Mister Arlington

T w o

I turned to her and nodded my thanks, she smiled at me in return.

"I'll wake you if your still asleep and later tonight if you hear some loud noises it's just Mr Arlington."

I nodded.

"The bathroom is by the front door on the right, if you need it."

I nodded again.

"Well I'll leave you to yourself, I'll come back later to drop off some food." with that she left, closing my door.

I dropped down onto my bed, falling asleep almost straight away. The next time I opened my eyes was when Mary shook me awake and told me she left some sandwiches on my night stand, I only hummed seeing that I was half asleep, before I fell back into a deep darkness.

It wasn't until early the next morning I woke up. I ate the sandwiches Mary left me when I saw them on my nightstand before I walked to where Mary said the bathroom was and had a quick shower, drying myself down with a white towel that hung on a towel hanger, then dressed myself back into the white dress I wore before and walked to Mary's bedroom where she was just exiting from.

She smiled at me "I was just about to wake you up, good morning dear."

I gave her a quick curtsy to say good morning to her in reply.

"Well today we have much for you to learn."

I nodded.

"Follow me, we'll start in the kitchen. Do you know how to cook?"

I nodded again as we stopped in their modern but old school styled kitchen.

"Mister Arlington likes to change it up a bit every morning, that is unless he requests for the same food."

I watched as she pulled out a sauce pan "can you make some scrambled eggs, I'll cook some bacon."

I hummed and listened very carefully to where she explained everything was; from plates to cups and pots and pans as well as groceries such as bread, canned food, jams and more.

It wasn't long before I finished my job and began setting up the table for three, I had been absolutely surprised when Mary had said I would be joining the two for breakfast. It was something that I was definitely not accustomed to, seeing that I had always been told to eat alone in my room, although I had been taught table manners by my mother. Lessons which consisted of many slaps across the face to the point where I was bleeding from my nose.

The thought made me fiddle with my fingers. Being with other people at a table, eating, made me feel something deep in my stomach. Nervousness I believe it was.

Mary and I had just finished dishing out our breakfast when Mister Arlington strode into the room, as if he were on a tight schedule.

He sat down at the head of the table making Mary and I follow suit. He stared at me in curiosity as he ate his food, but I looked down at my plate of food avoiding his gaze. Instead I focused on playing with the egg that was on my toast.

"Angelica Whiting, correct." he finally spoke.

I nodded, but continued to keep my head down.

"I am Tobias Castriel Arlington." he introduced.

I gave him a deep bow of my head to show him he was my superior.

"You don't talk much do you."

I shook my head and continued to play with my food.

"Remeber Tobias, she's extremely quiet."

"Ah yes, that is one of the reasons I bought you. Although I do hate those auctions very much. Pft Gordon calls himself a gentlemen yet he sells women, how far from a gentleman could you get." Mister Arlington ranted.

"Tobias, please refrain from talking about such things at the dinner table." Mary scolded, as if a mother to a small child.

He rolled his eyes before setting his knife and fork down, looking at me accusingly.

"Are you going to eat your food or play with it all day." He spoke with a firm tone and a scowl on his face. His abrupt change in mood had shocked me, but I did a good job on concealing my shock.

My eyes darted to his hands, which were balled into fists and had a tight hold of the silverware. Mary's words popped into my head "Mister Arlington has a short temper but he really is a softy."

The soft part I have yet to see, although it has just been the first morning I have stayed here. But so early into my arrival and he is already getting mad.

To prevent him from getting any angrier, I began to cut into my toast, as a sign that I was going to eat my breakfast. It was silent from then on, with Mister Arlington sighing before returning back to eating his food.

When he was finished he announced that he had some errands to run in London and wouldn't be back until dinner time.

During dishes Mary told me that I could explore outside before she gave me a tour of the house. I gave her a curtsy as a sign of gratitude before I ran out of the house in bare feet. I ran out into the long grass that reached to my stomach, running till my legs gave out and I rolled to a stop.

My lips pulled at the corners which was a very rare occurrence. It was probably the fact that I felt almost free here in the tall grass. I laid there for several minutes just listening to the song of the wind travelling through the grass and the birds singing theirs.

I came back to Mary with a content smile on my face, which brought a smile to her own.

"Beautiful out there isn't it."

I nodded in agreement.

"Well follow me and I'll show you how things go around here, " she said walking into the lounge room which was connected with the dinning room, the only thing separating the two were the two wooden sliding doors.

"in the lounge room the fire place needs to be restocked with wood, the area needs to be vacuumed and dusted down, refill the vase with water, straighten anything that seems to be out of place and wipe down surfaces."

I listened attentively as we walked around the whole of the bottom floor, Mary listing everything that needed to be taken care of before we came to a halt at the bottom of the stair case that lead to the second floor.

"Never go up here unless told to. Tobias will have your head quite literally if he finds you up there snooping."

The threat did little to scare me but nevertheless, I would obey the rules.

I nodded in understanding.

"Great, I'll be upstairs cleaning the place. You can stay down here and begin."

I nodded once again and took off to my jobs once Mary was moving past me, towards the steps.

________________

So thoughts on Tobias???

What's the first impression
he's made for you?