This is just a little story I did for a short-story contest, it needs a lot of work, but I wanted to post something to get this blog started, and this was the best thing I can think of for now.
I hope you like it!
What's best for you, or what you want best?…
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"...Imprudent, disrespectful, mindless, lazy, rebellious oaf! How dare you tell me what is best for me! Your only concern is for what I want best, do you understand?" The lady in question made a startling sight, as she sat on her unmade bed, with her dressing gown looking as if someone had forgotten to hang it up to dry, and it was more wrinkled then a dried pea, the bright purple making a sharp contrast with the woman’s sickly yellow skin. The room was an old fashioned one, but no one would ever look down on it for that reason, as it was far nicer then most of the people in the kingdom would ever see, with an enormous bed, covered with so many embroidered pillows, sheets, and blankets that she was quite lost in them all. The furniture was made of dark, finely engraved wood, but so dusty it looked like there had been a miniature snowstorm inside her room. The walls were covered with portraits of her relatives, past and present, from laughing little girls outside in the garden, to hunchbacked old men sitting at their desks. None of them quite matched her, though, with her almost bald head, with whatever hair there was left being brassy black, and how you could see her bones through her gown. She looked as good as dead, except for her outraged blue eyes. The most shocking thing of all, though, was that she was less then thirty years old.
“I was sent t’ take care of yer miserable self, an’ that’s what I intend to do, and I’ll succeed. Ye’ll find that I’m ain’t go’in to be sceered off so easily, ney ma’am, ye won’t!” So said the focus of the lady’s outrage, glaring back like an angered cat. She was a small peasant girl, with hair like a tumbleweed, a nose that shared the background of a raspberry, and deep ghostly eyes. She stomped her tanned bare foot, and the skirt of her new red servants dress shook.
“Where are your shoes! Gone and lost them already, have you, ungrateful waif!” The thing in the bed pointed her witchlike finger at the girl’s feet, and sneered at her with a triumphant expression.
“Weel, ma’am, I never got any, they said there wouldn’t be any more for months yet, after yer family used all the leather to recover yer useless, station defining furniture, non left, ye see, ma’am.” The girl said slowly, as if she was explaining something to her little siblings.
“ What did you say your name was, peasant?”
“Calanthe, Ma’am.”
“Well, you ugly old weed, why don’t you just do what you were sent here for and keep quiet. After all, you heartless people couldn’t know what its like to have your heart broken.” The wrinkled eggplant in the bed sighed dramatically, and fell back on her pillows.
The practical peasant girl knew she had said all she could get away with, and shut her mouth. A half hour later, when the person in the bed opened her eyes, she stared at the room with shock. Everything had been taken out, and the smell of cleaning hit her like a wave. The windows were open, and a breeze was whistling though. The most shocking thing of all, though, was the girl standing there, with a large basket in her hand, as she started to pull everything off her bed with startling speed. Before she could decide what to say, everything was off the bed, and into the basket.
And she was next.
The girl picked her up like a bundle of straw, and dumped her into a blanket lined cart. The victim was unable to stop her, as she pushed her out of the room, down the hall, and out the back door!
At first the patient screamed insults and threats at the cart pusher. When that had no effect, she try yelling to the other servants and her family for help, but they didn’t care what happened to her anymore, as long as it didn’t disgrace them, so her calls want unheeded, and she lapsed into sullen silence. As the strange pair crossed the lawn, many amused eyes fallowed them. Their first stop was at the stables.
As they came to the gate, the head groomsmen came to open it for them. He swung it open wide, the bottom edge scraping the cobbles. He was wearing a ridiculous hat made of gray and red striped felt, which could be best described as a honeycomb cell, so tall that it caused him to walk with a stilted gait, his head tipped at an amazing angle.
“Hello ladies, out for a stroll?” He asked, trying to hid his amusement, and failing quite pathetically, as his graying corkscrew mustache shook, and his eyes shined and shimmered like the surface of the ocean on a clear summers day.
The lassie smiled at the queer man, while her mistress wouldn’t even look up. The groomsmen’s eyes softened as he looked at her, and called out to them as they walked on,
“Go visit the foals, such a nice day, they would be happy to have visitors.” He had seen what no one else but the girl had seen, a hopeless, deluded soul in that self-crippled body. The last thing he saw was the girl’s wave as they disappeared.
The stables were quite impressive, standing strong though the centuries of weather, wars, and wear, the stones standing like solders, from the courtyard to the stalls to the hayloft, the whole thing strongly resembling the mansion itself, worthy of the term castle in every respect. The pair went into the nearest pasture, and within a minute were surrounded by the foals and their mothers. They were all sizes, from a tiny pony foal that looked just like a terrier, to a draft mother that might as well have been a golden mountain.
The women in the cart squeaked as a brave dun pony sniffed her hand.
“Save me! It’s going to hurt me, oh help!” The girl took the lady’s hand and ran it over the beast’s neck, as the lady kept her eyes tightly closed. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and looked, first at the girl, then at the horse, and when she released her hand, she stroked him a few more times, a look in her face like the one of a person who had everything taken from them in a horrible way. Then her eyes closed, and her head dropped again.
A few minutes later, you found them in the forest, resting as the birds exchanged news over their heads, and furry animals of all kinds peered out at them from the trees. Then, the cart-ridden being realized that she was all alone. But before she could decide weather she wanted to scream or keep as quite as possible, the girl was back, and she handed her a armful of flowers. She didn’t know what to think, so she decided not to.
When they got back into the manor, the other servants had a tub of hot water ready, and with no hesitation, the girl tossed her right in. The girl scrubbed and rinsed her all over until she was finally clean, and took her out and dressed her in a clean gown. After that she brushed and braided what was left of her hair. The lady felt it, and gave a grunt of assent. Finally, she was wheeled back up to her room, and was left outside the door until the girl had it all fixed. When she was put back in bed at last, she looked around the room to see the damages.
Only the useful things had been returned, and so the only things left were the bed, with clean sheets and coverings, only as much as she actually needed. The dressing table was left, as was the dresser, and a few other things that were needed, everything else was gone, except for the portraits, the girl couldn’t bring herself to touch those.
The girl left, and returned a few minutes later, baring a tray with a glass of milk and a bowl of ‘Everything Soup’. She waited ’til the lady was done, and took it away.
A few minutes later she was back, and went around the room checking everything, as the lady looked on. Finally she seemed done, and then her face lit up as she remembered something and swished out the door. She returned with a cane, which she leaned up against the wall next to her bed.
She made her way to the front of the bed and made a deep curtsey, signifying her departure, and then left, having never said a word!
After she was out of hearing, the person in bed started to talk to one of the portraits, one of a beautiful women in a conservatory, her face among the flowers.
“Have you ever seen such a thing! So rude! The rudest thing I ever saw, to be sure! Why, Calanthe-that is a lovely name, in any case-is the most inconsiderate thing I’ve ever known! Don’t you agree, Grandmother?” Her words were harsh, but her voice was gentle. “I need to see about getting her some shoes. I must ask if she will call me Acacia, no one else calls me by my name, ’twold be nice to hear it again. My word, she left the window closed on a beautiful night like this! How careless!”
And with that, the person who hadn’t walked by herself in almost ten years picked up the cane, walked across the room, and opened the window!
