Chapter 24

It was late morning and the sun was already hot against the back of her neck as she scrubbed the kitchen floor. The servants had just finished serving breakfast and they were waiting for the arrival of the royal family in the hall. The head servant had called Phoenix from Jumi’s room where she had been laying the princess’s dress for breakfast. Phoenix had tried to explain that she was barely done with preparing Jumi for breakfast when the queen entered and in a very uncharacteristic manner told her not to worry about taking care of Jumi since she, the queen, wanted to dress Jumi herself. Phoenix had bowed and left the room with the head servant in the kitchen where a bucket and rags awaited her. Without any question, she dropped to her knees and began to scrub away the scraps of food and soot from the floor. Another servant stood by the washbowl cleaning the tools which had been used for the preparation of the meal while another polished the utensils that would be used by the king,