Chapter 141: Lady of the House
Moana
The rest of that day went by smoothly and quietly after Edrick left for work. As the day went on and I busied myself with taking care of Ella, I eventually forgot about my anxieties about the upcoming picnic. Maybe it would be fun just like Edrick said, and I hoped that Ella could make some friends while she was there. I knew that she felt isolated in this penthouse all by herself, and if one good thing came out of Edrick announcing our “relationship”, it was that Ella would no longer have to be hidden from the public.
Ella and I spent the afternoon going about our usual routine. Her piano teacher came to give her a lesson, and after that we spent the remainder of the day reading, drawing, and playing. By dinnertime, I was somewhat exhausted, but in a happy way.
Around dinnertime, I decided to help Selina and the maids prepare the meal. Selina chose to make a dinner that consisted of roast chicken, soup, potatoes and vegetables, and it was my job to peel the potatoes and cut the vegetables.
While the four of us cooked, the maids and I began to chat. Selina was usually quiet at times like this, solely focused on preparing the meal, but I knew that she was listening intently. Amy and Lily were a rather funny duo, and I thought I even caught Selina laughing a little at the two sisters’ banter when her back was turned.
“Are you going to another event with Mr. Morgan, Ms. Moana?” Amy asked as she stirred the pot of soup on the stove. “I overheard Mr. Morgan talking about it this morning. It’s so soon after the last event.”
I nodded and let out a small sigh. I hadn’t thought much about the upcoming picnic since I had been busy all day, but thinking about it brought back some of my stress.
“Yes,” I replied. “He said that there’s going to be a work picnic tomorrow.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!” Lily exclaimed. She was sitting over in a chair by the kitchen table, folding linens that had just come out of the wash. “I love picnics. The weather is going to be nice tomorrow, too.”
Lily was right; the weather was supposed to be nice on Friday morning. But I wasn’t particularly excited, and the maids could tell just from the look on my face.
“What’s wrong?” Amy asked, c*****g her head. “You don’t look very happy about it.”
I shrugged and bit my lip for a moment before answering. “I don’t know. I just… I think that a lot of the people who go to those sorts of events look down on me. I’m not exactly upper class.”
Amy and Lily were silent for a moment. Meanwhile, Selina continued to work on the roast chicken. Her back was turned to us, but I saw her head prick up a bit as we talked, and I knew that she was listening intently; no doubt she was thinking of something wise and comforting to say. At first I wondered if maybe she thought that I was being ridiculous for being so nervous about it, but then I remembered our experience at the werewolf hospital and was reminded of how upset she had gotten when the receptionist wouldn’t serve us before the werewolf couple behind us. Selina was a werewolf, but she was still an Gamma, which meant that she was from a lower rank. Even dressed in her nice clothes for going out, other werewolves could still smell it on her. Since Gammas typically took on service roles such as the one that Selina was in as a housekeeper, many other werewolves often saw them as inferior. I imagined that it was even worse for werewolves who were lower than Gammas… And then below that, there were wolfless werewolves, and below them were humans. Those two were often lumped together.
Finally, Lily spoke up again and broke my train of thought.
“Well, they shouldn’t be looking down on you,” she said, sounding somewhat agitated at the thought. “Mr. Morgan is one of the most wealthy and powerful men on the planet, and you’re the Lady of his house.”
My eyes widened as Lily said this. I glanced back and forth between Lily, Amy, and Selina in shock, but both of them seemed completely unfazed by this statement.
Of course I had thought that I felt like the Lady of the house on occasion here and there, but I had never said it out loud. It was just a fantasy in my mind and nothing more. I couldn’t possibly be the Lady of the house unless Edrick and I were married, and as things stood as of right now, it didn’t seem that marriage was likely.
“Oh, that’s sweet of you to say, but I don’t think—” I began, but Lily shook her head and shot me a smirk.
“There’s no denying it,” she said. “Aren’t you and Mr. Morgan sharing a room together now?”
My eyes widened even more. Selina whipped around then and glared at Lily.
“Lily,” she said in an annoyed tone of voice, “focus on your work and leave Moana alone. It’s not polite to bring up personal matters like this.”
Lily fell silent, but her eyes stayed fixed on me. She had a knowing look in her eyes, and I knew at that moment that it was already common knowledge amongst the servants that Edrick and I shared a room together. Of course it was bound to happen, and neither of us had been as careful recently, but it was still a bit embarrassing.
I opened my mouth to say something else, but before I could, I suddenly heard Edrick’s voice coming from behind me.
“We are sharing a room,” he said.
All three of us, excluding Selina, who was now focused on cooking once more, whipped around to look at Edrick. I felt my face get hot and red, but much to my surprise, Edrick seemed more nonchalant than ever. In fact, he was simply loosening his tie from around his neck, as he always did when he came home.
He seemed perfectly relaxed, as though admitting that we were sharing a room in front of everyone was nothing. It reminded me of how matter-of-factly he admitted the same thing to Ella when she found us in the same room in the mountain estate, and I couldn’t help but wonder why exactly he had become so relaxed about it lately.
First he announced our “relationship” to the media like it was nothing, and now everyone in the house knew about our sleeping arrangement. I wondered if finding out that I was a werewolf had something to do with it; maybe he did secretly know after all that there was a chance that we were mates.
In some ways, it made me happy, but I also couldn’t deny the fact that there was a tiny shred of myself that felt a bit hurt that it took Edrick finding out that I was a werewolf to be comfortable enough with our situation to tell anyone about it.
Beyond that, however, I was just glad now that everything was out in the open. We wouldn’t need to sneak around any longer in our own home, and that made me incredibly happy.
And the way that Edrick’s cool, gray eyes landed gently on me after he spoke made my heart skip.
