A man sits at a typewriter and stares at the keys for a moment, lost in deep thought before he give a small smile. Hidden sadness creeps into his eyes and face as his memory loses it's fog. He has spend his career serving others and now in his retirement he has spent most of his later years conducting interviews with many people. From requesting audience with the Queen to the lowest of the poor in the East end. This wasn't his job to be a journalist but once he had explained his reasons for his questions most agreed to give him his answers.
This man is by his friends as Burr but throughout his career he was simply known by his surname, Bradford. In his lifetime he has served only one family as a butler and this was a unusual family of nobles to say the least. Ever since his services were taken by the family he noticed something off and even after leaving them he couldn't forget them. Now in his nineties and his former employer among the dead he has decided to write down a memoir about his time serving the family.
Bradford was one of the older servants this family had, he witnessed the exchange of two of his masters and saw the end of the family line. He had seen the family be torn apart in a accident that claimed lives and ruined them as well. But he also saw a new staff come in and be treated as family more than as just servants.
Now as he let his fingers rest on top of the keys he started to write about this family and it's history and how it's end came to bloodline :
The Espritmort's were a family of high class and grace that I myself had the honor of serving for more that fifty years of my career; that I have the pleasure of saying that it was a life well spend to serve them. I began to serve under Master Malcolm and Mistress Rosalie, a lovely young couple starting their lives together. They had a large staff of forty servants composed of butlers, maids, cooks and a few gardeners; I was one of these men and women.
Mistress Rosalie was a fragile and fine featured woman, she was quiet and kind towards us. She offend went on business trips with the Master and soon after my engagement into my role she started to show signs of pregnancy and a few weeks after the staff noticed she announced it to the family's friends and extended family a grande party held at the estate. To be honest the couple's future seemed bright on that night, we had no clue that anything of the sort would fallow in due time.
Master Malcolm was the owner and manager of many companies in London, all of them handed down to him from older generations of Espritmort men. The Esprit Clothing Company was a high fashion production for nobles and also made middle class articles, our uniforms were from their designs. Then there was The Esprit Toy's Industry that they manly owned, every child in London had a toy from them in their home, they catered to all the classes with they stock. Catalogs of their industries could be found in many homes across the British empires.
The two of them welcomed their first and only child into the world later that same year. A boy in which they loved greatly, when he was older he helped them with the toys that they produced, samples were brought home and if he liked it the first copy was given to him. The young Master was picky in his early years, there was only one toy that he ever seemed to like, a stuffed brown bear. The young master played with it every day until he was seven years old and he found that it was wearing thin and falling apart. His mother being the woman she was took the toy and placed it in a safe place, assuring him that his friend would stay around for a very long time and she would not let anyone throw him away.
The young Master made his parents very proud, he was well behaved and did well with his tutored lessons. But it was when the Master was ten years old and his parents went on a business trip together with him that he changed and he was no longer the boy that we knew.
It all started with a trip aboard a sailing vessel headed to France, they were only suppose to be gone for a month or so... They never returned to us. The police told us that they boarded the ship but they never left the ship, it sank in during the voyage. We draped the mansion's portraits of the family in black cloths and mourned out employers, waiting for someone to relive us of our duties. We readied three coffins and planted three grave markers, we had thought than another member of the family would come and claim the estate and either keep us in service or fire us and bring their own staff. But as the days, weeks and soon months blended together and time passed we found ourselves lost and most of us left.
I must have been the only one that crazy enough; because I stayed and took care of the house and gardens by myself. Feeding the horses and making sure that everything stayed in order, after all that was the right thing to do as a butler, take care of things while my Master's were away.
But it never passed me by that among the ship wreak survivors that my young Master August would be among them. But he was not so much as in good health and mind as I thought he would have been when he showed up at the estate more than six months since everyone thought him dead, even his childhood friend and betrothed, Madeline, believed him to be gone...
There was a knocking at the door of the mansion and Bradford hurried to answer it in record time.
"I fear that the Master of the estate is not home at the moment, may I be of service?" Bradford said on command as he opened the door and found a young boy standing on the landing in shambles. The butler's eyes widening as he realized who was standing before him, it was if a ghost had graced his presence in that moment.
"Master August, please come inside, my apologies." Bradford spat out quickly as he helped the young boy inside. He was frail and weakened from his journey. His clothing suggested he had been living on the streets of London for quite some time now, his body was coated in a thick grime that must have had time to build during his absence.
The Young Earl had been lost at sea and now he was standing on the mansion's front steps; I could barely believe my eyes when I saw him at first. I had half a mind to not believe him when I saw his state of being and shut the door on him... But to be honest there is something about the Espritmort's looks that no other kind of person could fake with no matter how much acting or cosmetics they put into themselves.
Master August had a rather unique color to his hair and eyes, this seemed to be a trait that both him and his father shared. After I spent more time in the mansion I noticed that it was a predominant trait that seemed to be pasted down many generations of Espritmort. His eyes were a wonderful shade or sky blue when he a small child and they then since faded to a washed out green with a rather odd grey coloring to them. His hair was as black as ashes from a hot fire. But it was the look his face had went I opened the door that made me know for sure that it was him, that trademark look of fear and determination he had always had this was enough for me to recognize him when he arrived.
I had quickly drawn him a bath and had him cleaned, while I did I notice that he had lost quite an amount of weight which made me worry. I dared not ask the last time he had eaten a proper meal for I feared the worst. He had barely enough strength to stand much longer after I brought him inside. I escorted him to his room while I went to prepare him a meal, I must note that upon my return I found him asleep and although it broke my heart to due so I woke him. Fearing that he may not wake again if I let him slumber without anything in his stomach. He thanked me and I watched as he ate, I must say that his broke my heart as well... He tried to remember his manors when it came to eating his meal I had made... But it seemed his hunger was stronger than I had thought.
With his food all but cleaned off of the china I had used to serve him, I took them away and suggested he rest for a spell before I woke him again in a few hours for dinner. He seemed to be in fearful bliss as he thanked me again and went back to sleep with a small peace of mind that things were as they had been before his absence.
I worked at making a meal that would hopefully fill him well in hopes of him restoring his strengths once more. It was at a six that I woke him and dressed him in a house coat before bringing him to the dinning room down the set of stairs and allowed him his dinner in peace. But just as I was about to leave him that he said his first full sentence to me, it surprised me to say the least at hearing him.
"Please send word that I have returned, I do not like the idea of other Nobles thinking of me as one of the dead." He said as Bradford turned back from the door to face him.
"As you wish, Sir. Do you request anything else?" He asked as the young Noble nodded.
"Yes, I would like for you to see about hiring on a new staff, I assume that you are the only one left in the mansion... Also I would like you to send for a doctor once morning comes to have a look at me, I'd like to make sure that I haven't gotten ill during my time living in such filth, then I would like learn more about the events happening in my absence." The young Earl said calmly as Bradford nodded.
"As you wish my Lord." Bradford said as he bowed and left the room for the moment.
I admit that his tone of voice shocked me quite a bit when it came to his level of calm and professionalism in which he had used. But looking back on it now I see that I should have expected as much from a man such of his class... But to this day it still makes me wonder how a boy who had gone through what he had could have been able to not be in a mess upon his return. Just the loss of one's parents would have brought any child to their knees but to have lost them the way he did and then having to live on the streets for the time he had... I have not a clue on how he managed to cope or survive on his own. I must just believe that he was a very strong willed boy to have endured such tragedy.