Clean-up

In the early morning, the servants had just settled down to a breakfast of leftovers from the previous evening when the butler strode in and pointed at the youngest servant “you girl, what’s your name?”

“Juli, sir” “Right get a bucket and mop and follow me”

“But” stuttered the girl, looking at the food.

“Get on with it there is no time to waste”

As she collected the cleaning equipment and followed the butler to the door, Dora, the old seamstress who shared her room came up to her and pushed something into her apron pocket and whispered “Eat it later”

She followed the butler up the backstairs and along the corridor to the Green Parlour; a sentry nodded and allowed the butler to open the door. The girl gasped, there was blood everywhere.

“Right girl, don’t gawp, a guard was killed here last night and it needs cleaned up immediately” with that the butler strode off.

Juli grabbed the mop and started on the floor. Just then the sentry walked in. “What happened?” she asked as while mopping.

“Well miss, the Count seemed to think that Sergeant Huber caught a burglar breaking in to the palace, from the look of his clothes he must have been a young lad. It might explain why the Sergeant was caught unawares; he was a hard fighter but a great family man with kids of his own. If it had been a man he'd have skewered him without hesitating."

At that moment Juli just rushed to the open window and emptied the contents of her stomach outside. The sentry followed, and said “That’s lucky; they must have removed the clothes that were lying there. Now I’ll let you get on with your job, but could you let the servants know we will be making a collection for the widow. Don’t know what will happen to her and the kids now”

Juli nodded and returned to her task and spotted some faint bloody footprints heading off into the palace.