Morning all and welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Here I take the start of a story idea and work on it for fifteen minutes a day. I started with an old writing prompt that interested me, cleaned it up a bit to fit the basic outline of the story I want to write and then set aside fifteen minutes each week day to see it grow. Each morning’s writing starts with the last sentence of the day before. And so now we have the story of Kasca…
Day 118: In fact, there was no sign of any child in any part of the household.
In fact, there was no sign of any child in any part of the household. Kasca found it puzzling. When she was there she saw no signs of abuse or neglect. She saw no signs that the child had been forcefully taken. In fact, the entire household seemed especially concerned with the child.
‘Maybe a wealthier or higher status family member sent the child here to recover away from others.’
The household was small. The Lord did not appear to be married as there was no female presence in the sleeping household. There were servants but they were the sorts of servants that would be in and bachelor noble’s house. ‘Which is a lot fewer than would be in a family home.’
Those here kept the house running and would occasionally have to provide an extra plate of food and prepare a guest room should one of the Lords friends drop by or be offered a room for the night. They didn’t have to host dinner parties and other grand affairs. Those would be hosted by the married and ‘settled’ members of the family.
‘At least according to what I know,’ Kasca thought. The details of Noble living weren’t the items she focused on learning about the society. She skimmed them to get a feel for the city where she would be living but it wasn’t a major concern.
‘Watching them sleep isn’t going to tell me anything either,’ she decided. Kasca felt her own tiredness starting to weigh on her. As she still wanted to get a little bit of her clothing alterations started, She pulled her sight from the scrying bowl, ending the spell.
Kasca set the bowl aside and rubbed her tired eyes. “Just a little to start,” She told herself as she reached to the garment on the top of the pile.
If there weren’t any local apothecaries open nearby then she knew she would remain busy and until she hired an assistant all the work would be on her. It meant that she would be tired every night.
‘So a little each night in the alterations so by the time I can wear the cloak I have appropriate clothing,’ she told herself. She picked up the first item. Luckily it needed little in the way of alteration to make it a perfect fit.
Kasca worked until her stiches started to meander out of the straight line. Then she set it aside and went into the bedroom. She smiled at the sight of the bed. Kasca changed quickly and with a sigh of relief slipped into bed. While the floorboards were a relief after sleeping in the wild during her journey, having the mattress was pure luxury and Kasca snuggled in. She was soon asleep.
Despite her soft bed, Kasca was awake again before the sun. Knowing there was a lot to do, she rose, made her morning ablutions and headed down to the shop. In the early morning light she checked on the small garden in the back pleased with the progress of the growth.
“It will let me dry for winter, even if I can’t use them now,’ she thought. Instead of snipping from the garden, Kasca transferred the newly bought stores from the storeroom and used them to replenish the depleted stock. She looked over the ready made items and marked what needed to be replenished. Then she got to work.
As she didn’t need to go into the market this morning, Kasca turned the open sign around when the sun was high enough that it could start being considered morning. As expected there were several needing to get to work early who took the opportunity to stop by.
