Come Little Children: Book I

Green with Envy, Purple with Scheming.

Katerina later learned that the maid bore a name that did not do her lively her and face justice. Her name was Mary, a most common and dull name, indeed. She found it most amusing how every so often one of Mary's curls would escape her cap. Still, Katerina kept herself from laughing or even permitting so much as a titter to escape her.

She was soon dressed her in a white square necked kirtle over her linen chemise. This was the simplest part of dressing, it seemed as now arrived a long debate over whether they should settle on   a sultry red gown or a magnificent lush green gown.

Where the green gown was green with envy, the red gown was fiery with rage. Where the green gown was as pure as a green apple and as hush as a mother nestling her newborn at the crook of her arm, the red gown was silken with the fury that could only be fueled by a thousand year quarrel.

Had it not been for the large and blatant tear at the hem going to well below the knee, Katerina would have chosen the red, almost as if it were instinct. She wanted to ask herself how Cecily's ladies could have permitted themselves to give her a gown with such a blatant tear but then told herself that she couldn't expect them to give her their best simply because she was an alleged widow without family or fortune. Charity could only extend so far until their benevolence wore and tattered like the gowns they'd left her.

The discovery of the tear was the end of the debate and conclusively, the girls appointed the velvet green gown the favored gown and thus the conquerer of Katerina's slim physique until evening.

The leather belt Mary had secured around her waist soon after assisting Katerina into her gown, hung limply and shapelessly to her sides. She'd immediately commanded that Mary fasten it tighter around her, as tight as she could make it, or at least until she felt the familiar sensation when her sides where craddled into the sleek the nightshade, as it cradled her in its snug embrace. But of course that bit went unsaid.

Mary brushed and braided Katerina's flaxen tresses and leaving her to choose a headdress for herself. Her refusals were heated ones as she protested at the sight of wimples, chaperons, headdresses of any sort, really. The only thing she did not turn away from was a green burlet laced with gold trim, that threatened to fleck off from age. Katerina bore simply that, her only jewelry being a cramp ring on her finger and the one on her chain.

She had no concern for how odd she must look to any of the members of Court. If the Lady Rivers was permitted to wear those odd headdresses that made her appear a milking cow or some sort of strange beast then why couldn't she try something different?

 Upon Katerina's entrance to morning meal was enough for all of Court to be silent. This was followed by several whispers, most probably directed in her direction. To those who weren't receiving the whispers, they sounded more like incoherent hisses. Perhaps this was how Court's residence were known as vipers.

Several tried to watch Katerina's reaction to these whispers but she avoided their eye and sauntered the Duchess of York and her cluster of women. They seemed to receive her quite graciously, some telling her to disregard the cruel whispers, that they gossiped about any girl that dared make their husbands extend their necks.

Upon Katerina's arrival at Court, she'd thought that gossip would not daunt her, that they were all simple minded fools and that she wouldn't allow them to take her apart but now that she was a subject of gossip, it did daunt her. Not so much the gossip itself but the not knowing what they were saying about her. This made Katerina sit stiffly in her seat, forcing food down into her. The assortment of fruit and cheese seemed almost delightful and it would have been had it not tasted of paste when swallowed.

The ladies did not seem to notice her discomfort and quickly emmersed themselves in all the gossip brought from yesterday evening. It was an assortment of giggles and cruel smirks and the exchanging of which Lord snuck off with which married Marchioness and who was caught half naked at the door with a man on said person's shoulder before the act could even be commited.