A/n: I hate reading fics where the author just talks in there a/n's about how they want all these reviews so I'm not going to do that. Please send me flames.

A/n: Usual disclaimer applies. :-)

The Purple Dress

Chapter Three: Life

In a Convent

As they walked in Alanna couldn't help but think how the hostlers had looked at her funny. She heard them betting, "A gold noble on that one lasting a week." "Nah, I give her a month. She's got a lot of sprit. It will take the Ladies a little longer than a week to break her."

She knew something they didn't. She knew she would never let herself be broken.

Alanna and Maude went into the First Daughter's office. Alanna did her best to act proper and the First Daughter bought it. Alanna calmly handed over the letter her father had written. The daughter looked it over and smiled. The girl, Alanna was her name, looked nice enough but the letter said she should be a challenge, the First Daughter loved challenges. What she said out loud was, "Everything looks to be in order. Maria will show you to your room. Mistress Maude will you be staying with us long?"

Maude answered, "For a week, then I must be heading back." Unlike Coram who was staying with Thom till he was knighted, Maude was only on this trip for two reasons. So Alanna didn't have to go alone and so Alanna didn't try to run away.

The First Daughter replied, "Laura please take Mistress Maude to one of the guest rooms in the West Wing. Lunch will be served in two hours."

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Maude had just gotten to the room she was to stay in when a novice came running up and gave her a letter. She quickly told Laura, " Please tell Alanna that I had to go back to Trebond, and that it's urgent." Maude muttered a thank you as Laura bobbed her head. She then went to the First Daughter and explained why she had to leave. Everyone in the House Trebond and the town it supported had gotten the flu and she was needed to help.

The First Daughter told her, " Go, take our fastest horse we'll send you things right now on your horse. They should arrive in a few days. Go."

As Maude left she thought it almost seemed as if the First Daughter was glad she was gone.

(A/n: I just couldn't think of what Maude would do there so I sent her home. I don't think that flu will have any affect on the future story.)

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Alanna and Maria were walking down the hall when Alanna asked, "What is the average day like here, I mean what time do girls do things and what do they do in there free time?"

Maria smiled and said, "You have sprit, don't let the First Daughter or any of the Daughters of the Goddess for that matter. They might tell the First Daughter, and she takes some sort of sick pleasure in breaking the sprit of young girls." That simple little sentence told Alanna that Maria might be a good friend to have, and she thought to herself, 'it's okay to have some friends.'

Alanna smiled and replied, "I don't know it might be fun being broken." And at that they both started giggling.

Alanna added, "But you still haven't answered my question on what the girls do around here."

Maria told her, "Well you get up and get ready by 9:30 when you eat. Then at 10:00 you do sewing and embroidery. At 11:00 you have a half an hour of learning how to talk, like what to say to different classes of people and what's appropriate to say in certain company. Then another half an hour to get ready for lunch which is at noon. At 1:00 you have etiquette, like how far to curtsey to different classes of people and how to receive flowers from different people. At 2:00 you have a misc. class, like maybe a week of riding a horse then a week of cooking, all sorts of odd things that they think you need to know but there isn't enough stuff to make a whole class dedicated to it. Then you have free time from 4:00 to 6:00 when you eat dinner. They don't give you a bedtime unless you are so tired in class you fall asleep or you do something bad at night and get caught. Most girls in their free time gossip of embroider things." Just about this time they got to Alanna's room. Maria quickly added, " I'll come get you in an hour and a half for lunch."

Maria left and Alanna looked around her room. She could almost understand why the girls were embroidering so much. To make pretty colorful things to put over these drab white plain walls.

Alanna unpacked all her stuff in just a few minutes. Then she just sat on her bed for a minute before deciding to try out her new resolution to use her magic by spelling her door so only she and some one she wanted could open it. She put the same spell on the window before telling the window and door to let Maria open them.

She just finished when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to let Laura in. She told Alanna that, "Mistress Maude has left in a hurry and one of the Daughters will inform you why later." She seemed very mad that she, Laura, couldn't tell Alanna why Maude had left.

Alanna thanked her and said she need to unpack. Laura noticing that Alanna had already unpacked, gave Alanna a dirty look and left. Alanna decided that she didn't like the girl and started to examine her window. She noticed that people could see in. She decided that before she did anything suspisious she would have to spell it not to show what she was doing. But she would have to wait till tomorrow. She thought, 'Now that I've decided to use my magic, I seem to use it a lot don't I.'