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Sparrow's Song
Genivive pulled back the heavy linen drapes and looked out over the field. It was a beautiful spring day, and the sun was shining warmly. Her thin silk nightgown ruffled in the light breeze coming in through the open window. What she wouldn't give to be out there, running through the fields and smelling the blooming flowers...instead of being inside the cold stone walls of her father's keep. Her father was the Lord of the keep, and the land it overlooked.
"Come away from the window, little sparrow, and get dressed." said Kathrine, Genivive's handmaid. She was twice Genivive's age, in her 40th year, and had been with her since childbirth. She knew better than anyone how Genivive yearned to be free like the other girls her age, and had lovingly called her 'Little Sparrow' since she was very little.
"Must I, Kathrine? It is such a lovely day..." she pleaded, removing her gown and turning her back to her maid. Kathrine came up behind her and began helping Genivive get dressed.
"Your mother has instructed me to make sure you practice your sewing today...she'll tan my hide for sure if you wander off again." Katherine sighed. "You really must find a way to content yourself with your life, little sparrow. Your father is getting furious. You should be betrothed by now...and I should be chasing around your little ones as I once chased you." She said with a kind smile. Genivive knew she was trying to be kind, but she was in no mood to be cheered up.
"Why must I put on these ridiculous garments, anyway? Has my father summoned yet another suitor to come and claim me as their prize?" She said bitterly. Since the day of her 16th birthday, her father had been trying to marry her off to someone or another...a pig of a prince here, a pompous duke there. One by one they had come in hopes of buying her hand marriage, and one by one they had left the castle shortly after their arrival. She was now 20 years old, and her fathers chances at recieving a high dowry were dwindling...putting him in a very sour mood, indeed.
"No, m'Lady, not this day." Katherine said carefully, tightening Genivive's corset. "Though there is word that he has invited the son of a Lord to stay with us for a week, and he is supposed to be arriving in the morning. They say he is very handsome, m'lady."
"What!? Has my pig father not given up his quest to sell me yet? There have been many 'handsome' suitors, but they were as pleasant to be around as a bull with a thorn in his backside." She said, turning her face to look at her handmaid.
"Perhaps they would have been more pleasant if you did not so insist on being that thorn." The handmaid said scoldingly. "Your father wishes to hire more servants for the lords arrival tomorrow, and he has requested you to pick them." This news surprised her more then anything. Her father never asked her opinion.
"A trick, perhaps, to get me to participate in my own auction?" She said, raising an eyebrow at her maid. Katherine's only answer was a shrug.
After she was finished dressing, Genivive looked at herself in the mirror. Her clothes were beautiful, she thought, and very untraditional. She smiled, imagining her father's face turning red with anger when he saw her, and headed towards the main hall.
 Arcasia · Sun Feb 05, 2012 @ 10:52pm · 0 Comments |
