First Tea

   I had barely managed to stand up before Lady Demton started shrieking at me something about running around in such improper clothing like some hussy and how my heathen ways would not stand in the way of her being companion to the king’s ward, or something like that. My body hurt and now my ears were ringing so I tried to ignore her. Goodness but she had a high voice. I barely managed to roll out of the way before her cane came down hard on the flagstones I’d crumbled down upon again. I knew it did no good to avoid her punishments, they only got worse as she got more angry, but I wasn’t in the mood for more pain. I could deal with her starvation techniques at meals as I had been taught how to summon small amounts of food while in the herd. It was her beatings that I had trouble with.
   “Mrs Demton!!!” a male voice roared from the door behind her and her eyes grew large as saucers before she swallowed and meekly turned to face the man who had introduced us two months ago. “I believe it is time to pack your bags! Go, we will discuss this later. Now!”
   “Yes, My lord, profuse apologies if I have offended you,” the seemingly meekest servant of all murmured just loud enough for him to hear as she curtsied her way out of the room.
   “As for you, my girl, your maid will be coming soon to help you wash. I do not know where you flew off to just now but have been told we owe you a great debt for something not yet explained. I do not know what that means, but I do know you were riding a griffin a long time and that it has been over two months since last you rode anything. Also, that jump could not have helped. Hot water is very good on sore muscles. Relax for a few hours. Mid-meal will be sent up here and before late-meal you will have tea with my sister. She is in her time of isolation and needs some company. Tomorrow you will get a new…companion. For now, rest with our thanks.” He ended as a manservant entered with a nearly over flowing bucket of water on both sides of his neck, hung on a wooden object that reminded me of what had attached the horses to the wagon in the caravan. He dumped both buckets into the washbasin in a corner of the room and left, the well dressed man following him out.
   As soon as they had left Meg stepped out of her spot behind the door chattering about how happy she was they had now left so she could see to me proper-like and how it was so nice of His Lordship to remove that villainous “Lady” from my presence, even if it was after two months. I let her babble wash over me and sooth my mind as she scooped out two smaller bucketfuls of water from the washbasin and hung one above the fire and the other was placed nearby to be ready. When the manservant returned, she took another bucketful of water to put near the fire and after the manservant had finished his third trip to the washbasin with water, she bolted the door and carefully helped me fully undress and slip into the soothing water she had dumped the first two bucketfuls of boiling water into. The water was now delightfully warm and some of the burning in my muscles eased. I was just starting to dose when she brought a light meal to “break my fast,” as they say here, meant to be eaten with my fingers. That done, she washed my hair with the last bucket of boiling water before dumping it into the cooling water. Eventually I got up and dressed in a light night dress and my wrap before hiding my tiny bundle and settling into a fluffy chair to practice my writing and read some before eating the mid-meal, again designed to be easy to eat and for my body to handle.
    As Meg took the tray away, I pulled out my sampler, as Lady Demton had snidely called my attempts at sewing for society instead of functionality. I forced myself to work on it, carefully sewing each letter of the dictations Lady Demton had read to me on how to survive in court, whatever that was. After two lines I deemed that I had done enough and pulled out the book I had chosen the last week in the library. It was about the history of two lands that were always verbally picking at each other and whose courts joined together for two weeks each year at an ancient castle for tournaments of all kinds from swordplay to hairdressing competitions between lady’s maids and sewing competitions among the ladies. My tutor hadn’t wanted me to read such an unlady-like book so I picked up a book on confusing poetry and picked up the history book while she wasn’t looking.
I hadn’t gotten far in the book before Meg reappeared to dress me in more layers than the simple chemise, shift, and dress I’d worn with Lady Demton. For this meeting I wore a chemise, a stiff high belt around my waist that raised my breasts a few inches and made them seem thicker, a shift over that, three layers of what Meg called “petticoats” from my hips down, a dress over all that and another dress over that which had a large opening down the front to show off the first dress under the laces. After all that was put on, Meg did up my hair in a bun that had more curls than I’d known my hair could allow and put on an odd necklace that had a heavy stone pendant in front and a stiff cloth collar behind seeming to hold up the stiff curls. If this was just for tea with a sister, what would late-meal with society be like? All this time Meg was rejoicing in finally being able to dress me as a “proper lady” instead of a servant or such. All this for tea?
   I finally made it down to the lady’s parlor and instantly realized she was in “isolation” because she was pregnant with twins. She couldn’t know they were both boys, she may not even know there were two of them, but they were healthy and would be rascals, one more so than the other. The lady I was to have tea with sat in a large fluffy light purple chair doing embroidery and listening while one of the other ladies read aloud from a book. There were four other ladies in the room, three of them sitting on a soft but not necessarily comfortable red couch embroidering while the one reading sat on a soft orange chair. A servant led me to a yellow couch and I was about to sit before the lady on the purple chair beckoned me to sit closer on the blue fluffy chair. Some look passed between the other ladies in the room but no one said anything as I took the seat and pulled out my embroidery. As I worked on the precise stitches needed to cover the pencil marks Lady Demton had left when she designed my sampler, I glanced at what the others were stitching. The only letters or numbers I saw on those were names, and only those in small print on a corner. One lady was stitching a number of different birds above a simple cottage like those that dot the edge of the Great Forest, another was stitching what appeared to be a man fighting a very bad rendition of a centaur while neither had weapons, and the other was stitching a number of different flowers in some sort of repeating pattern. I also realized the book being read was an adventure, some man riding a horse on some quest or other. It was not a book Lady Demton would have allowed me to read. We sat in that stuffy room for about a half hour before tea came and the lady on the fluffy purple chair ordered the windows be opened slightly. With the tea having arrived, she put down the small blanket she was embroidering a scene of horses in pasture on and everyone else put down their embroidery. Teatime meant conversation and it tended toward family for a while. The lady sitting in the middle of the couch was the oldest of the ladies in the room and seemed to be a grandmother, her youngest grandchild, a boy, had just turned a year old and she was stitching the cottage scene to be the focus of a wedding quilt for her youngest daughter, set to enter society in the next few months. The lady to her right had all her children at school at the moment and seemed to be rather unhappy with her husband, though she didn’t say so aloud. I sensed she was the least intelligent of the ladies present but was not one to anger. The third lady in the room was doing the bad rendition of the centaur and I sensed that though she longed for adventure, she was content with listening to her husband’s stories of his adventures. Unfortunately, her beloved husband was not so thrilled with her and his stories were as false as her idea of a centaur was. The book reader was the quietest, though I guessed more from her lack of high rank than of her own choosing. I was right in sensing the sister was with child. She said it was a recent announcement but as it was her husband’s first child and the first grandchild of her father, she was put in isolation as soon as the announcement had been made to protect the child.
   Once tea was finished she shooed her ladies-in-waiting, whatever that meant, out of the room for a moment to speak to me. “Ariadne said that you should thanked and kept safe for what you did today and so I shall thank you most prettily. My brother informed me that I was to judge your training and decide on a new companion for you as the one he chose was a mistake. I cannot imagine what she would have done to make him admit that but those days are over. Show me your embroidery. Oh dear, where did you find those rules? Oh, never mind. I thought I had ordered that book removed from the library as too old and no longer useful. Those dictates were written years ago by a man who thought morals were being forgotten. A more stuffy book I have never read. Although they are interesting to keep in mind, especially around some of the dowagers who forget what they did years before, for the most part you can ignore these. Find something better to embroider. I shall have you taken to my arts room where you can pick up some cloth and thread to make something else. Also, I believe you are able to eat with the court. Starting tomorrow you will be allowed to eat whenever you want with the court, my brother will assign you a seat. Also, have you learned to dance? No, we shall remedy that. Music? No? That will not do. I shall have my maid look at your wardrobe as well. If your companion chose those, they may need to be replaced quickly, most especially before the ball and the Season starts. Now, I know you can’t speak, but how you look, your other accomplishments, and being my father’s ward should get you a husband quite nicely. Do you paint or sketch or such? No? That must be at least attempted. I’ll speak to my brother and make the arrangements. I do believe you will be more than ready for the ball and the Season it opens. Now, go rest. The footman outside the door will show you to your rooms and my maid will fetch in my ladies for more tedious embroidery. You need not remain here,” she replied with a swish of her hand towards the door.
   I gathered up my embroidery and had stood up before I turned back to her and spoke for the first time in nearly three months. “They are fine, my lady, they are healthy. The babies are, I mean,” I continued at her perplexed expression. As she made no comment, I turned to go. I only got a few steps before she spoke, clearly uncertain whether to believe me or not.
   “Babies? As in plural?”
   “Yes, My Lady, you carry two healthy boys that will be a handful to raise, no matter what age they are.”
   “You are positive? Ariadne could not even tell if one was healthy.”
   “With all due respect to her, she is too distracted by humanity to listen to the words of the world. The stars are silent enough without her trying to interpret them herself.”
   “But you can listen, you hear more than her?”
   “We hear the same things, I just hear fewer things. Her thoughts, her wants, and the demands of others have added so much noise to her mind that she has trouble hearing her inner voice. My thoughts are simple as have my wants always been and no one demands anything from me. Also, I was taught when young to hear only my inner voice when it speaks. It is now my constant companion.”
   “Speaking of speaking, why have you not spoken before?”
   “I am new to this land and still learning the language. My accent can be thick at times and my vocabulary is limited. I often read words I do not understand. I would not like to embarrass your family after all they have done for me.”
   “Hm, yes, I see your point and can think of no reason to tell my brother nor my ladies that you speak. We can do so alone if needed.”
   “Thank you, My Lady. May I continue on my stitching? It may be meaningless words but it is a challenge and will give me time to think of something to stitch in parlors. When I finish this I will start something else.”
   “I see no reason you cannot finish that. You have a point. Tomorrow you will start a number of lessons, I believe I will have you taught how to use a loom as well, another useful thing for a wife to know. Whether you use it or not is up to you. Do you have a preference as to what instrument you learn?”
   “I do not know what an instrument is, my lady.”
   “Hm, good point. I will ask that you learn all of the ones available and tell me which you would prefer at the end of next week. That will give you time to get past any dislike due to awkwardness and decide on the merits of the instrument itself. Anything else?”
   “Could you inform whoever that I may eat at the big table for only one meal a day for awhile?”
   “Hm, less pressure on you to eat there every meal? Yes, yes, I like that. You can get comfortable in society without getting swamped with it too fast. Very well. However, you will eat at least one meal a day at the table downstairs or at my table with my ladies and possibly my husband, brother, and father and their men. The choice of meal is yours but I will not allow you to hide completely anymore. Is that acceptable?”
   “Yes, My Lady.”
   “Lovely, now, what is your name?”
   “I do not remember my human name. The herd called me Star Chaser but that is what they called every young one.”
   “I am sorry for your loss. You must have been very young when they took you in if you do not remember your name. We shall think of something similar. You should go and rest now, you had a busy morning and the next few days will be hard as you adjust to your new schedule.”
   That said I curtsied and left. The footman took me back to my quarters where I pretended to embroider but really just stared at the fabric debating on what to stitch next. Nothing quite felt right, none of the scenes I thought of. Eventually Meg brought the late-meal with word that my day would begin with dancing lessons shortly after I broke my fast in the morning so I should get to sleep early. It felt good to be able to slip into the cushion on my balcony without trying to hide it from my guard of a tutor.