Early Bird Already Has A Worm Chapter 21

Faint rays of sunshine illuminated the room as Miriam stiffly sat up in the small uncomfortable Inns bed. Looking to her right, she saw Bannon still fast asleep.

'Too wake or not too wake, that is the question... Hmm...'

After debating internally for abit Miriam decided to not wake him.

She still needed to let Samantha get a little bit of sun and fresh air.

She hurried to the place where her trunk of clothing was placed earlier by Beatrice and opened it and rummaged through it to find some easy to put on clothes.

It was a white little girls dress that rwached just past the knees when on and had short ruffled sleeves with dark blue trimming on the very end of the sleeve cuff.

The dress was semi pleated around the bottom of the waist and the very bottom of the dress was accented by a thin dark blue trimming that matched that on the sleeves.

Looking through the trunk Miriam found some new 'undergarments' and speedily proceeded to change her old ones.

Nothing like a fresh pair of underwear to wear.

Another article was taken out of the small trunk by the bedside. It was a faded white bag that hung over the shoulder and a person could probably fit a small domestic house cat inside at most.

Putting on a small white bonnet to match the rest of the outfit and a simple pair of white stockings and garter to hold them up.

Miriam sometimes wanted to cry. Why couldnt they have elastic socks or stocking?

Wait.... maybe she could look into this idea.

Of she recalled correctly, she waa pretty sure she knew what nylon was made out of..

Oh well, she needed to put her shoes on now.

Lookong around the room, Miriam eventually found her shoes in the corner by a cobweb.

Staring at the cobweb, she wondered what kind of spider made it. Actually, she decided she didn't want to know.

After putting her shoes on, Miriam heard a light knock on the door.

Adeptly turning, she snatched the white bag on the bed and slung the strap that was attached to it over her shoulder securely.

Looking at the bed, she could see Samantha look at her with her little beady eyes as if saying, 'Ah where is my fresh air!'.

Gently she walked towards the bed and delicately lifted Samantha up and opened the flap on the bag and pulled out a old and torn up silk handkerchief and loosely cocooned the snake in the fabric before placing it inside the bag and closing the top flap carefully.

"I'm awake I am coming to the door, give me a moment." Replied Miriam as she did the morning shuffle towards the door and opened it slowly and peeked through the slit with her little eyeball.

Luckily it wasn't some marauder or low life, it was instead Beatrice with Fiona standing quietly behind her.

"Good morning. I am already dressed and I just need to brush my hair and get my things all packed and tidy. Bannon worked really hard on his writing last night so I haven't woken him up yet.

As Miriam said all this she saw another female servant come up the hallway swiftly to their position.

Who was this again? Her father had introduced her but Miriam was not really paying attention at that time so she forgot the servants name.

Judging by her appearence, she may be in the early stages of pregnancy.

Either that or she had a small 'muffin top' forming on her abdomen area.

"I wanted to buy some turmeric seeds, and some cabbage to eat as a snack. We need some basic sewing supplies so I can practice my sewing on our journey. I was thinking of looking for a light yellow fabric about 10 yards, and some white linen about 3 yards.Oh also some simple buttons and white and yellow thread, a few yards."

Miriam took out a little bit of money from somewhere in her dress, and pointed to Beatrice and the unamed servant.

"Can you guys get those things for me before we leave?" Asked Miriam as she tried to adjust her bonnet abit more.

Beatrice looked at Miriam and then nodded her head. She waved to the other woman to follow her with brisk steps.

Fiona was left standing infront of the room staring at Miriam.

Miriam returned the favor and sent a curious gaze back her way.

Tilting her head to the side, Miriam asked "Is Breakfast included at this establishment?"

Fiona unconsciously nodded her head in response to the query.

Yawned abit, she walked out of the room and down the hall to the main doors of the establishment.

Fiona was perplexed but closed the door to thd room her son was currently slumbering in and walked after Miriam before bumping into a hastily dressed Anya.

"Oh Ms.Hart. Miriam looks like she's going outside, can I ask that you go with her to ensure her safety?" Pleaded Fiona.

She really wanted to go back to the room her son was in and wake him up.

Ms. Hart looked at Fiona and made a disgusted face before nodding her head and plastering a overly fake smile on her face, before turning around to follow the eccentric four year old child as she opened the Inns front doors to leave.

Wanting to go out and people watch, Miriam opened the doors in the lobby and walked out.

Much to confusion of two or three other traveller's situated inside.

Miriam didnt know Anya was following her, so how could she know that bolting once she got out the doors would cause the poor governess to lose sight of her?

Unfortunately, Miriam considered herself an independent adult stuck in a small child's body.

She ran down the street and turned onto another street they had passed the day before when coming into town.

With a certain house in mind once the place she was looking for came into sight she slowed her pace and began to gracefully walk down the dirt road. Careful to not step on any animal feces or perhaps even more vulgar, the contents of now emptied chamber pots.

As she was walking to her destination she spotted something rather colorful out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head Miriam saw a large butterfly flying near a small apple tree near what looked to be a church.

Quickening her pace, she made it to the foot of the apple tree and saw the large butterfly land on a fallen fruit.

Quickly she reached into her bag, and pulled out a small case and a small little book of paper. Along with Samantha and set her next to her.

She opened the case and took out a pencil and looked for a less dirty spot before sitting down and quickly started sketching the butterfly in front of her.

If she was correct, it was a Mourning Cloak Butterfly. A beautiful dark crimson color adorned much of its wings while it had either very light yellow or gold around the outermost edges of its rings. Accompanied by a few almost square like light blue spots on the inner edge of the golden trimming of the wings.

"I wonder who it is that you're mourning? Is it a butterfly, or a person? Or maybe its the freedom you shall perhapa soon lose. You little fellas only live a year at most. Ah, I see, your a baptist butterfly huh? The sign on this church clearly says its denomination. What do Baptist butterflies believe I wonder?" She mused as she finished the sketch in a few minutes and the butterfly at yet to move from its placement.

Looking over at Samantha who was slithering slowly about, Miriam decided to ask for her snakes opinion.

"What about you Samantha Snake? Are you a baptist snake? Hmm?"

Miriam leaned foward and touched Samantha on her little nose and the snake just looked up at her, blinking its eyes abit as if in curiosity.

"Ah no? I guess your not baptist. Well there are plenty of religions for you to try." Spoke Miriam to her little pet snake as she proceeded to pet her little scaly head before returning her attention to the paper.

Flipping the page, she decided to the tree and the church. Of course she was only lightly sketching this for a few minutes before deciding to sketch a drawing of the butterfly as seen from a different position.

Too do this she put her case in her shoulder bag and scooped up Samantha and walked to a different position before sitting down go start drawing again.

Samantha proceeded to slither a few feet away from her human friend and happened to find a big grasshopper to munch on.

However peace would not last forever. Miriam was singing a french song softly and finishing her last sketch when a shadow blocked her sunlight.

"Excuse me, do you mind moving? Your blocking my sunlight."

The shadow did not move. Miriam quickly spotted Samantha by her skirt raising her head up at whoever stood behind her.

Putting her pencil away in its case, and closing her sketchbook, Miriam stowed her items away into her bag. Samantha slithered up onto her lap and Miriam took out the old silk handkerchief and gentley wrapped her pet snake inside the silky fabric before putting her tidyly into her bag.

Miriam was about to get up and out of tje grass when she noticed the butterfly hadn't left its position and had stopped moving.

After getting to her feet she patted her skirts until all the leaf litters and grassy bits and clumps of dirt had been satisfactorily patted off.

Making her way over to the butterfly, she noticed its wings had drooped down to its sides and it seemed at peace.

She reached out her hand expecting it to fly away, or flinch, but it just remained motionless.

Carefully picking up the butterfly by the torso as too npt damage the wings, she held it up to the sunlight and noticed it was not breathing.

"Ah I guess you were having your last meal, and mourning yourself... You know, you shouldnt feel sorry for yourself little butterfly. Everyone will die eventually. I don't feel like my life is long enough to cry over myself. Cry for others, for that is all you can do for them. Crying for yourself on the other hand is a sin, for you should just pick yourself up and make things better yourself." Miriam spoke with a tinge of cynicism in her voice, but more so with a great underlying tiredness.

Letting out a small sigh she reached into her bag carefully, as to not disturb the slumbering snake, and took out a small little specimen case. She had managed to find this while rummaging through Alards room and there was merely a cricket inside it.

So of course Miriam thought it most wasteful and fed the cricket to Samantha while pocketing the case herself.

He wasn't home, so surely he wouldn't mind right?

Anyway, she carefully put the butterfly in the case, wrapping said case in a small cotton cloth for protection and placing it in her bag once more.

Turning around she almost ran into an older child about the age of 11 or so.

Carefully squinting her eyes against the intensifying summer rays, she was pretty sure she recognized this chap before her from somewhere.

Blinking a few times, Miriam decided to put on her cute act and ask the boy what he was doing watching little girls for fun...

"Excuse me...little Sir. May I help you with something?" Asked Miriam to the boy.

The boy just stood there staring at her as if in deep thought, Miriam deciding she should propbably hurry back to the Inn after collecting the flowers she spotted earlier, walked around the boy and proceeded to briskly walk, planning on going to her original destination.

The boy started to follow her slowly and Miriam began to get a abit creeped out.

Slipping her hand slowly into her shoulder bag, she fumbled around it abit before pulling out a small 'gardenening' tool that was probably sharp enough to sever a few big arteries. Undoubtedly being a professional, she had covered the sharper end with a leather sheet and some cotton cloth for good measure just for safety.

The sun was climbing higher into the sky and Miriam safely arrived at her destination in front of a pretty little brick house that looked like it needed a good new coat of paint.

Taking her tool, she shoveled 4 or 5 flowers out of the dirt and wrapped them in a cotton cloth that she procured from her bag before sneakily stowing the new gotten goods into her bag.

She made sure to get a good chunk of soil around each flower so as too not damage the roots.

Looking around and seeing no adults in sight, she let out a sigh of relief. Deciding it was past time to return already, she booked it for the Inn before her party tried to sound an old fashioned amber alert for her.

Barely reaching the ins two front doors, someone grabbed her by the back of her dressed and stopped her.

Miriam on instinct swung her little sharpened garden spade around and felt it make contact with flesh.

A top of the lungs shriek was heard, and turning her head to see the perpetrator it was none of than her Governess Anya Hart.

Miriam being so small and short had only managed to gash the womans thigh somehow miraculously through her many sets of skirts and clothing.

Knowing that this waa probably not gonna look good to others, she talked in a loud voice to speak her reasoning to anyone who was nearby.

"A older child was seen behind me following me earlier on my stroll, I when feeling the back of my dress pulled, itmediatly felt the need to defend my innocence and my families good name. A proper woman of pedigree would never grab another by the back of her collar with due warning even if said woman was an elder. I feared for my safety so of course I defended myself when an assault on my persons took place." Speaking rather eloquently like a minute lady, bystanders were indeed nodding their heads in agreement to her reasoning.

Anya was having none of this she began to scream and shout about how Miriam was a little witch, devil, demon's, ect.

Miriam felt tears bubbling up and spilling out of her eye corners.

"I'm.. I'm scared... someone call the authorities... I fear for my life!" Cried Miriam as Anya had picked her up by her scruff of clothing and began to shake her.

This was the scene her father saw when he waltzed out of the Inn to see what the commotion was.