Briar

Ch. 7 Married?!

“You’re getting much better Rose.”
“Thank you, Jillian. It’s very considerate of you to notice.”
“I see your manners are also improving.”
“Again thank you.” Rose gave Jillian a sidelong glance and caught her making doe eyes. They held glazes for a second before bursting into laughter.
It had been over a month since the women had been turned into geese. Jilly and Rose had both quickly adapted to their new lives. In the day, they would lay about around the lake, mostly sleeping. Rose might do some embroidery or read out loud to the ladies. Talking to herself was another favored pastime.
Rose didn’t really know how normal geese acted, but she found it annoyingly easy to take care of these. The girls would wake up everyday in their beds as geese, and Rose would have to make sure she got up and let them out of their rooms before eight o’clock or else bird feces would get everywhere. Once they were outside they immediately wanted breakfast, and Rose would get a few cupfuls out from the shack, which still looked like a weak wind could push it over, but at least, it was clean inside. Until night fell, it was pretty much sitting around by the lake, occasionally feeding them, every once and a while a dog might come by and have to be chased off. Once the sun went down, the real work started.
First the girls wanted “real food.” They always demanded that their rooms be prepped for them even though they only used them for changing both their clothes and forms. And the ladies always needed to have their dresses cleaned and pressed even though they had to change back into their original gowns before they went to bed. Then they needed entertainment for the entire night. Rose was just thankful that mostly the little gossip that they got in from the outside world kept them busy. They could go on for hours just about a certain prince who fell off his horse in a competition. All in all, it was not hard in the slightest and was definitely a lot easier than when they had been human all the time.
The ladies’ attitudes however didn’t change like their appearance. No matter if they were in human or geese form they were still themselves, snobby and dignified. Only in a special case, when Rose was really lucky, they would be really, really, kind of eerily dumb. She had grown up as a servant but was more capable than anyone of the girls.
“And I’m smarter too.”
If being a princess meant having to be dumber than a rock, blond hair, and dresses that were impossible to walk in, then Rose didn’t want anything to do with it. But being a perfect princess, is what got Perky Jonas.
“Well I don’t want him either,” Rose angrily told herself.
Yes you do, her sneaky voice told her. You want him so much that it hurt just to see him together with the beautiful Miss Victoria. You hate it that he would rather be with someone of breeding than with a dirty little girl like you. You might be a princess of birth but you have none of the class to go with it, not to mention the looks.
“I’m alright.” Rose looked down at her old brown dress that had more patches than the original cloth left. She picked at it. “Not too terrible.”
When was the last time you looked in the mirror can you really complete with That?
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take. Maybe Mom and Dad are right and I should leave.” It would definitely clear my mind of some of this shit. “It’s completely possible that he’s not nearly that great. That I just became so attached because he was the only one here,” even as she said the words she didn’t really believe it. “And I’m just wasting my life looking after those dandies for him.”
Those dandies looked at her. Rose was sitting on a hill next to the lake, and while she had been pondering her life out loud, they had snuck up and started to listen. Apparently even well born ladies don’t mind eavesdropping or like being called dandies. Rose’s cheeks heated as she laughed nervously, “Now ladies … Let’s be … civilized.”
When Rose got back to the castle after sunset, she had a few bruises. But she was so dirty that even Jonas, in his love daze, noticed. Only worsening Rose’s shame. She immediately and to the chagrin of the ladies, took a bath.
When Perky confronted her about her lack of commitment outside of the bathroom, Rose only responded with, “I thought that you would be more angered over a dirty maid than a late maid, Princess.”
“Well, that was very presumptuous of you.”
“It really wasn’t. After all you do remember where and how I got so dirty don’t you?”
“I never! How did my dear, sweet, Jonas ever come to have such a nasty servant?” What Princess Victoria was really think was, why did he have to have such an annoyingly pretty servant? Right from the bath, her normally tangled mess had straighten and curled becomingly. Her eyes could actually be seen and they were wide and blue, contrasted against her thick dark lashes. Her lips were almost red and droplets of water still glistened on her skin. And the figure hidden beneath her baggy dresses wasn’t a bad one. Vicky trust her chest forward. After what she had said today in the field, she was now competition. And the best way to best someone in love was to make then believe that they’ve got no chance.
“If you must know, I was here first. He came to my house.”
“So he inherited you, like a piece of furniture. No wonder you are so annoying. Long term servants are always the worst. They never know their place because they all think they could never get fired. Well, that can be changed. There’s so much here that needs a woman’s touch. Like all of you servants. It’s really quite quant how you’ve all kept on here, but really it’s time you all left and let Jonas get on with his life.”
“With you?” Rose didn’t believe her for a second. Jonas was not a bad guy. He would never kick out the people who had basically raised him.
“Yes, with me. What, did you think that he’d stay here with you after we married?” Rose’s face fell. He had stayed when he could have gone after Azzel’s death. He barely left Numberland. Would he really leave with- with this? She would be the one to know wouldn’t she? “Oh you did. That’s so sweet.”
Rose should have known not to show emotion in front of her. The ladies were quick to use them against you, and Victoria knew exactly how to strike. It seemed to be the only thing that she was good at.
“I would be the one to know, wouldn’t I?” Her words echoed Rose’s thoughts just making them all the more concrete. And then Vicky really brought in the big guns with, “We set the date for this December. Don’t you think it will be beautiful? All of us black in the white background. I hear that husbands like to be where their wives are, and there’s no way I’m spending the rest of my life in this.” She gestured to the wooden ceiling that also doubled as a floor on the next floor that could be seen in the older, less grand parts of the house.
“Excuse me miss I have to go and get dressed now. The other ladies will be expecting me.”
Victoria smiled to herself. That’s should keep her quiet.
Rose could barely contain her rage. Her body was stiff, like wood. When she finally got to her room she exploded, “Its one thing to love the girl, but to marry her!” She growled, “Idiot!” throwing her towel her towel against the wall. She got dressed quicker and in more disarray than normal.
She didn’t bother to knock when going into the ladies’ parlor, and they all jumped at the sound of the door slamming.
“Is there anything I can help you ladies with?” She said through clenched teeth.
They just stared at her. Rose scanned the faces before her and Perky’s was not among them. For that she was glad, but that just meant that she was with her fiancé. Rose’s hair was almost flying.
“What? Nothing?” More silence. “No one has anything to say? No one wants a warmer blanket? Everyone’s dresses are pressed to their satisfaction? I can’t believe there is not one of you that doesn’t need some extra tea leaves because the tea isn’t strong enough?” They continued to stare. It was like they were birds again. “What?”
Jilly set down her tea cup. There was a soft clunk as it hit the table in front of her. Then, she slowly raised herself up from her corner set like it was a great pain. She walked over to Rose, and Rose envied how her dress barely brushed the floor, how her steps were so delicate that they didn’t make a sound, how not even one strand of hair was out of place. She lightly placed a grip on Rose’s upper arm and pulled her to the door.
Smiling, she turned her face to the shocked faces of her companions, “If you’ll be kind enough to excuse us,” before leaving the room, and the immediate gossiping that followed their exit. The ladies imagined that Rose had been dropped by her secret love from the village because he had to marry the butcher’s daughter. Aw… the simpleton’s romance.
Jilly took Rose to her room down the hall. Depositing the girl in a settee, “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong! He— She—they-- it’s”
Rose’s anger seemed to be denigrating even as she tried to tell Jilly about it. Her fingers dug into the couch, but even that didn’t go her way. Her thing was stubbornly full. Rose felt despair setting in. She looked up at Jilly who sat down next to her.
“Is it that bad?”
Tears stared to trickle down her face, and Jilly put an arm around her. Sobbing into Jilly’s finely tied corset Rose sobbed in the smallest voice Jillian had ever heard, “They’re getting married.”
“Oh dear. That is bad.” Rose became louder.
“You had to have been expecting it. They’ve been at it for well … months.”
“The funny thing is I didn’t. I thought he was smarter than this. I thought … I don’t know what I thought … but I had hope.”
“That’s what hurts the most isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.” Rose cried harder before she came down.
Wiping her eyes and making funny sniffling noises, “I hate this fucking weepy mode the most. I liked myself better when I was oblivious. I even liked it better when I angry at least then I didn’t have to think about it.”
Handing her a handkerchief, Jillian said, “You could leave. It’s about all you can do. She may not look it, but that little brat is bullheaded.”
“Yeah, I could leave, but what am I going to do out there? What can I do? I don’t know anything about the world. I’ve never even left Numberland.”
“Well the real question is would you rather stay here and watch them get married or take your chances out there?”
Rose looked at her new friend. “You’re really wise, Jilly. Have you ever been in love before?”
Jillian immediately broke into a blush, “Me? Of course not. I’m way too plain.”
Rose looked at her; she seemed pretty enough to her. “You seem pretty to me.”
Jilly blushed harder. Rose laughed; it felt good to laugh again. May be she did need time away from this place. Time away from Jonas. Time to get to know herself again.

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Sorry this ones a little late, but it's been a busy week. Aww school how do I love thee but it is also a supreme distractant.

Please tell me how the story is going, like taking too long, because I don't know unless ya'll tell me.