Daughter of the Rebellion

Chapter 21

Richard's mother hadn't been exaggerating. There were so many things that I had to learn. We'd only been working for a few days and I already felt as if I didn't know anything at all.

There were so many rules here, and a lot of them made no sense whatsoever to me.

Younger girls were supposed to wear dresses that fell just below their knees. Anything longer or shorter was considered inappropriate. After a girl was no longer considered a child, it was inappropriate to wear anything shorter than ankle-length.

I'd never had much of a desire to wear them, but pants were considered entirely immodest on women. Richard's mother looked offended that I'd even asked. Wouldn't Keira be disappointed...

No, actually she wouldn't. She'd probably love shocking everyone.

Hair was another area where the rules were stringent. Around the house it wasn't as important, but little girls were not supposed wear their hair up except for styling purposes at bed time. Older girls, especially after their Come Out, were never supposed to be seen out of their homes with their hair down. Although that was less of a modesty issue and more of a sign of status and maturity.

A woman was never to question her husband, fiance, father, or guardian on decisions, no matter how significant or how much it would affect her.

During a ball, it was appropriate to offer a hand to a gentleman in greeting and to dance once or twice with him, but any more contact than that was considered forward. Eye contact with a gentleman should be just enough to appear cordial and sociable, but not too much as to appear flirtatious, and it was never to be challenging in any way.

There were even right and wrong ways to sit, stand, and walk, and apparently, doing even one of them wrong would be disastrous in specific situations.

I was tempted to tell Richard's mother that I'd changed my mind and that I preferred my ignorance, but I couldn't do it. She finally seemed to be accepting me. She wasn't exactly warm and motherly, but she didn't appear to hate me any longer. She even said that I could call her Amelia. That was probably the equivalent of a hug from my mother.

In the spirit of being agreeable, I said that I would. It had been a very nice and very unexpected offer, but I felt awkward thinking of her as anything other than Richard's mother. Perhaps I would be comfortable calling her Mrs. Graham, but once I married Richard, that would be my name as well.

At the moment, I was in the dining room, learning the proper protocol for meals. The servants had prepared the entire table especially for my lesson.

"Be sure that you never eat more than half of anything on your plate," Richard's mother said. "It is seen as gorging yourself since you will have the same amount of food as the men will, and do not require as much to eat. If there is ever anything offered that is not already on your plate, you must never take more than the man next to you does. For you it will likely always be Richard. So, if the servants offer bread separately, you must watch to see what Richard takes to determine how much you may take. If he takes nothing, you take nothing. If he takes one piece, you may also take one. If he takes two, technically, you are also allowed two, but it is best to be satisfied with one."

I felt hungry just thinking about it. What if I couldn't eat anything but the bread like before?

"If you are still hungry for some reason, you may call on one of the servants after everyone has left for the evening."

I sighed. I suppose if I were ever pregnant again, I would be doing that a lot. I realized now that being sick as much as I was before wasn't normal. That's probably what kept me from embarrassing Richard and his mother at dinner up until now - I'd been too sick to eat much of anything. But most woman who were expecting got very hungry. And if that happened to me, half a plate of food was not going to suffice every night.