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Post by Celiira on Aug 11, 2017 2:25:40 GMT
It didn’t seem quite fair to Celiira that she had to share a room with another candidate. She was a married woman. Her husband was a minor lord in a lesser holding, to be certain, but she was a Lady in her own right, and here she was in what amounted to a cot in a small room.
There wasn’t anything in the room that was new, or anything other than common. The bedding had been laundered to softness, rather than having started soft, and the rug on the floor was tattered and threadbare in the higher traffic areas. How many years had this thing lain here? When was the last time it had been taken out and beaten?
Celiira rolled over, curling her lip in disgust as the bed creaked from the slight motion. Cheap furnishings, too. Wasn’t the Weyr supposed to be swimming in luxury? Shouldn’t these things be better maintained, if not outright replaced? The mattress was thin, as were the pillows, and she could not get comfortable. She looked over at her maid and saw that the girl was all but asleep.
“Feena.” She said the girl’s name loudly, then continued softer. “Feena… give me one of your pillows. This bed is not as soft as I’m accustomed do.”
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Post by Feena on Aug 11, 2017 2:27:11 GMT
Feena was warm, and comfortable, and drowsy. She’d eaten well at the candidate’s dinner, much better than she’d eaten as a drudge, both in quality and quantity. As a result, she felt heavy and full and filled with a quite sense of rightness. She was sure there was a word for it, but she was too sleepy to really think about it.
She heard her Lady, Celiira, say her name, and as accustomed as she was to servitude, she roused. Not waking up when called – by name or simply at a shout of ‘you there’ – could lead a drudge to a beating faster than a dragon went between.
“Yes, Lady?” She mumbled sleepily as she stood up. Whatever the Lady had said, she would have to repeat. Feena hoped she wouldn’t be too upset.
“Give me one of your pillows.”
Pillow. Right. Of course. Feena pulled one of the pillows from her cot and brought it across the small room to Celiira. The floor was covered with a warm rug, and the night was not so cool that the temperature woke the ex-maid from her doze. She held the pillow out to Celiira, hoping that was what her Lady wanted, and all that her Lady wanted, so that she could go back to her warm, soft bed.
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Post by Celiira on Aug 11, 2017 2:29:09 GMT
Lazy! Celiira scowled as her maid slowly got up, and mumbled something. Celiira rolled her eyes, and repeated herself.
"Give me one of your pillows."
Half asleep and useless! When the girl held out the pillow, Celiira snatched it ungratefully out of her hand and stuffed it under the two pillows she already had.
“These beds aren’t soft at all! I can feel every lump in the mattress.” Celiira shifted, causing the bed to creak again. “I don’t know how I’m going to sleep at all.”
The maid just stood there, half asleep, in the too-large nightclothes the weyr had provided when they learned that she didn’t have any pajamas of her own. “I suppose you like it. You’re not used to any luxury, Feena.”
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Post by Feena on Aug 11, 2017 2:29:57 GMT
Feena blinked owlishly at the upper-class woman in the bed before her, complaining about their lodging.
“It seems soft to me, Lady.” She said with a yawn, and turned back to her bed. She didn’t say anything else, because she didn’t have anything else to say. She didn’t wait to be dismissed. It was past lights-out, and they’d been told that they had duties and would be expected to adhere to a schedule. That wasn’t anything new to her, and the number of hours they were allowed – no, expected, to sleep was more than Feena had been getting since she started as a Lady’s maid, and she was really looking forward to it.
If Celiira was mad… well, her Lady could yell at her in the morning. Her warm bed with its single pillow was calling, and she was so sleepy… “I hope you sleep well.” She mumbled as she pulled the blankets up to her ears.
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Post by Celiira on Aug 11, 2017 2:30:26 GMT
Celiira turned in the bed again and glared at the girl, who’d gone back to her cot and seemed to have gone right to sleep after muttering about ‘hoping’ she slept well. Who could sleep well in these conditions? Thin mattress. Thin pillows. Thin blankets. Cheap.
She turned over and faced the wall. She hadn’t had a bed to herself since before her wedding. Her husband never went on trips. Never was gone overnight, not once in the turn they’d been married. Useless. He hadn’t even been able to get her with child. Not that she’d been looking forward to pregnancy, but in a turn, she should have been. He was a failure of a man, and she wasn’t going to let him drag her down with him.
Celiira glared at the wall for a long time, plotting and planning silently within her own mind. The first light of false dawn was creeping down the hall before sleep finally came for the Lady.
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