Words

Elsapatience

I finished helping Cook peel the potatoes and clean and dress the chickens for dinner. Cook kept smacking me on the back of the head with a wooden spoon because I couldn't stop daydreaming. It wasn't my fault as Cook had no interesting news to circulate, and I am easily distracted.
Finally, Cook scooted me out of the kitchen, exasperated.
I eluded Thera, who I suspected was searching the House for me, in order to claim a favor.
I wanted to visit the gardens again. It was the perfect hour of evening, and the very air called me.
But though I'd worn a thick cooking apron in the kitchen, the whole front of my servant uniform was spotted and smelly. I knew Thera might be hanging round the washroom for me, so I very well couldn't wash the silly thing, else I'd never escape.
Reasonably, I imagined the Family and the other servants busy with the dinner I had helped prepare.
So I decided to put on my nightgown and slip outside. It was thick, and if I tied my special blue ribbon around my waist, it looked very like a light evening gown, or so I imagined.
Barefoot, and thoroughly enjoying the soft, cool air against my skin, I skipped through the courtyard and out into my garden. When I reached my swing, I giggled at the thought of Thera or Lady Verna catching sight of me, barefoot and clad in a nightgown. How very scandalous.
From hours of imprisonment in the hot kitchens, the breeze and the dusk and the soft, dreamy light put me in a very silly state, indeed. I swung so high I could just reach out and touch the leaves of the highest oak branch above. Then I slipped off the swing in mid-air and landed in the grass (non too gracefully). And then I just lay there, staring up at the kaleidoscope sky through the dark leaves.
I think I heard a snap somewhere off. Thank goodness, for it brought me back to the place and time. It would be terrible trouble for me if someone were to catch me in the garden here, or caught me on my way back in.
I left the garden with that feeling one gets after waking from a particularly pleasant dream and realizing it is morning.