Charlie

Chapter one - Whitethorn.

There was a small table, and a set of chairs over in the far corner, and on the table, was a perfectly-polished set of chess pieces! They were set as if no-one had made a move yet, on a black and white chessboard, with gold line around the edge! Oh, how I loved chess! Back at home, Father had bought me and Jack a set, very old and scruffy, but we felt as if they were pure gold, those chess pieces!
We would sit and play it all day, if we could! Of course, not too long ago, Father lost his job, simply because his manager couldn't pay all his workmen, so we couldn't go to school anymore. We just about had enough to keep our house, and buy food, but our money had recently been running low, so I had to become a maid.

I gazed around at the pretty green plants and their amazing plant pots, and all the miniture side tables. There was some amazing little writing desks, too! I would've loved one of those, so I could maybe write a diary!
I could write quite over average for my age, I had been top student in most classes at my school! I hoped that this would help with the amount I was going to get paid!

Eliza suddenly pulled me out of the Drawing room. "The Master is coming! We'd better move on!" She whispered. She pulled me along to the next door, quickly giving an explanation of the drawing room.
"Basically, the Master, the Mistress, guests, and sometimes the top servants, and maybe on celebrations, they would bring the children too. Oh, the Mistress was the lady who let you in, by the way." She said. I giggled slightly, thinking she meant the butler boy! "What? What did I say?" She seemed a little confused. "Nothing." I muttered, annoyed with myself, as I couldn't keep giggling like this, people would get annoyed.

"This is the library." Eliza said, as we went through another door. The library was even more fascinating than the drawing room! There was shelves of thousands of books right up to the celing! There was also a soothing warm fireplace, and some amazing ornaments, mini statues, even! There was even a desk! It wasn't just a desk, though, there was a beautiful wooden chair, and how long that desk was, too! Piles of paper all over! There was a carpet too, a brilliant shade of light blue, with all sorts of curly patterns!the wallpaper was that same blue, and it was decorated with lovely birds on branches!

I stared around in awe, this was definitely my favourite room! "Now, this must be the best room!" I told Eliza. "Not quite yet, but this one is!" She said, as she led me to yet another room on the same floor!
"This is the dining room!" She said proudly. Most servants probably were not allowed to come here that often!
I could see why this was the finest room, with a huge fireplace, three times as big as the one in the library! There was an enormous table about sixteen meters long, at an estimate, with beautiful China plates set very specifically, and a huge amount of cutlery at each seat, I had only ever seen three, but each person had eight, here!

In the centre of the table, was a huge range of flowers, set neatly, wine glasses arranged in sizes all around it! There was also a tall candle at the end of each table, in such a posh candle plate! The chairs had gold dates engraved on them, too! There were some amazing landscapes in frames, too! I had always had a love for the river, which happened to be painted, too!
This room didn't have wallpaper, but it did have a lovely shade of green painted on the wall, with very interesting carvings!
Eliza took me to the next room, still on the same floor!
We went to the conservatory, which was like like a greenhouse! There was glass windows all around, and there must have been over thirty different types of plants in there!
My hobbies were mainly writing, reading, rowing boats, swimming, and walking through gardens, but also, I particularly loved art, mostly painting, and there was a lovely paint palette on a chair, with thirty-six coloures! There was many different furnitures, but we soon had to move on!
Then we went to this place called the games room!
Right in the middle of it, was a giant billards table! I hadn't learnt to play it, but I'd seen Father play it many times before!
Then, Eliza took me up a truly marvellous staircase! Gold, and red parts everywhere!
"The floor you've just been on, that was the ground floor, this is the first floor!" She said.
First, we entered the Governess's room. She was in there at the time, and I felt a little worried that she might get cross with me on my first day, but actually she seemed the opposite!
"Ah, hello, dearies! Good afternoon Eliza, and, oh! Who's this little one, then?" She greeted. I felt a little offended to be referred to as "the little one," I knew I was small, but I wasn't a terribly young child! "This is Charlotte, Mrs. Ahalou. She is Mrs. Otley's new maid, miss." Eliza said, realising that I seemed to shy.
Just then, Mrs. Ahalou turned more serious. "Oh, of course. I though she was a cousin that I was to take care of. Are you showing Charlotte around, then, Eliza?" The governess asked. "Yes, miss, and we must be on our way, sorry to disturb you, miss!" Eliza said, politely. "Not at all!" She replied, as we left.
We peeked through the crack of the door to one of the Master and Mistress's daughter's bedroom, her name was Cassie, and luckily, she was not there!