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[attr="class","ctopline"]Round the corner hill

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[attr="class","clyrics"]Looking for the thrill again[break]
Take another bite

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[attr="class","cbody"]Date: Summer 1560[break]
Location: Wright Estate, Selby, North Yorkshire
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It had been a little over a week since she’d arrived at the Wright household and begun her work there. In her mother’s mind, it had been past time. She’d been years younger when her own service had begun, and she had wanted Sasha to do the same. It had been her father’s decision to keep her at home longer. If he had his way, she thought he would have kept her at home much longer, despite her mother’s opinions on the matter. At the end of the day, he was the one that made the decisions and when he had wanted her to stay home a while longer, she had done just that. There had been no way of knowing just what the reasons had been. She just knew that she had to do what her father asked of her, and he’d wanted her at home.
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She hadn’t minded being home, but a part of her was ready to find a household to serve. It was the only way she had a chance of changing her station in life. The people that she knew that had gotten any kind of power in their own lives at all had been because of their good work in whatever household they’d gone to. Stable grooms made stewards, a boy down the street had started as a pot boy and now he was chief cook in the Edwards household. It was the only way to rise in the world, and she couldn’t do that sitting at home.
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Still, she had to wait until her father told her that she could go. At first, she’d had no idea just what he was waiting for. He had been an attentive enough father to her growing up, but certainly not to this extent. They needed the money that she could send home to them if she got herself a position. There was no need to keep her at home, giving them another mouth to feed, if she could work for room and meals, and with hopefully some coins left over to send home. It would depend on the household, certainly, but there was at least a chance of helping her family that way.
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When her father got sick, she realized there might have been other reasons for him to have wanted her to stay at home. Even if they had the money to get to the local doctor at first, she didn’t think that it would have done him any good. In the end, she had sold everything that she could think of, just to get enough to bring him there. It ended up being for nothing. The doctor hadn’t had any answers—had said that he’d seen a few cases like it over the years, but no one knew what it was. They only knew how it ended.
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He had died a few short months later and not long after he’d been buried, her mother had told her that she had found her a position in the Wright household. It was an estate a few towns over—farther than she had ever been, and her mother had only heard about it because one of the neighbor girls had gotten a position there a few years back. She had been a stablehand when she’d started, and now was the maid for the lady of the household. There was no position higher for a woman in any household, unless they moved to a bigger household or a more prominent family. And so, she was to go there and to work in the stables.
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She had hoped that she would learn quickly upon her arrival. She’d had experience with animals—not their own, but she had helped the neighbors out plenty over the years. Surely, they could have found more experienced help, but it had been through her neighbor’s help that she’d been given the position. She had been a little nervous, admittedly. There were plenty of reasons to be, in her mind. Sasha had never been this far from home before. She had only ever known her family, her neighbors—this was going to be so much different than anything she’d experienced.
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When she had gotten to the household, though, she’d gotten news. One of servants in the kitchen had come down with dysentery and had died. They needed him replaced more than they needed another hand in the stables. Cooking was something that she was much more skilled in, so the surprise had been a good one. Unlucky for the man that had died, but lucky for her. And after her father’s death, after her mother’s sudden decision to send her off, she thought that she could use some luck.
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Days since she had gotten here had been much the same. She had risen with the other servants in their quarters, had made up her pallet, and had headed to work in the kitchen. The work was hard, but the cook had told her she’d been doing well. She appreciated the praise—it was good to know that she wasn’t at risk of them replacing her with someone better suited to the position. If she lost her work here, who else would hire her? She didn’t even want to consider it.
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The kitchens had been buzzing with news this morning. The master and mistress’s son was returning from college today. College. It was something that she had not had the privilege to even think about before. University of… oh, what had it been? She’d heard it only hours before, hadn’t she? Canbrige? It had been something like that. She couldn’t even imagine seeing that school, let alone going there. And he would be back here today. The kitchen had quieted in anticipation. Everyone else had gone to clean, to get more food from the market, and the cook had instructed her to cut all of the vegetables that she would need for dinner.
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Humming to herself, she had started on the carrots. She had gotten maybe halfway before glancing up and seeing someone in the doorway. An unfamiliar someone. The son. What happened next was nearly simultaneous. Her startle of surprise, the knife coming down and slicing her finger, and the curse that fell from her lips as she dropped the knife. Her face reddened in embarrassment. “I… sorry, master, sir. You… I didn’t see you standing there, is all.” She stumbled over her apology, barely paying any mind to the cut on her thumb.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]1079 ● Devin Douglas Wright ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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Summer 1560 AU

Wright Estate, Selby, North Yorkshire

Muggle Elizabethan -- Lord Devin Wright

Lord Devin Wright had been fortunate to be the first born son of his most well-to-do parents. Supporters of the Tudor house, there was celebration with the family over the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh. There had been worries that Devin might be asked to leave college to take up a command with Her Majesty's army. Thanks be to the one true Protestant God for that blessing. He did not want to leave Cambridge. His legal trainings were important and interesting. He delighted in the intellectual rigor of the experience.

Not a particularly physical type, Devin meant to keep his hands soft. His tools of the trade were never meant to be weapons of the war. He was to cultivate a living with his mind and with the written words. These are his calling. The young man had never done any sort of manual work. He did not even dress himself in the mornings. But his mind was sharp and he knew the musing of Plato and Aristotle. He was a budding philosopher himself.

Devin was working with like minds to reconcile the Hellenistic philosophy of Epicureanism to Protestant Christianity. It was not a task easily accomplished. Stoicism fell much easier onto the cloth the church wove, but he could not abide that line of thinking. His heart was too full of love and appreciation for the beauty of the world to believe that humans were meant to suffer. Pleasure--especially that of the mental variety--was exquisite. It was surely the true purpose of the human race. Such thoughts were easy for the man to believe, as they matched his chosen life style. Like so many of the wealthy thinkers before him, he sought to reconcile his own values with a moral philosophy. He wanted to be validated in his own righteousness. 

But his father--though well educated--had never cared much for philosophy. The man was of a pragmatic mind and thought philosophy only served to distract his son from the law and his career. So, Devin would be without conversation partner on such topics until he was back at Cambridge in the fall. Oh how, he longed for that. Only a few hours back at home and already he missed the company of the other academics terribly. But there were simple pleasures that could be enjoyed at home. Devin found one such delight in the kitchens...a new girl had been brought onto the house staff while he was away.

She was not as plain as many who worked for them. Her hair was untamed, but her nose was well formed and her lips full. He watched her for a long moment before the weight of his gaze startled her. He would have laughed--or smirked at the very least at the reaction--but the poor thing had managed to cut herself. She had created for him a moment of opportunity. He could look the hero. He could portray compassion. She was mumbling out an apology to him, stumbling over her words. Country girls were so delightfully simple. He waved off her apology. "I did not speak. There was no reason for you to take notice." 

A step was taken her direction and the man furrowed his brow as crimson flowed down her hand. "Come now, you've hurt yourself." He took the handkerchief from his pocket--luxurious smooth silk--and moved to take her hand. "Let me see." He drew her over to the wash basin, urging her to walk with him the few steps with the gentle tug of her arm. Devin guided her hand into the water, letting the clear liquid wash away the thicker crimson. The bowl's contents turned pink and he lifted her hand back out, wrapping the handkerchief around her thumb. "Put pressure there now," he instructed, even as he did so himself, holding her injured hand firmly in his grasp. The cut was not so bad. Just a minor nick. A bit of pressure and it would stop bleeding in no time. 

@ girl • 663 • Non-AU Devin can't believe this outfit 

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","ctopline"]ROUND THE CORNER HILL

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[attr="class","clyrics"]LOOKING FOR THE THRILL AGAIN[break]
TAKE ANOTHER BITE

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[attr="class","cbody"]She hadn’t been sure how work at this household would be. She had known that her job was meant to be in the stables, and that had been both good and bad. What she had been taught about animals had come mostly from her neighbors, and she had never cared for an animal of her own. Her family had never had any animals. Learning from the people in her town had been enough to get her a position, but she knew that it might not be enough for her to keep it. She would have to learn quickly and she had worried what would happen if she couldn’t.
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But making a mistake in front of an animal was a lot better than making one in front of one of the masters of the house, or anyone higher up in the household. They could notice a mistake and punish or dismiss her for it. An animal would not mind it. Not unless she hurt them on accident, which would be terrible. But if she was careful, she had been sure that wouldn’t happen. Being off in the stables had felt like a safer job, just for that reason alone. As long as she learned quickly, she had thought that she would be fine.
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A job in the house was easier for her, since she had been cooking all her life. But she also knew that there would be a lot of people around and if she made a mistake, if something went wrong, it wasn’t going to go by unmissed. Someone would notice. It was why she had done her best to keep her head down and work hard since she had gotten here. News of the Wright son coming home today had been exciting and the kitchen had been busy with activity until it had cleared out. She had been a little curious, more caught up in the whirlwind of imagining what college must be like, but her mind had been back to work from the moment she’d had a task set before her.
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Sasha felt more at ease in the kitchen on her own than she did most any other time. It was only in the moment that she realized that she was not alone where everything went wrong quickly. Cutting herself had been the least of her worries. She had been far more concerned about the cursing that had come after that sting of pain. That had not been the right response. She wasn’t sure what the right response was, but she knew that it wasn’t that. It was all that she could do to stumble through an apology while trying to ignore the fact that blood was at risk of dripping down onto the vegetables that she’d just cut.
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Then he had spoken though, and she realized that he did not seem to be all that angry. She didn’t know what to say as he moved toward her. Words completely escaped her at his proximity. She had never been this close to a man like this one. Boys in her town, yes. One or two. But this was something else. Not at all the same. She let him lead her to the basin without so much as a word, and watched as the water turned to a light pink as the blood was washed away. And then there was another new sensation. The feel of the silk against her skin was like nothing that she’d ever felt before. Never before in her life had she’d experienced something so soft so much as brushing against her.
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“Thank you,” her voice was quiet as she looked up at him, though she nearly immediately remembered herself and just as quickly looked away. “I can clean the handkerchief of the blood and… it’s very nice, I would hate to ruin it, sir.” She was sure she could get it cleaned up easily enough. Just as soon as he let go of her hand. She definitely needed him to do that, both because she needed it to continue her work and clean the handkerchief and because it was inappropriate. And possibly because a flutter in her stomach didn’t want him to let go—which was worse than the other reasons.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]708 ● @ sir ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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