Servienne (LGBT)

28-Tribulation

    By horse it would take two hours, hooves thundering against the ground of the path, wind whipping by. Aaron had always preferred his white stallion, mane an elegant, deep brown. A rare coloring, but no doubt beautiful. Noll had trained on a black beauty, so when it came time to choose a horse, he gravitated towards the same one he'd almost broke his femur on. Still, it was familiar. They rode quietly until the hour or so mark when Noll finally spoke.

  "Aaron, what does a trial for the aristocracy entail?" He asked, looking ahead to the prince who rode with a solemn air hanging around him, anxiety permeating the space he consumed. Aaron was silent for many moments before finally speaking. "Unlike civil trials, trials like these of serviennes and social matters, especially of aristocratic matters, are more about... looks, I suppose. In these trials, the law is almost... above them. It's about aristocrats screaming their woes and sentencing the prisoner without a hearing, basically. It's all just a way for them to make their accusations public and to shame whoever is being charged." He sighed. "You know what being a servienne means, you know the connotations, Noll. For the aristocracy, it's... dirty. Usually, if you were discovered, since its such a taboo topic, it's brushed off and you're simply not invited to the following dinner parties or something along those lines. But the Caufields have always been relatively conservative folk. Anything that tarnishes their name in any such way has been terminated without mercy. It doesn't matter who they have to rid of or what they have to do, even to their own family member. I just... never expected that Luther and Roman..."

  "... Would be in a relationship?" Noll finished, watching Aaron stiffen. "Aaron, we're exactly the same way. What's the big deal about it?"

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm just... not used to it. Even us, sometimes thinking about it catches me off guard. I've spent my whole life taught to look down on such things by my uncle and by the people who ended up raising me after my mother passed away. They were much colder folk than my father. I didn't just end up thinking this way out of nowhere you know, so I just... I'm still learning and growing, Noll," Aaron tried to explain, but Noll merely scoffed. "So, what? What do you think of us, then?" He questioned. Aaron huffed, shaking his head. "What? What do you want me to say, Noll? That I can change everything I've ever known, every moral code I've been taught to abide by in a night? In even a year? It takes time and experience, which I am getting. I'm not the same person I was from when I saw you in the kitchen the first time, and neither are you. Isn't that enough--that I'm growing?"

  Silence fell between them for a long moment, but just before Aaron was about to look back at Noll to see what was the matter, the other man spoke.

    "... Not if it means you think what we are is as disgusting as you're implying."

  Aaron's heart dropped to his stomach, but he said nothing, riding in silence for the rest of the way, shame darkening his mind and heart. He wasn't used to guilt. When what happened to the servant girl Étoile by Ivor had occurred, the guilt he felt was foreign and startling. So this? It hurt just as much as it had then if not more, because this time, it was Noll. That wasn't what he meant, what Noll was assuming he was saying, not really, but... wasn't it? He was at a loss for what to do or think or act. What was right and what was wrong anymore? He didn't know. Aaron was at a loss for what to do.

  Once they arrived, Aaron peered up at the towering estate. While not as grand and luxurious as the McCander estate had been, the Caufield house's age and the time dedicated to its care made it a gleaming wonder nonetheless. White marble walls and a wondrous garden were the most prominent features of the two-story, wide building affixed with the fifty-six windows Aaron had counted out himself when he was younger. It was a beautiful place filled with rich history and fine people of the Caufield family, but Aaron also knew well the darknesses behind these walls. Servant violence, harsh in-family punishments, strict behavioral and dress codes to be upheld without question--the list goes on. Aaron loved the Caufields, but their methods had always been more extreme than he ever would have preferred.