A Friendships Love - Settler series book 1 (Wattpad version, first draft)

My Life

Part 1

My Life  

My muscles felt sore and tired tonight, especially in my back.  I knew it was from hauling water all day from the well to the laundry room.  For the past couple of years I had been helping my mama up at the main house.  Now that she was expecting a baby again I took on more work.  Laundry time was when she needed me more than other days.  Otherwise, I cleaned what she told me, helped prepare the meals, dust, and now the laundry.  At first, she would argue that I shouldn't do so much but I could see it in her face that she wasn’t feeling well, and Pa said she shouldn’t be doing any heavy lifting so I said I would be ok and she could count on me to get things done.  I knew she was grateful for my help even though I was tired and sore I kept going about my chores to make mama happy.  Especially on days like laundry day.   There weren’t many servants at the Manor where we worked.  Lord and Lady Townshend didn’t want to be fussed over too much so they only kept on who they felt they needed, and one of those people was my mama.  She oversaw the few other servants that were at the Manor.   When we finished all our jobs for the day I helped her with the few things that needed to be done at home too.  It was our life and we liked it.

My Pa was leaving soon with Lord Townshend.  I wasn’t sure where to quite yet, all I knew was that he was busy preparing for 'the trip'.  Lord Townshend owned a few ships, he used them to transport whatever he was asked, to different places across the ocean.  Our Lord never actually went on many trips himself but he was going this time, and he was taking my Pa with him.  They were leaving soon and were due back around the time mama was to have the baby, so while Pa was preparing to leave, and besides the fact that I was helping mama with her work, I was also keeping her company and helping her cope with her sadness about him being gone so long.

Tonight, although weary, mama let me stay behind and visit with Ashley, I could never resist a visit with my closest friend.  Ash was to be a Lady when she grew up.  She wouldn’t be Lady Townshend, not like her mother.  Her brother’s wife will probably be the new Lady Townshend, at least when he grew up and got married.  Ash wants to get married too and then she will be the Lady of a beautiful home somewhere.  I am going with her when she leaves, it’s always been our intention to stay together. 

We often practised being Ladies at tea parties that we held under our tree.  Our tree was the tall tree that sat not far from a shallow edge of the river, which ran behind the manor.  Ash always taught me what to do, how to hold my cup, how to eat my cake and how to pronounce my words properly, she even helped me with my reading and writing.  The tall tree had a thick trunk; it also had just the right lumps and bumps on it to assist us when we climbed.  We would sit on a lower straighter limb and swing our legs, talk and do whatever we fancied.  Some of the bigger branches went up high and then the leaves hung down not far from around the base encasing us in a world of our own.  That tree was our retreat.

Today happened to be perfect for a tea party.  The sun was shining and the air was thick with the feel of summer promising to show us its full glory soon.  I loved summer.  I needed to help mama first and Ash had her schooling.  So when we were both finished the tree is where we met.  Ash for the past couple of weeks had always been there first.  With my extra chores I was running late, a lot.  Today I found her sitting up in the tree drawing, she loved to draw.  Her long, sandy blond hair was let out and it fell down her back.  She was little like me and looked like a little fairy sitting up in the tree the way she was.  We often pretended that we were fairies, especially when we were a few years younger, but not so much now that we were twelve.

As it turned out, I wasn’t much fun to be around this afternoon.  The moment I sat down on the thick grass under our tree my body started to relax.  All I wanted to do was lie down and sleep.  The gentle breeze and warm afternoon sun was just the right combination to assist my aching muscles.  I watched Ash serve our tea and cake.  While I was trying to eat a piece of cake that was a tad dry from sitting out for so long, I actually did shut my eyes for a bit.  With an understanding giggle Ash shook her head at me.  She slipped the cake out from my hand and nudged my shoulder making sure that I didn't choke, and said I should go home.  She said we could practice our lady skills another day.