attendant. She supposed she could ask this woman where she was… and if the place was far from the city where she lived.
"Hi. I'm Meredith. May I know what I am doing here?"
The woman looked shocked when she spotted Merry awake and smiling at her.
The smile on Merry's face faltered as she noticed the weird reaction of this woman. Why did she look like she had seen a ghost instead? Well, if she really had died in that accident, Merry supposed she could consider herself as a ghost.