Where Loyalties Lie (Book one)

Hidden Worth

Adele figured she was going to be put through the ringer with the staff and this Jackie. She didn't doubt that they would jump on the chance to treat a lady with disdain and make her do horrible jobs. Which she was definitely exhausted the first few days, but honestly they weren't as bad as she thought they were going to be. Jackie was rather decent.

Today Adele had helped Jackie get a handle on how to organize her papers. How the previous lady had been keeping them. Jackie could read but not well, so Adele told her that she would help her read better and learn a bit more math to help with it. Which Jackie had seemed rather excited about. If that kept the woman happy then she'd teach her and Adele didn't see why they shouldn't be able to do that.

Which as it led into the next day, she had three of the women maids in her room the next few nights wanting to learn. Which Jackie was really the only one that could read. It seemed that her husband was also teaching her too. He seemed to not mind an educated woman, and Jackie had been born to very low class. However when Adele asked questions the way that they answered was a bit off. She was wondering if they had different social customs and were just telling her what they thought was right to say. She said low class, but she had access to things it would seem no normal low class should.

"Just practice this, you have to know your letters before anything else. Just practice this over the next week and then we can do this again okay?" She told them because they all needed some sleep and tomorrow she had the day off. Her day of rest which was the same as Jackie's. She was going to sleep, which she did and then she got up and went down to the caves below the keep to the servent area to bathe and clean. She was surprised that the servants here had such things like the soaps and hair salves. Seemed like the King didn't keep his people in total poverty. She wasn't exactly sure if they were staying in the keep or not. Again she was picking up that customs here weren't the same. The class of a person seemed to have quite a bit of leeway.

She got dressed and went back to her room after checking in with Jackie. She then went to her room and pulled out a book from her pillow and started reading. She was nearly done with it and enjoyed it. She'd found a library and had gone in there a couple times late at night. She was reading some philosophy at the moment and figured she'd need a few more seeing the knowledge up in the library seemed more than her own. She would teach herself whatever she could learn.

However it was getting dark now and she had finished her book and tucked it away. She pulled out a few clothing items and had found a pair of man's trousers that she was fixing up for herself. They had been thrown but she was going to use them and after a short while of sewing she got up and slid them on below the dress she wore. Fit like a glove, she smiled and then grabbed the men's shirt and left her room.

She listened and didn't hear anyone so she moved and was quick on light feet to go out a servant entrance and again didn't see anyone. She stepped into an alcove and took off the dress leaving the tighter near corset on to help hold her better and tied her hair back and now dressed like a boy she jogged out into the area behind the castle. She listened and not sensing any danger she took off at a fast jog near a run. It was cold, but if she kept this pace and her time short she'd be okay. She'd watched to see what rounds of guards looked like. Honestly it was rather sparse. Again not quite the norm, they didn't seem worried about an attack.

Adele loved to run, and she felt that she should be able to as a woman in case something happened and she needed to move fast. Which she leapt over a few boulders and ran the back wall, but stopped before where the guard posts were. She knew that on the outside there were roaming guards, she was inside so they wouldn't see her. She moved back and sprinted this time. She sprinted back and forth along the back wall that had some over growth and decided to climb that as well. She found a good spot to practice pulling herself up, which was hard but she managed.