Slave Sisters

(22) Slave Sisters

Enjoy -- you all deserve it ^.^

~

25th December, 1804

As I leaned against the wall I could not stop the thoughts running through my mind. Ever since my encounter with Millie I had been jittery; I was certain that she had noticed my anxiety over the past week, but had instead decided not to question me on it.

Either way, I had made up my mind on what to do. And when I had, Millie promised to ‘take over’ – I did not understand what this meant.

Today was a day that everyone in the Wicker household had been waiting for – a special event that I was still not certain of. Yesterday when I had spoken to Jane she had told me that “exciting times” were soon coming – although I wanted to ask her what she meant, I did not: if even she knew, then surely I would find out quickly enough.

For the few days leading up to now I had been taking an extra bucket to hold more water, and so there was a surplus supply in the house. Because of this Mrs Wicker had told me I did not need to go to the water pump this morning – while it meant not meeting with Millie, it was not much of a loss; the weather lately had been chilly enough to leave me hesitant to even open the door.

One of the first things that Tayla did when she woke – after also waking me – was to create a fire in the living room’s fireplace. We had watched in amazement as its orange flames eventually began to lick at the wood and expand in strength with the fire growing in height and width. After this, we decided to go to the kitchen. With a quick glimpse out the window I noticed how white blobs of fluff fell from the sky.

In Africa, it never snowed. In fact, the word ‘snow’ had not ever been heard of before there. When I saw it for the first time two weeks ago I was stunned. It looked magnificent with its pure colour and soft, fluffy appearance – apart from my sister, the only person I could share this view was with Jane.

Everyone was up earlier than usual, which meant that Tayla and I had to be up and ready much sooner so that the breakfast could be prepared in time. Instead of there only being porridge we ensured that toasts, butter, chocolate and muffins were also available; despite there being leftovers I could see content even in Mrs Wicker’s eyes.

Soon after breakfast the whole household had already left. Due to being informed by Judith that she and Virginia were to visit a family friend, I assumed this meant that the Wicker family had left to do similar things.

Ever since last week I had gone to special measures to make myself closer to Victor; this included keeping a smile on my face whenever possible, and also greeting him with a pleasant ‘hello’ whenever we passed each other. I was not sure if it had made much of a difference to our friendship – if it could be called that – although my moods were lifted.

While Tayla opened a closet door in the corner of the kitchen, I looked around. As much as I wanted to go upstairs and sleep, I could not; Mrs Wicker had made it very clear that dinner should be started “as soon as possible” and all rooms cleaned. Silver trays completely covered the countertops with silver lids atop them, each soon to be holding something different: vegetables, meat, cake . . . 

“Do you think I should prepare the table?” I asked my sister, carefully resting my arms against the countertop’s edge facing the window. Through the thickness of the cloudy white sky the Sun gently shone down on the trees’ branches, lone without their leaves, and houses that were seen on the horizon. She leaned her head out from the cupboard a little, and nodded.

“Remember to clean the silverware first.” Lightly shrugging, I opened one of the drawers to reveal the metal knives, forks and spoons. I picked out six of each and began to wipe and dry them with a cloth.