Chapter 1 Emily

"Sister....!! Sis.....!!!" A small child named Lorene ran home from the market, when she arrived she went inside and found her sister in the kitchen.

"Where were you Lorene?" she was asked

"Read this!" she was shown a piece of paper and she took it, looked and saw an advertisement

"What is it about Lorene?"

"Oh sister, don't you see?"

"I don't know how to read my little one" the sister replied sadly.

"ooh, I forgot sister, it is written here that there is a competition for the best chef that will be held tomorrow and the winner will enter the king's palace, that is, she will be a maid in the king's palace" the child replied

"Are you really reading what was written Lorene?!" the sister asked skeptical

"Yes, Sister Emily, how can I lie to you?"

"Dude, I have to go and..." she started saying but then,

"What do you think you're doing??" they heard a voice behind them asking before she finished her sentence, they all turned and saw aunt Eliza standing with her stern face looking at them. Emily and her younger sister, the aunt's daughter, looked at each other while Emily was holding the paper in her hand and hiding it behind her back

"No mom, I was telling Sister Emily that we will go, we will go..." Lorene stuttered, unable to speak in front of her fierce mother.

"Lorene, come out and play with Emily, what are you hiding behind you?"

"I'm not hiding anything aunty."

"So I don't have eyes and I'm lying, right?"

"Actually, aunty, I'm not hiding anything" Emily answered while shaking her head, denying the fact that she was afraid of her fierce and merciless aunt, who followed her slowly and approached her. Then she stretched out her hand asking for something that Emily had hidden behind her hands, and Emily had no choice but to slowly take out the piece of paper that was brought to her by her younger sister, Lorene, for the cooking competition advertisement

Emily, a very attractive and beautiful girl, was a talented cook with a unique talent that she inherited from her late mother who was a very talented cook.

Aunt Eliza took the advertisement and read it, she looked at Emily with a sharp eye and then she tore the piece of paper into pieces and threw them on the ground.

"Do you think you can cook that well? That you can go where you think you can go?" aunty Eliza asked her mockingly.

"I want to go try aunty" Emily answered.

"Just trying, who do you think will adopt you again? a poor girl without parents who even I took in when you were little just as a help so that you could live with me because even your late father is not related to me, he is only a distant relative and I only brought you here to work and not to play around. You're not a family member here, you're just a maid, make sure you cook good food for us to eat, because that's what keeps you here in town, understood??!!"

"Yes aunty"

"Yeah, that's right; forget about something called marriage or going to any competition. Firstly you don't even know how to read and write, you don't know where you are, who do you think will accept you and come to marry you, a stupid, stupid girl like you?" her aunt said slanderous words to Emily, the girl remained silent and had nothing to answer in front of her aunt, at the same time the woman's eldest daughter named Linda came to the kitchen and found her mother scolding Emily.

"Mom there are visitors" he told his mother

"What guests?"

"I don't know but they seem to be very important people" she answered.

"Okay let's go" the woman answered her daughter and left the kitchen, leaving Emily alone. She took a deep breath and scratched her head; she turned back to her chores and continued with the cooking while thinking a lot in her head.

Emily had no parents, both of them had died. Her father passed away first and then followed her mother. She had brothers on her father's side but they did not like her because it was said that her mother was the cause of her father's death, and Emily was not her father's biological child and he met and married her mother who had a child with her already who was Emily. So after their death Emily was taken by one of these brothers of her late father (stepfather) and made a domestic worker being used as a donkey for all kinds of work all day long

"Welcome guests" Aunt Eliza welcomed in four men, three adults and one was a young man in a shirt, having come with a carriage (horse), the main transportation in the country in the eighteenth century (A. D).

"Thank you very much" an old man who appeared to be the boy's father responded and they went inside and sat down as they seemed to have something important that had brought them to the house.

"You're very welcome!" Aunt Eliza smiled.

"Thank you, we are not residents of this place, we have come for a specific reason, we need to see the father of this house, is he here?"

"He is resting in his room, let me wake him up" Eliza replied.

"Before you wake him up we need to know about the girl Em..." the old man seemed to forget the name he wanted to mention

"Emily, father" his boy helped him with the name.

"Yes Emily, I'm sorry, I missed it. is she here?" the old man asked them, aunt Eliza and her eldest daughter Linda turned and looked at each other, Linda winked at her mother.

"Emily has not been here since yesterday, she left" the mother lied.

"Oh, okay, we have come for her because my son loves her and wants to marry her" the old man spoke to his young man and he shook his head while smiling, the act hurt him.

Linda who was jealous and heartbroken when she saw Emily had visitors at home who had come to ask for her hand to the young man who had a good life from the look of things while she was still at home. She left her mother who continued to entertain the guests and went to the kitchen while Emily was cooking. She found her cooking while she was singing songs, comforting herself.

"You stupid idiot!" Linda shouted at her

"Yes!" Emily turned weakly, being called strange names was normal for her and everything was done just to humiliate her.

"What did you do in the city? Where did you go when you said you were going to the market?" Linda asked her harshly.

"Why sister, what happened?" Emily asked innocently.

"The police have come to the house and they are asking for you Emily!"

"Soldiers??" Emily was shocked until she dropped the bowl of vegetables she was holding in her hand, there was nothing she was afraid of in her life as a soldier, even when she met them in the market carrying their weapons she avoided them and ran away.

"Yes, soldiers so don't come out. It is quite possible that you have done something and they have come to capture you. Don't talk or make a sound, alright?!"

"Yes sister" Emily responded to the girl who was just the same age and several months older than her, but since she lives with them and she is a servant, she called her sister and the rest is just due to Emily's good behavior.

Linda went back to the living room where her mother was with the guests

"Did you find Linda, Emily?" her mother asked.

"She's not here, she's gone" Linda answered her mother as they winked at each other.

"Yes, as you heard, Emily is not here, she has gone out, and she is not ready to get married, someone else loves her. And this is my beautiful daughter, her name is Linda, she has no one, she is ready to get married" the woman Eliza smiled as she held her daughter by the shoulder.