7

                                    

                                          

Esti walked out of the hidden servant door, trying to reach the room of the dragon who had most recently vacationed near an actively erupting volcano and needed to wean down from constant heat slowly. 
The coal scuttle was strapped on Esti's back. With the sling she had fashioned to make it easier for her to carry more weight. She stumbled at what she saw. The weight on her back almost causing her to fall in a heap to the floor. 
A voice she knew whispering words he had once whispered in her own ear, "You have the softest skin." a staged, dramatic scenting, "Beautiful." beat for beat how he had spoken to her the night they were together. Esti saw Quwent, fucking a woman wearing the vestments given to the day cleaning maids. His own pants around his ankles. Just out in the open of the hallway. The one time lovers made eye contact and Esti bolted for the servant door she had already been heading towards. Flipping the safety latch on the inside so Quwent could not follow her.
There was a way to disable the lock from the outside. If you knew exactly where to look. Castle servants did what they could to keep each other safe in the battle ground that was where the "haves" met the "have nots" consistently. 
Esti heard a bang on the door as she ran down the hidden corridor and knew Quwent had tried to open it. His family didn't have enough money for him to break other people's things. He wouldn't break down the wall. Quwent liked to hurt people instead of things. Esti knew that look in the maids eyes. She did not want to be here, not with him. Esti had to hope that the maid wouldn't break castle tradition and show Quwent how to follow her. Esti did not have it in her to face Quwent right now. 
 Esti hated that she could do nothing to help the day maid as she ran like the coward she was. The only thing Esti could do was keep her mouth closed and pretend this had never happened. Esti was getting good at pretending some things had never happened. She would keep this secret and as long as no one else happened through this corridor, the maid and Esti would be the only ones to ever know. 
Esti ran the entire way to reload the duchess or marquis or whatever she was fire. Making sure the coal would burn as long as possible. Piling the chunks of coal just like Mr. Normal had taught her. So it would burn hot, even and long. Esti had always been a good student when she felt the subject was important. Building fires had become life and death for her now.
Esti took the longest way back to the basement possible. Making sure there were no places where she needed to cross a hallway that any of the nobility could use. Esti would only need to check on the one room requesting a fire right now once more before it was time for the night crew to manage the castle affairs. 
Later, in Mr. Norman's office, playing a game of chess before going to their separate rooms. He asked Esti, "What happened today?" Voice level, even, as he made an inconsequential movement of a pawn on the board.
"Nothing." Esti said. Because truly, nothing had happened. She was not lying.
"If you were hurt again, charges can still be laid for the first offense. Many would testify on your behalf Esti," Mr. Norman said. She knew he and Nigella were eager to see whomever had hurt her brought to justice. Esti, however understood politics. If she caused six soldiers to face justice she would only increase her enemies on a log scale. she shook her head. Her father had always said the policing and military units should never be trusted or provoked.
It would be better to be honest in this situation. Mr. Norman could tell, Esti wasn't balanced tonight. He would worry if she didn't tell him. "I saw someone I used to know, in a position and place I did not expect." Norman nodded. Not asking another question. Sensing that Esti was not in a mood to talk about who she had seen, glad that at least no one had hurt her again. She had spent sixteen years living in these walls, it was amazing it had taken months for such an encounter to happen. Norman felt it spoke to Esti's diligence and attention to detail.