0. Duchess in the Attic

“Wow! Awesome!” Mayley cried with awe as she gazed out of the window of the attic.

Her eyes glimmered with such childlike wonder and amazement that it made Opal smile.

“You can see out so far!” Mayley shouted. “It’s like I’m on a huge ship!”

“Quite right!” Opal beamed.

The two ladies were in the manor of the small plot of land that Opal had inherited from her maternal grandmother, looking out from the attic window. She had been enamored by this view ever since she was a young child, and even now loved it very much. Though the fascinating view from the attic window always had her spellbound, she had never once compared it to being on a ship—likely because she had never sailed on a vessel until she was an adult. Even now, after she’d voyaged countless times across the sea, it had taken Mayley’s own observation for her to realize that this view really did resemble one from a ship’s window. Opal knew how vast the world was, but realized that her own scope of it had become quite narrow, and she flashed a smile, the movement feeling a little awkward under the weight of her realization.

“Thank you, Mayley,” she said.

“Sure! You’re welcome!” Mayley replied. “But for what?”

The little girl responded brightly to Opal’s gratitude, but she tilted her head to one side, befuddled. Opal couldn’t help but burst into a fit of laughter; Mayley’s innocent earnestness was just so amusing!

“Whenever I’m with you, I have so much fun,” Opal said between laughs. “You opened up a door to a whole new world.”

“A new world?” Mayley asked.

“That’s right. You’ve traveled quite a bit, haven’t you? Surely, you know how vast the world is.”

“Mm-hmm, it stretches out very far.”

Mayley’s childlike and simple explanation made her so adorable, despite her serious demeanor. Opal thought for a few moments and decided to vocalize what had been on her mind.

“Mayley, would you like to go back to the house you used to liv