The Delore Household

[Rose]

The house is settled at the far end of Elidwen, it is one of the bigger houses in the town, but small enough not to look out of place. The old walls are strangled with ivy and there is a neat garden and pond on the track that leads to the house. It has quite large grounds, with a large paddock, spacious gardens, three large fields (two which are used for agricultural purposes whilst the other is used for grazing animals) and a medium sized woodland area that runs along the right hand side of the grounds. There are a small crop of outbuildings to the left of the house including a barn and the small stables made of a dark red wood. These contain the 5 horses belonging to the family and various chickens and a large tubby goose that lives in one of the empty stables.

Inside the house is spacious and decorated in quite an old fashioned way. All the rooms are neat and tidy. Rose's room has a small balcony that overlooks the fields and the city.

There are many people living in the house. Rose's father and mother, the cook, the maid, the stable boy and various farm hands. Also Rose's two sisters, Amaryliss and Delphine. And of course Rose is here from time to time.

[Rose]

The stones crunched underneath Rose's bare feet as she made her way up the winding track to her house. She had been formulating a plan in her mind, a way to get into the house and change before meeting her mother. So far it consisted of climbing a tree up to her bedroom window, but she wasn't a particularly good climber. So she deserted that idea.

She rang the bell that hung beside the door and waited for a few seconds. Rose's mother opened the door.
"Fi-or-ella!" she shrieked, holding her arms wide open.
"Mother..." replied Rose with an unenthusiastic smile
"Oh don't you look...." she began, then stopped midsentance as she actually looked at her daughter. Rose could see her taking in every detail, and with every detail she saw, she inhaled a bit more.
"Your dress!" she gasped "Your hair, and you're...wet and you have dirt under your nails.."
Rose could tell her mother had a good few more imperfections to list, and the only reason she had stopped was to breathe out after reaching maximum lung capacity from over gasping.
"Well, mother, on the way here I..." she began,
"What have I told you about not wearing any shoes?!" cried her mother pointing to Rose's bare feet.
"I will not have a daughter of mine walking around town with feet like those, just look at them" her mother's voice had reached such a high pitch, she could probably have communicated with bats.
Her mother opened her mouth to continue with her all too familiar lecture when a door was flung open at the other end of the hall. It was Amaryllis, Rose's youngest and secretly favorite of her two sisters.

She ran down the hall, her dark blonde hair falling down around her face. There had been a time when Rose had envied her sister's beauty, but it had passed.
"Rose!" she cried, green eyes glinting, "I've missed you so much, it's so dull, I have no-one to talk to, well, there's Delphina but she doesn't count. I mean she spends all her time in the study with father, all she does is read and write and if I try to take an interest, she says I wouldn't understand. I mean why would I not understand..."
Rose allowed herself to be led away from the door by her younger sister and only half listened to her talking nine to the dozen all the way up the stairs.
"I haven't been gone for that long!" said Rose lightly as they walked down the corridor towards her room.

"What happened to you?" asked Amaryllis, already at Rose's wardrobe and sliding a thin clean dress off of a hanger. So Rose explained her short time at the city and her trip to the town to her sister, whilst washing and changing. Amaryllis seemed quite interested, although not in the same things Rose was. She wanted to hear about the men Rose had met and what dresses the girls wore. Rose tirelessly supplied her with details, some which were true- but other which were made up on the spot.

Now clean, Rose turned her attention to packing her belongings into a small case that she kept under her bed. She emptied her wardrobe and packed numerous other things she thought she might need.
"Have you been to the castle yet?" asked Amaryllis eagerly. Like Rose had been, she was looking forward to the time when she was allowed to visit the city.
"No," replied Rose, "Except from the stables." she added
"Why would you want to go there?" asked Amaryllis, looking genuinely puzzled, she wrinkled her nose,
"It smells in there..."
Rose laughed. Her sister did not share her love for the great outdoors. In-fact, no one in her family did.
"Are you going to say hello to father and Delphina?" asked Amaryllis, sitting on Rose's desk and swinging her legs to and fro.
"I should probably pop in and say Hi" replied Rose, personally wishing she could just leave.
"Can you ask father if I can come to the city with you?" she asked excitedly "I'd be safe with you, wouldn't I and I'm almost sixteen. You know, I'm old enough to get married soon, I think i shall marry a very rich man, you should get married soon Rose otherwise you'll get old and ugly and..." Rose switched off, nodding her head occasionally so Amaryllis thought she was listening. She lifted her case, and with Amaryllis following, left her bedroom.

[Rose]

After spending a few days back in her family house, Rose realised just how much she'd missed her new found freedom in the city. She had spent the first evening indoors with her family, getting lectured by her mother and constantly followed by amaryliss who was only too glad to have somebody else to talk to.

The next day, Amaryliss had invented an excuse to stay indoors when Rose announced she was going outside for the day. The peace and quiet of the grounds beckoned and Rose spent the entire morning in the small woods by the house. By the afternoon, bored with solitude, she had walked up to the stables by the house and spent the afternoon helping the stable boy with the horses. That evening, after returning from an ride on Whisper, she went to bed early.
The next morning she had packed her backs and they were already attached to whispers saddle by half past seven. Amaryliss had come to see her off. She stood at the door in her nightdress and her long blond hair in two plaits. Despite her attire, she looked far from sleepy.
"Rose!" she called, in a loud whisper from the front door, "Why are you leaving so early? I thought you were staying for longer, can't you just stay another day? I'll even come outside with you if you want..."
She looked so upset that Rose felt bad she was leaving her.
"Listen," she said, riding Whisper close to the door "If, and only if, you get mother's permission, you can come and stay with me in the city for a while. Only for a few days mind and you have to let me know at least three days in advance before turning up at my doorstep alright?"

Amaryliss looked overjoyed, and would have run up to hug her sister if she wasn't in her night dress and Rose wasn't sitting on the back of a large horse.
"I'll write and let you know," she called, as Rose rose out of the drive and back towards the city.
"Bye!" Rose called behind her and twisted to wave to Amaryliss who was still standing in the doorway and waving with two hands.

[Amaryliss]

Amaryliss stood at the door smiling. One of the stable boys, a good friend of Rose's, was strapping Amaryliss's two heavy bags onto her pony, which whinnied in annoyance. She was only used to carrying Amaryliss, who was light, but Fleck was good tempered and stood patiently. Her mother had already wished her goodbye and given her lots of advice about how to behave around the nobles in Calamere. Now, as Amaryliss crunched across the large gravelled drive to her horse, she was brimming with excitement.

"Thanks Charlie" she said to the stable boy, and he gave her is arm to help her onto Fleck. She wiggled in the saddle until she was comfortable, then looked up at her house.
"I'll say hello to Rose for you when I see her!" said Amaryliss, as Charlie took Fleck’s reins and lead her to the end of the drive.
"Thanks Miss" he mumbled, hiding his head underneath his cap and his ears turning a bright red. Amaryliss was used to this by now, Charlie had no problem speaking to any other member of the Delore family, but always dried up and the tips of his ears went bright red if Amaryliss spoke so much as two words to him. It was something her sister had always teased him about.

He handed Amaryliss the reins and mumbled what was supposed to be 'be careful Miss', but which came out as one word. Amaryliss rode away from her house, she didn't need directions. She could hardly miss the city, looming in the distance. She stroked Fleck's soft mane and watched as the spires of the larger buildings in the city, the castle and the cathedral, grew larger and higher into the sky.

Flicking back her golden hair, she looked over her shoulder. She could only just see her house now, but even her sharp eyesight couldn't pick out the stable boy, still watching her from the end of the drive.