Sweet Tragedy

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rebecca woke up suddenly to a loud knock on her bedroom door. She quickly jumped up out bed and pull on her robe. She did not want Samuel walking in on her when she was not decent.

“Miss Armstrong. Time to start your day. You have too much to do today to be sleeping away all the hours in the day. I expect to see you in 15 minutes.” Samuel said through the door quite sternly.

15 minutes??? How was it possibly for her to put on everything in 15 minutes? Her corset could take that long alone. “Who does he think he is?” Rebecca  thought to herself with pure bitterness. She bet that did not think she could do it. She would show him. So she quickly got to it. Luckily she washed last night. So she only needed to wash her face. Drawers… on. Modestly petticoat… Check hoop petticoat… finished. Over petticoat… complete. Chemise…done. She decided again her corset today as she was running out of time. She slipped on a modest gown of light pink. It had a high neck line and tie up bodice. She did not really need the corset anyway. But she felt slightly uncomfortable. Rebecca  through her hair up in a messy bun. Mission accomplished. 2 minutes to spare.

“Nice of you to join us Miss Armstrong.” Samuel said with a mocking tone. He smirked at Rebecca untidy hair. But he was surprised she still had a full gown on. But he knew she would eventually realize she could work better without the hoop petticoats for starters. But he would let her figure that out.

“It is only 6:00am Mr. Adams. I normally wake up around 7am and usually do not sleep my day away.” She stated with frustration and annoyance.

“Well good for you ma’am. I am going to get eggs and milk for breakfast. Please have coffee ready for when I return.” HE left without really explaining much else. How are hard can brewing coffee really be, Rebecca thought.

First things first… heat that stove. Rebecca walked over to the cooking range and found that Samuel had started the stove. Thankfully she thought. She looked around the room for water. There was a bucket of water sitting by the door. Rebecca now understood why she had to get up so early. Samuel has helped her a great deal this morning. She would have to remember to thank him.

Rebecca put some water into the pot and set it on the grill over the fire.  While the water was starting to boil, Rebecca decided to look around the kitchen for food for breakfast. She opened the cupboards and found not too much in there. She would need to go buy things, that was for sure. She found some porridge. She decided porridge and eggs would have to be good enough. She took the porridge from the cupboard and prepared a pot to cook it in. She poured in some water and the dry porridge. “This is not too bad.” She thought to herself.

The water was boiled for the coffee so she poured the grounds in the pot. Took a spoon and stirred it a round. “There, coffee is ready.” She said aloud and smiled proudly at herself.

Just in time, Samuel was back with eggs and milk.

“Coffee is ready?” he asked shocked when he saw a dark liquid in a pot on the stove.

“Yes Sir.” She replied conceitedly “would you like a cup? Cream and sugar?”

Samuel eyes her suspiciously. Coffee was not an easy task. It took him almost a year to learn to make it about Beth passed away.

“I like it black.” He took the cup from her hands and smelled it. “Oh no. Just try it. Do not hurt her feelings. She is really proud of herself” He thought to himself. He took a gulp of the steaming brew. Within a sec of it touching his tongue, he spat it out across the room.   

“Are you trying to kill me Rebecca?” He yelled. “Clearly you do not know how to make coffee. You cannot pour beans into water and expect it taste like coffee. You have to put the beans into the drip pot and pour the water over it and let it drip. HE was not yelling at this point. He was actually grinning as he taught her how to brew coffee. He thought back to his first pot he had made. This was surprisingly  a little better.  

Breakfast did not get much better from there. The porridge was lumpy, the eggs over cooked. The bread was half toasted. But both Adelaide and Samuel ate their food without saying single word to Rebecca. Occasionally, Rebecca would catch them looking at each other knowingly. She knew it was terrible. At least they ate it she supposed.

The rest of the day was just as terrible:

Rebecca attempted to do what she expected of her servants. This is what she based her schedule around.  Looking around she realized that the house has been neglected for a while now. Everything was dusty and had a layer of dirt around it. With a sigh she began.

Starting in the kitchen, she washed all the dishes from breakfast; Using all the water from the bucket. That meant a well-run. She grabbed the bucket. She found another one outside the door so she grabbed that one too. She attached the handle to hook and sent it down. Apparently she went too far cause the bucket fell off the hook and was lost in the well. One bucket down.   

That was only the beginning.  It seemed every room she went in, something dreadful happened. She spilled Adelaide’s the chamber pot all over her dress. She burnt all of lunch because she forgot about it. She got her dress caught on everything and ended up tearing the back seam. Needless to say, nothing was going right for Rebecca. Thankfully, Samuel cooked dinner or they would have another awful meal.

Rebecca’s night was finally over at 10:30pm. She was exhausted. This was the most work she has done in her whole life. Things still were not up to par. Tomorrow would be just as bad. Rebecca got undressed, fell on her bed and cried herself to sleep.

* i know this chapter 6 dragged. hopefully the next will be better. if you have any ideas let me know.*