(A/N): We're back with Amelia, Annette, Logan, Nolan, and Spencer- finally! It's only been, what... 25 chapters? As of the time I'm editing this (19/4/24), I just finished typing up the last chapter for the year, chapter 558.
Trigger Warnings: Mentions/aftermath of sexual assault. Brief, shallow mention of racism/racial fetishism (Amelia depicts the view point of the more privileged pureblood men like Sebastien, who deem women like Marta as 'exotic', rather than 'foreign'- with 'exotic' being seen as something desirable and attractive, whereas 'foreign' is something to be looked down upon. Amelia thinks this is dumb for many reasons, obviously, which is why those phrases- and some others- are in quotes. Particularly when she labels anything from attempted sexual assault to successful rape as 'bad behavior', because that's how those men and the people on the same level as them describe it... because to them, it isn't that serious). A character is also described as being 'dark', but it's meant to mean that they have dark eyes and dark hair, not that they have dark skin (like tall, dark, and handsome doesn't typically mean that the person has dark skin). There's probably some underlying sexism/body negativity(?) in there as well, just by virtue of the fact that a character addresses something with care, which tends to mean that they've seen it NOT addressed with care (Amelia says Marta has curves in all the 'right' places, because she thinks it's dumb that there are places that are 'wrong' for women/people to have curves. That phrase is probably something she heard from someone else, who used it to sexualise someone much the same way Marta is being sexualised here). Lots of talk of abuse of power/discrimination/classism. A character gets jealous at a poor time, but has the presence of mind to know it is both unfair, and neither party's fault. Mention of a previous injury. Logan makes what could be considered an inconsiderate or inappropriate comment given the conversation/situation around him at the time, but he only did it because he knew that A) Marta wouldn't take it that way, and B) she would most likely be happy about him distracting everyone away from her for a minute so she could calm down (he makes a comment about romantic/sexual relationships right after they address her having been accosted by Sebastien, but it's not really TO her, and he absolutely wouldn't have made it if he thought it would offend/hurt her in any way).
October 19th, 1967
Amelia
I had managed to get a good chunk of the men's boots scrubbed up- with help from my little team of assistants- by the time Annette gasped, over by the door. Knowing exactly why she was there- who she was watching out for- the rest of us immediately burst into a flurry of action. Logan quickly banged each of the boots in his hands against the stone floor, knocking the bulk of the leftover dirt and debris off them in an instant before tossing them in the direction of whichever poor fellow's name was written on the inside. Next, he threw himself onto the bench and proceeded to shove his own boots onto his feet far more carelessly than I expected he usually did. Nolan wasn't far behind him, but since he had only just started on the pair he'd been working on, he set them back in line to wait for my attention, rather than trying to pass them off as already finished. He also made sure to plant himself as far away from me as possible- in an attempt to minimise our association, I'm sure.
Spencer was a bit slower, only moving once I had shoved the knee pillow into his chest- and even when he did move, it was limited to simply standing up and staring at Annette, over by the door. I did my best to make myself look like I had been hard at work since I'd been left here, curling around my current focus as much as possible, while still trying to keep my back as straight as I could- lest Cipicia see fit to comment on my poor posture, as well as everything else. Before any of us had the chance to do anything more, however, Spencer dropped the knee pillow almost directly on my head, and exclaimed, "Marta!"
We all paused at that- except for Spencer and Annette, of course. Annette pulled the door open, and in one swift movement a dark-haired young woman flew in, and the door was pressed closed again. Despite the fact that all eyes were on her, she only had eyes for one person- Spencer. She looked surprised- but incredibly happy- to see him, and when she finally managed to turn her attention to Annette, her expression changed to one of fear and misery. I wonder if either one of them recognised that Spencer's face immediately followed suit. "Mistress Joannis has returned," She announced softly, which I thought was a little tame, given the news she was delivering. "But she's acting... strangely." I felt my eyebrows draw together- strange how? Obviously, Marta picked up on our curiosity and confusion, because she elaborated pretty quickly. "She was... quiet. Almost timid, if you can believe that- Master Joannis was having a field day with it, as I made my escape." No one looked more concerned by that statement than Spencer- I don't anyone had ever looked more concerned than Spencer did, right now.
"...how bad was he, this time?" Annette asked carefully, and the younger maid's face screwed up slightly- clearly, she wasn't worried about maintaining a dignified bearing the way I had been raised to do... especially around men like this.
"Not... the worst." Which, knowing Sebastien- Master Joannis- was still really, really bad. "Whether that might have changed if she hadn't distracted him, I can't say." Spencer made a pained noise from behind her, and I saw the corner of her lips quirk downward. She didn't turn to him, or address it in any way, but she did reach a hand backward- almost certainly to grab his, judging by the degree his face relaxed.
Logan sighed heavily from his position on the bench, leaning forward to rest his face in his hands in an exaggeratedly forlorn manoeuvre. "Am I the only bloke in here not making time with a maid?" There were a few snickers from the room behind him as I rolled my eyes, but seeing as they seemed entirely directed at Logan himself, I ignored them.
"I'm not a maid," I reminded him mildly, and he shrugged- jostling his head as he did so.
"Governess, whatever." I shot him a disapproving look, and he removed a hand from his face to snap his fingers and point at me. "See, that's the look!" What look? "You all live in that big house, and you look at us like- Well, some of you are better about it than others, but there's still this air of-" He cut himself off, looking at Nolan for backup- Nolan, who was steadily avoiding meeting anyone's gaze.
I was not about to let this go, though, so I arched an eyebrow at him and set the boots I'd been holding on the ground so I could fold my arms across my chest. "Air of what?" I asked him with my best 'authority figure' voice- the one that always made Leonides at least consider doing as I told him, even if it didn't really work on Miasenna. "It's not like we're any more welcome in the manor than you are, they only house us there because it would be considered highly inappropriate for them not to. If they could put us in gardeners' quarters with you lot, they would- they don't care about us any more than they care about you, they just torment us in different ways." The look he gave me was almost... proud?
"Superiority," He said with a whiff of amusement, and I felt my eyebrows furrow again. "I was going to say, 'an air of superiority'... I think it's all that upper crust you've been delicately nibbling on." I glared at him, but before I could scold him for this remark, Nolan wandered over from where he'd been 'hiding'. His steps faltered slightly as he reached us- me- but he didn't stop there; no, he continued past us and over to Spencer, Marta, and Annette.
He reached a hand out to Marta slowly, carefully, stopping long short of actually touching her arm. As he did so, his face showed a kind of soft concern and compassion that made my insides quiver... and undeserved ire creep up the back of my neck, as he directed it at someone else- at another woman. I knew he didn't mean anything by it- no matter how jealous he might be of the way Logan in particular had been treating me- and Marta certainly wasn't at fault, but still, I couldn't help my reaction. Unfortunately, Logan could clearly see right through me, if his smirk was anything to go by. "How are you?" It was a simple question that conveyed so much, and Marta gave him an appropriately fond look- good, at least someone was taking care of it for me.
"I'm fine. I mean, I'll- I'm a little shaken right now, but I will be fine, soon. I've- I've had worse." It was sad to hear, but I didn't doubt it even slightly. Men like Sebastien were practically the norm in our part of society, and young women that looked the way Marta did- pretty, and endowed in all the 'right' places, and just the right kind of dark to make the privileged men think she was 'exotic' rather than 'foreign'- were a prime target for 'bad behavior'. It didn't surprise me in the least when I saw Spencer squeeze her hand, and Nolan's eyes gained little crinkles around them as he squinted like he was physically pained.
"And- what about your arm?" Annette asked tentatively, and Spencer's head snapped downward as if to try to inspect her for previously unseen injuries. Marta patted his arm with her free hand as if he was the one in need of comforting.
"My arm's fine- it was just a small cut." Spencer made a noise I could only describe as heartbroken, and her lips pulled to the side in response. "Sylvia cleared it right up, and told me about-" She glanced around the room, her eyes lingering on me, briefly. "-your situation. I wanted to keep an eye out, make sure- well..." She trailed off, knowing that in reality, there wasn't anything she could do to help us if something did happen.
Everyone was quiet for a minute, so I took the opportunity to finally rise to my feet, and change the subject. Well, mostly. "You did well, Miss..."
"Marta," She said, which- wasn't what I wanted, and I'm sure she knew that. "You call me Marta, or you call me nothing." Well... I had to admire her dedication to the concept, even if it did make me a tad uncomfortable.
"Rosarian," Logan murmured from close behind me, and I wasn't sure if it was because he just liked making himself of use to me, or because he knew that one of the reasons I had asked was because I needed to be prepared to refer to her as such if our Mistress or Master required me to- lest they ever know I had spoken to her with any sort of familiarity or, Merlin forbid, kindness.
Seeing Marta shoot Logan a glare over my shoulder, I shook my head and gave her my best, most friendly smile. "Marta, then. You did well, Marta. If you don't mind me asking... could you perhaps elaborate on what you mean by Mistress Joannis behaving strangely? And... do you know- Was Miasenna there? Was she... Did she look okay?" Marta returned my smile, albeit somewhat tentatively; she seemed to appreciate my concern for my charge- for the little girl involved in this whole debacle.
"I didn't get a very good look at her I'm afraid, but from what I saw, she looked fine- physically, at least. A bit peaky from apparating, and maybe a little lost looking, but nothing I think you need to worry about, anytime soon." She paused for a second, then turned to the more pressing issue. "I don't know how long you have- how long they'll distract each other- but you know as well as I do that the longer they're together, the worse of a mood they'll both be in once they part. I hope, for your sake, they'll be done antagonising each other soon."
(A/N): Making time with = Dating/trying to date/being romantically or sexually involved with someone. 'Am I the only bloke in here not dating a maid?'
Rosarian = a person who cultivates roses, especially as an occupation (from the Latin Rosarius, meaning 'relating to roses'). Not traditionally a name, I don't think, but I did see discussions about using it as one for a fictional character (a male first name, whereas I've gone for the surname of a female character), and there was a list in a genealogy page about what first names have gone with it, and assuming those are real people's actual names, then it HAS been used before, it just really isn't common.
I had a bit of trouble picking out Marta's surname, actually- I originally had her last name as 'Cavendish', but I didn't really think it fit (especially since I couldn't get the association to Cavendish bananas out of my head), and funnily enough, I didn't think she suited a last name beginning with the letter 'c'. I actually ended up deciding on her name because I have to figure out the chapter name before typing up the chapter (so I can save it every paragraph to make sure I don't lose any progress if my computer overheats or something), and when I came up with the 'what's in a name' Romeo and Juliet line, I decided it had to be something rose themed, given the rest of that phrase (What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.) I'm hesitant to make any of my pureblood oc's related to canon pureblood families (other than Leo and the rest being Meliflua's, obviously), but I did sort of decide that Marta's family should be a distant offshoot of the Rosier family. Basically, the Rosier's are thought to have originated in France, so I'm saying there was a section of the family that moved to Italy and became the Rosario's, then later, when a portion of that section of the family moved to England, they named themselves the Rosarian's, to prevent some of the discrimination that might have come with a more Italian sounding surname. Obviously, people of Italian descent aren't as discriminated against in pureblood society as certain others (at least in my story), because the ancient pureblood bloodlines have had an easier time spreading throughout Europe/maybe originated there, in some cases, whereas the pureblood's are really shitty about 'new' countries like North America/South America, because there was probably far less emphasis on maintaining 'pureblood' magical lines in those places, and the pureblood's don't see native people's the same way they see themselves (because they're racist as hell).
Again, almost certainly none of the 'pureblood' lines in the Harry Potter verse are actually 100% 'pure'- because literally all it takes is one women over the centuries to have a secret affair with someone not pureblood, and boom, the whole line isn't pureblood anymore (not to mention all the other ways they could be considered 'impure'). There's also the question of whether being 'pureblood' is even actually a tangible thing or strictly a status symbol- do pureblood's have stronger magic, or do they just get bragging rights? Based on everything we've seen in the series, I'm guessing it's just a bragging rights thing, but I think THEY believe it's the former. The whole 'pureblood' concept is dumb as hell, but people be racist, sooooo...
Also, Amelia saying her 'insides quivered' at Nolan showing Marta a look of soft concern and compassion wasn't meant to be sexual, but feel free to take it that way. ;) It also wasn't meant to be similar to Lisbet's obsession with Jerremyah being tender with other people- like Evie or Leo- but it does sort of feel like it's on the same wavelength, so... hm. Maybe I should look into that.