Lost Potential [NARRATIVE POST]

[MotherLay 942]

Lost Potential

 

Briana Baruch and Miss Reed

 

---

 

“IDIOT!” Smack.

 

              “STUPID!” Smack.

 

                               “IMBECILE!” Smack.

 

---

 

Briana Baruch has many tutors, one for each subject. They cannot fit all on one hand. She is good at some subjects, worse at others, but her biggest challenge has, and always will be, penmanship and reading comprehension. 

 

Her inability to perform well in these subjects became apparent once she turned seven. While her friends wrote letters that could be discerned and understood, Briana’s attempts always fell flat. Awkward spacing, capitalization in the wrong places, like letters swapped plagued her pages. It was then, that fork in the road of adolescence, that she strayed from her friends and their progress. While others moved forward, she seemed to move back.

 

Little progress has been made up to the present day. Despite her hours of extra practice, her determination to try, and the brutal judgement she received for her inability, she was incapable. 

 

Her reading and writing skills were fostered by a single tutor- Miss. Alma Reed. 

 

---

 

“LAZY!” Smack.

 

             “IGNORANT!” Smack.

 

                                     “USELESS!” Smack.

 

---

 

Miss Reed was strict. She had tutored many fine, capable noble children. She had fostered their education to the highest degree of understanding. Never once had she failed. Not until Briana.

 

Miss Reed feared that Briana’s incompetence reflected poorly on her career. If the Duke’s daughter failed to learn, who else would hire her afterward?

 

So, she took a harsher approach- a painful one. Every missed spelling earned Briana a slap on her knuckles. The tutor always used the same punishing weapon- a wooden ruler with a brass-lined frame. Every mispronounced word, another smack. This became routine. This was normal. The insults, the pain, the struggling. She left many lessons with torn skin and bleeding wounds. 

 

It wasn’t until Garen Baruch, her older brother, stepped in and drew the line. Under no authority to fire the tutor, she kept her job for the time being. With the threat of being outcast, the punishments ceased. The frustrated Miss Reed was reduced of her power and resigned to a much calmer approach. 

 

It was too late though. The seeds of doubt had already been planted in Briana’s mind. She had even begun to believe it, at one point. 

 

“Ye played me fer ah fool, Garen. Ye told me tha’ ah was nae dumb- er an idiot, er stupid… bu’ ye used tha’ tae yer advantage.”

 

Her closest ally, her confidant, and her greatest supporter, betrayed her trust. He put on what she believes to be an act. She was stupid enough to fall for it.

 

Garen’s true nature, or what she believes is his true nature, had come to light. And no amount of punishment from her tutor had ever made her feel this dumb.

 

---

 

“IDIOT!” Smack.

 

       “STUPID!” Smack.

 

              “IMBECILE!” Smack

 

---

 

She vowed to herself then, to give up. To stop trying so hard to do what was clearly impossible. At fourteen years old, she had resigned herself to be what everyone thought her to be. An idiot.

[Cheese 8882]

“Ye' o' all show kno' how hard ah try,” Briana retorted, crossing her arms. “An' ef ye' think ahm nae- yer nae better than my last tutor.”

“you are kind, and adventurous, and smart, and bring light to the lives you have touched. If a tutor I hired could not see that, then clearly I made a grave error in my oversight of your education.”

Garen nodded to his mother “Ah said the same. Last she told meh ef eh... Bad lesson.”

“..Has she been dismissed yet?”

“No' yet.”

“She has nae insulted me since ah told Garen, though.” Briana was quick to add.

“Insulting you once is enough. You are the daughter of a Duke. Whether you marry a commoner, become a noble consort, or become the Empress herself - I do not care. That servant will be dismissed and replaced with someone more competent.” Constantina decided that just as quickly, with finality.

 

---

Oh, Briana. From the moment she was born, and Constantina was met with golden curls and striking blue eyes that mimicked her own, that daughter of hers made something in her heart twist. Constantina had never wanted a daughter, and after the death of her first she thought perhaps she had been spared. But then Briana was born, and Constantina was afraid. Afraid of being a mother–though she already had three boys–and was afraid of having a daughter. And to have a daughter that looked just like her, oh, it terrified Constantina.

But over time, Briana managed to wiggle her way into her mother’s frigid heart. It took years (and the sage counsel of Constantina’s friends). Every bright smile when Constantina entered the room, every clumsy dance, all of the messy letters and tight hugs. The girl was lovely, despite being Constantina’s daughter; despite her being Briana’s mother; despite Briana looking just like her mother. Constantina could see the effort Briana made; to impress her family, to make friends, to become the best at anything she wanted. She was almost envious of the child.

But to hear of this–of some insolent, cruel tutor standing in between Briana and whatever ambitions or happiness may be striving for–it was unacceptable. Not even dismissal would be enough. So that night, when Constantina summoned the House’s coachman to her study, a plan had already been formulated.

“Yer Grace, how may Ah–”

“Do you know of this Ms. Reed, that’s been tutoring my eldest daughter?”

“Teh Laidy Briana? Oh, aye, O’ course Ah do!”

“Good. Tomorrow I am releasing her from her duties. 

I will need you to drive her back to wherever she came from.”

“O-Oh..? Well, aye– Ah can do th–”

“I wasn’t done speaking. Listen to me.”

 

 

---

 

Over the next week or so, Constantina brought it upon herself to clear her schedule to drop into her daughter’s tutoring sessions. Only for a few minutes, just to make sure. All seemed somewhat better now. Constantina enjoyed seeing the improvement in Briana’s mood (and dancing, per her much more favored tutor). A thin smile even graced her features as she departed from the study, and made her way down the corridor. A group of passing maids quickly hushed their gossip and lowered their heads in a bow. But even their whispers were not lost on Constantina’s ears as she carried on.

 

“Did ye hear ‘bout teh carriage accident? They lost control, n’ slid off teh cliff!”

 

“Oh mah…– teh poor Reed family! They must jus’ be beside themselves wit’ grief!”

Typically, Constantina kept a tight leash on her staff and the looseness of their tongues. Unfavorable rumors were a plague, and the Castle Barden was treated as a place of quarantine where no such sullying words could break free.

Only this once, did she not stop to scold the maids. In fact, with her back turned to the group fussing over the accident, Constantina’s sly smile stretched into a satisfied grin.

 

[confusedjester 811]

The only other illiterate noble-born in the lands was sat beside candlelight that eve. In Romhilda's right palm laid a quill, whilst her bare, ringless left held the parchment before her steadily. With her brows pinching in pure, nay-be interrupted concentration, she began to write. 

Propped up beside her was a tome fit for children- the basics of literacy, and as hours passed, the virgin leaflet was now wrot with sloppy- yet barely coherent letters of the alphabet. 

Romhilda started again. Over and over did she go, until the sun peaked through her sill. She rose, as her hand began to cramp and tremble, to view her improvement from a birdseye.
To her dismay, only few of the letters were written correctly, not backwards or slithered. Her lips pressed grimly, as she swept the parchments off her lectern! 

"Stupid..." She muttered, waddling off to console herself with pastries, before debuting into the public with her smiles.