Free Web NovelChapter 30: Of Words Borrowed from Better Tongues
Chapter 29: Of Words Borrowed from Better Tongues
Lyria’s POV
I opened the little book carefully, as though its thin spine might protest if I were too eager with it.
The pages were soft now from handling, their edges dulled and slightly curled. Some of the corners bore faint smudges where my fingers had lingered too long, where I had traced letters again and again until they stopped looking like strangers.
Patricia leaned closer at once.
The candle caught in her eyes, pale and patient.
This book was mine.
Not truly mine, of course. Nothing in this palace ever truly was. But the words inside it were.
I rested it on my knees and smoothed the first page.
Rows of neat, uncertain writing greeted me.
I had written them myself. I had learnt how to write from Patricia.
I lifted my hands.
"Sh–shall I begin?" I asked softly, signing with the same breath.
Patricia nodded.
I pointed to the first word.
"R–rhetoric," I read aloud, careful with the beginning. My finger followed the line beneath it. "Rhet... o–ric."
She watched my mouth. Her eyes narrowed slightly in thought as I pronounced it. These were words we had gone through together. Words she had corrected me on. Words I had practised numerous times too.
Then she nodded once.
I felt absurdly proud as I moved to the next.
"E–etiquette."
The syllables felt delicate.
"E–ti–q–uette."
Her lips curved faintly.
Correct.
"Diplomacy."
That one I liked. It sounded important. From the first day I heard it, I liked the way it sounded, and now I could spell it and even knew the meaning.
"D–diplomacy," I said, then signed it slowly, deliberately.
Patricia’s head tipped in approval.
I continued saying the words, repeating the same motion as I said them.
"Deference. Esteem. Impertinent."
That last one made her brow lift. It was one of the words I had struggled with when she taught me last time.
I hurried to explain.
"It means... u–um... rude. But politely rude." I signed the rest more clearly than I spoke.
She smiled and nodded.
I grinned back before I could stop myself.
I liked this part best.
The part where words became less frightening and more like companions to me.
When I reached the end of the page, I turned it with a careful thumb.
There were fewer words on the next leaf. And impertinent had been an issue, but these ones were worse.
I swallowed and pointed at them.
"B–belligerent."
My tongue stumbled slightly.
"Bel–li–gerent."
Patricia’s hand rose at once.
She corrected me gently, shaping the sound with two fingers near her lips.
I tried again, following her correction.
"Belligerent?"
She nodded.
I smiled, then repeated the word, testing it on my tongue.
I moved down the line.
"Benevolent."
"M–malevolent."
Those two I had written side by side so I would not forget which was which.
She waited patiently while I explained, haltingly, how one meant kind intention and the other meant cruel.
Then I reached the bottom of the page and closed the book slowly.
I drew a breath.
’I know you also have new words to learn,’ she signed.
I chuckled. I always had new words to learn. I listened when people spoke and picked up words I did not understand, then brought them to Patricia so she could help me with them.
Most of the words I had picked up from Jacinta and the queen.
Patricia nodded for me to continue.
"There was a c–cook scolding one of the maids," I said, trying very hard not to giggle. "She said the girl was... p–promiscuous?"
Patricia blinked slowly and then lifted her hands, but she paused when she realised we did not have a sign for the word.
She instead told me to repeat what I had said, and I did so.
"I d–do not know how to spell it," I admitted, "n–nor what it truly m–means."
Patricia never judged me for not knowing how to read or write. She told me once that it did not matter that I could not read nor write, that I was smart, and that was all that mattered. Apart from my mother, she was the only other person who had called me smart.
She drew the word carefully in the air with her finger, starting with a P, and I focused on the movement so I could get the spelling.
She drew an R, O, M, I, S, C, U, O, U, S.
She repeated it slowly again, allowing me to follow the shape.
Then she signed.
’It is used when someone is said to give their affection too freely. Often unfairly. And the word is usually used with cruelty.’
I frowned.
"That... s–sounds unkind."
She nodded. ’It is an unkind word. Do not be like the cook and use the word on someone, okay?’
I nodded.
I wrote the word at the edge of the page with the small pencil stub I kept tucked into the back of the book.
My letters were cautious as I spelt it out. At least now, if anyone used it while referring to me, I would know what it meant and would also be able to put them in their place for insulting me.
Patricia put her thumb up, a sign that I had done well with the spelling. Then she signed.
’What more do you have?’ she asked me.
Patricia really did know me too well.
"These ones I h–heard from the Q–queen and... J–Jacinta," I told her softly.
Patricia disliked the queen the same way I did, and she always told me that the queen was a bad person and was only queen because of her bloodline.
Those were treasonous words, but at the end of the day, we could not even get caught because no one understood the language Patricia and I communicated in except ourselves.
"The queen used the word... ostentatious,"
I told her, trying to pronounce it the exact same way I had heard her pronounce it.
Patricia’s eyes flickered with recognition.
She spelled it for me like she had done with promiscuous, then signed the meaning.
’It means something that is meant to be noticed. Something displayed loudly.’
I nodded slowly. That sounded very close to Jacinta. She wanted everyone to notice her, after all.
"And... magnanimous," I told her.
