King of Darkness

Clumsy Claire

My mother was beside me before I even realised what had happened.

"Oh you're so clumsy Claire!" She exclaimed, loud enough for the people around us to hear. "It's alright, we will get you changed Marigold."

Claire still had her empty teacup in her hand, but seemed almost as surprised as I was. She had thrown her freshly poured tea over the front of my white dress in a fit of anger. It burned and felt awful, but once I realised what had happened I truly did need our mother to be here.

"You dumb-" I started, but mother put her arm around me and curtly pulled me away from Claire. Aunt Jane, though not as fast as our ever watching mother, had hurried over too and started chatting with Claire as though nothing ever happened. People were watching the altercation happen much to my dismay.

The dress had an awful stain on the front and we had to walk through most of the party to get inside. Now even the people who hadn't seen Claire throw it over me were staring. I looked like I had done it myself.

"What happened?" My father quickly detached himself from the conversation with our gamekeeper Morris and hurried on over.

"Oh, you know how clumsy Claire can be!" My mother said loudly once more, though by the looks of my father's face he understood exactly what had happened. He had left most of our upbringing to the nanny, governess and to our mother, but once he heard about Claire and mine's everlasting battle, he felt it his fatherly duty to stand in wherever he could.

"I told you no more of this." He whispered to me in a hushed up tone.

"She started it!" I hissed back. "And she threw it over me! I didn't do anything!"

He leaned back and shook his head in disappointment. "We will talk about it later."

Mother pushed me inside. Before I knew it, we were in my room waiting for Ms Thompson, my mother's lady's maid, to come help me change.

"You saw what happened mama." I said to her, eagerly peeling the wet layers of cloth from my chest. "It wasn't my fault!"

"I didn't see it." She answered. I knew she was lying, she always lied when it came to these things. Miss Thompson had once said that it was because she wanted to treat all of her daughters with equal love, but it sure didn't look like that to me. She lied so I could get a punishment I didn't deserve, but at least it was equal to Claire's right?

She left as soon as miss Thompson came in. Her hair had gone grey long ago, mother said she had started as a lady's maid to my grandmother, but she worked even harder than the younger maids. I didn't care if she saw me crying, she had seen it plenty of times before.

"Now, now." She shushed me as her fingers started to take off my tea-soaked corset. "What is the source of all this sadness?"

At first, I couldn't find a way to speak through my tears. I hated it, I hated it all. I just wanted to lay in bed and sleep all day, but I had been forced to play nice for master Richard, to act like I thought the obnoxious cries of my nephew were cute and endearing and now I would also be punished for something I didn't do.

"It's not fair." I managed to say between hiccups. "They think so much more of Claire than of me, while she is slow and stupid."

"They love you both equally-" Ms Thompson tried to explain again, but I wouldn't let her.

"Then why will they punish me for what she does?" I cried. "She always starts it but she gets away with it and I don't."

Ms Thompson was quiet for a few moments as she put away my old corset and grabbed a new one. She was deep into her thoughts while I stared at her in the hope that she had some sort of miracle cure for all my sorrows.

"My lady, you must promise not to tell your parents I said this." She said as she laid the corset over my belly.

"Of course, I promise." I immediately answered. Thompson was one of the few fun people in this godforsaken house, I had lied for her before and I would do it again. If there was anyone here who had my back, it was her.

"When your father was around your age, he felt the exact same as you do now." She started to explain. "Your uncle was still alive you see, so your father wouldn't inherit the estate. The grand duchess didn't give any of her other children the time of day. I was in the room when he went to plead his case with her. She told him to stop acting so childish."

"So what did he do?" I eagerly asked. I could hardly imagine my father as a young boy asking for more attention. He seemed so emotionless and he was doing the exact same thing to his children now.

"He ran away." She revealed. My tears had stopped completely. I knew I was listening to one of those stories my parents tried hard to keep secret from everyone, including the family. I couldn't even imagine my mother knowing about this, even if she did she would no doubt take it to the grave with her.

"He was gone for two whole nights." She continued, slowly putting the corset back on. "The grand duchess was inconsolable, she cried day and night. Your grandfather went and joined the search party, he didn't return until he found him."

"Wasn't he in trouble afterwards?" I asked.

"They were so happy to have found him that they didn't even care." She sealed my new plan.

I knew she told me this for a reason, so I had no problems asking for more information. As she was putting on my new dress, she told me to bring plenty of food and a blanket. We agreed that two nights was too short, that the longer I stayed away the more chance I had that they wouldn't punish me.

"Please do be careful." She told me. "The outside world is a scary place. Don't trust any men approaching you in particular, but women can have evil intentions too."

Claire's face appeared in my thoughts as she said it. My tears had completely stopped and in a weird way, I felt happy again. I was avoiding punishment and I was getting my revenge.