Wife of The Demon Prince
Chapter 39: Lost dresses

Chapter 39: Lost dresses

Ara watched as the butler finally spoke hesitantly, "Something happened to the dresses." He informed, but Ara didn’t fully understood what Jacob meant at first until he said again, "The dresses weren’t in the carriage as the maid checked it."

"What?"

Ara had seen the dresses wrapped up in the carriage luggage compartment, so what was the butler talking about? She heard him continue to say,

"When I checked it myself, there was nothing in the luggage compartment in the carriage, I asked the other servants if they had offloaded the dresses, but none of them touched the dresses, not even the guards saw anybody go near the carriage."

"Let me take a look myself." Ara rushed ahead first, then Jacob followed behind, she strode towards the carriage, examining the it with surprise on her face. How could it be?

There were two carriages that they had used to go to the dress shop, one was the carriage Anne and Ara had sat in comfortably, and the other was the one carrying the dresses and the family maids, and the guards had rode on their horses.

Ara glanced at the people gathered around, she saw the coachman, maids and the soldiers were standing around perplexed, upon seeing all of them, she asked, "What happened here?" The maid who had rode in the carriage carrying the dresses, was the first to answer,

"After you entered the mansion...I opened the carriage to take out the dresses...but there was nothing there...It was gone..." explained the maid with a slightly trembling voice, the maid looked like she would faint anytime soon, with how pale she looked. Ara glanced away from the scared maid, to ask one of the guards who had escorted them to the dress shop,

"Did you see anyone approach the carriage on our way back?" She asked in a calm manner.

The guard was quick to shake his head, "No. My lady, we rode straight to the mansion, we didn’t see anyone approach the carriage. And we saw the coachman place the package inside the carriage before we took off." Explained the guard with a straight face, that showed no emotions.

Even Ara agreed with what he said, they hadn’t stopped once on their way back from the dress shop. Ara glanced at the coachman who rode the carriage carrying the dresses, the man was standing shuffling restlessly,

"Did you notice anything strange when you were driving the carriage? Anything like a noise?"

"No, No. My lady, I heard or noticed nothing, it’s was like a ghost! Nobody approached the carriage." The coachman was terrified, because he was the one who rode the carriage, and he had to be the one to pay for the lost dresses. It wouldn’t be easy for an ordinary man like him to afford those kind of expensive clothing worn by the elites, even if they deduct the money from his monthly wage for a year, he was sure it wouldn’t amount to the lost dresses.

However, that wasn’t what mattered now to Ara. Even if she had the money to get another set of dresses, the problem was that it would be impossible to find another dress before the grand ball. All the dress shops in the kingdom were full. Even if a dress were to be ordered now, it would be impossible to meet the deadline.

"Oh Lord!" A sigh escaped from Ara’s mouth as she thought about everything. And there was no Emma to help them with her designs.

The coachman watched how troubled the young lady looked, then thought for a moment, then he recalled something before he hurried to say, "My lady...I remember something."

"What’s that?" She asked.

"Wh-when we were going to the dress shop, there were two maids in the carriage I rode...But Maya here was sitted at the front with me, while the other maid insisted on sitting inside the carriage..." The coachman paused to look at the maid called Maya who quickly nodded affirmatively at his side, he continued to say, "But right now I figured out, I’ve never seen that other maid before."

Maya who was listening quietly also noticed that she also had sensed something strange about the new maid, "Yes, she was a new maid at the main mansion, she wasn’t supposed to come to the south with us, she had insisted on coming. So l let her switch with Janet instead." Maya explained, to clear her own name from the missing dresses.

Because Ara was in the other carriage with Anne, she didn’t know about the maids who escorted them to the dress shop. So now they had to hear the full story of the lost dresses from this new maid they were talking about who sat inside the carriage,

"Where is this new maid you’re talking about now?" Ara inquired in a nonchalant tone.

Maya’s face turned paler at Ara’s question, she seemed to have come to a realization, "I...I couldn’t find her ever since we came back from Taewe dress shop...I’ve looked for her all over the mansion." Maya stammered as she explained.

After hearing Maya’s words, Ara immediately knew who took the dresses without having to delve any further. Boxton mansion was filled with soldiers. it would be difficult for anybody to sneak pass the escort of well trained soldiers towards the carriage, unless the culprit was from the inside.

As Ara remained silent, one of the soldiers standing next to her spoke, "My lady, I’ll send the soldiers to search the area, she couldn’t have gone that far."

It was well planned out, the chances of finding the maid was low, but it was better than doing nothing. So Ara nodded, "Alright."

The soldiers exchanged glances with each other, then quickly scattered.

Ara couldn’t push down the anger in her chest, ’ I’ll teach her a lesson!’ Ara knew the maid must have done it on someone’s orders, she had applied for work in the Boxton mansion, just to steal their clothes? Ara wondered who could the person be, she contemplated quietly for a moment, then turned to Maya,

"Did you notice anything strange about the new maid before we traveled here and while you were in the carriage?"

Maya shook her head, "No, my lady..." She trailed off to a murmur, then suddenly raised her voice as if something struck her mind, "Right! I remembered seeing her always reading a letter, and she received one the day before we traveled to the south...And the letter had the seal of the...Ah it was..." Maya paused with a thoughtful expression on her face, before she quickly uttered, "Yes! I remember it has the Tudor household seal!"

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