Adelaide

An orphaned girl living in a medieval fief struggles to keep her young sister as well as herself safe from the many obstacles that are thrown in their way.

It was a cold fall morning in the year 1325, with fierce wind that whipped around my mangled brown hair. Rain was pounding down, but I still had to work in my small English village. Oh, how I wish I could be back in my tiny hut! Although wasn't much warmer in there than it was out here, the thin walls kept out most of the wind and rain. "Oh no!" I thought as my steward, Tom William, rounded the corner. He was an arrogant man with long brown hair and cruel green eyes. He thinks of us peasants as nuisances. I'm sure that if he had it his way, he would kill us all and sell the land we lived on. He rarely spoke to a peasant, so when he called me over, I nearly fell over in shock. "Yes, Sir?" I managed to stammer. "I need you to go to town with me," he replied with no further explanation. The idea obviously disgusted him, and he made no effort to hide that. "Of course. But, why me?" I asked as loudly as I could manage. "It must be you! Don't ask questions, just do as you're told!" he barked. In reply, I asked yet another question, "When?" He pondered this for a moment before ordering, "Now! Go pack your things up and come right back here!" I nod as I rushed back to my hut to get my things.

When I get to my hut, I'm pleased to see my five-year-old little sister sitting on our only straw mattress eating a small piece of bread. She's more mature than other girls her age. She looks different, too. She doesn't have the regular brown hair and green eyes; she has light blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. Since our mother died giving birth to her, she never had a name. My little sister had been through way too much tragedy for a five-year-old. Our father was a thief, so he was publicly executed soon after our mother died. We were left orphaned with no one willing to care for us. Tom William had told me that if I couldn't do all my work and take care of my sister, then we would both be killed. I usually leave my sister home to cook and clean our hut and a few other peasants huts. She makes a decent profit off of her housekeeping business, so I don't make her work in the fields. I take care of my parents’ old jobs as well as my sister's and my own.

"I have to leave for a little while," I told my sister, attempting to hide my fear for her sake. Unfortunately, she noticed my unease and frowned. She looked at me for a moment and her dark brown eyes seemed to read my mind. She smiled and silently came toward me. She held my hand and said, "You'll be okay. I'll pack your things, you just sit down." I didn't object. My sister finished packing up all my stuff in under a minute. I had nearly nothing; just a small torn blanket, a spare pair of wool socks, two slices of bread, and a small chunk of goat cheese. Everything was nicely placed in a small straw basket. “Thank you. I promise I’ll be back soon,” I told her as she gave me a big hug. “Now, go. I’m sure someone’s waiting for you,” she said, gesturing outside. I agreed, but she literally had to shove me out of the door to get me to leave.

I gave her one last wave goodbye before running back to my steward. “We must be on our way,” he said coolly as he grabbed me by the top of my dress and began to pull me toward his manor. “What do we need in town?” I asked quietly. “We are not getting anything. Someone else is getting you. You’re one of my most able serfs, and I can get a lot of money out of you,” he answered. “What?” I screamed without hesitation. I completely forgot that Tom would kill me at the slightest provocation. Tom looked furious as he boomed, “You will not back talk me!” And before I knew what hit me, I was on the ground. Tom had hit me, apparently. I was just about to yell at him for making my lip bleed, but I then remember something my sister told me just a few months ago: “You had better learn to hold your tongue or you’ll get us both killed!” So instead, I stood up and sprinted back to my hut. Tom was caught off guard, so I had a decent lead on him. I told my sister to hide immediately and she did so not a moment too soon. Just then Tom barged into my hut, picked me up, and threw me on the ground. Pain shot up my left arm as it slammed into the hard ground. I wanted to cry out in pain, but I refused to give him that satisfaction. I stayed on the ground for a minute to regain my composure and see how bad my shoulder was. I took a few deep breaths before I said, “Sir, I don’t think it’s me you want. There are plenty of able bodied young men you could take instead. They will be worth more than I will be.” He thought about this for a moment and then said, “I don’t care. You and your sister are a hindrance to society. Your sister will be easy to kill off with what seemed like an accident. But you know how to survive. Your death would result in suspicion.”

I stared at him with extreme hatred. This was so much to process! How were we hindrance? I’ve done so much work over the years; it was as if my parents hadn’t even die! I’d done everything I could to make it seem like nothing had changed. I really wanted to tell Tom this, but I was quite frightened of him at the moment. So instead, I calmly suggested, “If I did more work in the fields, do you think my sister and could stay here. “We’ll see,” he answered. That was all I could have hoped for. Obviously he wasn’t going to say yes straight up, so this was the best response I could have gotten from him. I suppressed a smile as we began to walk toward town.

For what must have been many hours, we walked in silence. Occasionally, Tom would glance at me with two expressions that I had never seen before on his face: sympathy and admiration. But, whenever he did, I would stare at him intensely until he looked away. Finally, he told me that we had to camp for the night. My feet were aching terribly, but I told him that I could keep walking if he wasn’t too tired. He gruffly replied, “I’m not tired, but it’s getting too dark to see the road.” I couldn’t hold back a smirk. He shoved me. But not with the intention of causing me pain, instead it was almost... playful.

After that, I wasn’t quite as afraid of him as I once was. And after that, he would never hold my gaze- even for a moment. I began to think that he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. But then I remembered that he was going to sell me into slavery and kill my sister.

When we woke up, Tom told me that we would be there in a few hours if we started now. So we started immediately. “Tom, can I do anything that can convince you to take me back home and spare my sister?” I asked. I knew it was completely hopeless, but I was hoping just the same. “Actually, there might be,” he admitted, “Have you ever met my daughter?” I have met his daughter, Victoria, once before. She had plenty of everything, which made me despise her because all of the peasants, like me, had so little. She was very pretty and dressed in fine silk gowns. Victoria looked almost exactly like her mother- long jet black hair that is always pulled back in a braid, light brown skin, and hazel eyes. “Yes, I’ve met her once,” I answered. He smiled at this. “Well, I think you’re about her age. She’s fourteen. How old are you?” Tom asked. “I think I’m twelve or thirteen,” I replied. I honestly didn’t know my precise age. “She is not allowed to make contact with the peasants, and she has never been outside of my manor before. She’s desperately lonely and wants a friend her age. Perhaps if you and your sister want to live in a small room in our castle and be our servants, I wouldn’t sell you or kill your sister,” he said slowly. This was too good to be true. There has to be a catch. Being servants isn’t exactly a new thing for my family. “Sir, she has made contact with peasants before, because I met her when she was ten. She gave me a small amount of money when my mother died, but then you made me give most of it back as a death tax,” I told him. “That was the only time. And she still hasn’t stopped telling me how much she wishes she could go back,” he said. “I’ll do it,” I whispered quickly before I could change my mind. “On one condition,” he said with a malevolent smile.

We jogged for four hours before we finally arrived back home. Tom still hadn’t told me what the condition was. “Victoria!” he bellowed. After about a minute, I heard Victoria’s graceful feet running toward us. “Yes, Father?” she asked, trying her hardest to act like she didn’t notice me. “I brought you another servant,” he told her happily. “Another servant?” Victoria and I asked at the same time. “How many servants does she have?” I asked angrily. “Your sister has already been brought to my castle. “Well, does she have a name?” Victoria asked. “No, I’ve never had a need for one,” I told her honestly. After thinking about this for a moment, she exclaimed, “Adelaide! That’s your name now.” I groaned on the inside, but smiled on the outside. “Great,” I said half-heartedly. “Well, come on. Let’s go see your sister, Eleanore,” Victoria ordered me. “Okay. But first, what are my jobs around here?” I asked. “Nothing, all I want you to do is spend time with me,” she answered.

“Excellent. Where’s my room?” I asked. “I’m taking you there right now. You are to share the room with your sister,” she informed me. I smiled at Victoria, causing her to giggle. When I opened the door to my room, I have to admit that it isn’t how I imagined it. The room has stone floor, walls, and ceiling. I think it was once part of a dungeon. There are two cots and one dresser inside. But at least Eleanore was there. Just then, my little sister ran into my arms. “Hello, sister! I’m so glad you came back,” Eleanore squealed. “Here name is Adelaide now,” Victoria told her softly. Eleanore smiled and that was when I began to think that my life might mot be too bad. 

Author's Note

This was written years ago soooooo

Reviews

[SmileBig :)]

I like this, and I like some of your word choices. If you read it out loud, I noticed it flows quite well, however, you used words multiple times. Maybe expand your word choice. Also, I've noticed some spelling errors. It doesn't take away from the story itself, but I thought I should let you know, so maybe you could go back through and fix some spelling as well as grammatical errors. As far as the plot goes, its very well put together and it's obvious you spent time on it. Over all, I find this a very good piece.

[Megan Simpson]

Thank you! I will edit the errors ASAP. I really appreciate you reading my work.

[SmileBig :)]

Yea, sure no problem :) just send me a read request if you want me to read something :)

[M.E.Lyle]

I like this too, it's very heart warming. You use great words in great ways. You do need to go through and pick up a few missing conjunctions, a few pronouns, and correct a few spelling errors.
I got a little confused near the end. It was almost as though you got in a hurry to finish it and rushed the ending. The conversations between characters seemed to mix together. I had trouble figuring out who was saying what. All-in-all, however, the concept and story line are great. I think you're on the right path.

[Megan Simpson]

Thank you! This was originally a school project that could only be a certain legnth. I'm used to writing novels, so I did kind of rush the ending to fit that requirement. I'm going to edit (and legthen it) soon.

[M.E.Lyle]

I figured it must have been something like that. It seemed to just rush up all of a sudden. Good job though. I bet you made a pretty good grade with it.

[Megan Simpson]

Thanks! I did :)

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

A wonderful story. You may want to finely sift through your words and add a few missing words like and or etc. Very good work. Wish I could write stories.

[Megan Simpson]

Thanks! I'm going to edit it soon.

[EvilIsRelative]

In my opinion, your best story yet. (Even counting the one about me!)

[Megan Simpson]

Thanks! I'm going to write more short historical fiction stories. Working on one right now.