Chapter 68: Still Missing
Maids shook their heads as they looked from one person to the other, whispers floating through the air while Martha fought to keep her expression neutral. She had expected this, but Edna was starting to be a real pain in the ass.
She had finally been able to get rid of the clothes. Burning them would have been suspicious, so she opted to bury them, and no one had batted an eye when she set out toward the forest area. Edna had been busy at the time, so she knew she didn’t have to worry about Edna seeing her, but here she was, causing another problem.
Other than Edna, Rose’s absence would have gone unnoticed until the crown prince decided to call her up. After all, Rose no longer had to do chores, and the other maids didn’t like her. Martha would have had the time to enjoy Rose’s absence without the dramatics of her being missing so that she could do exactly as the Queen had suggested when the time came and tell everyone she had seen Rose leave. But Edna was currently stirring things up before there was even any need.
Silence soon settled in the room, and everyone turned to look at Martha. She wasn’t surprised by this. She shared a room with Rose—if anyone would have seen Rose, it would be her.
"Are you sure you haven’t seen her today?" Edna asked again, directing her question to Martha this time.
"I already told you. Besides, you were the one who woke me up this morning. You would know more than me. You should know more than anyone here—after all, Rose was closest to you!" Martha said, spinning it on Edna.
Edna sighed and looked around. This was starting to get concerning. She didn’t know where Rose was, and no one seemed to know. She knew she had to inform Mister Henry, but before that, she would search around as long as she could.
Edna turned and headed out of the kitchen. She first headed for the courtyard. Servants weren’t allowed there unless summoned, but she didn’t have much choice. There was no sign of Rose. Then she checked the south wing and outside the castle, but her search proved futile.
Rose didn’t have places she went. All she did was sit in her room, especially now that she didn’t have any chores. She had never even seen the young woman take a walk. It was clear to anyone that she wished she could leave and didn’t want to be here so she mainly kept to herself. Therefore not being able to find her was very odd and Edna couldn’t shake the image of how empty her section of the room had been.
When she got tired of looking without finding anything, any clue, Edna gave up and decided to go speak to Mister Henry. First off, she wanted to find Rose, and she would be able to do that quickly with his help. And secondly, if something was wrong, Mister Henry needed to know about it as fast as possible. Edna hoped it wasn’t the latter.