“I guess she gets around using secret passages?”

“Secret passages?” Amilia chuckled at the imagination of this girl. “No, she doesn’t use secret passages.”

“But I heard this palace is very old and filled with hidden stairs and corridors that lead to all kinds of secret places. Is that true?”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Amilia replied. “What got this into your head?”

The maid immediately put a hand over her mouth in embarrassment. Her eyes dropped to the floor in submission. “Forgive me, milady. I didn’t mean to be so bold. I’ll get back to my work now.”

“That’s all right,” Amilia replied as the maid dunked her brush again. “What’s your name, dear?”

“Ella, milady,” the maid replied softly without pausing or looking up.

“Well, Ella, if you have problems or other questions, you have permission to speak to me.”

“Thank you, milady. That is very kind of you.”

Amilia returned to her own work and left the maid to hers. In a short time, the servant finished and gathered her things to leave.

“Goodbye, Ella,” Amilia offered.

The maid smiled at the mention of her name and nodded appreciatively. As she walked out, Amilia glanced at her hands, which gripped the bucket handle and the mop, and was surprised to see long fingernails on them. Ella noticed her glance, shifted her grip to cover her nails, and promptly left the chamber.

Amilia stared after her awhile, wondering how a working girl could manage to grow nails as nice as hers. She put the thought out of her mind and returned to her letters.

“You realize they’re going to get wise,” Amilia said after the seamstress had finished taking Modina’s measurements and left the chamber.

The chief secretary moved around the empress’s bedroom, straightening up. Modina sat beneath the narrow window, in the only patch of sunshine entering the room. This was where Amilia found her most often. She would sit there for hours, just staring outside, watching clouds and birds. It broke Amilia’s heart a little each time she saw her longing for a world barred to her.

The empress showed no response to Amilia’s comment. Her lucidity from the day before had vanished. The empress heard her, though. She was quite certain of that now.

“They aren’t stupid,” she went on as she fluffed a pillow. “After your speech and that incident with the clerk yesterday, I think it’s only a matter of time. You would have been wiser to stay in your room and let me handle it.”

“He wasn’t going to listen to you.” The empress spoke.

Amilia dropped the pillow.