Among Men: Genesis, Book 1

Chapter 4

The Madame hurried down the steps getting down the hallway away from the west drawing room as fast as possible. She began trotting towards the servant's quarters hastily to order the doctor his supper before the carriage was finished. Suddenly, she was stopped by a force hitting her skirts abruptly. She looked down with a scowl and saw their beloved stable boy with horror in his eyes looking up at his Madame he'd just collided with hastily.

"Young man.." She began sternly, "What has you up and out of the bed this way? It's nearly midnight!"

He began with a stutter, rubbing his head from their clash, and finally mustered, "We're getting the doctor's carriage ready, miss, it's my job to muck the stalls when the horses leave."

She shook her head, kneeling down on her knees to meet his eyes, "It's not a job for a young man nearly twelve years old to be away from his bed at such an hour. You will return to your room, immediately. A good night's rest is impertinent for a growing boy."

He put his head down after nodding and she stopped him quietly on the regress,
"Kyran." She said, "Here, my love."

She reached into her cloth coin purse that hung by her waist and his eyes widened for what might she might present him,
"Have a toffee for being so diligent. But you must go back to bed."

"Yes, Madame." He said glowingly, "Thank you."

She always adored little Kyran from the Durrington farming village. His mother was desperate for work and had only a boy, hardly nine. After that mother succumbed to typhoid fever only a year afterward, Madame couldn't dream of letting her little cub go homeless. He was a hard worker, always had a chin up in the sky and she knew he'd be working with good men to teach him a man's values.

"Before you go, dearest, when you passed the kitchen door, did you see Ms. Sybil about?"
She dusted his collar of specks of hay from the stable and he answered with a nod,
"Yes, madam. She's sending girls to find Naomi. No one's seen her since supper."

The disgust in her eyes glinted all at once and she stood bidding him goodnight, hearing his shuffling feet tread down the stairs to his cot. Naomi, the voice from upstairs in the master's lap. She was a kitchen maid beside Sybil, their housekeeper.

Again she moved forward, now thunderously, and turned the corner to enter the kitchen where she heard hushed chatter between Sybil and another servant. She entered and they both dutifully bowed their heads to acknowledge her.

"Madame." Sybil said removing her hands from the dough she kneaded on the table before her and crossing them in front of her apron. Sybil stood taut, nearly a foot shorter than her mistress, and was rounder around the middle. She was older as well, with curls that slipped away from her head like a briar. Sybil wasn't always the most pleasant to converse with but she always kept structure among the servants and their duties in the estate.

"Search not for Naomi. She's been found and will return shortly." She said, looking at them both in glances. She felt the perturbed sentiments return to her heart knowing she was taking up for her mate's dissolute nature once again for the thousandth time that century. This game of chances often seemed predetermined with the odds habitually stacked against her.

"Sybil." She spoke, "prepare a light supper from the leftovers this evening. The doctor should be tended to before his travels back to town."

"Yes, madame. Straight away." Sybil answered.

"Milady" Carla, the other servant present, spoke, "Shall I prepare a dish for the Master? He never appeared for his supper."

"No." Madame answered bluntly with a coldness to her tone, "No one disturbs Master Samuel until the morning."