"Ladies first."
Anise was taken by surprise when Bishop finished speaking. Was he serious? She couldn't do something like that, it was disrespectful to his status! Servants typically enter carriages last, and exited them first. Why was he being a gentleman and letting her go first? She was just a maid, nothing more, and nothing less. She was a nobody as far as society was concerned. The humans were working meals that had very long expiration dates.. convenient and entertaining, but occasionally the lords and lady of the house bestowed them with gifts or other kindnesses and their roles became very confusing, at least Anise felt so.. One minute she felt like an object in their eyes, the next she felt they were treating her as an equal, and then as food. Her head was spinning with confusion.
"Go on. Be a butler then."
"Yes sir,"
Jason opened the carriage doors, and Anise had to quickly make a decision. It didn't feel right stepping inside before Bishop, but to avoid further conflict with the Lord, she nodded her head and stepped inside, "T-Thank you." She stated as she looked to both men, taking a seat and fidgeting with her dress. She didn't want to irritate him more than she apparently had already. She never wanted to cause anyone trouble, and she definitely didn't want to anger him. He seemed to be having a very terrible day, so she decided to be as silent as possible throughout the duration of this ride into town.
Then a sudden headache rang through her ears. Her vision began to blur in and out, but she figured it was simply due to her headache. Anise leaned back in the carriage, trying to avoid making it known. She didn't want to ruin the trip, that would certainly irritate the head of house... Besides, she wasn't allowed to take a sick day. Little did she know, the headache was just another symptom of her being secretly poisoned.
"I'll get your letter delivered. Not wise to let yourself be caught with it."
"Thank you, mi'lord.." She replied back in a soft tone, a smile creeping onto her soft features. Anise closed her eyes due to feeling a bit dizzy, but also because her stomach was rather upset as well. She could vaguely see his hand expecting the letter. Anise withdrew her letter to Derrick from the robe she'd borrowed from Mirabelle, placing it clumsily in Bishop's hand. She kept her face concealed by the robe, but suddenly she felt kind of warm. She wasn't even upset or embarrassed, but her face felt hot, as if she was blushing, but she had no reason to be.. I-I don't feel so good... She thought to herself, but did her best to focus on her breathing, trying to conceal her situation from the others. She didn't want to burden the others, and she definitely didn't want to ruin the morning trip. It was important that they made this appearance, she knew that, so she had to press on regardless of how horrible she felt,"I-I apologize... I'm just really tired... Please f-forgive me..." she replied weakly, coming up with an excuse for why she felt so horribly. Though even she wasn't entirely sure as to why she suddenly felt so bad. Perhaps she drank too much wine the night before?
She had to be strong, and she was kind of glad she was doing so many push ups and took the horses out for a ride occasionally. The built up muscle was definitely coming in handy.. because if she felt this weak now, she couldn't imagine how weak she would have felt a year ago.. She was so much stronger physically than she was before, but now she couldn't even tell the difference. I'm burning up... She thought to herself, barely able to stand her current temperature, but the robe was the only thing concealing her current state from the other two, so she was forced to deal with it if she didn't want them to realize how she was feeling.
The carriage ride did little to make her feel any better, and it could have been argued that it was honestly making her feel much worse at the moment. Though she remained silent, trying to keep as much suspicion off of herself as possible. She knew this was going to be a long day, and she wasn't even sure if she would be able to make it through without passing out. Her symptoms were typical signs of being sick, but also side effects of the Mandrake extract. The hallucinations and all, and in high enough concentration it could cause her to fall into a comatose state, or even induce death at it's worst. Though she, nor the lords knew of this. She didn't even realize she was being poisoned. There were no physical tells. She cracked all of her symptoms up as a bad seasonal bug, and kept braving through it, but this was almost too uncomfortable to ignore. To the human eye, she appeared nothing more than sleepy, but she kept the cloak situated to conceal her from Bishop's enhanced vision. She was starting to believe that the vampire siblings could even see through walls with those eyes if they wished, so she wasn't very confident that this would work, but she had to try. I don't want to be so useless.. If they figure it out.. I ruin the trip for everyone.. How is that fair? She asked herself, especially since she figured that they would have as much fun as they did the last time that the girls dressed up and did their hair. Though, it wouldn't be the same without Katerina fixing their hair..