Hey there, this is a new story that I had an idea about and this is the first chapter of it. I hope you guys enjoy :)
Chapter 1: Writing The Letter
EMILIA'S POV.
I walk up the stairs of this big old house and into what has remained my bedroom sonce I was born, but will soonbe mine no more. The door is open, as it always is, I never close my door. I am the only one living here so why would I have to? All of the servants have been in my room cleaning on at least one occasion and I have nothing to hide.
As I walk through the door, my eyes catch upon my bedroom door. I always did love the rich oak of my bedroom door, my father had it specially made,l. I picked out the wood myself as a young girl.
The room is quite, as it usually is, but the whole house has been unusually silent for some reason. My eyes flick to the window when I hear a strange sound, it was only a bird.
I start looking through my night dresses to pick out one to wear to bed tonight. As I am deciding which one, I think about the predicament I am stuck in at this moment. I feel a frown stretch its way on my face. What ruthlessness men can bestow upon people in their way of power, I think to myself.
After picking the nightdress I wish to wear, I hang it on the door hook in my closet. I go to sit on my bed to wait for my lady to come up and help me dress for bed. As if on cue, she walks the doorway and quickly rushes across the room to my bedside. I stand up to meet her. She looks a bit weary and tired; she works very hard for me, there is no doubt she would be tired with all the hours she must work to earn enough pay for her family to survive. She has been working for quite some time; I do not even remember when she first started.
She does most everything by herself, the cleaning, the cooking, and the laundry. She doesn't do the gardening or the lawn keeping, no, Mr. Bergman does that, but she does most everything else around here. Her jobs are set inside the house; I do not make her go outside if she does not wish it. I do not make her do anything if she does not wish it.
She is quite young for being a house lady for a princess, she is my age and she has been working here for us, well, for me for a few years already. We are at the age that we can start being married off by our parents, if I still had mine. She has become one of my most cherished friends. She is there whenever I need or want to talk and she has no shortage of stories herself that she tells me as well. She tells me about journeys to far off lands that have yet to happen for her, but she hopes to travel the country. Her hair is a dark blonde colour, it almost looks golden, while mine looks brown and drab. Her hair seems to reflect the light and make her more noticeable and vibrant.
She has a small, heart shaped face that any woman would be jealous of. Her eyes are as blue as the sky during the day and as sparkling as the stars at night, but they look that way constantly and she twinkles with the sense of her innocence. She should not have had to come and work for me at such a tender and young age, but she and her family do not accept charity and they needed the money. So, I agreed to hire her, Elena as my lady here.
She is always alert, seeming to be waiting for something, anything to happen, even if it never does or never will. Even though she is always watchful, she is alight and bright. She never fails to cheer up and rush away any bad moods that I get rutted into, upon waking. I adore her more than any other person I know in this world or the next. I admit, she has been my most trusted friend for so many years now.
She turns me around and starts to quickly untie the back of my corset with nimble fingers, a skill she quickly adopted when she first started here. Elena is now the best of any of my ladies for tying and untying my various corsets.
Once she has untied my corset, she goes over to my closet to get my night dress. She plucks it from the hook it hangs from and then hurries back over to me. Her face shows a small amount of concentration as she holds it up to me. I put my arms in the air as she places it over my head and lets it slide down on me. She then takes my corset and takes it away to the laundry. She will be back soon enough.
I start thinking about my dilemma again, the reason I'm in this situation is because of my parents' deaths. I stand up and make my way over to the desk in the far corner of my room. The letter to the Duke won't write itself and I need help. I don't know who else to go to.
I slide open the drawer on the left side, the loud creaking of this drawer really gets on my nerves. From it, I pull out a blank sheet of parchment and then close the drawer. I open the top drawer that traces on the under edge of the entire desk and pull out a quill and an ink well. I place the ink well in the ink well hole in the top of the desk. I light a match for my desk lamp and the flame dances gloriously in the dark corner. I touch the flame to the wick and the lamp bursts with light, lighting up the whole corner of the room with glorious yellow light.
I reach for the small oil can sitting on the edge of the desk and pour a small amount into my lamp. As it starts to brighten the light of my lamp, I smile at it, feeling almost as if the light it lighting up my life or making my situation a little less hard.. I look back at the can and realize that it feels quite light. I might need to get it refilled; it is starting to run low on oil. Although, I might not need it to be refilled if everything goes according to my plans. I place the oil can back on the top of the desk where it cannot bother me as I write.
I then set the blank page in front of me and the quill down beside it. I stare at the page wondering how I should start the letter; should I start it by asking for his help? Or should I start by telling him my dilemma? I pick up the quill and give it a quick dunk in the ink well, a few drops of ink splash onto the desk with the movement. Then in the top right corner of the page I start to write. I start by writing "Dear Duke," and then continue on, two generous spaces underneath my first words and start on writing to Duke Charles.
I don't understand why a man is so much more appropriate to be a leader. I think I would have done quite well without a man's help, but I suppose I will have to live with what has happened because the circumstances won't be changing, I think to myself. I will just have to take some time away from this town and think about my decision.
Elena comes back a short while later and prepares my bed for me; she pulls back the covers and arranges my pillows just the way that she knows I like them. She then proceeds to stand next to the bed looking at me and waiting. I smile and nod at her and she nods back at me with a generous smile of her own. She looks pretty when she smiles, she has a very nice smile, and it brightens up any room she is in.
"You can go now Elena, I have some things I still want to finish before I retire for the night." I smile at her wondering what she will do when she leaves me to myself. Will she start doing more chores? Will she finish doing chores? Will she go straight to bed? She does look tired and worn out.
"Okay, my lady, but do not retire too late, we do not want you to be tired for tomorrow. It is a special day you know," Elena inquires with a smile. She is always taking care of me, making sure that I get enough sleep and enough to eat and drink. She is like my mother would have been, always making sure that I am as healthy as I possibly can be. Although, my mother would have most likely been doing it for a different reason altogether, she would have been keeping me healthy so that a man will see fit to marry me, to see fit to ask for my hand and then my family would pay his with dowries for marrying me.
"I won't retire too late, I promise you, Elena, alright? Oh, I had momentarily forgotten about tomorrow's agenda, but thank you for reminding me, I shall not forget again." The promise I make her is genuine, in my heart and my soul. Elena is like my best friend, she has always been here for me, been a mother when I needed someone to talk to and been a father when I needed rules.
"Alright, my lady," Elena sighs reluctantly and bows her head my way then turns to leave, she walks out of my bed chamber, shutting my chamber door quietly behind her.
Finally, I am alone, alone with the letter and my own thoughts. I turn back to my desk, to the letter, and stare down at the not even half started letter in front of me. I have only written two sentences. I still have a lot to write, I better get back to work. I should have written this letter ages ago, why have I only waited until now to contact the Duke? Certainly he would have been able to be of help to me sooner than now, if I had written to him sooner, but I guess it's better late than never. Well at least my parents knew him, they used to tell me stories about their endeavours with him and how kind he treated the pair of them, not just my father.
I pick up the quill and continue writing my letter, to Duke Charles of Anemia. I am finding it particularly hard to pick out just the right words that I want to use. It is quite difficult to explain my predicament and my proposition clearly and in a way that he will understand. Surely I will understand anything that I write, but he will surely not understand my lady jibber jabber and gossip. So I do my very best to just keep it all straight and in words that he will understand.
I don't think that women should be ruled by men. What is supposedly so wrong with women that we can't make decisions on our own for our own futures? I haven't seen anything wrong with the women I have seen so far, but yet their husbands all own them and they have only the free-will their husbands allow them. It is so unfair for women to be treated like property and not be instead respected by men.
Once I am finished writing my letter to the Duke, that seemed to take ages to write and even more time thinking of the right words to use, I find a suitable envelope to put it in and strike a match to light the candle on the right corner of my desk. I pull out of the same drawer that I got the parchment from, a thick stick of red wax.
I carefully fold the letter into three and melt the very tip of the red wax stick. I drop a few drops of the melted wax onto my letter to seal the fold in the middle. Then, just as carefully, I place the letter inside the envelope and melt the tip of the red wax stick a second time. I dap one, two, three times in the middle of the envelope to stick the flap down shut. When the Duke gets it, he will certainly know if someone was snooping around in his mail.
I quickly scribble on the front of the envelope Duke Charles and then I walk over to the basket nestled neatly next to my bed chamber door and put the envelope face down into it. It is my mail bin, whenever I put letters in it, my personal mail deliverer, Arthur, looks at the name and because he knows me so well, he knows exactly where to bring it and brings it there for me. Arthur works hard, just as hard as any service person I pay to does. I walk back over to my desk, push the chair back into place and blow out the lit candle. I also turn the knob on my oil lamp that puts out the flame immediately and then the room goes dark.
I walk over to my bed chamber window and open the curtains. I look out into the night. The half moon is low in the sky and it does not seem to be too late, around half passed seven maybe. The moon is shining bright in the darkness of the sky, lighting up the dark streets. I can see trees swaying slightly in the distance, there must be some wind outside tonight, maybe a nice cool breeze. Oh how I wish I could be out there under the stars, watching as they shine brighter with the lack of light around me. Laying on the grass quietly and listening to the sounds of wild animals in the distance, communicating about their next meal.
I would lay there all night long listening to everything, and feeling happy about what I am hearing, the sounds of wildlife, the swaying of the trees. When morning starts to break the horizon, I would see the sun rising. I would see the beautiful colours and the streaking across the sky. I would feel the cool night breeze turn warmer from the sun as it climbs higher into the sky. I step away from my window and close the curtains, tightly pinning them together.
I shuffle to my bed, being careful not to slip or trip over anything in the darkness. I sit on my bed and swing my legs up into it and I pull my blankets over me. I shuffle around a little to get comfortable and close my eyes. It feels like it has been ages since I last slept and with that thought, my mind grows fuzzy and another world pops free inside my head.
Hey guys!!!! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!!!!!! I'm really excited for this book!!!!!! PLEASE COMMENT YOU OPINION ON THIS CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!! AND PLESE IF YOU ENJOYED VOTE!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING YOU GUYS!!!!!!! AND A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF MY FOLLOWERS AND TO ALL THE LOVELY PEOPLE THAT HAVE GIVEN ME FEEDBACK ON MY WRITING. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!! YOU'RE ALL SUCH AMAZING PEOPLE!!!!!! NEVER FORGET THAT!!!!!