Chapter 68: Not many distractions
Ada hung on every word out of Arabella’s mouth. That was until the young woman uttered the final line of the poem that had the maid wholly hooked to every rhyme and every rise and fall in tone.
With gleaming eyes, she’d leapt from the seat up onto her feet, clapping like a seal the moment Arabella went quiet.
"That was astounding, Miss!" her joyful beam reached every corner of her visage.
Red in the face, Arabella’s gaze traveled to the floor, "Ah... Thank you, Ada," she too smiled at first, but her expression dimmed a tad after that. Fiddling with her own hands on her lap, Arabella made eye contact with Ada before speaking again, "I truly am sorry for keeping you here. I am sure you have better or more important things to do and because of me, you are stuck with surveillance duty. I’ve caused nothing but trouble since my arrival,"
Eyebrows a bit furrowed, Ada’s lips remained open all the way through Arabella’s speech, twitching at times as though on the verge of allowing words out, but nothing came out. She’d waited impatiently until the end to say her own piece, "No! No! No! Please don’t apologize. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my days. This is like a paid vacation! Not that we don’t get paid vacations, but who would turn down more of them, am I right?"
All in one breath, it had come out... Leaving Arabella a little too stunned to respond.
"I meant, I would much rather to be keeping you company as I don’t see it as a chore," simmering down, Ada spoke in a much more subdued tone, glancing at her own hands which she, sort of, rubbed together.
Those words brought some relief to Arabella who took a deeper breath. Thinking about Ada’s company, it had dawned on her that, truly, nothing matched the ease the maid’s face as well as voice proffered.
Not that she’d despised the vampires’ company, however, in their presence, there always seemed to be that extra weight weighing her down, auxiliary consideration or thoughts to keep in mind. Especially when looking into Silas’ or Lady Persephone’s eyes.