Clockwork Heart (nanowrimo 2012) Featured in WattNaNo's Top Picks

Clockwork Heart - Chapter One (unedited)

Chapter One

Morning dawned grey and wet. As the clock on the mantel of Clancy Manor's day room clamoured through its eight chimes, a woman, who was nearing her thirtieth birthday, shifted in her seat.

She was showing now the first signs of age, her bones creaking slightly as stood from her high backed chair and brushed off her skirts. Her face was bright and fresh despite the early hour for she had been up since before the skies had turned red with the rising sun. These extra hours had given her time to organise the household before her employers had even risen. She wasn't a maid but the head housekeeper liked to partake in a little too much drink and would not wake until the sun was high in the sky – even if it was to be blocked by the rainclouds.

Ms. Wright, a woman of twenty nine years straightened the shawl on her shoulders and removed the reading glasses from the end of her nose before turning to the doorway. She moved through the slowly lightening house with quiet steps, taking mind to tiptoe past the master bedroom on the first floor. It was the domain of the less than personable presence of Mr Clancy. He was the owner of the house and the one who clothed and fed her but it did not make her any more welcoming of his presence.

Shaking her head, the spinster reminded herself that she was grateful to him. That a man of such wealth and superiority had taken pity on her when she had lost everything was an incredible feat. But she still could not bring herself to like the man – he had once been good and kind but living in the house for ten years, she had watched as Mr Clancy had withdrawn into himself.  Now he was lost.

Shaking away such thoughts, the petite and yet shapely woman walked to the end of the hall where two doors stood side by side within the white wood panelled walls.

One, if opened, would reveal a set of winding stairs that would take a person up to a small bedroom. It was outfitted with all the necessities for a woman but held only a few books as luxuries. That was the room where Ms Wright spent her time when not keeping her eye upon the youngest of the Clancy bloodline.

Knocking the door next to hers, the woman did not even pause a second before her fingers grasped the door handle and yanked it down. Her other hand brushed back an errant lock of brown hair from her line of vision and then, using more energy than necessary, she strode into the room with loud banging footsteps.

The floor trembled under her feet as she stepped blindly through the darkened room. The sound could probably be heard on the floors below but she continued on nonetheless, winding her way though the space that was so devoid of light that she could barely see her hand in front of her face.

Behind her, Emma Wright heard shuffling as the person wrapped within the duvets shifted in her sleep. Within seconds however she was giving off more soft snores.

Pausing, the older woman smiled as she glanced over at the young woman, who was drooling all over her pillow as she slept. The lines that had formed around Emma's eyes softened and for a moment she allowed tenderness to fill her heart. Images of the youngest Clancy growing up filled her mind and brought a new ache to her heart.

Emma had raised Millicent Clancy since she was eight years old and even now that the young woman was about to get thrust into the rigours of matchmaking, Ms Wright could only see the young girl with plaits in her hair and jam smeared around her mouth. She had never been able to define their relationship but the aging woman often regarded her somewhere between a younger sister and a daughter.

Letting out a sigh, the short woman grasped the two curtains that started a foot from the ceiling and trailed all the way down to the floor. She held on to those few moments of peace before the day truly began and then, she gave them a good hard yank. They parted with the shrieking sound of metal grinding against metal.