Chương 2: A barren daughter
Amelia first met her father, Viscount Graham Ainsworth, when she was fourteen years old. Her mother had sent a letter on her deathbed informing Graham of Amelia's existence and begging him to take care of her. Her father had obliged and came to get Amelia at the brothel on the day of her mothers passing.
She had been treated faily well at the household at first, at least when taking her status as the bastard daughter of a prostitute into consideration. She was fed, washed and clothed, and even though she was ignored by everyone in the household she was never mistreated by them. They even arranged for her to attend lessons in etiquette to prepare for her upcoming introduction to high society.
That is, until her father and the madam realised that her monthly blood likely would never show. Before that they had figuered that they could marry the bastard off to a wealthy noble despite her lowly origins; she had a decent face afterall. But no noble would want to marry a barren woman no matter how beautiful.
She became a shame to the Ainsworth family.
When she turned seventeen and still hadn't bled Graham and the madam started debating on how they could make back the money they had spent on raising the worthless bastard. Thanks to her fathers kindness she was allowed to stay in the household instead of being sold off as a prostitute, but she would have to work to maintain that privilege.
She was assigned to do the work of a maid which in itself wasn't very difficult: it wasn't hard on the body, the servants quarters were maintained faily well and the food she got wasn't all that bad. Life was at least far more comfortable than it had been back when she had to fight for her survival on the streets.
Problems arose when her family started treating her with malice. Their attitude quickly rubbed of on the other servants who wanted to gain favor in the eyes of their employers.
Amelia was often left with merely leftovers to eat which eventually caused her to lose weight to an unsightly degree.
She would face punishment by the head maid whenever she made a mistake, however small, and the maids often pulled petty pranks like pouring water in her bed so that she would have to sleep on the floor.
While most of it on its own would've been bearable feelings of frustration and eventually despondency festered as time passed.
Perhaps that had been part of the reason why she found the treatment from her stepmother, madam Charlotte Ainsworth, so hard to bear.
In acts of malice the madam frequently assigned Amelia to hard physical tasks with limited time to rest, if any at all. If a mistake was made Charlotte did not hesitate to act out her anger. She had once thrown an empty cup at Amelias feet which had left her ankles scarred from its flying shards.
Even as the mistreatment became blatant her father and brother had always remained indifferent. To them she was likely nothing more than a leech surviving on their money and kindness.
Amelia had always thought that their attitude towards her was the most painful, far worse than the more upfront mistreatment that she faced from others. They were after all her last living bloodrelatives and her only remaining family.
But as she witnessed their heads being severed one by one and rolling on the cold stone floor with their bloodshot eyes wide open Amelia did not feel sad for them. The affection she had felt was long gone.
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