Time & Tide - Original Wattpad Version

Chapter Twenty-Two: In Which Jessie Tests Limits

Eventually Margaret had to go upstairs to dress, and I needed to get on with all the stuff that I was supposed to be doing as domestic support staff. Miss Brown had already cleaned up the kitchen, but I took the bar of soap and a bucket of hot water and scrubbed down the butcher's block and the counter tops and every surface I could reach, all the same. I wasn't sure how thoroughly anyone cleaned anything, but I couldn't imagine that the concept of sterilization was much advanced yet. It gave me lots of time to get my stupid grin under control, staring down at what I was cleaning.

Miss Brown came in just as I'd finished, looked bemusedly upon my work, and dumped a handful of paper-wrapped packages onto the still-damp counter. There was more tea, which she put away carefully in a tin, and haunch of some meat that I didn't recognize, probably pork, and potatoes and leafy tubers and carrots. Between us we washed and peeled and chopped everything and put it in a roasting pan with the haunch and some herbs, and shoved it into the oven for dinner. The elder Goodenoughs weren't expected back for lunch, so Miss Brown took Margaret her usual 'don't bug me I'm writing' meal: an apple and a roll stuffed with whatever leftovers there had been from the night before. Miss Brown and I had the same.

While she was taking that to Margaret, I found some sad looking pears in the back of the pantry and decided to make a pie. Miss Brown dutifully taught me how to make the crust, and at two o'clock, I used a little cart to wheel another tea tray and two slices of the still-steaming pie into the parlor, determined to be able to do it on my own and without using Miss Brown for my fetch-and-carry.

Margaret was still hunched over the desk, scribbling, and I poured out her tea the way she liked it and placed it gently, quietly beside her elbow. The clink of the saucer on the hard wood startled her enough to look up, and she smiled brightly, genuinely, when she saw the tea.

"Is it that time already?" she asked, stretching her arms above her head and shrugging her shoulders. I heard the tell-tale crack and winced. She must have had killer knots. It's not like her seat or desk were ergonomic.

After a quick glance around, to make sure we were alone, I bent down and pressed a quick kiss against her mouth. "Hello, welcome back," I whispered.

"Hello - I did no go anywhere."

"You fell into the page. I peeked in once and you were so absorbed, and all scrunched up. It was adorable."

"Hmf, how cruel. 'Adorable'. I am serious, consumed, transported by my prose. Not scrunched and adorable." Margaret whinged playfully.

"You should get a higher chair," I said. "It would be easier on your back."

"Hm," Margaret said, and sipped her tea. We both know it was a ridiculous suggestion; the Goodenoughs couldn't afford to just buy new furniture willy-nilly.

"Let me, then," I said, and went around behind her and gently placed my left hand on her left shoulder. At first she tensed; perhaps because she was worried someone would see us, or maybe because she'd never had anyone do this for her before. After a few seconds she forced her shoulders down away from her ears, exposing those cute little curls that were escaping at the nape of her neck.

God help me, I found them endearing.

I pushed in hard along her trapezoid with my thumb and Margaret let forth a groan so low and genuine that I actually giggled. I readjusted my grip and did it again and was rewarded with a sigh this time instead.

"Oh dear, Margaret," I said. "What have you been doing to yourself?"

"Hnf," she said, and I think it was the shortest sentence I'd ever heard her mutter.

Using the stiffness of my knuckles on my right hand to my advantage, I worked my way across her shoulder, down the side of the shoulder blade, across to the opposite side and up again, finishing with her neck.