Chapter 12: To balance the imbalance
After dinner, when the sky pulled the blanket of darkness with stars on it, Anastasia was back in her room doing what she loved the most.
She carefully used the small piece of charcoal to complete last night's sketch. Once she was done, a smile spread on her lips.
"It feels like home."
During her lonely days, Anastasia liked to stare at the sketches she had made that belonged to the place she came from. Seeing them, her dream to reuniting with her parents didn't seem that far away. She folded the mattress and took out the other sketches to look at them.
Outside Anastasia's room, one of the maids was heading to bed late when she noticed light spilling from under the room's door. Wondering what Anastasia was doing up so late, leaving the lamp burning for so long, the maid carefully turned the doorknob. Ready to ask, her lips parted along with the door before she stopped herself on seeing the sketches in Anastasia's hands.
'What are all these?' The maid questioned herself.
She saw Anastasia put them under her mattress. Without uttering a word, the maid closed the door and left the corridor.
The next day, Theresa burst through the door, while Anastasia was tying her hair. Entering the room, the older woman closed the door behind her. She said,
"I have been looking for you all over the kitchen. What are you doing?" She asked, even though she saw Anastasia braiding her hair on two sides of her head. The young woman pinned her braids from one side to the other over her crown.
Anastasia replied with a smile, "Isn't this a pretty hairstyle? Mary taught me how to do it a few weeks ago." She then asked, "Did you know that they removed the locks on our doors?"
"Come with me now, we have somewhere to go," Theresa pulled Anastasia out of her room. She then hurriedly whispered, "Orders have been given that the whole palace be decorated and to begin the preparations for Lady Sophia's birthday. A list of things have been demanded. Some of us maids have been picked and I chose you to assist me in the Bazaar."