The Queen's Dirty Secrets

5. Someone knows something

Gertrude and Bertha were still worried about the missing body of the Queen. They worried more seeing that Merucia couldn’t be bothered. They were realising that Merucia had divested herself from the situation.

“It’s probably for the best,” Bertha said, attempting to be convincing. “She’s become the Queen now. Her reputation shouldn’t be tainted by any of this.”

Gertrude would not agree, “No, she is the Queen now, and that means she has power. She could do something about this situation if she wanted. You know what? Whatever.”

“So, what do we do now? Should we also move on like nothing happened? No-one will catch us, right?”

“We can’t be sitting ducks, Bertha. We must find the answers. I say we send an anonymous word about a missing body. Anyone who knows something will come up.”

“Oh, Gertrude! That will make the palace talk. It will cause commotion once people hear that a woman died in this palace and that the body has disappeared. The others might even start thinking that there’s a serial killer in the palace! Please, Gertrude. Let’s just let it go like Merucia did. I want to forget. I want to forget everything and move on.”

Bertha had thought that she got through to Gertrude. She thought they would both be letting it go but then, she started receiving notes to her room. The notes started of ambiguous and so, it was easy for Bertha to ignore

//I know everything. I saw everything. //

…another note…

//You are doomed, girl. All your life is doomed. //

She could ignore those notes, but then the notes started getting specific. The letters would hint about the ‘fireplace incident’. That was when Bertha finally panicked.

She ran to find Gertrude, “I thought you said we’d let it go, Gertrude! Now, look!”

Gertrude received the letter, she was very much impressed that her word spread so quickly, “Ah, looks like we’ll find our truth sooner than I expected. Who sent this?”

They now had to find the letter-sender. They would also leave a note for the sender—they hinged it on the door so that only the one who looked closer would find it. The night would pass and there was no new letter received. “And look, the sender did not take our letter as well,” said Bertha. She had Gertrude over in her room first thing in the morning.

“Maybe we should wait another night,” Gertrude casually said. She was taking this a lot calmer than Bertha. “Come now, we have a lot to do in the kitchen. The royal breakfast must be served.”

They were baking bread that morning. Bertha would have to get started with the dough. She started collecting all of her ingredients around the kitchen and placing them on her station. Now, she reached into her drawer where she kept her tools (cutlery & other cooking tools). She saw a letter lying flat above her things. Terror struck her heart. In that moment she felt anxiety wash over her.

She could not sleep the entire night, as she was in anticipation. She was expecting the mysterious letter-sender to slide in a new letter under her door again. As a result of her sleepless night, this morning she was tired and scared.

Now, as she stood, fever must have washed over body. Her breath paused and plausibly weakened.

** “Bertha! Bertha! Bertha!” **

Gertrude had been calling but her voice sounded muffled up in Bertha’s head. Gertrude finally looked over and saw Bertha completely frozen. Bertha’s eyes popped out at the drawer. Gertrude got closer. She gently placed her hand on Bertha’s shoulder to bring her back to her senses. Bertha slowly recovered and was breathing again. Gertrude looked down to see the letter that shook Bertha.

Gertrude picked it up and opened it. “It reads, Time is ticking.” Gertrude scoffed, “What madness is this?” She scoffed at how vague the letter was. At that point she expected that the letters would get even more specific. “None of these letters hint at a dead body. Does this person even know that there’s a dead body missing? This looks like some kind of prank or a joke!”

“Ow, but, Gertrude,” Bertha protested, “we cannot just ignore this, nonetheless.”

“Do you know what word I sent out? I never mentioned a missing dead body. I only asked if anyone knew the mystery at the fireplace, is all! If this person knows anything, they would hint straight to it. I’ve been looking at all the letters sent to you all night in my room,” Gertrude said, “and there is just a repetition of ‘fireplace, fireplace and fireplace’!” Gertrude was getting mad talking about this. “If it’s not that, then it’s, ’hurry, I’ll expose you. You’re running out of time’! There’s nothing about the goddam dead body!”

The kitchen door swung open. Bertha and Gertrude turned to look and there stood the rest of the kitchen maids. They were there to help prepare the royal breakfast. Each one was struck with shock—eyes popped and jaws dropped. They couldn’t believe what they had just heard.