Emily's Place

Note:  This is the first story I'm putting up here, and there aren't any chapters, just the story.  I hope you like it!  It is set in the Victorian era, in the English countryside-ish, at my fictional Roole Manor, just to clear up any confusion one might have.


"Amourette!  You come away from that window this instant!" shouted Amourette's mother, coming into the room and pulling her daughter away from the open window.
"But Mother, I just wanted some fresh air!"
"Well, you've had enough, now shut the window."
"But I thought you didn't want me near-"
"Shut the window!"
Amourette did as she was told, then left the sitting room, walking down the hallway to the library.  She knew she would find her three younger siblings there, Samuel and Claire playing hide-and-seek, while Emily was reading.  Amourette reached the library's French doors and quietly opened one, slipped inside, and shut it behind her.  She looked around, and saw Samuel crouching down behind a bookshelf, a wide smile plastered onto his six-year-old face.  Claire turned up a few seconds later, and the fifteen-year-old easily spotted her brother.
"Claire, Samuel, have you seen Emily?" inquired Amourette.
"She's in her corner, reading in her chair.  She wanted to talk to you earlier.  Go see her, Ammy," said her little brother.  Amourette smiled at her nickname, and went to the designated corner.  There was Emily, curled up in a comfortable, green, tapestry chair, reading a book.  Amourette  walked over to the blue chair next to Emily's chair, and sat down.
"A physics book, Emily?  Really?"  Emily looked up from her book, her round face glowing from the candle on the table between them.
"Yes, Amourette.  Physics.  I do love mathematics, and science!  I just can't keep myself away," said Emily, putting her book down.
"Emily, what did you need to talk to me about?"  Emily looked down at her lap, and sighed.
"My birthday.  It's two days away.  Could you maybe try and convince Mother to let me spend all day tomorrow outside?"
"Oh, Emily, you want to spend your last free day outside?  I don't know, Mother might not allow it."
"But Amourette!  The rule is to not go outside after we turn eleven!  I'm still ten tomorrow, so I can still go outside.  Right?"  Amourette had a hard time saying no to Emily; she always did.  But she knew that Mother would never allow it.
"I'll try, Emily, I'll try.  No promises, though, alright?"
"No promises.  Thank you, Amourette."
"You're welcome, but don't forget to bring something Claire and I."
"Of course, Amourette.  You two can't leave the Manor anymore, so it's only fair that I bring you both a treat.  Samuel will be bringing us treats after I turn eleven, won't he?"  Amourette smiled at her little sister.  Emily had such a pure heart, and hardly ever angered anybody.
"Yes, Emily, Samuel will bring us treats.  Bring something for Mother, too."  Emily nodded her head, then picked up her book again as Amourette set off to convince her mother to let Emily spend the whole day outside.  She left the library and went to her mother's study.  Her mother was sitting at her desk, writing out some important letter.  Amourette knocked on the door, waiting for her mother's permission to enter.
"Come in," said her mother.  Amourette walked in, and sat down in the chair across from her mother, on the other side of the desk.
"Mother, Emily has her birthday in two days.  I was wondering if, tomorrow, she could spend all day outside.  Especially since it's her last day of being allowed to leave the Manor.  What do you think?"
"No."
"No?  Why not?"
"Because, Amourette.  The outside world isn't safe for children."
"But she goes to school and back every day, with Samuel.  Samuel is six years old, and you let him go outside, then you don't let Emily spend her last free day being just that: free?"
"You are correct, Amourette."
"And why can't I go outside?  I'm eighteen.  I'm not a child anymore, Mother, I'm a woman.  I see many women my age out on their own, coming up and down the road."  Amourette's mother looked up from her letter.
"Amourette.  Those women that you see simply do not have a good family.  Their upbringing was wrong.  That's why it isn't safe for you children outside the Manor."
"I'm not a child anymore Mother!  When will you see that?  I've grown up into an adult, right before your eyes, and you either don't want to accept that, or you really are ignorant in the ways of your own children.  Father pays more attention to us, and he's away most of the time!  You are always focused on important business, and never have time for us.  Take Emily, for an example.  She's only ten, and I just saw her reading a physics book that not even I could hope to understand.  And then there's Samuel, his only times of fun are when he plays with Claire in the library or by himself.  And Claire.  She writes fabulous stories, I even have some of her books on an empty shelf in the library, all of them in her own penmanship.  She has as much creativity and imagination as little Samuel!  And you don't even praise her for her work, never mind read her writings.  And me!  The only comments you make to me are criticizing!  About how my hair isn't up tight in a knot, or my choice of gown doesn't look flattering on me.  Never anything like, 'Amourette, you look lovely in that dress', or 'Your hair looks very nice today, Amourette'.  And when I do fix it, it's always the same comments!  Never anything positive.  Pay attention to your children, Mother!  Put a little effort into making them feel good about themselves. Take time to inspect Claire's work, or play with Samuel, or helping Emily with the pronunciation of a word, or reach a book for her.  Take the opportunity to make your children smile, and you might smile too."  Amourette stormed out of her mother's study, leaving her mother shocked at her daughter's outburst.  Amourette went back into the library, and found Emily again, putting away her book.  Emily turned around, excitement clear on her face.
"Did Mother say yes?" asked Emily.
"I'm sorry, Emily, I tried."  Emily's face fell, and she turned back around to the bookshelf with a quiet "Oh".  As Amourette walked away, she heard sniffling coming from the young girl.  Amourette looked up at the old grandfather clock, and went to search for Samuel.  It was seven o'clock, and the little six-year-old boy needed his sleep.
"Samuel, it's time to get ready for bed, now," she said, gently taking his hand.  Samuel yawned, a definite sign of tiredness, and let his big sister lead him upstairs to his bedroom.  Amourette helped the little boy into his pajamas, and helped him into bed, tucking him in.  She kissed him on the forehead, said goodnight, and blew out the candle.  Amourette closed the door behind her, and decided to let Emily have some ten-year-old fun tomorrow anyway.  She might to be able to leave the house all day, but Amourette had found a secret balcony in the attic.  She went back to the library, informed Claire to meet her outside, then went to find Emily.
"Emily, it's time for you to get ready for bed.  You don't want to be tired for your special surprise tomorrow, do you?" said Amourette.
"A surprise?  For me?"
"Yes, of course.  It's your birthday.  You should still be able to have fun, even though you can't spend all day outside.  Now go get ready for bed.  I'll come say goodnight a little later, alright?'
"Alright, Amourette."  Emily put away her book, and scurried off to get ready for bed.  Amourette went outside the library, found Claire, and brought her into her room.
"Claire, I have the perfect surprise for Emily.  In the attic, there's a secret door in the wall.  If you open it, it leads to a spiral staircase, and at the top is a special observatory.  It's an octagonal room, and all the walls are windows.  There's a small balcony that wraps all the way around, with a railing, so you can go out on it and walk around the whole thing, through one of the windows, which opens as a door.  It's just a big, empty room right now, but we could decorate it with ribbons, and bring some cushions up there, too.  So it could be Emily's special place.  What do you think?"
"Amourette, you're a genius!  I love the idea.  Can you show it to me?"  Amourette led Claire up to the attic, then moved a few trunks to get to the secret door, which swung outward and led to a wooden spiral staircase, with white walls, and windows, lighting the stairway.  The stairs end at a rectangular hole in the floor of the observatory, to walk up into the room, without a door.  The room, as Amourette said, was octagon-shaped, with a peaked ceiling painted a light sea-foam color.  There were eight window panels that made up the walls, and one of them had a handle and hinges, which led to the balcony.  It was about a yard across, the balcony, and did wrap around the entire observatory continuously.  The two girls went back down to look for some ribbons in the attic, along with some old cushions.  Claire had discovered sapphire blue and white ribbons, and Amourette had found a light green circular cushion and a light blue square cushion.  also, she found a circular, sea blue rug, which would fit in the room perfectly to cover the wooden floors.  Claire and Amourette carried their decorations up the spiral staircase, and begun to work.  Amourette spread out the rug, while Claire hung the ribbons around the top of the window-walls.  They put the cushions on the floor, then went back down, moved the trunks back, and Claire asked the cook in the kitchens to make Emily's favorite kind of cookie, which they would put on a platter and place in the observatory.  Amourette said goodnight to Emily, promiseing her a big surprise tomorrow.  The two older girls met back at the library, where Claire reproted that the cookies were being made, and would be ready to put in Emily's special place by morning.  They said goodnight to each other, then went to bed, anticipating the next day's surprise.

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A maid Quietly opened the door to Amourette's room, and opened the curtains.  She then bustled about, straightening up the room.  A few minutes later, the maid left, leaving Amourette to wake up alone.  Amourette woke up to the sunlight on her face, and got out of bed, walked to her wardrobe, and picked a dark green dress with lace on the sleeves and hem, got her under-clothes from her trunk, and washed up in the bathroom adjacent to her room.  She came out dressed, her hair brushed, and in a loose bun.  Amourette slipped on her her shoes over her stockings, and reached a hand under her bed, retrieving a rectangular package wrapped in yellow paper and tied with a green ribbon.  She left her room, and headed to the attic, went into the observatory, and put her gift to Emily in the room, and then went back downstairs to wake up Samuel, Emily, and Claire.  Amourette headed to Claire's room first, and took Claire's gift up to the observatory while Claire dressed.  Then, Claire went to wake Samuel while Amourette woke Emily.  The fur siblings, dressed and ready, went downstairs to the kitchens to have their breakfast, knowing that their mother wouldn't care whether they were in the dining hall with her or not.
"Amourette, when will you show me my surprise?" asked Emily between bites.
"As soon as we are all finished eating.  You are going to love it."  They stayed quiet for the rest of the meal, and then, Claire and Amourette led Emily up to the observatory, which her eyes closed.  Samuel followed behind, very curious and excited.  Amourette and Claire walked Emily up the stairs, and when they got to the top, Claire gave Samuel the platter of cookies to hold for Emily, and Amourette lifted her hands away from the youngest girl's eyes.
"Surprise!" Amourette and Claire exclaimed together.  Emily's smile could have shamed the sun.


...And it ends here.  I had more written, but I thought it would be more fun if you, the reader, imagined the rest.  Like Monsters Inc.!  I like that movie.  It's a cute movie.



IDG

First Post: Here's the Ropes, So Listen Well

Hey all you people!  Okay, so I just created this blog, and I haven't done anything fun and fancy with it YET.  So...work with me here.  It will look much better later.  But for now, it's just...yeah.

So, this is my story blog, where I shall be posting a bunch of stories I write.  I'm not completely sure how this is going to work, but I know that eventually, I will get a system set up, and it will be (hopefully) easy to figure out what blog belongs to what story and what chapter it it, or if it's just a short story or a notice...I'll figure that out.  But I think It will have something to notify in the title, like, "(insert story name), Chapter (insert chapter number)".  So that is how it's going to work.  Theoretically.

I hope to get something started on here soon; either I can email a story from my phone to...me...and then copy/paste, or I will get something new started as inspiration comes to me.  Anyway...yeah.

Oh, a lot of my posts might be at night, because that's when I feel most creative and have time, or early in the morning before school (if time permits).

Um...you can give me story ideas if you want...please try and comment as always...and that's about it.  I know my blog is kind of lame visually, so try not to pay attention to that, I will probabbly get that fixed tomorrow after school.

Until next time....