A knock is heard at the door–Vanora opens the door, a letter of invite is given to her.
"Who is there?" a crooked voice ask from inside.
"It is a letter." Scanning it she walks straight into the room–to that voice.
"Mother...it seems to be an invitation" Aria says–the open later in her hands. Her eyes scan through the letter, she is shocked–the letter contains an invite to the Dukes Mansion.
"Mother, the Duke is inviting all the maidens to his mansion"
Her mother looks stunned. To her–she does not see a reason why a Duke would summon maidens to his mansion.
"What is it for?" Her mother asks worriedly–dropping the fruits she had on the basket down.
"It says something about bride selection." Vanora says–putting the letter aside to help her mother.
She picks up the fruit basket, selecting the fruits to cut them.
"Would you like to participate in the selection?" Her mother ask concerned.
"No mother. I am sure it is a thing of one's own will" she smiles.
Just as she is done with the fruits, she sets them in front of her mother and starts to feed them to her carefully. Vanora does not plan to attend this–she has important matters to attend to–taking care of her mother and selling their vegetables. She has no time to engage in such events.
It seemed like a very cruel joke to her, that she was been offered a letter to the Dukes Mansion–a place where people like her were not welcomed. She felt insulted.
"You can participate, you might be lucky" her mother spoke in between the bites of the fruits.
"Mother!" She called to her surprisenly.
"You know so well I can not leave you all alone, you won't be okay all by yourself" Vanora spoke.
"And you know Ciro and I are courting" she picks up the empty plate that had contained the fruits she had just fed to her mother.
"If you don't get chosen you can always find your way back" her mother says softly with a reassuring smile.
Vanora could not believe her mother.
Ciro has been good to her, he is one of the kind men in Greendale–which was why she had agreed to court him. He makes high quality shoes and he was known to nobles for his great work.
Vanora could not say no to her mother.
"You can make use of the savings to get yourself a gown that would be suitable." Her mother tells her.
She knows that she can not afford anything that could catch the eyes of the Duke or who ever she is. He was said to not show his face–only on rare occasions.
She says nothing in reply.
"When is the selection going to hold?" Her mother ask as Vanora is ready to step in the kitchen.
"It says tomorrow evening" she replies before going in.
She places the plate in the broken sink, picks up a basket and heads out of the kitchen.
"I am going to sell some vegetables" she says to her mother who waves her hand in response.
Even if she was furious she did not know what to do at this point. She never thought for once in her life to be a subject to a cruel joke. She steps into their small garden and begins to pickup vegetables that would fit in the basket.
Walking through the streets, she gets to the place where she sets her vegetables ready for sale.
"Two wraps of Vegetables please" a middle aged looking woman who has come across Vanora says with a smile on her face.
Vanora smiles at the woman and begins to pack the vegetables.
"One silver coin" she says as she smiles at the woman handing over the wrapped vegetables.
The woman opens her bag and hands her two silver coins. Vanora is shocked and surprised. The villagers had just few rich people and she rarely came across them when selling.
She gestures to return it but the woman shakes her head profusely.
"Your vegetables are really fresh and looks lovely as you" she praises her.
"Thank you" Vanora smiles wildly as she pockets the money into her apron.
Most women who passed by, bought her vegetables and before evening she had sold everything.
The sun had dimmed and she had made up to twenty silver coins. She packs up–quickly heads home. Her mother has fallen asleep on the tin bed. She covers her up and heads to take her bath and changes into an appropriate dress.
Moving out again, she heads over to a tailor–one who is friends with her mother.
"Good evening mister Dennis" she greets with her smile on. She is always known to put on a smiley face during interactions–this also made people love her.
"Good evening to you too" he greets her as well.
She walks in her eyes scanning through all the beautiful dresses he had. She knew she could not afford them.
"I came to get a dress–a simple plain dress" she goes straight to the point. She was not about to make herself look good for a Duke she does not know and claims he is choosing a Bride.
"I have fifteen pieces of silver" she mutters without hesitation. Dennis knew that something is happening in town–few young maidens had come to him for dresses today. He is also surprised that she is one of them though she insists on taken a very plain gown instead of the beautiful kind.
"Ohhh .... okay" he hesitates and walks to his hanger to pick out dresses that would suit her taste.
He picks out a plain white silk garment with beautiful floral designs she looks at it and shakes her head.
She knew what she was doing–she wants nothing that would let the Duke set his eyes on her. For she was nothing but a poor girl who knows and wants nothing to do with nobles.
"That would do" she mutters when Dennis hands brushes over a blue dress.
He brings out the dress and he hands it over to her.
"You can change in there" Dennis points towards a curtain–she walks in with the dress and it was just the perfect fit.
She steps out.
"Beautiful!" Dennis exclaims. It fits her more than he had expected–the dress matched her blue eyes.
"It matches your eyes perfectly" he adds
"How many silver does this cost?" She asks
"Twenty...but I will give it to you for just fifteen silver" he tells her and she hands over the coins to him.
"It will be sent over to you tomorrow morning" Dennis informs her.
She needs the gown tomorrow, though she knows she has to be ready before evening.
She goes back to the curtain and changes back to her main dress. Handing over the dress to him.
"Vanora?" She hears a familiar voice call on to her just as she was about to leave.