I Am Bree - Book 1

Chapter 7 - Adella

Due to my sisters' constant bragging of how little they ate, I had expected their trays to be lighter weights than Mother's. I couldn't have been more mistaken. On my way up the stairs, I had to pause and rest for several moments before my arms gave out.

Hah! It was little wonder they had to let their gowns out by the inches every year. Mother was constantly saying she was worrying they were starving. They could have lived for a year without eating and still lived, and the food they didn't eat in that year would have fed every person in Lund.

Flora and Annabella were a simple matter of delivering the breakfast tray and listening to their pointless chatter until they dismissed me. It was no simple matter to wade through the garbage piled on their bedroom floors with their breakfast trays in hand, but I managed it without mishap.

Adella, however, was another matter entirely. Delayed by the other girls' prattle, I was forced to fairly run up the stairs with my heavy burden—the heaviest of all the tray at that. The fact that I didn't know what punishment might be sent my way if I were late gave me renewed strength.

Pausing at the door, I tapped lightly. There must have been a full minute that passed while I tried to catch my breath, but no answer came from beyond the door. I knocked again, a little louder. Still, no answer. I stood there in the hall, my arms shaking violently and causing the porcelain to clink together.

"Enter." There was no mistaking the command. She knew her position over me all too well.

I must have fumbled with the door for a full give minutes before it gave way into her room. The other girls weren't afraid to give me orders and to lord my new position over me, but they weren't as conniving and malicious as Adella. I would have gone so far as to say that no one in all of Lund—and possibly Falea—was as bent on dominating others with her cruelty.

Adella was fiercely authoritative and could even get Flora and Annabella to do what she wanted—something even Mother couldn't manage half the time. She didn't have 'dreams' like the rest of humanity. She had never wanted something long enough to dream about it. Everything she ever wanted had been handed to her without question since her birth.

Possibly the only thing she hadn't accomplished, the only thing that remained out of her grasp at the moment, was her desire to marry Prince Aidan. She had aspired to have him since the moment she laid eyes upon him, and anyone who dared get in her way, was doomed to feel the formidable pain of her wrath. Honestly, if the prince wanted her, he could have her, and more power to him.

"I assume Mamma and the others have already eaten?" She raised a brow and stared at me until I wanted to sink through the floor to escape her.

Her's was not a gave anyone could withstand for long. It was a mixture of her hatred for the rest of humanity and her imagined superiority. I hadn't met anyone but Greta who could hold that glare for long, and Greta had later confessed to me that she had had chills running the length of her spine for hours after the encounter.

"Yes, milady." I was careful to remember the title with her. The other girls might be too stupid to notice if I slipped into my old ways, but she wasn't.

"Ah, yes. I was always glad my room was at the end of the hall. It's so much better to be starving when breakfast arrives." She took a bite. An elephant could have managed such a bite with trouble, but she hardly chewed before swallowed. "I expect you've left Mamma's list incomplete. How silly of her to allow you to go unpunished. I wouldn't have done such a thing." She sniffed and slurped her tea with all the grace of a sloth. "After you've finished with it, though, you must remember to go through my closet and sort out all my gowns. I don't want a tear or run in any of them. We might not be going to the ball this year, but I shall be all the better prepared for the next if we begin an inventory now."

She would have all new gowns if we attended the ball next year, of course. She wanted me to have to do extra work. She wanted me to fail.

Lightly dusting her lips with her napkin, she continued to cram her breakfast into her mouth without pause. "Get a dress out for me. I've of a mind to go with Annabella on her visits. She's bound to bungle something or talk too much. She always does."

Biting my tongue against a reply, I went to her closet and opened the twin doors. The closet could have fit my tower room inside it with ease. In fact, Ava, Greta, and I could have live in there without making each other uncomfortable.

"Get me the dark mauve one. Our black gowns may not be ready yet, but we still must be wearing something dark." I got the dress and made my way to lay it on her toilet table. "No, no, wair." I stopped and turned. Her head was tilted to the side in an imitation of some ludicrous bird. "No," she said again, slowly and deliberately. "Get out the grey one. I think it suits mourning much better, don't you?" Her gaze shifted to my face, and I realized she was looking for any hint of emotion at the mention of mourning.

I turned away, biting my lips so hard I tasted blood. I vowed then that I would never let her see me weakened by a show of emotion on anything. It would only flame the fire and give her something more to hold over me, to taunt me with. As of yet, I didn't think she'd ever shed a tear in her life, and I didn't believe she ever intended to. No, if she wanted something or lost it, she'd keep fighting until she got it, and if she couldn't, then she would find ways to make the people around her pay, and then they would regret ever incurring her anger.

"Whatever milady thinks." My voice held no hint of emotion, no change of tone. In her presence, I would be a mechanical creature without feeling or thought. How foolishly naive I was to believe I could hold up such an act forever.

"Good, then get it, and hurry. I have a feeling Annabella will want to start early." She smiled suddenly, but there was no real happiness in the expression.

I was forced to get out her entire apparel for the day, and she sent me back at least once for each item. I had never met anyone who owned so many pairs of shoes, and she sent me back so many times for different pairs that my head began to ache with all the turning about. By the time I had finished, the grandfather clock in the hall had struck half past eleven.

"You may go now." She stepped out of bed and waved an indifferent hand in my general direction. I scurried away before she had time to change her mind and was just descending the stairs when Mother exited her room.

"I'm glad I caught you here, Angela." She smiled that waxy smile, and I almost visibly shuddered. "You forgot the gowns from my room. Here." She handed me a large pile of crumpled, black gowns, gloves, bonnets, and a number of other things I couldn't distinguish. "Did you collect the girls' things?" She queried. "If not, hurry and get them. Annabella needs to leave, and I imagine Adella will be going with her, so they won't have time to give them to you later." She smiled again. "Also, that list I gave you, I'd like you to complete it before you come to me tomorrow morning. If it isn't, I'm afraid we'll be taking disciplinary measures to prevent you from ever failing me in such a way again."

She moved past me as gracefully as her figure could manage, and I staggered off to the washroom. I spent my entire day there, pressing and ironing and mending the moth-eaten mourning gowns for my family. Upon reaching the laundry room, I quickly checked to make sure no one was present before I allowed myself to collapse in a pile of tears. My new life had begun.

There we have it. Not a very eventful chapter, I know, but I think it is a helpful one for later events of this story. I'm going to try to get more of this particular book up in the near future, so we can get more into it instead of staying in an introductorial place. . .The next chapter will take us a lot further into things, so I'm pretty excited for that!!

Hope y'all enjoyed! Until next time!!!