Fiona was awakened by the caress of sunlight in the morning, startled and sitting up in a panic, looking around and taking a childish gasp of breath.
In the haze of her dreams just now, she felt her mother roughly shaking her shoulders again, ordering her to traverse through the lingering darkness to fetch water from the river in the icy morning air.
A child, when rudely awakened from a deep slumber, instinctively trembled in terror; and if she failed to get up in time and leap out of bed, she would be scolded with her ear pulled for being a lazy wench, sometimes even get a thrashing, which was enough to make a child subconsciously equate sleepiness with guilt.
But her slender fingers soon touched the velvet bedclothes and soft feather pillow beneath her, and through the gauzy curtains she saw broad daylight.
Yes, she was now a Marchioness, able to sleep as long as she wished, never having to force herself to fight drowsiness and fear of the dark, and head out to the forest and fields at the crack of dawn anymore.
Thinking of the noble and kind-hearted Marquis, she embraced Annabelle from the pillow and happily skipped down the stairs to seek out her new beloved relative.
"Good morning, miss!" The plump, middle-aged housemaid Susan, directing the cleaning in the hall, greeted Fiona with a beaming smile.
"Morning to you too, Susan!" The spotless, mirror-like hall floor almost made the little elf stumble, but she cheerfully waved her arms and steadied her running body like a bird learning to fly flapping its wings.
"Where is Monsieur the Marquis, please?" she called out joyfully.
"His lordship has just gotten up too, now reading the newspaper in his living room, Miss Fiona."
As Fiona pushed open the grand door to the drawing-room, she froze. The chirpy smile that had been on her face, resembling that of a little alouette, became rigid.
The Marquis was standing in the centre of the spacious room, with his arms outstretched, his manservant helping him change. As she burst in, he had just taken off his dressing gown, revealing his muscular chest covered in bushy hair.
Seeing the girl standing still and staring at his lordship, the servant stooping at the side cleared his throat awkwardly.
The Marquis simply gave a light chuckle and turned to Fiona, saying, "You''ve come at the wrong time, Mademoiselle."
The little girl felt her face inexplicably f