Emilia sat by the lake on a sunny Tuesday. She had begun a children's book a few days ago because she missed reading her siblings their bedtime stories.
When breakfast ended and all chores were done, she had a few hours before lunch and decided to spend it sketching a bird on the tree in front of her for the book. It was a quiet and peaceful day. Only the sound of the bird's family chirping in another tree could be heard. Well, that was until her friend Sarah came tumbling like a boulder off a mountain.
"Emilia!" Sarah screamed, running towards her.
"Sa-sarah?" Emilia sprang to her feet, looking around frightfully. "What caused you to shriek so?"
"You must come at once!" She screeched, pointing to the servant quarters.
"What?!" Emilia asked. "Why?"
"Judith's coin purse was stolen!"
Without a word, they took to their heels. Judith was her arch nemesis or at least made herself an enemy. She would always go out of her way to put Emilia in trouble with the kitchen maids, and with Madam Phineas always having her back, she was untouchable.
"It's missing!" Judith's high-pitched scream was the first to reach her ears as she walked into the hall. Madam Phineas—the head palace maid—stood there with a disgusted face as Judith continued wailing.
"All my savings, gone!" Judith screeched again, with tears in her eyes.
Emilia pushed through the now crowd of servants. "What has happened?" She asked.
"You!" Judith charged at her with a hard slap. "You thief! You stole it!" she accused, causing gasps of shock from the crowd. Cordelia, her minion and partner in crime, pretended to hold her back.
"What nonsense is this?!" Emilia bellowed angrily. "Whatever did I steal?!" She screamed back as hot tears fell from her eyes.
"My coin purse! All my savings!"
"Why would I want your petty money?!"
"You were the only one awake when I hid it in the drawer under my bed last night!. I saw you!. And now it's gone!"
Emilia's eyes grew at the absurdity. "I always suspected it before, but now I know you are batshit crazy, Judith!"
"What did you say?!"
"You are out of wits! I did not see you hiding your money last night; it was dark, for bloody sake!"
A few gasps left the mouths of the crowd around.
"You were sneaking off to heavens knows where in the dead of the night! And you expect me not to suspect you?"
"You were sneaking out?" "Madam Phineas asked with a hiss. The third time Emilia was being reported for sneaking around the palace. Judith couldn't hide her smirk.
"How does me sneaking off translate to stealing your silver?" Emilia retorted.
"Emilia is not a thief; everyone here knows that!" Sarah shouted.
"How will we know that if we don't search her things?" Cordelia retorted.
"We are eight in the dorm; why not search everyone? , including you, Cordelia!" Sarah replied. And people began to murmur in agreement.
"Enough!" Madam Phineas said, quieting everyone.
"All bags will be checked; get your bags out now!"
All eight of them in the room brought out their things, and they went through them one by one publicly. Emilia didn't come with anything but the clothes on her back to Dacra, but after living in Therma for so long, she had gathered a few knickknacks from friends.
Unfortunately for Emilia, the coin purse was found in her satchel along with her most recent draft of her romance novel.
People began to murmur, spitting out curses at her. Cordelia and Judith celebrated their wins as Madam Phineas sentenced her to thirty strokes by the gallows for stealing. And more chores for two weeks. To maximize her work hours, they burnt all her drafts that she spent weeks writing.
It was clear Judith and Cordelia orchestrated the whole thing, but why was a mystery. They probably got bored and decided it was a good day to pick on someone; she unfortunately was the scapegoat and subject of humiliation for their entertainment. Emilia learned not to underestimate their hatred for her anymore.
If she was one step ahead of them before, she needed to be 5 steps ahead now. They may celebrate their little win, but not for long. She would catch them where it hurt the most and humiliate them publicly as they had done her.
First she had to heal her sore and gnashed buttocks from the lashes while working more time than usual. She had her friends to help for most of the time when Madam Phineas couldn't see, but it was a gruesome two weeks to endure.
Life dragged along, from one day to another with nothing to look forward to. Till Sarah once again ran to her like a petrified chicken.
"You will not believe what has happened!" She exclaimed with a huge grin as the breeze continued to act against her hair.
"What?" Emilia asked impatiently, dusting down the cabinets. Hoping no one's money was missing yet again
"A man asked to publish your book!"
Emilia stopped, stunned and confused for a long minute. The only book she had ever finished was burnt a few days ago.
She had not been able to write a single word since the great lashing she received, and she hadn't left the palace grounds or told anyone about that book before. Sarah knew, but that was merely by constant association.
Emilia loved to write mostly because it helped her cope with missing home so much. She missed her old life on the farm with Sonia, the twins, and the animals. She missed daydreaming about her prince charming.
But her writings were more of journal entries and fantasies than a book worth publishing. So of course it sounded like another language, possibly German, when Sarah told her the book was to be published. By no means was she a scholar or literary aristocrat like the famous names she read about in the library. Those were the people one would refer to as authors. Those were the types of writings one would publish.
Not her teenage imaginations.
"What book?"
"The Little Girl Up Hill." She answered, still smiling.