The old matriarch slowly turned her head to look at the maid. The warmth she had shown Heena vanished completely, replaced by an aura of deadly, suffocating majesty. The sheer weight of her decades of absolute authority crashed down upon the room like a physical blow.
"What did you just dare say?" the grandmother whispered, her voice dangerously quiet.
Nanny Wang's knees instantly turned to jelly. She trembled violently, her face draining of all color as she dropped back to the floor, her hands shaking. "I-I did not mean it that way, Grand Madam! I only meant... the Marchioness explicitly called for just the Young Lady..."
The grandmother leveled her cane, the heavy wood clicking sharply against the floorboards as she stared down at the groveling servant.
