Aristocrat | ✓

CHAPTER NINETEEN

     Despite what my father said, my mother got to keep the presents I had brought with me from the castle. She went straight to work with the fabrics I had brought, making dresses that she planned to sell at the market.

     My first week home was okay. I spent most of my time with my mother. Helping her with her work at the portion of the farms that were ours, as well as helping her at home with the housework and sowing. My father spent most of his time in the market or farm with my sisters and brother.

     The first Sunday back home was strange. I joined my family at the congregation, and I had to hold myself together as the man in front spoke feverishly against degeneracy. My eyes flickered to the dirt floor anytime my father would turn to look at me, warning me with his eyes and urging me to listen to the man in front warning against the sin of buggery.

     When the service ended the preacher left and people lingered as they often did afterward. Women often grouped together talking about their husbands and children, while men complained about bad harvests and hard labor. I fit in neither, so I stood at the door, staring out into the dirt path. As I waited for my parents and my siblings.

     "Ah, look at you with your fancy clothes." I had a man tell me when everyone had moved to speak amongst themselves after the meeting.

     "Hmm?" I hummed, staring at the man with jet black hair who was grinning at me. He was in a red tunic he wore over a pair of hose. I didn't know the man well, but I recognized him as one of the younger men that had moved into town a few months before I had left for the castle.

     "Your clothes," he said, even looking down at my shoes. "You're dressed like the Lord must favor you," he said, and I looked down at the floor again, not wanting to entertain the questions. "If I knew we were going to get nice clothes for working at the castle, I would have done it," the man continued, taking a step closer to me. I looked up, unable to see past him. He was taller than me, and bulker.

     "Say, that's all there is to it, right? The Lord just respects you?" he said, and my face turned white at what he was implying. The anxiety I felt about people coming so close to figuring out my deepest secret had jump-started again immediately I stepped down from the carriage when I arrived home.

     "Manfred!" I blinked, hearing Isabella's voice from behind the man. He stepped away from my view, and I was able to run away before he could cage me between the wall and his body again.

     I met up with my family, and we walked home together. I spoke to my sisters while my mother held on to my brother's hand up in front as they walked beside my father.

     When we got home, we eat lunch. My father made me say the prayer. It made me a bit uncomfortable to talk to God when I wasn't at peace with myself, but I made it through it, repeating the grace in a monotone voice before opening my eyes and asking everyone to eat.

     In the afternoon, my sisters and brother left with my father to go to the market, while I stayed home with my mother—the usual arrangement before went to work for Lord Evenus.

     "Manfred," my mother called out to me. I blinked, realizing that I had zoned off. It was later in the evening, now and we had a candle out. It burned and dripped wax on the table's surface. We would usually put the fire out before the candle ran out, and then we would scrape off the wax on the table the next morning.

     My eyes flickered to my mother as I sat upright on the chair at my corner of the table. I rose a brow at her watching as she showed together what would soon become a dress' sleeve.

     "Manfred," she started again, humming something under her breath. She didn't look up from the cloth she was picking a threaded middle through. "Don't you think we can start saving for you to get married?" she asked, and I blinked, looking down at the wooden table.