Raven recalled the day she met Lady Linda quite well. The young girl had been a frail and sickly sort of person, with brown hair and big brown eyes. She was also the only daughter of a supposedly noble Governor, and his family’s only heir. Raven normally despised such people—those who were born with everything and never even knew what hardship felt like.

However, Linda was very different from the rest in her family, and her class. She was surprisingly kind and thoughtful, and clever to boot. Raven discovered this firsthand one night as she was being berated by an older maid on one of the Governor’s family’s visits to the fine house in which she worked.

*

“You damn little thief!” the maid snapped, grabbing her wrist roughly.

“I said it was not me! I care not for such useless trinkets!” Raven mumbled.

The woman scowled in anger, obviously not believing her statement. Raven suspected she had been the one to steal the master’s necklace and was merely looking for a scapegoat to take the blame.

“Vicious little liar! I’ll have the master take your head for this! An unwanted street rat like you is better off dead anyhow!” she hissed.

Raven just rolled her eyes. Honestly, she was overdoing it a bit here.

"Enough! How dare you shout at her like that!” a new voice suddenly interrupted.

Both the maid and Raven turned to see young Lady Linda, the Governor’s only daughter, standing there in the doorway, looking very cross indeed.

“O-oh, I beg your pardon miss! I was just teaching this brat a lesson!” the woman humbly replied.

But the young woman did not look pleased by her answer, or even convinced of it.

“Your words and actions are most uncalled for, madam. She is but a child! " she retorted, though she looked to be no older than ten or eleven herself.

"My Lady, Raven is but a thief. She is lucky to even be here instead of the gallows!"

Miss Linda just crossed her arms in a most displeased way. "Good lady, I demand to speak with your superior,” she stated calmly.

“M-my master?” the maid asked nervously.

Linda nodded, and so the woman quickly did as she was told, returning seconds later with the manor's owner.

“Now, dear Linda, what is ailing you?" he asked gently.

The girl stomped across the room and stood up to him bravely.

"I say, I do not think a grown woman picking on a young girl half her age is professional in any sense of the word. Your maid is way out of line, accusing this girl of thievery!" she declared.

The man in charge, as well as the maid, both laughed. "Dear Miss, Raven is but a poor orphan. She grew up as a thief, so her actions are more than believable. You need not concern yourself with the likes of her, my Lady."

Lady Linda, however, did not seem to take humor in their words.

"I demand to speak with my father about this, then!" she snapped with authority.