"Where is my wife, Harold?"
"I believe the lady is trying on some of the dresses your mother prepared for her. I overheard her maid speaking of wanting to go to the market tomorrow so they might leave the estate," Harold informed Xavier.
Xavier continued to look out the window at the land behind his estate. "You are quite good at listening to private conversations. If you were not loyal to me, I would be concerned. You might have all my personal matters spreading through the town. Who knew you would make such a good gossiper."
"I would never do such a thing, Milord. I do not gossip. I am simply telling you about your wife," said Harold.
"That is gossiping but it is far better than what the rest of the town does. Their mouths must be sore from speaking about my marriage. It is a curse to have good hearing. It gets so bad that you think of getting rid of your ears," Xavier said as he looked away from his land.
"I think you should keep your ears. It would be better to remove the tongues of those who speak too much," Harold suggested.
Xavier laughed at the lengths Harold would go to so he wouldn’t hurt himself. "And they say I am the cold one here. No need to worry since I won’t get rid of my ears. Selene might not be able to look at me if I do. I must see my wife now, so listen to some other gossip for me."
"I do not gossip," Harold corrected Xavier. "But there is something you should know. I know you do not care for the drama between the maids but it seems a few of them have been a little hard on Agnes."
"It is expected that some may be jealous that my wife only has one maid serving her and that maid is an outsider to them. I don’t care for it, Harold. Inform my wife about it since she will be better at dealing with it. If I must step in, someone will be sent away. Why hasn’t Gertrude dealt with it?" Xavier wondered since the head maid shouldn’t let it get out of hand.
It shouldn’t get so out of hand that it reaches Selene’s attention.
Rather than think about the maids, Xavier left in search of Selene to see what she thought of his mother’s gifts.
When Xavier entered his room, he came across an interesting sight. It started with Agnes trying to shield Selene from his gaze to Selene struggling with the dress she wore now.
"It is a tad bit big. I am afraid to know what your mother saw when she looked at me and then told the dressmaker. I am not this big," Selene said, pulling on the loose parts of the dress. "You are both playing with me. First, you with the shoes and now this. I know it."
"You’d be happy to know that I didn’t plot with my mother to buy what wouldn’t fit you. Leave us for a moment," Xavier told Agnes. "Let me see how I can help."
Agnes reluctantly left the room, leaving Selene in Xavier’s hands.
"It is loose around the top and your waist. I wouldn’t advise you to go running in it either. You might trip on this extra dress. Are you certain you did not try on two dresses?" Xavier asked since the dress was slowly engulfing Selene in it.
"I am certain that both Agnes and I are in our right minds to not have put on two dresses. And two dresses can’t look like this. It is not funny," Selene said but she found herself laughing along with Xavier.
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