The Lady, the Companion, and the Secret

Marilyn gets summoned to serve as a companion to the young lady of a stone manor, the only decent building in a destitute village.

Through no fault of her own, she ends up mistaken for a boy.

But that’s the smaller problem.

“A boy like you can’t even handle that without whimpering?”

The lady has a truly foul personality.

To the lady, Marilyn isn’t a companion at all.

She’d taken so much verbal *buse she’d assumed her role was to absorb insults……

Only to realize she was actually a dog, something the lady could pet or torment on a whim.

A dog…… a dog…… that dog of a lady.

The first time she’d tried to back out, the reward was too sweet.

The time she’d genuinely tried to quit, the lady said:

“No. I like her.”

*

“Are you a girl?”

Only then did Marilyn realize what she must look like.

Stupid girl. So that’s why the lady was angry.

The lady had just discovered that her companion had been deceiving her all this time.

“Answer me.”

She lifted her head in despair at that heavy, falling voice……

and met a face that couldn’t quite hide its joy, happiness spilling freely across every feature.

The lady was smiling.