My Side: A Stray Kids Historical Fiction

Chapter 1

"Ma'am can you slow down please," Annette begged, practically tripping over her mistress' skirts as she hurried through the foyer and up the steep and winding flight of stairs, "your mother will absolutely throw a fit if she finds that you've messed up your new crinoline, you know it cost-"

"Annie, you must understand that not in all my born days have I been so anticipating this moment," the younger one practically jumped for joy, nearly sliding down the stairs if Annette hadn't thrown her entire body weight against the bustle of the skirts to offset the imbalance. Clara, sensing the anxieties of her assistant, moved a little carefully this time, but still with haste as she tread up the stairs and into her bedroom, barely letting Annette slip through the door before slamming it behind her.

"Miss Clara please, what's the word? Why are you so jazzed?"

"You said there was a letter for me, is there not?" She threw her golden hair over her shoulder after unpinning it, and gestured wildly for Annette to untie her from her corset and ungodly layers of skirts and petticoats.

"Yes, it's on the armoire," Annette moved to retrieve it for her, but Clara got there first, practically leaping across the room. Annette couldn't understand why her charge was so steamed-up by the letter, and became even more perplexed and concerned when she brought the letter up to her face, practically crushing it under her lips as she adorned the paper with what seemed like a million kisses. "Um," Annette began inching closer to the door, "shall I leave you?"

"Oh yes, but would you draw me a bath first? I want to be in the most prime of moods when I open it."

"Open what, if you don't mind my asking?" She shuffled over to the en suite bathroom and turned on the tap of the large clawfoot bathtub, periodically checking the warmth as the newly set-in pipes settled and groaned in the walls behind her.

"It's a letter from a very special someone," she could practically hear her giggling. They must be special, Annette thought to herself, pulling her hair away from her face, for you to act so insanely. She shook her head as she imagined what the girl's parents would have said if they witnessed their daughter's behavior. Nonetheless, it warmed her heart to see the younger girl so enamored; Annette smiled into her collar, living vicariously through Clara's romantic entrapments.

"Your bath is done, love," Annette walked into the room, "enjoy yourself, and you know where I am if you want to talk."

"Thank you Annie, I look forward to shooting the shit with you later," Clara winked, knowing her au pair hated when she used street language, and skipped into the water closet clutching the letter tight against her dress. Annette stayed behind and neatly pressed her mistress' newly bought--and newly wrinkled--skirts and smoothed her bedcovers, she could hear Clara giggling and whispering from the tub.

Once Annette got into her own room and was finally able to let down her hair and clean her face by the wash basin, Clara burst through the door violently, the doorframe shaking and hinges quaking. "I'm absolutely besotted and I've no idea what to do." She sat on the ground at the foot of the bench that Annette was sitting at, still holding the letter.

"Maybe, you could read the letter to me and I could help you sort through it all." Annette had ulterior motives, of course, she really wanted to know what was in that letter, but she also wanted to assist Clara in any manner that she could.

"I can't bear to read it aloud," Clara groaned and thrust the letter upwards into her caretaker's face, "you do it.". Annette plucked the letter from her hands and opened it.

"I can try but the handwriting is absolutely horrendous." Annette squinted at the words, already not the best with literacy, and cleared her throat and began to read aloud.