Cadha (#wattys2016)

Master

"Wake up ya lazy girl! Now is not the time to be sleeping!" Master Dunbar yelled into my sleepy face. 

I immediately jerked out of the daze I had slipped into. I hadn't noticed when the master had walked into the room a few minutes ago. He did his usual inspection of the kitchen while I was off in dreamland.  I did this much too often and almost always when my master was around.

I had been recently hired in Master Dunbar's household and was still learning what the master required of us.  Apparently I had not completed a few assignments to his standard, so I was kept up most of the night redoing all my work from the entire day.  I was now deprived of sleep, creating the dilemma I was now in.

            "I'm sorry sir," I said quietly.

            "You'd better be," Master Dunbar said harshly.  "Just because I gave you extra work last night doesn't mean you can slouch off your duties today."  Then Dunbar turned on his heels and marched out of the kitchen, probably to go surprise another quarter of his massive household with an inspection.

            The moment he was gone, the head cook, Margaret, and most of the servants that were congregated in groups around the kitchen turned their heads my way to glare at me. Only Margaret let loose the infuriating thoughts floating around her head.

"What were ya thinking you dim-witted servant." She said as she strode purposefully toward me and hit me across the face.  It made a resounding smacking sound that reverberated around the spacious kitchen and sent my head flying backwards.  I had to try hard to not let my tears break free of where my eyes were holding them captive. If I cried Margaret would just take that as a sign of weakness exploit it.  "If you make one more mistake like that he'll have us all doing extra work to make up for you; and if I catch you drowsing off on kitchen duty again I'll beat you till ya can't work for a long while.  That'll teach ya to stop being such a lazy girl."

I knew she would do it, for I had seen her give her 'treatment' to other younger servants who had disobeyed the master. I think she felt that it was her job to enforce the rules set for the household servants, and she did a very good job of it.

            I mumbled a quick, "Yes, Madam Margaret," and she left me alone to carry on with my work. When I was sure no one was watching I finally let the tears fall slowly and silently down my face.  I dove into my work, which was making rolls for a luncheon later this afternoon.  The Master was hosting in honor of the King's ambassador, who was giving an announcement directly from the king himself.  He would be announcing it for all of the common people in the village, but I don't think the servants would be allowed to go to it; we would probably stay here and finish making preparations for the luncheon.  As I rolled the freshly made dough into symmetrical spheres and placed them on the wooden table I was working at, I pondered over my life as a servant.

I had been working as a servant for almost as long as I could remember, but hadn't had too much luck keeping a position in one household or tavern for more than year.  I only had a few memories from before I was taken from my father and sold as a servant through the black market.  I was barely 4 years old at the time and had no idea about the life I was being thrown into.

A rich, but kind, young couple bought me to serve as a kitchen maid.  I mostly fetched wood and different ingredients for the real kitchen girls, but it was still a job and kept me fed and dry.  Sadly, after only a short year of working there, the manor in which we served burnt down to the ground.  Many of the slaves were able to get out, but the kind Lord whom we served was burned to death with his wife trying to rescue some of his loyal servants.  We were all left workless and homeless after that.

Luckily for me, a kind woman from the Lord's household took me in.  We had no work and no place to live for a while, but we were able to survive by me begging on the streets.  I was still only 5 years old at the time, so people gave us money; quite a lot at first. But after a few weeks our income diminished to barely anything.  It quickly became colder as winter drew nearer and we still hadn't found anywhere to work; people also became less free with their money.  There were still a few generous people who gave us large sums of money, but it only lasted us for so  long.

As the winter months came on full swing in Scotland it soon became apparent that we would not survive through the winter.  Our food intake became scarce and even in my young mind I realized that my temporary caretaker was fading.  One morning I was found by a scout group from the royal guard wrapped in the arms of that wonderful woman.  She had died sometime during the night and I was consequently taken into another rich lord's house as a maid.  I was able to stay there until Summer when he decided he didn't need an extra servant to feed, and sent me back into the streets.  This time I was better prepared to take care of myself.

            I quickly located an inn in need of a kitchen maid and was hired.  I mostly fetched wood for the cook, but she taught me quite a lot about actually cooking the food too.  I still believe that I owe most of my cooking ability to the kind cook at that inn. When I turned 6 I decided to try and get work in a household instead of an inn.  I heard a lot of talk about jobs in other places and decided to go to another city called Tarbat.  I found work in another household, but wasn't able to keep it for long.  This went on for many years as I was kicked out of one household and quickly went to the next Lord's house to try and a find work as a kitchen servant.  I had been doing this for at least 9 years and had been slowly moving my way to the outer borders of the kingdom, where I finally ended up in Master Dunbar's household.

            I wasn't sure if I was happy with what I was doing with my life, but I didn't see a way I could fix it. And I had never had a better household to work in; I just needed to get used to the high standard of work in my new master's house and try to stay on Margaret's good side.  I couldn't imagine not working as a servant, but it would be wonderful just to relax sometimes.  The problem was I just couldn't see myself rising from my position as a servant in any household.

            I had slowed down a little bit while I was thinking about all this and I looked up to see if Margaret had noticed me.  She had, of course, and was sending a death glare at me from across the room.  I smiled nervously and turned back to my work.  I quickly picked up the pace and was soon putting the little pats of dough into the warming oven to rise.
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