Through a Slave's Eyes, Alice Arbuthnot [world of reading txt] 📗

The next day I told Selein about Ky. She was so shocked she couldn't speak, which was very unlike her. We sat in silence for a while at the servants table. It was a couple hours after lunch, all the dishes were already done and the kids were in their rooms packing for school the next day; so we had some extra time to spare.
After sitting quietly for a while she started mumbling something about how he got in and how he found it to herself. "Georgia?" I looked up to see Jenny standing in the doorway, "Mrs. Welch needs you for something Dearie" her voice sweet and face calm.
I ignored my thoughts of Conner running up the stairs as approached Mrs. Welch's room. "Madam?" I said slowly opening the door. "Ah, Georgia" she said turning to see me, "come help me with my corset." I came in and saw Mrs. Welch standing in front of a mirror holding the thing in her hand. I hated this job but I came in and helped anyway.
Since the kids were heading back to school I'd be back to my regular job of Mrs. Welch's hand-maiden. "Not so tight" she croaked as tugged a little too far. When I finished she told me to fetch the 'stable boy' (Ky) and have him rig the horses to the coach and that we were going into town. Giving a curtsy and a "Yes Madam" I headed off to the stables.
Within the hour Mrs. Welch, Ky, and me were heading towards the city for some meeting she had to attend. Ky sat on the seat in front controlling the horses while Mrs. Welch and me in the closed car on opposite sides. She sat fanning herself in her lacy dress. I looked down at my own dress, it was brown with a white belt and stripes of white on the ends of the short sleeves. It was the only nice dress I owned and I could only wear it into town, which was fine by me cause I hated it.
I sat outside the meeting hall aimlessly playing with my brown ringlets as I waited for Mrs. Welch. I was so zoned out I barely notice Ky plop down beside me on the bench. He stared at me with his instance blue eyes forcing me out of my daze. I looked up at him, "He hid it in your dresser drawer" he said after a moment. "I snuck in and took it, then while Mrs. Welch was out with Mr. Welch I snuck it back into her jewelry box."
My eyes drifted to the ground, not knowing what to say. After a moment I smiled slowly and looked back at him, "Why...how did you.." I stammered out. Thankfully he understood, "Word gets around pretty fast when nothing good never happens" he said smiling sympathetically at me. "No one needs to get lashed at all, much less for something they didn't do." My cheeks got a little warm as I smiled at him, "Thank you." He smiled back at me and nodded as he rose and walked back to care for the thirsty horses.
Not long after that Mrs. Welch came out with a flood of other people. I stood up and followed her back to the coach. Ky waited there for us, opening the door and extending his hand as Mrs. Welch drew near. Helping her up the two steps into the coach then turning to me with a knowing smile and the same extended hand.

With the kids back at school I went back into my fixed routine of helping Mrs. Welch. Drawing baths, calling the gardener, and corseting her, among other things.
One day, two weeks after the kids were gone, Mr. and Mrs. Welch were discussing throwing a party over dinner. I stood along the wall holding a pitcher of some juice concoction as I listened. "We'll have the stable boy and maybe a few other slaves do valet parking,” Said Mr. Welch, “and bring in some caterers, and the kitchen maids can serve.” I thought for a moment about Jenny walking through crowds of people with a tray of glasses on her shoulder and I knew right then it wouldn’t end well. “Or maybe just our female servants around thirty and younger” he finished swirling his glass. That be better, but I didn’t know if my balance was any better than Jenny’s.
Mrs. Welch held up her empty glass and I moved forward topping it off with the concoction and moved back to the wall. “Hm, well I don’t know Richard.” Said Mrs. Welch, “It could be a ball” he replied. A smile slowly appeared on Mrs. Welch’s face, “Georgia” “Yes Madam” I replied, “Call and get some templates for invitations.”

*****

Mrs. Welch and I chose the template and she sent me to town the next day to drop them off for copying and to be sent out. When I got back to the house it was almost dusk the last bit of their orange sun was sinking in the south over the lake. I sat down on the warm grass and gave Lilly, the horse, an apple from my bag. I wasn’t due back for another hour so I decided to kill some time and watch the sunset.
Not long after I got situated on the bank did I see a shadow appear beside me. Looking up I saw Ky outlined by the blue and dark purple of the evening sky. “Hey” he said smiling as he sat down beside me. “Hi” I replied as I looked back over water. “Watcha’ doin out here?” he asked. “Nuttin’ much” I replied motioning to the sinking orang blob, “watchin the sunset.” “It looks nice but I’ve seen more beautiful” I saw him glance at me out the corner of my eye, “Is that so?” I asked a little amused. “That it is” he said with a smile.
“The sunsets on Kolo were red, and the sky would turn pink and yellow.” I said with a smile of the sweet memory. “Our sun was huge, blue so the sun looked a deeper shade of bluish-purple.” I furrowed my brows letting that sink in, a blue sun? That means… “Wait, your sun was blue?” “I suppose it still is” he said with a chuckle, then he saw my expression, “What’s wrong?” I couldn’t believe it, I knew this planet was out of my system, but so was Ky’s. How far am I from home? “What planet did you say you were from?” “Selder” he replied. I felt sick, Selder was so far from Kolo, which means I’m so far I couldn’t send a message home if I wanted.
“Georgia?” asked Ky, “you don’t look too good.” He put his hand on my back as I laid my head down on my knees, holding back the tears. “Let ‘em go” he said, pulling me into his arms as I wept into his shoulder. I hadn’t cried like this since I woke up in the cart tied and gagged next to Chase, he held me then. I felt drops of warm water wriggling their way through my hair onto my scalp. I looked up to see Ky’s face glistening with tear streaks also. He gave me a sad smile, “I miss it too.” I don’t know if we were thinking of the same ‘it’ but who cares?
After a few minutes we dried up and started the walk back to the house. Our faces cast down as we came in. After washing my face and checking in with Mrs. Welch I headed off to bed downstairs into the make-shift dorm I shared with Selein and a couple other maids named Lynn and Steph. Falling asleep as soon as I hit my bunk…

In my dream my sister Neomi and me were sitting along the bank of a river near our house back when I was nine and she ten. We had left early that morning with our older brother Jason for a fishing trip, but so far we hadn’t done anything but drown a couple worms and a few more crickets. We sat there holding the bamboo poles, giggling as the water tickled our feet.
Jason, twelve at the time, came over to see how we were doing. He gave us a loving, sort of brotherly smile when he saw us, “Your never gunna catch any fish if you keep kicking the water like that” he said with a chuckle. “I canth hep eh, eh ‘ickles my’ ‘eet” I cried indigenously. Jason raised an eyebrow at Neomi, “She said ‘I can’t help it, it tickles my feet.’” “Mhmm” I said in agreement with her as I gave Jason a huge smile showing off the gap right where my two top and two bottom teeth should have been. “Ah” he said giving me a smile of his own, “and when did his happen?” “’Ile you were o’er der” I said pointing down the back where he had been fishing. “Then where are your teeth?” he asked looking around where we sat. I smiled at him again as me and Neomi pulled our lines out of the water, showing a top tooth on my and a bottom on hers. Jason’s jaw dropped to the floor as he noticed the two teeth and hooks beside us. He got an angry look, then his eyes softened and he burst out laughing, doubling over holding his gut. My dream