Pervious chapter.

Everfall Two

The large room we sisters shared had four round windows made of stained glass, where there were scenes of fairies and flowers, brave knights fighting dragons, and my favorite, a miniature version of our castle home. With the full moon it seems that the stain-glassed scenes shimmered so brightly that they seemed real. No longer were they just pretty pictures to look. It’s like they came to life right before our eyes. The mention of it by Paulina of that fact made Sari giggle.

I put Paydon on a shelf. He liked to admire the scenes just like the rest of us, and this was the perfect spot for him. I took off my day dress and put on a part dress. It was a pale green that Paydon was particularly found of. I glanced at him and saw his mouth go up like he was smiling at me. Paulina was calmly lit the small lanterns. We would be in need of them for our journey.

Even though we had quite a large space to share, with five girls it could get a bit crowded. As Taya fastened the hooks on her gown, I watched Una twirling in front of the mirror. At thirteen, she was developing rapidly into a young woman. She had a very attractive, shapely figure much like our mother had. Her gown was made of delicate pink silk with tiny embroidered lace roses around the collar and the end of the skirt and a transparent light cream sash at the waste. Her dark curls were pinned in an up sweep intertwined with ribbons that resembled butterflies.

We had become inventive over the years, with the leftovers from Father’s shipments. He was a highly successful merchant, but buying Everwood Falls had eaten up a lot of his funds. Plus, there was always money going out for the upkeep of the property. Even in partnership with his wealthy cousin, finances had been very tight, and there was no sign that the situation would change anytime soon. So that meant we had to improvise when it came to wardrobe. We were able to make at least one party dress at times when a cargo happen to contain extra fabric. We took full advantage of those situations.

We all wore hand-me-downs. Paulina wore mine, but Una, with her fuller figure, did better than the rest of us. She wasn’t able to fit into either Taya’s clothes or mine. If any of us received anything new for time to time it was Una. Even with this advantage, she complained. She should have liked a whole wardrobe of fine growns, shoes and accessories, but that just wasn’t possible. With Taya being as clever with a needle as she was, she was able to adjust Mother’s old gowns to fit her. Mother had left us more than five years. She had died when our youngest sister was born. That maybe why we were all so protective Sari.