(A/N): The other part of that chapter. I will point out in the author's note at the end exactly where I paused while writing this, in order to find out about my cat.
Trigger Warnings: Abuse of power, implied sexual content, humiliation. Lots of threats. Ableism? Cipicia mentions a group of people with a specific disability as a way to insult another group of people, who don't have that disability (as far as we know). For a more in depth explanation of the trigger warnings- especially the 'implied sexual content' and the 'humiliation' warnings- please see the author's note at the end of the chapter. You will be able to read the trigger warnings part without any spoilers, other than what is necessary for you to know in order to be able to figure out if it'll bother you. Beyond that though, spoilers ensue.
October 19th, 1967
Amelia
Annette's hurried footsteps stuttered slightly at being called out like that, and I took note of the flush high on her cheeks- was that solely from embarrassment, or from physical exertion caused by rushing to get here?
"I apologise, Mistress. Marta slipped on the stairs-" At Cipicia's pointed look at the grand staircase she had just descended, Annette clarified. "The- the servant's stairs, Mistress. It- there was a bit of a delay to remove her, but given how narrow they are, I couldn't get past. I would have taken the service stairs on the other side, but I feared that would take even longer." Cipicia waved a hand at her, clearly irritated by her excuses.
"Very well. I suppose it could not be avoided- but the next time you arrive late to a summons, you will be punished, unavoidable or not." Annette swallowed thickly and nodded, while I suspected that Aldin was having just as much trouble as I was, trying to keep the concern and disgust off of his face. I wasn't sure if his concern was for Annette, or if he was worried about the chance of Cipicia Joannis turning her ire on him, but in the end, it didn't really matter.
"Yes, Mistress. Of course, Mistress."
Cipicia huffed out a sigh that was incredibly unjustly put upon- like she could not believe how generous she was being, letting Annette off as lightly as that. "Miss Margate, you will be keeping a close eye on my daughter this morning, while Ms Rochester is occupied completing her punishment." Annette's eyes flicked to me, and I knew that my fear must have been evident on my face, because the look in her eyes was just as pitying as it was concerned.
"I- yes, Mistress." Annette stepped up to Miasenna's side now that she had taken her eyes off of me, and bent so that her face was on the same level as the young girl's- I wasn't sure whether she would find that gratifying or condescending, but whatever the answer was, Miasenna hid her opinion on the matter well. "Good morning, Miss Miasenna. I suppose I'll be watching over you this morning, if that's alright with you." Miasenna didn't get the chance to reply, only having the time to peer up at Annette somewhat dubiously before her mother scoffed as daintily as a person could.
"She has no choice in the matter- nor do you. Besides, it's only for a little while, and then you can go about completing your regular duties. Ms Rochester will be left under your supervision, Mr Aldin, so that my daughter and I are free to travel to St Mungo's." Aldin went pale, starting to sputter nervously even as I felt my own eyebrows furrow.
"M-me? Mistress, I-"
I cut him off, not particularly caring how it made me look, given the situation. "You're going back to the Hospital? Why? Did something happen? Is- is Leonides-" No, she had said that it was to be her and Miasenna going, not Leonides- was she planning...? "Is everything alright? Is there anything I can do to help?" She huffed sharply.
"You can help by ceasing your irritating rambling, Ms Rochester," Still, I wasn't the only one looking worried about this plan, as Miasenna had dropped her eyes to the floor, lower lip protruding slightly as she curled her hands into fists. "My son is none of your concern- especially not right now." Unfortunately, I feared she was right. No matter how worried I was about Leonides's well-being, there was nothing I could do to help him right now.
Aldin piped up, sensing an opportunity to try to object to his proposed change of duties for the day. "Ex-excuse me Mistress, but did I hear you correctly? I'm to be the one watching over Ms Rochester? Surely not-" Her smile was almost predatory, and I very nearly echoed Aldin's gulp.
"You heard me just fine- or will you be needing to visit the Hospital as well, Mr Aldin?" He froze, his expression panicked, but maybe not quite as panicked as I thought he could have been, considering the circumstances. "Do you feel like you need to have your ears checked?" A second later, presumably after he had managed to overcome his 'freeze' response, he shook his head.
"No, Mistress. Must've- it must have just been a temporary lapse of judgement. It won't happen again."
She looked down her nose at him, which was a bit impressive, given that her heels only just barely put them at around the same height. "Ensure it doesn't, Mr Aldin... I would hate to have to interview for the position of Head Gardener any time soon." He winced, but by this point, she had turned her attention back to me- clearly she had picked her target for torment, and she was sticking with it. "Ms Rochester," She practically purred, and it felt like hot breath on the back of my neck, when I thought I was alone. "Would you mind leading the way to The Workshop?"
The... The Workshop? The Workshop was the name that had been given to the combination of the greenhouse and connected outbuilding, and was the gardeners' base of operations. They kept their tools and supplies there, and Aldin usually gave them their marching orders every morning- though I suppose he had probably had to skip doing so, today. Annette had said that my punishment was something to do with the gardeners- maybe Cipicia was putting me to work. I just hoped that Nolan wouldn't be too involved... "Of course, Mistress."
The journey to The Workshop was silent, other than the few times Annette had tried to make small talk with Miasenna- only to be chastised for doing so by the girl's mother. It had the feeling of a walk to the gallows, to the point where I was almost relieved when I pushed the main door to The Workshop open, and was greeted by the sounds of a busy- but amicable- morning amongst coworkers. And then, one by one, the men caught sight of me, and everything stopped.
It became silent once more, and this time it was worse- because even if I was careful not to look at him directly, I had noticed Nolan out of the corner of my eye, sitting on one of the supplied benches from when he had put his work boots on. His hair was still damp from the shower, and slightly darkened with water as it was, the usual vaguely red tinge to his brown hair wasn't visible. What was visible was the pure terror in his eyes, before he managed to tear them from me.
I did my best to ignore the suffocating weight of all of their eyes on me, and stepped to the side to allow Cipicia entry. She wasn't the one closest behind me- that spot was occupied by Aldin- but Cipicia was the one I was concerned with; the one that mattered, in this situation, at least until she handed over the reins to him. Aldin shuffled past me, his eyes skating over the men in his service as if simultaneously trying to calm them down, and warn them of the consequences of misbehaving.
Behind him came Cipicia, head held high and nose scrunched as if to protect against the stench of the room- maybe my relationship with Nolan had changed my tastes, but the faint scent of male sweat and not-so-faint scent of soil didn't really bother me anymore- her skirt lifted to just above the top of her shoes, a pair of severely laced boots with a significant heel. They weren't appropriate for the setting in any way, but to be fair, neither was Cipicia herself. Every man in the room straightened instantly, and it was easy to tell which were more preoccupied by their attraction to her, than their fear of her. Luckily- and predictably, if I knew him as well as I thought I did- Nolan didn't seem to even notice her beauty, but now the abject horror on his face was available for all to see. I suppose it was a good thing then, that most of the men in the room were wearing a related, if not quite similar, expression.
"Mr Aldin," Cipicia started as Annette and Miasenna reluctantly filed in behind her, to which the men- including Nolan- looked more confused now than strictly worried, at seeing yet another woman with no business being here enter, along with a little girl. "Address your men." Aldin's eyes were wide and panicked, but he did as she said- what other choice did he have?
"I- I'm not sure what you-" She arched an eyebrow at him, and he swallowed thickly, clearly choosing to abandon this avenue, since it was getting him nowhere. "Men, this morning we will... er," He hesitated, because really, she hadn't given him anything to go on. "We will be... going about our business as usual-" She cut him off- of course she did. This was a show of power, a demonstration that everything began and ended at her discretion; we were all at her beck and call, and there was nothing we could do about it.
"Yes, thank you Mr Aldin, that is quite enough." He looked vaguely frustrated, and I assumed it was only 'vaguely', because he was trying to keep such a damning expression off of his face. "Mr Aldin will be giving you your orders individually, after Ms Rochester is finished with you." The men were clearly confused by this, as was Aldin- but I... I suspected my face was blank, even if on the inside, I felt Nolan's horror like cold tea soaking into fresh socks.
Cipicia stepped up beside me, letting one side of her skirt dip a little so that she could gesture to me with an insouciant hand. "As you may have heard," Obviously she must have been aware of how swiftly the rather aggressive gossip circuit worked in this little community, and by her tone, she certainly didn't approve. "Yesterday, Ms Rochester allowed my son- and daughter- out of her sight," 'Allowed' implied that I had done it on purpose, but I wasn't about to argue with her, given that I was already awaiting punishment. "As a result of this, my son decided to climb a tree-" No one was stupid enough to laugh, but there was a particularly suspicious cough from somewhere toward the rear of the group. "-and when the branch broke beneath him, he fell, and broke his leg." There was a pregnant pause, and I saw more than a few men's throats bob as they swallowed nervously; they knew there was a chance that their Mistress was going to blame them for the broken branch- and to be fair, I expected she was going to, later.
She surveyed them, eyes sharp with the weight of her own superiority complex. "I'm sure Mr Aldin will be making the appropriate arrangements to ensure that this does not happen again-" He nodded firmly. "-but before any of that is to happen, Ms Rochester must be punished for her... lapse in judgement." Aldin and I both swallowed- me at my impending punishment, him at her reference to his earlier 'lapse in judgement'. "Ms Rochester, rather than leave my children, asked Mr Aldin to fetch me," She made this sound like a poor decision. "While the maids cleaned up the dirt he tracked inside in a timely manner," 'The maids' being Annette, who was right behind her. Aldin looked quite embarrassed to be called out over his dirty footwear, and like he regretted not taking his shoes off at the door immensely. "I felt there was a rather fitting punishment that could come from that whole situation." She waved a hand at the men.
Or, more accurately, at their feet- Their shoes. Their filthy, mud and plant matter encrusted work boots. "Ms Rochester, your duties will consist of cleaning the boots of each and every man in this room-" For a second, I thought Nolan might try to edge out of the room to avoid being included in this, but he would have had to fight past about ten men to do so, and as such, I saw the resignation on his face. No, there was no getting out of this- for any of us. "-including Mr Aldin himself-" He sputtered a bit, and I was glad that at least I hadn't been stuck with a supervisor who would take pleasure in my humiliation. "-in fact, why don't you start with Mr Aldin, Ms Rochester?"
With a stiff back- and stiff upper lip- I reluctantly moved toward him, and by the skittish way he eyed me, it was easy to tell that he was just as reluctant as I was. Then his eyes darted behind me, to Cipicia, and he took a step back, which made me pause. "Mistress Joannis, I'm not even- I don't even have my boots on." He protested- and indeed, he didn't. Cipicia waved a hand imperiously toward the bank of lockers on the other side of the benches.
"Well then, put them on." She said, as if this was obvious- which, I suppose it was... it was just also a rather unpleasant prospect.
"I," He started, then seemed to realise that there was nothing he could say to that- at least if he wanted to keep his position as Head Gardener. Or his job in general, most likely. "...yes, Mistress. Right away, Mistress." He was clearly hesitant, but in the end, it did him no favors. He didn't walk to the lockers- instead, he moved to the opposite side of the room, where rather than a full bank of metal lockers, there was a lone wooden wardrobe. As he approached, he pulled a small key from the inner pocket of his jacket, and once he had unlocked it, the open door permitted me to see two pairs of coveralls hanging up, and his work boots on the rubber mat lined bottom. He picked them both up in one hand, gripping them by the collar, and locked the door before slowly making his way back over to me. He stopped in front of me, but I saw Cipicia shake her head past his shoulder.
"Take a seat on the bench, Mr Aldin." He met my eyes, looking some combination of sickly, frightened, and frustrated. Apparently he took too long to comply, because Cipicia took a single step forward, wearing a derisive sneer like it was the most desirable accessory of the season. "The bench, Mr Aldin," She said, as though she thought even this was beneath his intelligence. "Do not keep me waiting." He swallowed thickly, cast me one last apologetic look, and lowered himself onto the bench, his boots still gripped tightly as he set them on the floor beside his current pair of footwear. He started to open his mouth, but she cut him off. "Put them on." She didn't even give him a chance to argue, she turned away from him to address the rest of the assembled gardeners. "I assume, given that I have been told that Mr Aldin usually has you maintain your own boots, at least one of you will have a brush Ms Rochester can borrow."
It was not a request- it was a thinly veiled order at best, and for a scary moment, not a single person moved. Even Aldin had frozen in the middle of removing his shoe, clearly worried about what his men might do- how Cipicia would react, and how it would reflect on him. And then, something even scarier happened- Nolan spoke up. "I have a brush she can borrow, Mistress Joannis." She arched an eyebrow at him, as if warning him to hurry up, and Nolan turned to open his locker, on the other side of the bench. I did my best to look at him as little as possible, simultaneously trying to figure out how I was going to accept the brush from him without being too familiar, but also not draw attention to the fact that I was trying not to act too familiar- as it turned out, the best course of action was the one Nolan took; he handed the brush to Aldin.
"Oh, thank you, Mr Montgomery." Aldin said after a second, having finally noticed the offered brush and accepted it from Nolan. Then, of course, he offered it to me in turn, and I took it easily, much less worried about any unintentional contact with Aldin than I was with Nolan. He slipped the second boot onto his foot and reluctantly looked to Cipicia for further instruction- instruction she was all too willing to supply.
"Tie them."
He hesitated, but slowly began to do so, even as he moistened his lips to object- likely so she couldn't chastise him for not obeying. "Mistress, you... are you aware that in the typical process of cleaning our work boots, the laces must be removed? Both to clean them, and the boot underne-" She cut him off again, her face telling me that she would have quite enjoyed being able to roll her eyes at him, but her 'superior breeding' was preventing her. Well, it was good to know that we were all prisoners to our own circumstances.
"Tie them. I am aware, I simply do not care." He put his head down, and went to work lacing up his boots, knotting them closed at the top. He took a second before lifting his head, as if to contemplate what he had done to deserve being punished alongside me. He hadn't let her son break his leg, but she didn't care about that fact- she was punishing him either way.
"Does this suit you, Mistress?"
She didn't answer him, instead setting her sharp little eyes on me. "Ms Rochester," She said, and I felt like my spine might snap with how rigid I was fighting to keep it. "On your knees." I didn't react- not because I wasn't affected, but because my brain had completely shorted out at those words. From the corner of my eye, I saw Nolan stiffen, and I suspected that he was only barely restraining himself from coming to my aid- but in the end, it was Aldin that took it upon himself to stand up for me. I suppose he was slightly less at risk, so it made sense, and I certainly didn't blame Nolan for not- He was doing what I wanted him to, in the end, and I knew it was coming at a great cost to his personal sensibilities.
"Mistress Joannis, is that really neces-" She cut him off again, as if she had expected this; had been anticipating it, even.
"Would you prefer to hold your feet in the air for her?" He opened his mouth. "Please keep in mind that your preferences do not matter, and I still, very much, do. Not. Care." His face turned red with ineffectual rage, and his jaw snapped shut with a click. And a grind, if the muscle twitching in his cheek was anything to go by. I shot him a look, pulled my skirt up just enough to allow myself the freedom of movement I needed, and sunk to my knees. "Good girl." It was so clearly meant to humiliate- and unfortunately, it was extremely effective. "Untie them."
It seemed pointless- completely, utterly pointless- to order Aldin to tie them, then immediately follow it up with ordering me to untie them again- but it wasn't pointless to her, was it? It was all a show of power... every man here was below Aldin in the social hierarchy, and I was above Aldin- but Cipicia... Cipicia was above everyone, and she refused to risk having anyone forget that, even for a second.
"Yes, Mistress." I obeyed- after all, I didn't really have any other choice, and I wanted to get this over with. Aldin was only the first customer of the day, if Cipicia's earlier assertion was anything to go by- and I knew there was very little chance that she was going to change her mind on the matter.
I approached the task with precision, setting Nolan's brush on the ground beside Aldin's boots, before attacking the laces as methodically as possible. I untied them both, then set about completely unlacing them, keeping my eyes glued to the top of his boots as I set said laces off to the side, next to the brush. Aldin, for his part, was clearly very determined to look anywhere but at me- I suspected his eyes were fixed on a spot on the wall directly across from him and behind me, but without looking up at him, I had no way of knowing for sure- and there was no way I was going to make eye contact with a man while I was on my knees at his feet.
When I had paused in my ministrations, Cipicia provided further instruction. "Good. Now- tend to him." The way she said it made it sound like- it was intentionally humiliating, and I wasn't sure if it was the implication itself or the motive behind it that made Nolan's posture stiffen, in the corner of my eye. Luckily for me- and Nolan- he was not the only one. Aldin seethed in a similar manner, but whether he was more embarrassed for me or for himself, I couldn't tell- and beyond him, most of the men in the room either shifted uncomfortably, or looked downright outraged on my behalf. It was sweet of them, but completely unnecessary.
"Yes, Mistress." I picked up the brush- Nolan's brush- and set to work knocking the detritus from Aldin's boots.
I kept my eyes on the rhythmic movement of the bristles, hearing her heels clicking across the stone. The sound was slightly muffled by a thin layer of dirt, but as she sauntered closer, it attacked my ears like she had cast an amplifying charm on them, just to taunt me. "Hm," She hummed contemplatively, and I already knew that I wasn't going to like what came next. "I would have thought he'd preferred a gentler hand, but you would know best, wouldn't you, Ms Rochester?"
The silence in the room had a physical form, and the only thing that interrupted it was the soft rasp of the brush against the leather of Aldin's work boots, as I fought not to outwardly react to that rather pointed question. Inwardly, my heart thundered in my chest, and both panic, and a deep sense of dread, seized me. She knew. She knew. Not about Aldin and I- she was wrong on that front- but she knew that something was going on. That I was involved with someone- maybe she even knew for certain that it was a gardener... she'd just picked the wrong gardener. Poor Aldin- it made sense. He was, after all, the Head Gardener- if there was anyone who might be considered appropriate for me- or at least, the closest any gardener could get to being appropriate- it was him... but it wasn't him. It was Nolan. Nolan, who I knew, without even looking at him, was likely on the verge of turning blue from the effort of trying not to say anything- because I knew him like the back of my hand. Better, even. I had fallen for him so easily that I had never so much as considered the fact that he held no real power. A gardener was a gardener, and once I had gotten past what he did for a living, his job title had never once entered my mind.
I didn't look up. Not at Nolan, not at Aldin, not at Cipicia- I didn't even lift my eyes from the bristle brush, and Cipicia huffed a dark little laugh. "A single minded devotion any man would be lucky to receive- would you not agree, Mr Aldin?" He didn't sputter this time.
"Whatever you're insinuating-" His words were sharp and crisp as he bit them out, but none of that mattered to Cipicia.
"You know exactly what I am insinuating." The room continued to be quiet for several seconds, and even though most of the men had been silent the whole time, this felt different. Before, it had been fear, or deference, brought on by her position as Lady of the House, but now... there was a sort of tension, a thread of disbelief, hardened by a shared indignation at the way their boss- that they- were being treated. And, I think, a surprising amount of chivalric fury.
"You- you have no- this isn't- we're not- Ms Rochester and I are not-" If possible, his face got even redder at this- at having to acknowledge my role in this whole thing- and Cipicia finally cut him off, rolling her eyes at him. Clearly she had pushed past her earlier hang-up on the subject.
"There is no point denying it," He opened his mouth to argue, but she continued- incredibly unfortunately. "We have records of letters sent by Ms Rochester arriving at the gardeners' quarters, as well as letters sent from the gardeners' quarters arriving at her quarters." Oh, Merlin... "And on top of that, we have records of letters sent from your quarters to the main house, and vice versa." ...oh? "If those letters are unrelated, then I invite either of you to tell me who those letters are from; who you are writing to." Aldin was still for a second, then he must have closed his mouth, because Cipicia laughed again. "Ms Rochester?" I shook my head, and she turned to the room at large. "Anyone else care to weigh in?"
The room was silent. As silent as it had been the whole time, and yet somehow, I could feel the change in mood. Somehow, I felt that every single man- and most likely Annette- knew that those letters were, in fact, unrelated. They also knew, however, that Aldin and I both, were sending letters somewhere- which meant that as much as they knew that Cipicia was wrong about Aldin and I, they knew that all of the things she had said about him, could likely be applied to some other, mystery man; a mystery man that was as close as the far end of the bench, though they didn't know that. There were certainly some looks being exchanged, each of them trying to figure out which one of their peers may or may not be involved with me, from what I could see from glancing up at them from under my lashes.
"I was not aware that I had hired a bunch of mutes." Cipicia said- which... was obviously uncalled for, but none of the men said anything. Well, none of the men spoke up for the first time.
"I believe they're worried about saying something that might offend you. Most of us don't have much experience with having to choose our words carefully, Mistress Joannis."
Cipicia turned her attention to him- Merlin, Nolan! Stop drawing attention to yourself! "What is your name again?" I nearly sighed- that was not a good sign, and even Nolan knew it, but at this point, he had no choice but to answer.
"Nolan Montgomery, Mistress." She considered him for a second, clearly appraising him, before turning back to Aldin- and subsequently, to me.
"Mr Aldin," She addressed him again, as if nothing had happened past her telling me to start scrubbing his boots. "I will be leaving you in charge of making sure that Ms Rochester completes her assigned task- see to it that she does so, or you will both be punished."
There was silence for a second, before I heard him exhale slowly through his nose. "Yes, Mistress." He ground out, and I saw Cipicia's legs rotate- she must have been turning back to Annette and Miasenna, where they still stood by the door.
"Your work here is done, Miss Margate. I will be taking my daughter now." I turned my head just enough to see Annette nod. "Miasenna, come." I had almost forgotten that Miasenna was here- had been privy to this conversation- this humiliation.
Miasenna hesitated, ever so slightly, but not enough to incur her mother's wrath. Then, she stepped toward her mother, her mouth opening at the same time. "Mother, why are we going to the hospital? Am I sick?" Miasenna knew she wasn't sick- she was playing dumb, but I wasn't sure if it was for her mother's sake, Annette's, or any of the men in the room. Miasenna, after all, was one of the only three people in the room that knew that it was Nolan I was involved with- she was only acting clueless.
"You're not sick," Cipicia snapped, then seemed to recompose herself, plastering on a smile that was just as sweet as it was clearly fake. "Merely a check up. I thought it... pertinent, after yesterday." Miasenna perked up.
"Mother, is Leonides g-" Cipicia cut her off, her face turning stony.
"You are not to so much as mention his name." It was a bit of an odd request, seeing as he was her brother- her big brother, who she looked up to, and not just because he was tall for his age. "Come, we're going." Miasenna hesitated again, and Cipicia stalked toward her. "We are leaving, Miasenna, and that is-" She grabbed her daughter's arm, and turned on the spot, cutting herself off with her own crack of apparition.
I kept my head down for a minute, even as Aldin loosed a breath from above me. "You can stop now." I shook my head.
"No," I told him. "I can't. She'll know if I disobey- she'll know if you let me disobey." I finally lifted my head and met Aldin's eyes. Only Aldin's eyes, doing my darnedest to ignore the gathered men behind him- to ignore Nolan. Aldin's eyes flicked over my shoulder, and for a second, I thought he must have been looking at Cipicia- but then I remembered that Cipicia wasn't here, and that the only person behind me was Annette.
Oh. I understood better, now. Maybe he had even been looking at her earlier, and I had simply mistaken it for- I didn't make any grand gestures. I didn't pointedly meet his eye then look at Nolan, I didn't nod in solidarity; I did absolutely nothing that could give him any hint that I had found him out, or that he could use to figure out that it was Nolan that was my- that Nolan was my Annette. I lowered my eyes again, doing my best to ignore the shuffling from the corner of the room, until I could do so no longer.
Until a man approached my side- a man that I could easily tell wasn't Nolan for several reasons, but I hated to admit that the one that came to me first was that he was wearing a different cologne- and then, carefully, knelt down beside me. "Here," He said, his voice soft- I didn't look at him. "It's a knee pillow- we use it sometimes, while pruning and... stuff." This boy- this young man, but to me he was a boy; he acted like a boy, and he couldn't have been more than twenty years old- was probably accidentally making a case for the others to think that we were... involved.
Another man dropped down on the other side of me, a pair of work boots in his hands, presumably his own. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him start tugging on the laces. "You know," He said conversationally. "When Aldin told us not to clean our boots last night, I'd already taken the laces out," He said, still pulling the laces free of their eyelets. "Didn't see much point putting them back in." I eyed his- currently- still laced boots pointedly, and he flashed me a wolfish grin.
"You're full of shit." I told him, a phrase I had only mostly picked up from paying far too close attention to Nolan- whenever he accidentally let an oath slip out in my presence- and it had the desired effect. This new bloke- Logan Lovett, I believe his name was- threw his head back, barking out a loud, sharp laugh. The boy on my other side was clearly trying- and failing- to fight a grin of his own, and even Aldin looked amused by this. Logan finally recovered, and pinned me with a half-crazed look- but it was crazed in a surprisingly endearing way.
"Prove it." He said pleasantly, and I realised that I couldn't. Then, I felt a nudge at my knee, and when I looked down, I saw the pea green leather knee pillow that the boy was trying to 'suggest' that I used.
I eyed him warily, and he shrugged. "If you put it under your skirt, she'll never even see it." He reasoned, and although I was still skeptical, I accepted his offering- sliding the pillow under my skirt, between my knees and the ground.
"Thank you." I told him, and his cheeks turned pink.
He sputtered a bit. "That's... quite alright, ma'am." I barely had time to blink at this particular turn of events, before I was confronted with yet another new thing.
"Besides," Nolan said, and I felt myself holding my breath, anticipating what he might say. As it turns out, not what I expected of him. "If she wants to embarrass you by putting you on your knees, I would think that using a cushion would actually be a more humiliating prospect than going without." Apparently, I wasn't the only one not expecting him to say such a thing, because quite a few of the other men- including Aldin and the two on either side of me- shot him a puzzled, slightly concerned look.
I rolled my eyes at him, resuming my work on Aldin's boots. "If she wants me to be embarrassed about getting on my knees, she's going to have to do a lot better than 'good girl'." I huffed, and both by knowing him so well, and by seeing it out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that I had made Nolan blush.
Logan flicked his eyes back and forth between Nolan and I, then met my eyes with a cocky smirk. "You know, if she already thinks you're slumming it with a gardener, I feel I'm morally obligated to inform you that I am clearly the far superior choice. I admit that certain individuals have a unique sort of charm, but..." I narrowed my eyes at him, and his face split into a grin so wide that I worried it might be causing him some level of pain. "I didn't expect you to have such simple tastes, Ms Rochester." Ugh-
"Miss Rochester." Nolan said, which I suspected was as good as a declaration, at least in Logan's eyes- which must have been why his grin seemed to get almost impossible wider.
"You-" I cut him off, not wanting to have to hear whatever he was going to say next.
"My tastes are not simple," I explained, and he cocked an eyebrow at me. "I simply prefer a workhorse, over any amount of show ponies that might come prancing my way."
(A/N): Trigger Warnings (Spoiler Free): Cipicia uses her position to force Amelia to do what she tells her to- and she tells her to get on her knees for Aldin, and 'tend to him'. Throughout that section, she basically alludes to Amelia giving Aldin a blowjob, calling her a 'good girl', saying that she would have thought that Aldin would prefer a gentler hand, but that of course Amelia would know better than she would. Amelia doesn't reply, and Cipicia further implies the blowjob motif by commenting to Aldin about Amelia exhibiting a 'single minded devotion any man would be lucky to receive'. As for the Ableism, Cipicia asks the gardener's to weigh in on something and they don't, so she says, 'I was not aware that I had hired a bunch of mutes'.
When Aldin says 'You can stop now', I paused between 'can' and 'stop'. The rest of this chapter was written between me finding out, and us leaving to go to the vet.
Spoilers from this point forward, if you haven't read the chapter above.
So, yes. Cipicia is convinced that Amelia and Aldin are having an affair, when in actuality, it's Amelia and Nolan, and Aldin and (Amelia assumes) Annette. Also, yes. I'm aware of my problem with names starting with the letter A. Amelia, Annette, Aldin, Audrey, Anthophilius, Adelaide, Aria, Abraham Actaeon- there's also at least two more that haven't been introduced yet. Obviously I'm only counting original characters, so people like Alice are not included.
I asked my sister for help with names. I DO have a name for the younger of the two gardener's, I just wasn't really able to mention it organically here. If I don't get around to mentioning it in the next chapter (of this arc, not the actual, physical next chapter), I'll just tell you guys in the author's note. I asked her for a 'bad boy' name, and she came up with Logan. From there, I spent about an hour sending her various last names, trying to find one that I liked. We decided pretty early on that an alliterative name would be best, and we ended up going with 'Lovett'. Oh, by the way, I also have a first name for Aldin picked out, but I figure that WILL come up at some point (again, if it doesn't, I WILL tell you guys).
This chapter has had light edits made to it on 4/1/24 - just some grammatical or layout stuff, to make it flow slightly better.