TimeKeeper

Chapter Two

The days passed so slowly and painfully. Mr Stratford was doing everything he could for me, even though he had no idea who I was, which I was extremely grateful for. He explained that his wife and children had gone to visit their aunt and would be back in a few days. I slept for as long as I could each morning, because then the days weren’t quite so long. Jennie, the maid, came every morning and dressed me in large and rather beautiful dresses that trailed along the floor, and were very tight on top. Sometimes she would talk to me, but I was too consumed in everything else to reply and too upset to consider that I was being rude.

I wanted home. I wanted the smell of washing powder and fairy cakes that always breezed through the house, and the laughs that I had with my mum and my friends. And James, and the smell of pine and must. I missed it all so badly it felt like I would wither and die slowly without it, out here in a world which I knew nothing about, or how I came to be there.

I would disappear into the gardens if it was good weather. Smell the hyacinths and lilies that grew around my favourite bench, and just sit and think. It helped, to think. Or even not to think at all, to just feel the slight breeze and the warmth of the sun on your skin and relax.

“Miss Mae?” Mr Stratford said, touching my shoulders. “My wife and children are returning in a few hours, and I wondered if you wanted to meet them? We have two daughters your age, Mariah and Elizabeth. They would be thrilled to meet you, I’m sure.”

Did I want to meet them? It would be rude not to. And Mr Stratford had done so much for me these few days. I nodded and smiled, hiding any reluctance beneath the surface, and then got up to follow him inside.

The grandeur of the house never ceased to amaze and inspire me. The door into the gardens was from the library, a very large room filled with piles of books and shelves on every wall, filled with various brown leather-bound books, whose silver lettering shone and reflected the light.  There were velvet covered seats around the fireplace, which was not yet ablaze but I knew it would be in a few hours. The fireplace had a picture of the whole family above it, which looked much more recent than the ones by the staircase. The two girls, now both about sixteen, stood tall. One smiled and twirled her hair, which had been very carefully  pinned up with flowers in between the strands, and wore a light blue dress. The other wore a dark blue dress, and had obviously taken less time over her appearance, looking proud as she stood but also bored. Behind the painting, the walls were painted cream, and in the afternoon sun, it looked just like my bedroom at home.

Home.

Soft duvets and phone calls from James every night. My mother’s chocolate cookies that she made on Sundays and my father’s constant joking. Visits from my friends after school to “study,” but we never actually got anything done.

Safety, comfort, familiarity.

Home.

I realised that I had paused, just standing still, in the doorway to the library. A small tear had escaped my eye in the thought of home.

“You don’t have to meet my daughters. They would understand completely if you retired to your bedchambers.” Mr Stratford said, seeing me pause.

For a second, I considered it, which I then reprimanded myself for a second later.

“No, no, I want to see them.” I smiled at him, and walked through the library after him to the front door, where two young women stood, both looking about eighteen or seventeen which was a year or so older than me.

One smiled at me, the one with light brown or blonde hair, which had been neatly pinned up and curled like in the portrait in the library. She was wearing a very flamboyant dark red dress with white flowers.  The girl beside her with the dark hair glanced at me once, but then walked past me. Her simple green dress wasn’t shaped or embroidered like her sister’s, and her hair was tied in a bun at the nape of her neck. I saw the dress catch on something, a bump on her leg. The shape was small, long, pointed, and thin. The girl in the red dress and lighter hair came up to me with an outstretched hand.