At Home//Lisette

[Deniel de Vallée Bleue]

Deniel rolled over in his bed, his bed creaked quietly with every move. He couldn’t see any light slipping around the edges of his curtains, but even so he could tell that the sun was on the verge of rising. Deniel sat up and climbed out of his bed; even if he had wanted to he could never sleep in much longer than this time every day.

The floor was cold under his bare feet as he moved across the room to where his clothes were neatly laid out, stretched out over a slightly worn desk chair. Like clockwork every night he selected his clothing for the next day and laid them out. Today, like most days, he had selected linen garments, usually dark in color, today a dark green. Even though he didn’t have any plans to meet anyone important today, he still carefully dressed himself, adding a freshly cleaned cravat and his buckled shoes which were spotless to his outfit. He consulted his mirror to make sure that his red hair was in order before making his way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was cold and lifeless when Deniel arrived, he had been forced to cut back the maid’s hours and because he had already had to practically fire the cook seeing as he couldn’t pay her, there was no one to light a fire in the morning or put on tea. Deniel leaned over the fireplace, he poked around in the ashes for a moment with the fire poker, hoping to find a ember that was still red. Fortunately, he found one that was still red, he didn’t want to spend all morning trying to light a fire, a task at which he was not particularly adept at. He tossed some dry straw on the ember and pushed it down with the fire poker, he leaned over and blew on it a bit, hoping that it would catch fire on its own accord. Deniel added a little kindling and blew on it again, a plague on the maid, he thought grumpily.

He looked at his hands, inspecting them for ashes. They looked clean enough, but with these things one could never tell, he dunked them into a bucket of water and dried them on a nearby towel. Glancing back at his attempt at a fire, he saw that by some miracle the dried straw had caught and was popping as it twisted from a healthy color to dried black. The kindling was catching he noticed with relief, he set a piece of wood on the small fire and set about filling a metal pot with water.

The night before the maid had set out a small tray of fruit, cheese, and bread for their breakfast. She had wrapped it in a thin cheese cloth, which he removed, folded and set aside. If he had ever wondered how a servant felt, this was his answer. He hung the metal pot on the hook that was specifically for it, which he had discovered by watching the maid while he was pretending to speak with her about the state of the dust on a book shelf. The tray was surprisingly light as he carried it into the dining room.

By this time, the sun was rising steadily in the sky. Deniel could see the sky illuminated above the tops out of the neighbor’s trees in the world outside of the glass of the windows that were set in the walls of the modest dining room. He set out the tray and a set of plates, one for himself and one for his sister. He settled at the table and pulled out a book, he had marked a page in it, which regarded the proper topics for discussion at a Tortallan garden party. He was not expecting to attend any garden parties anytime soon, but there was no sense in letting such an event catch him off guard. As he read, he tried to think of something to tell his sister regarding the maid, because she would surely notice that Ms. Burbarn was absent from the residence this morning and also wonder how the breakfast had appeared in the dining room and how the water had moved to the fireplace. He decided to say that she had pressing errands to run this morning, but had made the preparations for breakfast before she left. Plausible, he thought, turning a page in his book. He sat calmly, waiting for his sister to appear before he would begin eating.

[Lisette de Vallée Bleue]

Lisette was awakened by a shaft of light escaping through a partially cracked open curtain suddenly hitting her eyes. Having stayed up rather late that night - late enough to finish up another candle - the younger lady of Vallée Bleue did not feel that such a wake up call was suited to her circumstances. Determined to staunchly ignore the increasingly brighter ray of sunshine that was increasinly tickling and annoying her eyes, Lisette reclosed them and rolled over with a soft moan. After dozing in and out for around another twenty minutes, she just laid there and waited for the maid to come and assist her in her dressing. And waited. And waited.

At last, Lisette, curious as to where the servant was, got up, shrugged on a light robe, and searched around for her. Finding her no where on the second floor, she somewhat grumpily began dressing herself. After washing her face using the water in the basin on her rather squat dressing table, she focused her attentions on a minor problem. She had to pick a dress without a tightly laced up back, for there was nobody to strap her into one. After a short time of dithering, Lisette finally selected loose fitting gown of pale green with a smattering of cream embroidery around the cuffs, neckline, hem, and little patches here and there. Her hair she left mostly unstyled - a simple half-ponytail with a silver clip adorned with a pearl in the center. For the finishing touches, she added small stud pearl earrings and a silver and pearl necklace. After one last check to make certain her appearance was as perfect as it could be - more or less, anyway - Lisette hurried out of the bedroom and into the hall.

The townhouse seemed deathly quiet and devoid of all sound as her slippered feet stepped softly on the stairs. She couldn't hear a single thing coming from anywhere within the house - unnerving. Rather worried and uncomfortable now, Lisette's pace quickened and she positively flew into the dining room. A unseemly large sigh of relief escaped her lips before she would stop herself upon seeing the person within, sitting at the table reading a book.

"Deniel!" Her voice was a little too breathless, a little too relieved. "Good morning." Now she sounded like a dolt! A cry and then a simple greeting? She could feel her teachers at the convent's scoldings and a small mental whap! on the top of her head. She inwardly shook herself, and then said with more composure, "You look well, brother dear. How fared your sleep?" There, the question. It would all be ok.

As she walked towards the table, her eyes took in the already served breakfast and the water simmering over the fire. But where was the maid? Rather lacking in her duties, wasn't she, this morning? Didn't help get dressed, wasn't around to tend the water, and didn't serve breakfast..."Deniel, where's Ms. Burbarn? She wasn't there to assist me when I woke, and I haven't really heard her bustling around, as she usually does in the morning." She honestly didn't give much thought to the question, or what their servant's absense might imply. It was simply just some occurance that she knew must have some ordinary, reasonable explanation, and so didn't waste mental energy worrying that it might mean something else.

[Deniel de Vallée Bleue]

Deniel was sitting silently, the only sound was the quiet shuffle of turning pages. He felt very relaxed in the quiet of the house, it felt very natural to Deniel, he would probably speak very infrequently if he didn’t think that it was important. He was enjoying sitting alone in the dining room where he didn’t have to think of anything to say or to struggle to respond appropriately.

Deniel was relaxing so much that he didn’t hear his sister walking towards the dining room, when she walked in Deniel would have started anyways, but the fact that she said his name caused him to be particularly alarmed. He nearly dropped his book, but snapped it back up instinctively. The book slammed shut loudly in his hands, and Deniel looked up at his sister with wide eyes. He ran his tongue over his lips as he stared at Lisette, “Is everything alright?” he asked as she continued to say ‘good morning.’ He supposed that she was, just a little startled. Deniel too, felt rather startled, he knew that he was just being too tense for his own good. Setting his book aside, he leaned forward, ready to forget all about the previous surprise that he had shown.

He smiled slowly, a stiff smile that was hardly natural, but fairly typical when it came to Deniel’s expressions. “I slept very well, thank you. And yourself?” he asked, “Was your sleep agreeable?”

Deniel listened to Lisette’s comments about the maid without looking at her. He was looking down at the breakfast that he had prepared this morning, more or less, now that he saw it sitting on the table in front of him, it hardly looked adequate now. “Ms. Burbarn,” he said, not really knowing what to say, he had completely forgotten about how Ms. Burbarn was needed to help his sister dress. Deniel had no idea about the world of females when they dressed, but now that Lisette said that she had been waiting for assistance, he knew that he shouldn’t have so easily dismissed the maid in the morning hours. Even though he had no idea what important job Ms. Burbarn did, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to cut these morning hours, Lisette would get too suspicious without Ms. Burbarn here.

Deniel tried to think of something to say, he still hadn’t made eye contact with his sister, but his words came out normally, almost casually. “Ms. Burbarn had to run an errand this morning,” Deniel said, “I wanted her to go before it became too late, not realizing that it would create a problem for you. I apologize.” He pressed his lips together, then continued. “She had a few errands to run, she was on her way to retrieve a dress for you.” In reality, Ms. Burbarn had retrieved the dress the day before, it was tucked away safely in Deniel’s closet, meant to be a surprise for later, but he could certainly use it as an excuse to explain away Ms. Burbarn’s absence.

“I thought that you might like something new to wear,” he said, “I hope that you like it, if not, we can certainly get a different one.” He had actually conferred closely with the dressmaker to select it, but even then he had settled on a style that was rather conservative, which was more of his type.

[Lisette de Vallée Bleue]

The book snapping shut and echoing slightly through the empty townhouse did not do much to help Lisette in her somewhat anxious frame of mind. She flinched slightly, and her hand flew up - a movement which she successfully disguised as the fingering of her hair. She really needed to get a grip! There was obviously nothing wrong, Deniel was fine, he was sitting right there!, and there had to be a perfectly logical reason as to why Ms. Burban had not woken her. Or helped her dress. Or why she wasn't bustling around in the kitchen making breakfast.

As Deniel asked about her sleep, Lisette walked softly over to the chair on the right side of him and seated herself, not remembering in her somewhat frazzled state that Deniel was supposed to have stood and pulled out the chair for her. Belatedly realizing this, she quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry, brother dear. I am a little...oh, I don't know, just....disconcerted. But I am fine now." She flashed him a perhaps trifle overdone smile to assure him of the veracity of her statement. "As for my sleep, dear Deniel, it was not quite as long as I would have hoped, but it was sufficient." Her next smile was much more natual and genuine. "It pleaseth me greatly that from they lips fall the information that thy own rest wast quite excellent," she teased, mimicking the older style of speech that was still used on all formal documents, but was starting to fall out of common use.

She looked at the tray of food set before Deniel and arched an inquisitive brow. The quantities of the fruit, cheese, and bread were not what was usually granted at breakfast, and there was no beverage. Deniel, somewhat stiffly, started to say answer but stopped after simply saying the maid's name. "Yes, what about her, brother dear? Is something wrong?" His manner was rather strange, as if he was trying to think of what he could tell her, as if the information would be too much for her to handle. Or maybe he was making somehting up...She mentally shook herself. Her imagination was running away without her good senses to weigh it down.

And then he was speaking in his normal tone of voice, calmly and reasonably explaining that Ms. Burban had needed to run some sort of errand that morning before it was too late. Quite logical, and no reason to worry as she had. She smiled at him and waved away his apology with her hand, saying, "Oh, it's quite all right Deniel. I got along well enough this morning. It's not like it will happen everyday!" When he added that she had been fetching a new dress for her, Lisette squealed, "Oooh, Deniel! Thank you ever so much!" Her enthusiasm and gratitude nearly caused her to stand and hug her brother right there, but she calmed herself down after a moment and stayed in her seat. "Thank you, brother dear," she said with more dignity. "I really do appreciate that you did this for me. And I'm sure it will be lovely." A zillion styles and designs went running through her head as she pondered what kind of dress her brother had bought for her.

Ms. Burban and the morning's oddities were quite forgotten.

[Deniel de Vallée Bleue]

Although Deniel was not the most insightful person about the emotions of others, he could tell that there was a certain edge to his sister. She seemed rather tense this morning even though she was fairly good about disguising it. Deniel flattened his hands on his book and studied his sister carefully, he was worried that she was too tense. For a guilt stricken moment he wondered if she had found something out about their financial situation and he almost cringed, but fortunately his face was never very expressive and he didn’t show any outward sign of his panic. However, he didn’t know what to do but to keep pretending so he leaned forward in his chair, wanting to make sure that she was alright but not being able to find the words.


Deniel stared at his sister for a moment before accepting that he wouldn’t be able to put words to his concerns and even if he could he didn’t think that he wanted to. He was pleased to her making jokes, she was the one of the few people around whom he was able to laugh, though it wasn’t very hard laughter or very animated but at least it was laughter. However, her cheerfulness did not relieve his worry completely. “Was there anything in particular that disconcerted you? Besides, of course, Ms. Burbarn’s inconvenient absence.”

He realized too late that he had failed to get the chair for Lisette, but he was too embarrassed by his shortcoming to mention it, though it was unquestionable that she had noticed it. Deniel tried to distract her by offering something to eat, “Would you like some breakfast? Ms. Burbarn has left us a sensible meal to start our day.” He said this in a simple, matter of fact way, the way that he always spoke, the way that usually drove people away by the stiffness of it. “She left water for tea over the fire, but I do not believe that it is hot enough yet.”

“Yes, I promise to make sure that Ms. Burbarn is present tomorrow morning,” he said. Inwardly he cringed; he would have to find another way to cut back on her hours. The problem was that with only one maid there was much that needed to be done and her presence was indispensable. Deniel decided that he would have to thrifty in a different manner if he was going to cut back on expenses and also spare Lisette the worry.

Deniel was happy when Lisette showed such obvious pleasure at the mention of the dress, though he was glad that she had decided against hugging him. He was undeniably awkward in close proximity to people and it always caught him off guard and he usually made a fool of himself. “You’re welcome,” he said, “A beautiful daughter of Vallée Bleue deserves nothing less.”

“The dress is a dark blue color, I hope that the color is not too dark for this season. Do you have any events or parties planned that you would like to wear it to?” he asked, always eager to keep tabs on Lisette’s whereabouts, especially ones that involved important people and eligible males.