Chapter 12 - Welcome Home

A three-man escort from the royal guards did join us silently. The captain guided us to a elegant coach that, together with a even larger mounted escort, was standing ready waiting. "After you milady." She said playfully. We had dropped the milady during the week but here in semipublic she kept using it. I stepped inside, followed by Johanna and Marie and shortly afterwards Elaina joined us as well.

"I must admit I am a bit nervous about this." I said feeling the low in my tummy. "About meeting your future wives?" I nodded. "I am worried that they will hate me for throwing their lives into chaos. Or that they see me as an imposter who will just bring ruin to them. Or that we will simply not get along. Or that they will not even listen to what I have to say. I mean they are victims in this too after all they did nothing wrong and get their husband replaced." The captain smirked and nodded.

It was Marie who answered instead of the Captain. "Yes it I a strange idea however you have to remember two things. Usually they would share the fate of their husband or at least some of his guilt. Additionally, they were weddings out of necessity not love. So the attachment they have are different then these of a normal wife however you will have to wait and see how they react to you."

The coach was gently driving through the city. I could see how the masses outside where parting to make way and where curiously trying to peek inside to see who was riding in it. It was a second time to see the city this time I knew at least a bit of the general layout and knew some of the tall landmarks i could see on the ride.

I was starting to sweat under my fur. Something our mixed heritage allowed whenever we got nervous. Johanna who was sitting to my right gently lay her hand on my leg that had developed a nervous twitch. "Relax it isnt like you are being driven to gallows." I chuckled and relaxed a bit. I was glad that my two friends where with me. It was strange but I felt no resentment towards them holding me captive. These two had went to great length to ensure my safety under their care.

We had left the vicinity of the palace and were driving along a large wall to the right and a beautiful public park to the left. It was full of people of all kinds enjoying the sun and warm Summer. "Is it far?" I asked Elaina while watching the people outside walking around in beautiful cloth over nicely decorated paths. She chuckled.

"Your palace is to your right since a few moments already. This is the outer wall of your estate. The park was sponsored by Father of the former Duke so in a way it is part of your property too even through they gave it over to the public your house still pays for the maintenance and upkeep of it." I looked surprised then nodded. We arrived at the gate of the estate ... of my estate. It was guarded by one guy in the colors of the Duke and one in the color of the Royal guards.

They let us through the tick iron gates and we were on the courtyard of my estate. It was a lavish palace, not as big as the one of the royal family but not far from it either. It had long rows of columns surrounding the main building which creating an outer roofed walkway with beautiful arches. To the sides were stables and other smaller buildings and they were all framed by a flower garden.

When I steeped out of the carriage, I was able to get a better view of it. The palace was even larger then seen from the coach. The walkway below the arches was raised by at least two steeps. The building itself was in a red and yellow color scheme that came mostly from the used material. It was richly ornamented with carvings and sculptures. Above the pillars you could read some engraved text but i didn't understood what it said. Infront of us was the entrance with the three large imposing doors being closed.

I took a deep breath and looked down. Patiently waiting in front of the larger center door was an Woman. She wore simple but elegant clothing and her hands calmly laid together Infront of her. Once our eyes rested on her she stepped forward. "Welcome to the estate of the Duke of Laris. What brings us the honor of another royal visitor?" she asked Elaina. Her voice was calm and only barely filled with curiosity.

"Milady Sederim I present to you Madam Laferin the Head Maid of the house. Madam Consuire has the Royal Messenger explained to you what the judgment against the old duke was?" She nodded. "Yes he explained that a new different duke would be taking over all contracts, Lands and Titles since he took away everything from that person. An interesting judgment if I did follow the reports correctly." She raised her eyebrow as if asking 'but why is that off importance now?'

"Well Madam Laferin I present to you the new Duke of Laris. Milady Misra Sederim De Juras Duke of Laris as well as all the other relevant titles the old duke did hold." Elaina gave her a paper with the sigil of the crown. The old lady looked me up and down for a brief moment then read the paper and nodded only once. If she disliked my appearance or not I could not tell because in the next second she did hold her skirt in both hands and made a deep bow Infront of me. She somehow managed to not only hold onto the document but not damage it any way.

"Milady Sederim I welcome you home please forgive me that your other servants are not here to greet you we were simple not informed out your impending arrival." She spoke without fear or other worried emotions. I could hear however a true welcome out of her greeting and a true embarrassment about the rest of the servants being unable to greet me.

I smiled and relaxed a bit. I was worried that she would doubt the captains word or complain about my gender. "Madam Laferin please raise your head, I thank you for your greeting and just you is more then enough. Let us please go inside and call together the heads of the house there is a lot to discuss. Additionally, I need to talk to the wives of the former duke so we can talk about all of this." She rose stepped to the side and offered me to go ahead. "Of course milady please this way." She said and guided us with a smile towards the inside of the Large Building. The doors open in front of us and i only saw the two well dressed armed young men behind it because i looked back.

The first area was large hall with a few seating island and that was open to an inner yard with two fountains surrounded by a raised garden seats and a central roofed path between the two. On each side of the hall where stairs, up and down as well as two large doors leading to the lower parts of the buildings. Madam Lafering guided us straight through the first yard. The air here wasn't as hot and stuffy as on the other side of the giant doors. "To the right are the servant quarters, to the left the kitchen and storage. On the top are rooms for guests of the house as well as a small office for head maid and the head butler. Please forgive us that he isn't able to be here. He has been arrested by the crown and is unable to attend to his duties because of that."

She said that all with a serious monotone voice without any judgment. Still i looked to Elaina and raised an eyebrow about the buttler. "I think his judgment is still pending milady. He was one of those that had to have knowledge about your plight and should have been able to do something. At least as far as i understood it. I will look into it if you wish?" I nodded to her and followed the maid

We came closer to end of the beautiful yard. The roof above the path was thin and elegant and was hold up by a row of Pillars that had ornamented arches on each side. Still it didnt feel like it was separating the garden. Up ahead was another guarded door. It was one of the royal guards stationed here. "Behind here are the official rooms of your house milady."

The guard bowed to the captain and opened the door unasked. It was another even larger hall with another sets of stairwells up and down. This time it was even more luxurious. There where carvings everywhere, a ornamented carpet on the floor. A young woman, a slave, was seated next to the carpet with a shoe cabinet, apparently her only job was to take care of the shoes and look pretty.

She was bowing down the whole time we walked closer. I tried to keep my face calm because I absolutely disliked seeing her being used like this, but i knew that if I show anger it would be misinterpreted. The head maid guided us to her her and took her shoes off without stopping or even acknowledging her. I hesitated but decided that I first needed to understand what was really going on before I would be able to free the slaves.

At least Laferin didnt show any signs of dislike or disapproval either. I decided to greet the slave with a friendly "Good afternoon." When i put my shoes into the locker as well. Which brought a small smile to her face. And she replied with a friendly "Good afternoon Milady." She still didnt looked up but steeped towards Johanna who had to sit down and was struggling a bit to get her boot off her bad leg. She asked for permission and took the boots off without any trouble before storing them away and offering us slippers for the inside of the house.

The head maid had waited patiently and while her eyes rested on me for a short while i couldnt see any emotions on are neutral face. She continued with guiding us Into a second inner courtyard. This path again was covered with an elegantly designed roof. The garden surrounding it was huge. While I could see the building on the side they, where still separated by an elegantly designed Pont to the left with running water and an pavilion on an island. On the right there was a small forest area. Not a real forest of course but a large number of trees with a lot of shadows and a walkway going through it. The river was running through this part as well and it was crossed by small elegant bridges to allow easy passing. The center pathway this time did cut trough it however with the carpet being all under the roofed area and an hardly noticeable bridge over the small river.

There might have been even more but that was all I could spot from the central pathway. "Near the Entrance are the official offices as well as the chambers for guests of the Family. To the left are homes of higher-ranking employees as well as the main kitchen. It is connected to the storage area of the servant kitchen. Above it are work areas for the creative freedom of the Duke. On the right are the Rooms use for schooling and education, the rooms for the personal guards and the rooms for the head maid and the Butler."

"Above it are storage rooms for equipment as well as some more chambers for the housekeeping. The center building where we are going to are where the lords chambers are as well as the rooms of the Harmen. The treasury and Armory of the lord is there as well. Too the main office where he would be when not receiving guests. I assume that one will be a good choice for the private talks milady wants to hold?"

I smiled she clearly understood my current need and I was amazed by her willingness to serve I did notice that even through she was in front she was keeping up with our slow pace without any trouble. I walked slow enough to let Johanna keep up. She was walking a lot quicker now that she wasnt wearing the rough guard armor but you still could noticed her visible limp. And the years of guard duty most likely did not improve that even a little bit. Maybe i should ask my aunt to send us a good doctor here.

"There are more houses all over the property for guests or relaxation. An Bathing house and a green house are part of the harems garden. For guest there is a second bathing house near the guest house. Of course there is a private bathing chamber in the main house as well. And many storage compartments and workshops hidden all over the palace." I nodded to her and continue to follow.

There was a final set of heavy doors coming up which was guarded by two more royal guards that opened these doors without any hesitation. This part of the palace was even larger then the rest and was at least three stories high. In one of the windows i noticed an elegant woman looking down to us. She had long braided black hair two large earrings and a set of glasses apparently. Our eyes meet over the distance and i could see them narrowing before she stepped back inside.

The head maid guided us to a room on the first floor that was a large office full of binders and scrolls as well as many books. In the center was a heavy desk and at the side was a nice seating area with some comfy armchairs arranged around a low table. Next to it was the view towards the central garden area with the pavilion nicely framed by all the green.

"Do you wish for me to first gather all the remaining head servants milady? Or call the wives of the former duke first?" I hesitated and took a deep breath before answering. "I think I should meet the wives first. Please invite them in here." I was thinking about to tell them not to worry but honestly that would worry me even more if someone said that to me. So I just nodded to her and watched her walk away.

Marie had started to walk around the room looking at the different books while Johanna just sat down at a nicely arranged sitting area. "How are you doing Johanna? I hope we were not to fast on the way here?" She smiled and shook her head. "No don't worry about this old fool. I am more curious how you are going to manage being a lord and all that all the sudden." I chuckled I could clearly hear the tease out of her voice she seemed to be genuine happy about the change to my and her life. I sat down next to her and started to chat with her and Elaina about their first impressions of my new home. It still didnt feel real that this was my new home and not just a place I was visiting as a guest.

I looked around and shook my head a bit. It was full of items of different cultures. And definitely showing off wealth but at the same time it showed how disinterested the person was from all of it. No item was really a center piece. No item was the central piece of the room. It looked like he just had bought the most impressive peace at an auction and then let someone else who had no idea how to arrange it all.

We started to debate about how much he might have paid for the bigger pieces. And from were they were from. And which one was the most awful piece. It was a toss up between a picture showing a dead pig and a hat on a hat stand that was to my knowledge not really a hat but rather for covering the nether regions. However a gentle knock at the door stopped our conversation.

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There you go now the Whirlwind of the wifes will start soon Its actually quite tricky for me to write them because i have certain ideas but i want to avoid to get to much just everything is fine book because honestly thats boreing ^^ Anyway I hope the next chapter wont be a such long wait and well if you have any suggestions for tags let me know. ^^