Charmingly Impeccable
 

Madeline stretched a bit as she did a visual sweep of the yards. A few plants would need pruning, and the lawn would need to be mowed in a few days, but overall everything was in good condition. Satisfied, she moved several yards away from the house and turned slitted blue eyes to the manor. The house was in good repair, although perhaps the back could use a fresh coat of paint...

Still making notes to herself, Madeline strode back inside, intending to find other duties or perhaps check on her new mistress. She was still trying to figure out what kind of owner this one would be.

Lacey was exploring the manor. It was a much larger house than she'd ever dreamed she would have, and she was sure she hadn't seen it all yet. Really, she was just lucky she hadn't gotten lost yet, even as she somehow found her way to the kitchens. She would have to remember that path; it seemed like a good idea to know the way to the food.

Her inner child was a bit disappointed at the apparent lack of secret passages, though.

Madeline followed the scent trail back to the kitchens, a bit surprised. Most owners didn't even bother to go into the servants' area of the house.

"Is there anything I can help you with, miss?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at Lacey, having stopped a few feet behind her.

Lacey jumped and turned around.

"Gods, you scared me," she breathed. "No, it's fine, I was just exploring." She paused, and then continued cautiously, "should I not be down here?"

"It is your house, miss," Madeline said with an eloquent shrug. "You may go wherever you wish." Of course, it was usually easier to work if the mistress of the house wasn't standing in the middle of the kitchen, but the staff could always work around her.

That sounded very rehearsed to Lacey.

"I'll take that as the official answer," she said. "But I'm guessing the real answer is closer to 'you're in the way.'"

Madeline just quirked a gold-blonde eyebrow at her and didn't actually answer. The girl was smart, quick to catch on to things, and Madeline preferred to keep her bit of freedom as long as she could.

Lacey took the eyebrow-quirk for the answer it was.

"I'll get out of the way, then," she said. She stepped out of the kitchen, but didn't go to roam the rest of the manor just yet. She was still curious about the part of the manor she was in.

Madeline slipped off to attend to some of her other duties, letting Lacey explore as much as she liked. After all, there was no business to attend to, and she figured they had at least a month more before the first invitation would arrive for party season.

Lacey explored for a while longer before she found her way back to her bedroom again. Her bedroom was nearly the size of her old apartment, and she had no idea what she would do with all that space. The things she'd brought with her hardly made a dent in the space she had, and to be honest, it felt a little lonely.

Madeline had temporarily retreated to her own quarters to fix her hair. Her previous owners had not liked the reminder that not only was she a demon, but she had once had family. A fairly well off family. So they'd had her clip her hair to hide the mark on her forehead. And after wrestling with a few particularly uncooperative plants, Madeline needed to fix her hair.

Lacey wandered out of her room again a while later, this time heading out to the grounds. She was done exploring the inside for now, now she wanted to explore some of the outside, and there were parts of the grounds she could see from her window that looked interesting.

Madeline left her to it, though she did keep an ear out, just in case she got into trouble. Or got lost. Or anything like that. Because there was a possibility of that happening.

Lacey eventually found a small bench within the large garden, and sat down for a little while to just enjoy things for a bit. It was sill strange, adjusting to such a large home, and she tried not to think about exactly how much else she'd inherited along with it. It was a lot, and she was still kind of waiting for 'relatives' to come crawling from the woodwork to try to claim some of it from her.

That part wouldn't happen because the inheritance had been specifically designed against having relatives try to claim bits of it. But Madeline was waiting for Lacey to really figure out what all she could do and how much power she had over Madeline.

It took Lacey another week to get used to wandering the big, empty manor. She never really saw much of the servants, aside from Madeline, and she was beginning to crave some sort of company.

Madeline happened to be wandering near her one day, mostly just looking after things. But she could smell how discontent Lacey was and, despite herself, went to go look.

Lacey was sitting by the small pond on the grounds, just watching the fish swim around. She sighed slightly and propped her head on one hand.

"Do you need anything, miss?" Madeline asked as she moved up behind Lacey silently.

Lacey jumped at the sudden voice behind her.

"I swear to the gods I'm going to put a bell on you one of these days," she muttered. She sighed. "It's too quiet," she said. "There's nobody here. None of the staff really talks to me, and it's not like there's anyone living here besides me and the staff."

Madeline quirked a faint smirk. "You wish for a companion," she said. That was understandable. "Perhaps now would be a good time to start coaching you on proper party etiquette."

"Party etiquette?" Lacey asked, a bit wary. "I didn't know I needed to know such a thing."

"Of course," Madeline said with a hint of fang showing in her brief grin. "You are now the head of one of the top families in the demon-human relations world. You will be expected to attend parties and, in time, to host your own. Your etiquette must be impeccable."

Lacey pulled a face.

"Lovely," she said. "I was raised in the city suburbs, I wasn't raised for this."

"It matters not. I will train you for whatever is necessary." Madeline shrugged. "You are not the first to have needed some... help."