Chapter 6 : Mere Maggots

" Is everything alright, Casia?"

The young girl lifted her head to meet with her older sister's eyes.

" It's nothing."

She replies quickly as she shifts her attention to her dinner. It was obvious she hadn't been very convincing judging from Holly's scrutinizing gaze.

" You're not ill, are you?"

Their mother voiced her concern. Considering how she had somehow ended up tumbling into a fountain, it wasn't exactly her health her sisters were openly prioritizing.

" She's fine, I've already checked."

Smoothly, Amary reassured her mother. She gives her younger sister a small side eye, one her mother had always failed to notice. The two eldest had one thing in mind, the dress that had followed the clumsy girl into the fountain. Firstly, it was a rather precious hand-me-down from their richer cousins who had passed it to Holly, then to Amary and finally to Casia herself. The dress was plain as can be but it was one of the few nice outfits she's had and now it's been drenched with 100 year old fountain water mixed with algae and dust. That would be the second point. She'd already gotten her lecture on it from them both.

' Honestly, I half expected it to be worse.'

She thought to herself. Part of her had expected some sort of insult from Holly regarding her incompetence to take care of a single bloody dress, she brushed off the feeling as just her overthinking. They wouldn't insult her on it, no. But they'll probably mention it from time to time, as a joke maybe or something to reminisce in the near future.

" Mother, may I go pick flowers tomorrow?"

Casia asked her mother politely.

" Who will you be taking with you? The forest is no place for a young girl to go on her own."

" But, Holly goes all the time with her horse."

" Holly is six years older than you, Casia. Why not take your little sister? Learn about the plants and animals."

" NO!"

Harlow half shouted from her seat at the dining table, rising from the chair with a clear air of determination. Catching herself, she settles herself back to her seat as her elder siblings all give her 5 seconds worth of an awkward stare.

" I don't like bugs."

" I thought you were scared of worms."

Riz inquired with a smirk. He, personally, had been the cause of such fears.

" Why worms? Is it because they'll wriggle into your skin from your feet? Can you feel them crawling under your skin, my dear?"

Harlow whines as her mother laughs, teasing the youngest was a rather collective hobby and their mother was an incredible story teller. Specializing in horror stories of course for the sake of scaring her kids (such traumas lasted years in fact, ask Holly.) and no child of the Baroness had ever escaped them.

" Casia keeps talking about the bugs and it's creepy!"

" It's just bugs, Harlow."

Holly rolled her eyes before Amary added,

" Says the girl who hosted funerals to grasshoppers she's killed. I attended all of them."

" Involuntarily, I'm betting."

Their brother smiled.

" Only because you were too squeamish to stick around. Which reminds me, did you even get rid of the maggot problem in the kitchen like Father asked?"

The two middle children often argued this way. Riz would inquire something and Amary would add against him. Veiled insult after insult tossed to each other no matter the distance of their banters.

" Of course. I'm not a coward, Amary."

He huffs proudly, Amary already growing so weary of rolling her eyes at this boy that it actually stings. Gives her a headache just thinking about it too.

" Is it the one beneath the floor boards?"

Casia asked with a tilted head. Her brother moved his mouth to stop her but it was already too late. Holly smiles stiffly at her younger brother, counting underneath her breath while Amary was already narrowing her eye lids.

" I cleaned it up and sealed the cracks with wax...."

She turns to Riz with disbelief as the realization kicked in.

" You said Father ordered me to do it!"

The young girl snapped. All those filthy slimy maggots, the fact she had to remove the rotten black--whatever the moldy thing was, all on her own and cleaning it out before sealing it with candle wax. She shuddered at the mere memory of it. She hadn't complained then because it was a job she had to do. An order to pull her weight to keep the house running. She hadn't expected to be hauling someone else's duties instead.

" Riz, have you no shame?"

" Quite a gentleman you'll turn out to be."

" I swear he's more of a princess than either of us combined."

" Can't even handle a few mere maggots."

Casia glared at her brother for tricking her so casually while his two older sisters were delivering blow after blow of commentary regarding his little misuse of being the only son privilidge. Their poor mother had to diffuse the situation of course and as for the youngest....she ate her desert and enjoyed the show. The initial topic of conversation already forgotten as she swung her feet in the air. The bit of chocolate was very nice and as long as she could escape going anywhere near the forest or whatever insect or arachnid facts Casia would've loved to give her just to tease. The short girl already added butterflies because of the incredible detail Casia had described how a certain number of them were in fact poisonous, she didn't need to add anything more to her long list.