Bits and Pieces

Day 7 - Horses

Write a scene with no dialogue.

-------

Canterbury, England, 1842

Amelia snuck out the side door when Mrs. Madeleine permitted her to use the washroom. It would only take a few minutes, and she never noticed.

Blowing warm air into her hands, the snow crunched under her feet every time she took a step, no matter how gingerly she tried to walk. She wrapped her worn, dark green cloak around her tighter as she hurried along the path around to the back of the mansion.

When she reached the newly-painted stable, she smiled and patted her pouch filled with oats she had secretly bought when she had accompanied Miss Evie to town the other day.

The horses snorted quietly when she opened the stable door and closed it behind her. Thankfully, it was somewhat warm inside due to the horses' body heat and the barrels full of heated water the stable lads had put in there so the horses wouldn't be cold. Amelia put a finger into one of them to test the temperature and as she expected, it had cooled.

Shaking the water off her hand, she went to the nearest stall and reached up to pet Charlie. The brown horse leaned his head into her hand in a friendly way, and she scratched him between the ears before taking out her pouch and pouring some of the oats into her hand.

At the sight of that, all the horses neighed and pawed at the ground for her to feed it to them. Amelia grinned at their actions and slowly went around, taking out decent amounts for each horse and giggling whenever they licked her hand along with the oats in eagerness.

When her pouch was empty, she washed off her hand with some water from a barrel and seated herself comfortably on a bushel of hay next to Clover's stall. Amelia absolutely loved coming here, despite the smell, which she always got used to after a few moments. Spotting a saddle hanging at the back of the stable, she imagined a day where she could go riding freely, without the mundane household chores and her social rank of 'servant' holding her back.

It was a crazy idea, and she didn't know what came over her, but a few moments later, Amelia had saddled Clover just like she had seen Miss Evie do. Surprised, and delighted, that she could do it, she patted the horse affectionately and was briefly tempted to climb on, when the stable door creaked open.

Before she could react, Paige walked in backwards, pulling a wheelbarrow with him. Amelia's eyes widened and quickly looked around for a hiding place. Spotting the stairs to the loft a little way away, she crept as quietly as she could while Paige was busy cleaning out Charlie's stall.

Unfortunately, she wasn't as quiet as she thought she was, for Paige whipped around before she even reached the stairs. This time, his eyes widened, because he knew as well as her that young maids weren't allowed out of the house unless they were accompanying their Lady.

Amelia opened her mouth to say something, but right then, they heard the crunch of boots outside and Mr. Salis, the Head Groom, calling for the stable lad. She started to panic, and Paige waved at her frantically to hide up in the loft. She scrambled up the stairs and dove behind a stack of extra hay, just as Mr. Salis walked in with Mrs. Madeleine on his heels.

♘♞