Freedom
Blades of grass tickled the soft soles of five-year-old Delia's bare feet and wildflowers blooming in every color of the rainbow curled around her toes as she dashed through one of Castle Eldorne's many gardens. The May wind blew roses into her cheeks, the sun warmed her back underneath her silk dress, and the singing of the birds arrayed like heralds on the garden walls made a perfect counterpoint to her giggles as she ran through the garden.
Delia knew that her dress was soaked with sweat, and that the ribbons Nurse had taken so long to braid into her hair had come undone, but that knowledge only added to her happiness. Being unkempt and grimy meant that she was free—that she had successfully escaped from her lessons—and that she really was running, as free as a peasant child, through grass and wildflowers. Taking pleasure in every blade of grass that brushed past her feet and every breeze that smacked against her cheeks, she thought that if she could run free forever and not get tired, she would never want to do anything else.
However, with Nurse to look after her, she would never be able to run forever, she realized bitterly when she heard a sharp female voice call out from the other side of the gardens, "Come back here this instant, young lady!"
Sighing and scowling, Delia trudged over to Nurse.
"How dare you sneak off from your lessons with your governess to go running around like a peasant?" demanded Nurse, glowering as she scooped up her errant young charge and balanced the little girl on her ample hip. Her hazel eyes snapping, Nurse examined Delia's feet and tutted. "Great Mother preserve me, you didn't even think to put on your shoes. Now I'll have to wash your feet again, because they are filthy. Oh, and your ribbons have come undone, too, and your dress looks like you wore it into a battle. Your mother won't be happy to hear that you keep ruining all the pretty clothes she has the seamstresses make for you."
"Mother won't be happy to hear that you let me ruin more clothes," remarked Delia, her green eyes widening innocently under her chestnut bangs. "Maybe it would just be better if Mother didn't know about the ruined clothing."
"My dear Delia, you are too clever for your own good." Shaking her head, Nurse tapped Delia on the nose as if she were a naughty kitten. "How you can be so smart when you skip so many of your lessons is beyond my understanding."
"Governess always repeats her lessons," Delia explained, emitting a long-suffering sigh. "Today she wanted to teach me how to write my name as if I haven't known how to do that for the past month."
"Well, don't tell your father that, love." Nurse's lips thinned. "He doesn't want you to become so clever that you scare away all the young men that will eventually swarm around your beauty. It's best if you let him and your governess continue to think that you can't write your own name for another week or so."
"I'm free to keep playing the fool and racing around the gardens when I should be in lessons, then, aren't I, Nurse?" Delia asked, twisting her head to offer Nurse her most charming smile.
"Not in this century, dear." Nurse chuckled. "We want to keep you as pretty as may be and as free of dirt stains as possible."
"I don't like wearing shoes." Delia pouted. "I like feeling the earth beneath my feet when I run."
"You shouldn't be running at all, young lady," pointed out Nurse sternly. "Ladies don't run. They glide, or, if situations are extreme enough to justify the gesture, hasten."
"That doesn't sound like much fun," grumbled Delia, as Nurse carried her back into the shadow of the cool castle where she was no longer free and had to go back to being a young lady in training.