The thud of her mother's stomping echoed as she marched angrily over to Darby, shattering the peace of the morning air. Darby braced herself for the storm that she knew was coming.
"Darby Imogen Herrington! How dare you sneak out here without my permission!" her mother shrieked.
"Look at you! You are completely filthy! You look disgusting! This is not proper behavior for a Lady!" She grabbed Darby by her arm and forcefully jerked her up. Darby clutched her magnifying glass trying to be brave in front of her mother's anger. She continued to be scolded as her mother twisted her arm in rage and yelled
"A Lady should not get messy! A Lady should not be digging around in the dirt!"
"But mama I was just trying to-" Darby struggled to defend her exploring after reading books with her papa.
"No, Enough" said her mother and furiously tugged Darby along with her back to the mansion. In all the chaos as her mother pulled her strongly Darby's precious magnifying glass slipped from her small grasp and fell, landing on a rock, shattering and scarring the nearby ladybug to fly away.
Dragging Darby back to the house her mother carried on with her barrage of angry words. She dragged her across the lawn, up the steps and into the house where Darby left a trail of mud behind her steps.
"Some one clean this mud up!" Darby's mother shouted at the servants close by and then she dragged Darby up the large staircase, crossly listing her lecture
"A proper Lady is cleaned and groomed!" Thud.
She stomped up a stair. "A proper Lady is gentle!" Thud.
"A proper Lady is refined!" Thud. "A proper Lady is delicate!" Thud.
"A proper Lady is meek!" Thud. "A proper Lady is elegant!" Thud.
"A proper Lady is graceful!" Thud. "A proper Lady knows her place! And is soft spoken and quiet!"
Every word her mother shouted hit Darby like a blow. Her face and expression darkened with every sentenced yelled. Her own anger began to grow and her mind and heart became hardened.
Darby was then stripped of her dirty clothes and tossed into a tub to be scrubbed by the maids. Thinking back she felt wronged, but she was too angry to cry about it in front of her mother or the maids. She had just wanted to explore and play a bit, she could have cleaned up after herself on her own and didn't need help or any of this fuss. If she had just been left alone she could have put everything back how it was and entered the house cleanly and tidied herself up. The more she thought of her mother's words the more aggrieved and resentful she felt. Darby was taken into her own room to be dressed. She quietly turned to the maids assisting her and said
"I would like to be alone please, I can do it myself." The maids looked at each other not wanting to be scolded again by the madam of the house again but ultimately decided that this much should be fine. As they nodded and left the room Darby was finally alone. She turned to her wardrobe and saw another dress prepared for her. This one even more frilly and lacey than the last. All her mother's harsh and hurtful words came thundering back down on her, but she refused to break down and cry, she didn't want to be weak, and especially not when her mother was around. She just stood there staring at the fluffy pink dress, anger rising and boiling within her. She swiftly ran to the dress, grabbed it in the middle and tore it apart with all her strength. Rrriiippp! Darby stopped herself half way up the dress, contemplating how she could get a little bit of revenge back. She turned and ran to her desk quickly opening a drawer and grabbed a needle and thread from within. She came back to the dress and began to stitch it back up…but not how it was originally. The stitches were a bit sloppy as she was still learning to sew but she was able to finish it to her satisfaction. She stepped into it and pulled it on, did up the buttons and turned to look in the mirror to view her handiwork. There she saw her creation, it was now a set of culottes. It was quite subtle, a small quiet, creeping rebellion.