Four

"The Little Miss was alright. She just felt ecstatic. You did not need to worry anymore." The physician said after she checked Minerva numerous times to made sure that she was really alright.

"Then, thank you and sorry for the trouble," Shirley said to the physician. On the other hand, Elise heaved a sigh of relief. It was a good thing that their Little Miss was alright.

The two of them just chatted while they glanced at the painting of Princess Lianna when suddenly, the Little Miss started to shiver as she stared into the air. Shirley and Elise, and even the knights, fell into disruption as they wondered what occurred in the sudden condition of the Little Miss.

If anything bad would have happened to her, they knew the consequence they would face once His Grace found out–and that would not be a simple one for them.

When Minerva snapped out from her thoughts, she found herself back inside her chamber while the maids and knights panicked.

As she knew that it was because of her that made them like this, she obediently let the physician examined her.

"Goodness! I could still feel the erratic beat of my heart! That frightened me big time! It was a good thing that the Little Miss was alright. Or else, I didn't know how to face His Grace when he returned." Shirley mumbled as she tried to calm herself.

"Nonetheless, we were lucky that it was only due to the Little Miss' enthusiasm and not for something worse–may gods forbid," Elise muttered under her breath.

Minerva stared at the two of them as innocent as possible. The two of them exhaled and they both shook their heads.

"Little Miss, if you badly want to stroll outside, we would just do it later in the afternoon, okay? If Shirley and I insisted, for sure Head Maid Cassie would concede."

Earlier, Minerva badly wanted to go outside. But now, she had not thought about it anymore as there was something that she had to think about–and that was the identity of her 'father'.

She had lived on this body for four months but she never met her 'parents'. Most of the time, she was with Cassie, Elise, Shirley, and Julia, the maids who were responsible to took care of her.

Although they would always mention about Duke of Ivrea in their conversation, she subconsciously did not think about him nor minded him at all.

In her defense, it was not that she did not care, but Minerva was been alone almost her life. She grew up without parents so even if she mysteriously possessed this new body, she subconsciously did not look nor mind for her 'parents' as she was used to having none.

She thought that she already accepted the fact that she did not have any parents. But the reaction she had earlier was different from what she assumed.

Maybe, somewhere deep inside her, she yearned for the warmth of a family?

Minerva did not know what she felt right now. Should she felt happy about it? But, why would she felt happy? Was there anything to be happy about having parents?

She remembered her classmate Annette way back in middle school. Annette had parents and two siblings. However, her father favored her older sister while her mother favored her younger brother. And her, being a middle child, was just in between. Minerva recalled how Annette always complained about the unfair favoritism of her parents. How she always had to concede to her siblings for her to not be admonished later on by her parents.

Back then, she thought that it was a good thing that she did not have parents nor siblings. At least, she would not experience what Annette had been through.

'But what if my parents would turn out to be like Zoe's?' She subconsciously thought.

Minerva pursed her lips when she remembered Zoe.

'Nevermind.'

Why did she think about it again? Look, she started to get irritated now!

Forget it. She should stop herself to think about her so-called parents. After all, they would forget about her. Just like everyone did.

"…or I'll read a story for the Little Miss!" Shirley suggested enthusiastically.

When she heard the words Shirley uttered, Minerva complied unenthusiastically. She just decided that she would not think about her so-called parents anymore, yet Shirley suggested to proceed to read the book about her 'father'. 

But before Shirley could begin, the door burst open, and a redhead beauty hastily went into Minerva's direction.

"Was Little Miss alright?" The redhead beauty, which was dressed in a maid outfit, asked in a worried tone.

"Elise, Shirley, what happened?" She worriedly asked.

"Lady Santcliment." Elise and Shirley made their greetings.

"Little Miss was alright. The physician said that it was only due to her enthusiasm." Elise answered. Though deep inside her, she was nervous as she knew that Lady Santcliment was strict especially if it was about the Little Miss.

The redhead beauty sighed in relief as she held Minerva's tiny hands.

"Little Miss, you made this servant worried."

Minerva pursed her lips as she let the redhead beauty grasped her little hands.

Cassie Santcliment.

When she first arrived here on this body, the first person that she saw was this redhead beauty, Cassie. Minerva did not know what to describe what she felt to her. She knew that Cassie did not have any ill intent, but she was also not so genuine on her so-called "care". In short, Cassie was just being professional–doing what a Head Maid should do.

Nevertheless, Cassie had performed sufficiently to her duty and made sure that she would be treated well in this house.

'Hmm. Right, wasn't Cassie the eldest daughter of a Marquis?' Minerva thought.

She remembered that Shirley, as curious as she was, asked Elise that since Cassie was the eldest daughter of Marquis of Santcliment, why did she chose to become a maid of the duke? If she wanted to become a maid, she could have gone to Imperial Palace and became a maid-in-waiting of one of the Princesses.

However, before Elise could answer her, Julia came inside and immediately rebuked Shirley. Since then, they did not continue to talk about Cassie's situation.

'Too bad. I was curious about Cassie.' Minerva thought at that time.

But Shirley had a point. If Cassie was the eldest daughter of Marquis of Santcliment, why did she chose to become a maid of the Duke's daughter instead to become a maid-in-waiting of the Princess?

Moreover, she could have married a Marquis or a Count. If her family was influential, she could have married a Duke.

Anyway, she was just curious that was why she thought of this. For sure, Cassie had her reasons why she had chosen this path.

When Cassie calmed down, she pursed her lips and sighed. "Fine. Since the Little Miss was confined inside this room for months, I would let her go outside for a stroll. But remember, you should bring the knights with you, especially Sir Kevin. Did you understood?"

Shirley and Elise nodded in agreement.

"Little Miss, I'm sorry if I would not be able to accompany you for a moment. But don't worry, next time, we would go for a picnic, okay?"

Cassie sternly gave Shirley and Elise instructions before she left. Minerva wondered what made Cassie so busy. Oftentimes, Cassie would accompany her and read some children's books. There were also times that Cassie would just sit on the chair and did some needlework while Minerva was surrounded by toys that she did not play with.

But what Minerva liked about Cassie was her beautiful voice. Every night she would hum some unfamiliar but gentle tune until she fell asleep.

"Little Miss, let's go and have a stroll outside," Shirley said excitedly. Elise shook her head.

"Prepare Little Miss clothes first. I would go and tell Sir Kevin about this." She volunteered. Shirley nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright, alright."

When Elise went outside, Shirley hastily went to fetch some clothes for her.

Seriously, Minerva did not understand why she needed to change her clothes. What she wore was already clean and presentable. She believed that there was no washing machine in this era. Wouldn't it be a trouble for those who were in charge of the laundry?

Although she wanted to protest, she decided to put the issue on the back of her head for now. Never mind, when she grew up, she would make sure to check the ones who were in charge of the laundry. After all, she understood how hard it was. When she lived with her grandmother in her last life, she was in charge of the laundry and it was extremely hard as they did not have a washing machine at that time. She would hand wash the clothes of her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and even cousins. Too bad, she did not have the help of anyone at that time.

Compared to her life before, the life she had now was completely different. At least, as she could observe, she would not be starved again. She did not need to worry about what food she would eat for tomorrow.

Ah, the perks of being a daughter of a rich man.

As her thoughts flew somewhere, she did not notice that Shirley had changed her clothes and has now carried her outside. Minerva just woke up from her stupor when she heard the voice of Elise.

"Where would we take the Little Miss?"

Shirley thought for a moment before she answered, "How about to the garden that His Grace ordered to built back when Her Grace was pregnant? The one that His Grace confidently said that Little Miss would like?"

"Oh, the butterfly garden?"

Minerva's ears perked when she heard 'butterfly garden'. Her eyes unconsciously shone as she felt excited.

Wow, butterfly garden! Her so-called father built a butterfly garden for her?

Back then, Minerva dreamt to have a butterfly garden when she purchased a house of her own. She liked butterflies the most that even most of her things had butterfly designs.

That was why she liked to stare at the ceiling of the room she lived in now as it was covered with countless butterflies.

Then now, there was a butterfly garden that they mentioned her so-called father built as he was confident that she would like it?

Minerva did not know what she felt. But what she was sure of was that her chest felt warm. And she liked this feeling.