Silent Intrigue

Sophia's Story

They had told her he was defective. She had disagreed. Then they had tried to tell her he was stupid. She had disagreed again. There was nothing wrong with being deaf. She was just going to have to put forth a little time and patience. Both of which she had more than she knew what to do with.

Teaching the young man to communicate, perhaps educate him, in exchange for a meal from him seemed a perfectly acceptable arrangement to her. She should perhaps figure out a way to communicate this to him. She assumed he couldn't read or write, given that he was off the streets. But, there had been a definite spark of intelligence in his eyes. He may have figured out some of it on his own.

Regardless, she would give him some time to settle in before she began bombarding him with information and questions. Perhaps they would have dinner first. It would give her a chance to see how badly his manners needed work as well.

Dinner was served promptly at six. Like it was every night. And her wishes that her new human join her for dinner had been properly conveyed. So it was rather surprising when she sat down to eat and the human was nowhere in sight.

She waited patiently for seven minutes until he was hurried in by one of the maids. The young woman apologized profusely as she shoved the young man into his seat. "I'm so sorry my lady. He wasn't where they had left him in his room. Somehow, he made it out to the stables without anyone knowing."

She raised a brow elegantly. "And how did poor Francois feel about this?" The horse master was an excellent judge of character and highly protective of his horses. She valued the old human for his work and his opinion.

The maid stopped in surprise, thrown by the question. "Ah. He was...he seemed to like the boy."

She smiled and nodded. "Thank you very much." The maid curtsied and scurried away. She turned her attention back to the boy. He had been studying her carefully. She nodded to him, then sat back as the first course was brought out.

She was very pleased to find him a quick study indeed. The silverware and sets of dishes were complicated enough with an explanation. He avoided most blunders simply by watching her. Every detail of her behavior was taken in and reflected.

Honestly, she enjoyed watching him as much as he seemed to learn from watching her. Each new course inspired awe and amazement. She knew that he would have never seen such wealth. Or even just food of this quality. She had expected that he would tear into it ravenously, like some wild animal, afraid that it would be taken away as easily as given.

Instead, he slowly tasted. Savored. Imprinted the experience fully into his mind. Each bite was something to be remembered. It was so interesting to watch him eat like that. She wondered if he would eventually get used to fine dining and lose this innocence. It would be a shame if he did.

When the last course was cleared away, Sophia sat back in satisfaction. She smiled as the young man imitated her, suddenly becoming nervous now that his hands were no longer occupied. She studied him as she turned her attention to working out how to effectively communicate with her new human. She decided pictures would be easiest.

She got to her feet and held out a hand to him. He carefully took the offered hand and got to his feet to follow her. She led him to the study and lightly ran her fingers over her collection of books, looking for the right ones.

A set of twenty encyclopedias were finally located and she began pulling them off the shelf. After she had taken the first four off the shelf she suddenly had the boy at her elbow, gently offering to take the load from her. She smiled gratefully and between the two of them they soon had all twenty laid out on her desk.