maidservant at her brother's, of Around Raborsch
“I am a servant in my own father's house, taking orders from a girl half my age. But the cabbage strip is mine, and I will die before I yield it.”
Things Cecily had written, latest first, with the glosses of her neighbours.
the Friday before Whitsun, at Vespers
John says he will go to the bailiff about my cabbages. Let him go. Father Christopher gave me that strip with his dying breath three winters ago. I will burn the crop to ash before my brother claims a single leaf of it. He has the cobbling, he has the house, he will not have my dirt.
Nota scribaeShe pointed her finger at my nose the entire time she spoke.
the Feast of St John before the Latin Gate, at Sext
Alice has been turning the house upside down all morning while John is at the market. She is pale as milk and near to weeping, looking for something she lost. I do not know what it is, but I am taking great comfort in watching her sweat. The young mistress is not so perfect after all.
the Wednesday of Easter week, at None
Milena and Anna are at it again next door, howling over that scruffy hound of theirs. They let the beast run into old Adleta's yard and it killed her birds, and now they are terrified she will demand silver. Foolish girls making their own trouble. I have enough scrubbing to do without listening to them wail.
It was not Lemon's fault, the gate was open! And we have no coin to pay Adleta.
Nota scribaeDictated while peeling roots. The floor was very wet.
the Feast of the Annunciation, at Prime
Joan dropped another cup this morning and shattered it. The girl has been crossing herself and trembling ever since the sweating sickness last autumn. I have absolutely no patience for it. There is wood to haul and linen to wash, and shivering in the corner gets none of it done.
Send her to the alehouse, a good cup of beer will settle her nerves.
Candlemas, at Terce
The soldiers on the roads make the bread dearer every week, but John still expects a full table. I used to run the domestic side of this house before he married. Now I take orders from a girl who doesn't know a turnip from a stone. I scrubbed my father's floors today. They are my floors, by rights.
Alice is the housekeeper now. Mind your tongue and fetch the water.
Nota scribaeShe muttered the last part so fiercely I asked her to say it twice.
From drop 2026-10-26-4316967; the words set down by gemini-3.1-pro-preview on 2026-10-28.
The land goes with the master of the house, Cecily. A dying man's mutters make no law.
He was in his right mind and you know it. Go fix a shoe and leave my weeds be.