![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11I've been at GenCon this week, promoting on our release of Susurrus: Season of Tides for my job at Evil Overlord Games. So I've been behind on releases scenes. But here's another from Gilded Cages while I endeavor to catch up.
As a side note, I recently realized that Priyanka is a Hindu extracted name, not one an Indian Muslim would be likely to have. So I'm going to have to change it for accuracy's sake, but I haven't decided what to go with yet.
Day #15 - "A Small Alliance"
From Gilded Cages
By Phoebe Roberts
Bengal, India, 1859
VICTORIA STANTON, daughter to the lieutenant governor
PRIYANKA MALIK, a girl who works in her house
~~~
(VICTORIA conceals herself in the kitchen, watching. More servants come and go, including a girl with a basket. Once the others are gone, the girl begins loading it up.)
VICTORIA:
You clever sod.
(VICTORIA leaps out of hiding and they fight, scrabbling and hair-pulling. VICTORIA finally recognizes her.)
VICTORIA:
Priyanka?
PRIYANKA:
Miss Stanton! No!
(She lets go of VICTORIA and scrambles away.)
VICTORIA:
You’re the one stealing from us?
PRIYANKA:
Miss, forgive me! It isn’t what it seems!
VICTORIA:
Why would you steal from the larder? Don’t they feed you?
PRIYANKA:
Please, miss, you musn’t tell anyone!
VICTORIA:
Not if you don’t tell me what’s going on!
PRIYANKA:
I can’t! But I meant no harm, I swear it!
VICTORIA:
Then why won’t you tell me?
PRIYANKA:
Because— you’ll talk to someone— the guards— the governor—
VICTORIA:
I’d sooner swallow a frog than tell those people anything!
(PRIYANKA struggles with it and relents.)
PRIYANKA:
It’s not for me, miss. It’s for Gita— the village where I come from. Because they’re starving.
VICTORIA:
Starving? Why?
PRIYANKA:
It’s the law, miss. It says they can’t grow anything but indigo because it’s worth more to sell. But they can’t eat indigo, and… not much of the money comes to them.
VICTORIA:
I had no idea. That’s awful.
PRIYANKA:
It’s gotten so bad there that, when I heard… I thought… if I worked at the manor, it might… put some things within reach.
VICTORIA:
So that’s why you left the post office to take Mrs. Malik’s job. How did you manage that?
PRIYANKA:
It wasn’t hard. She was my mother.
VICTORIA:
She was? I didn’t know that.
(Pause.)
VICTORIA:
I’m sorry. About what happened to her. She was here a long time and she was very good to me. She taught me how to braid my hair.
PRIYANKA:
She did?
VICTORIA:
Yes, didn’t she you?
PRIYANKA:
No.
VICTORIA:
Oh. Well, I liked her very much.
PRIYANKA:
Then, for her sake, let me go. I shall put it all back, and never do it again. I swear it, if you’ll just pardon me this once.
VICTORIA:
What about your people?
PRIYANKA:
(Sighing) It was no fix. I know it’s not enough. I only… had to do something.
VICTORIA:
What will you do now?
PRIYANKA:
I don’t know, miss.
VICTORIA:
Then… can I help you?
PRIYANKA:
You, miss?
VICTORIA:
Yes.
PRIYANKA:
Even every scrap in the kitchen wouldn’t solve this.
VICTORIA:
No, but… what about something else, then, something bigger. Something you couldn’t do alone.
PRIYANKA:
What would that be?
VICTORIA:
I don’t know. But… perhaps two can find it better than one can.
(PRIYANKA considers and decides.)
PRIYANKA:
The circumstances are dire. And I’ve got no one else.
VICTORIA:
Then what shall we do?
As a side note, I recently realized that Priyanka is a Hindu extracted name, not one an Indian Muslim would be likely to have. So I'm going to have to change it for accuracy's sake, but I haven't decided what to go with yet.
Day #15 - "A Small Alliance"
From Gilded Cages
By Phoebe Roberts
Bengal, India, 1859
VICTORIA STANTON, daughter to the lieutenant governor
PRIYANKA MALIK, a girl who works in her house
~~~
(VICTORIA conceals herself in the kitchen, watching. More servants come and go, including a girl with a basket. Once the others are gone, the girl begins loading it up.)
VICTORIA:
You clever sod.
(VICTORIA leaps out of hiding and they fight, scrabbling and hair-pulling. VICTORIA finally recognizes her.)
VICTORIA:
Priyanka?
PRIYANKA:
Miss Stanton! No!
(She lets go of VICTORIA and scrambles away.)
VICTORIA:
You’re the one stealing from us?
PRIYANKA:
Miss, forgive me! It isn’t what it seems!
VICTORIA:
Why would you steal from the larder? Don’t they feed you?
PRIYANKA:
Please, miss, you musn’t tell anyone!
VICTORIA:
Not if you don’t tell me what’s going on!
PRIYANKA:
I can’t! But I meant no harm, I swear it!
VICTORIA:
Then why won’t you tell me?
PRIYANKA:
Because— you’ll talk to someone— the guards— the governor—
VICTORIA:
I’d sooner swallow a frog than tell those people anything!
(PRIYANKA struggles with it and relents.)
PRIYANKA:
It’s not for me, miss. It’s for Gita— the village where I come from. Because they’re starving.
VICTORIA:
Starving? Why?
PRIYANKA:
It’s the law, miss. It says they can’t grow anything but indigo because it’s worth more to sell. But they can’t eat indigo, and… not much of the money comes to them.
VICTORIA:
I had no idea. That’s awful.
PRIYANKA:
It’s gotten so bad there that, when I heard… I thought… if I worked at the manor, it might… put some things within reach.
VICTORIA:
So that’s why you left the post office to take Mrs. Malik’s job. How did you manage that?
PRIYANKA:
It wasn’t hard. She was my mother.
VICTORIA:
She was? I didn’t know that.
(Pause.)
VICTORIA:
I’m sorry. About what happened to her. She was here a long time and she was very good to me. She taught me how to braid my hair.
PRIYANKA:
She did?
VICTORIA:
Yes, didn’t she you?
PRIYANKA:
No.
VICTORIA:
Oh. Well, I liked her very much.
PRIYANKA:
Then, for her sake, let me go. I shall put it all back, and never do it again. I swear it, if you’ll just pardon me this once.
VICTORIA:
What about your people?
PRIYANKA:
(Sighing) It was no fix. I know it’s not enough. I only… had to do something.
VICTORIA:
What will you do now?
PRIYANKA:
I don’t know, miss.
VICTORIA:
Then… can I help you?
PRIYANKA:
You, miss?
VICTORIA:
Yes.
PRIYANKA:
Even every scrap in the kitchen wouldn’t solve this.
VICTORIA:
No, but… what about something else, then, something bigger. Something you couldn’t do alone.
PRIYANKA:
What would that be?
VICTORIA:
I don’t know. But… perhaps two can find it better than one can.
(PRIYANKA considers and decides.)
PRIYANKA:
The circumstances are dire. And I’ve got no one else.
VICTORIA:
Then what shall we do?
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}