The day of Matilda's party sent the house into a spin. Normal chores were heightened, and Miss Jenkins became ruthless when it came to scrutinising everything me and Esther did, though I was out of the way for most of it. The party was to take place in the evening and whilst Esther and Miss Jenkins prepared the food, I was asked to clean the house from top to bottom. It was a task that was easier said then done, but it meant I was out of the kitchen and away from Miss Jenkins who had started to seem eerily like the foreman. It seemed stress and the obsession with perfection could lead to the worst in people, though I believe the foreman was just a bad person.
Being asked to clean the house not only gave me the opportunity to escape the chaos of the kitchen, but it also allowed me to walk about the house with relative freedom. I was able to slip into rooms I had previously passed and see more of what they contained. Hours went by and I could be lost in amazement moving from one or to different rooms, cleaning and seeing what little things the Ealing's had to hide. I was in awe of what was hiding in the small spaces of the Ealing house, the things that had been brushed to the side and all but forgotten.
Having cleaned most rooms on the bottom floor, my last room to tackle was the library. It was filled with books that went from floor to ceiling, each one bound in leather and kept in a specific spot. There was a small, metal stepping stool tucked in the far corner of the room most likely used for grabbing the books closer to the ceiling then to those on the floor. The shelves were a dark wood that had gathered a large amount of dust, as had the tables and chairs that sat around the room. It looked as though no one had been in there for a very long time.
In front of a large at the back of the room sat two soft chairs with a small table in the middle. The table was stacked with an assortment of leather-bound books, a thin layer of dust coating the top one as well as the surrounding table. Pulling a cloth from my apron pocket, I started to dust anything I could reach and even went as far as to drag the small step from the corner of the room to dust the higher books on the shelves. There was not one book on the shelves that didn't have dust on it. The Ealing's appeared to have so many books in so many rooms that their actual library had been neglected. There were a lot of old books in that room and given half the opportunity, I would have sat and devoured each and every one of them.
Moving across the room with my cloth, the amount of dust in the air increased and I found my nose twitching with each book I wiped my cloth over. The more books I dusted, the more my nose twitched until I let out a sneeze that seemed to echo around the empty room.
"Bless you," Robert said, appearing in the doorway. He was all dressed for the party, wearing a black bow-tie and dinner jacket over a white shirt which was tucked into a pair of black trousers. His shoes appeared to reflect the light that came in through the window and his hair had been neatly parted and combed to the side.
"Thank you. There is so much dust in here, you might be able to draw a picture in it. How has no one been here for so long?" I asked.
"I don't know, I suppose everyone has been too busy. That and there are books dotted throughout the house, so you don't need to go too far to find one. I would give anything to spend a day in here reading the books that have been neglected, but I don't have the time, what with working at the office and all."
"It seems a shame, for these books to just lay here and gather dust like they're not wanted."
"I agree. I'll mention it to Father and see what he says, it would be nice to see this room put to some use again. Perhaps you could take some of the books to work on your reading skills. If Mother and Father agree to let you stay, you'll have Sunday afternoon's off and could use that time to brush up on your reading skills."
"I suppose, we shall have to wait and see what happens," I said, continuing to dust off the books without thinking too much about the end of my trial. The end of the two weeks was approaching faster than I thought they would, and I didn't want to think about it coming to an end when I felt I had done little to earn a permanent place with the family.
"Don't sell yourself short, Rosie. You'll be fine, the twins have grown to love you, especially Charlotte and the house has never been cleaner now that the chores are spread between three of you. Between you and me, you are certain to stay on."
"I'll believe it when it happens, for now, I need to finish dusting the books and then track down Charlotte. I promised I would do her hair for her tonight."
"That's actually why I'm here. Mother thought you might want these, seeing as you lost most of yours in the river."
From his pocket, Robert produced a package wrapped with string. He handed it to me and watched as I untied the string and removed the brown paper, revealing a small pile of hairpins that resembled the few I had left. I ran my fingers over the pins before quickly stuffing the package into the pocket of my apron, making sure there was no chance for them to fall out whilst I finished cleaning the room. There were still plenty of shelves to clean and with Robert having appeared out of nowhere, it felt as though it was going to take a long time.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll let you get to it, Mother wanted me to check in with Miss Jenkins, though I'm not sure I want to step into the lion's den."
With a small smile and wave in my direction, Robert turned and walked away, the sound of his shoes receding as he disappeared down to the kitchen. Sighing, I snatched up the cloth and continued to dust the room, moving from book to book and shelf to shelf until not a speck of dust was left on any of the books. Why I had been asked to clean the Library was a mystery to me seeing as it hadn't been used in so long and it seemed unlikely that the party would gravitate to a room full of books. Had I not been confined to the kitchen for the evening, I would gladly have spent that time going through the books and trying to decipher just what they were saying.
Knowing the prospect of spending the evening in the Library was across the sky as likely as Matilda allowing me to go to the party, I stuffed the cloth in my pocket and left the room, climbing the stairs to Charlotte's bedroom to get her ready for the evening ahead. The cloth and hairpins in my pocket slapped against my legs as I climbed the stairs two at a time, my legs starting to ache the further up the stairs I climbed. Reaching the landing, I crossed the hallway towards Charlotte's room, pausing just outside of one of the large windows that looked out onto the trees.
The sun was just starting to set beyond the horizon, turning the sky a pale pink as the sun slipped behind the trees. Clouds were dotted sporadically across the sky, each one a deep purple colour as it reflected the fading sun. Shadows of the trees lined the edge of the woods, with the river just catching the reflection of the sky. One of my favourite things to do at the factory was to stare out of the small gap in the dormitory and watch the sunset. We were usually able to catch the end of the sunset during the Summer months, but in Winter we always missed it. That sunset was our connection to the outside world, we knew other people would be looking up at the sunset the same as we were. It may have been insignificant to others, but to us, it was a sign that other people were out there.
Leaving the window and the sunset behind, I knocked lightly on Charlotte's door and let myself in, catching her dart from one side of the room to the other and throw herself onto the bed. I struggled to contain my laughter as Charlotte sat on the edge of the bed, acting as though she hadn't just run across the room. Whether she had just been doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing was none of my concern, I just had to get her dressed and looking presentable for the party.
"Are you ready to get dressed?" I asked, closing the door behind me.
"Yes! I can't wait," Charlotte said, jumping up and down on the bed. She was so full of energy I wondered if she was going to be up for most of the night.
"Alright, let's get you sorted." I grabbed the dress from the back of Charlotte's door and took it from the hanger whilst she clambered off the bed and stood in front of me.
"Did you see Robert? I thought he looked very handsome."
"I did see him, he came by whilst I was dusting the Library to give me some extra hairpins, specifically for you."
"Did you think he was handsome?" Charlotte asked whilst I pulled the dress over her head and helped to get her arms through the sleeves.
"I thought the suit, well, suited him."
I was so startled by Charlotte's question that I wasn't entirely sure what to say in response. Whether she meant it as a harmless question with no underlying motive I didn't know but being asked whether I thought my employer's son was handsome was a little unexpected. Had I been holding something, I'm more than certain I would have dropped it after being asked such a direct question from a five-year-old. I had never looked at Robert in any other way then my employer, but he did look nice in his suit, albeit a stark contrast to the clothing I had already seem him wear.
"Have you ever had a sweetheart?"
"I haven't no, why do you ask?"
"'Tilda's sweetheart is going to be at the party tonight. She keeps talking about making everything perfect for him. I think she's crazy."
"Maybe she just wants to impress him," I suggested.
"Having a sweetheart makes people crazy."
Shaking my head, I directed Charlotte over to a chair and asked her to sit down and remain still whilst I sorted her hair out for her. She sat as stiff as a board as I manipulated her hair into the same style I had practised on her the day before, using the pins Robert had given me to get it to stay exactly where I wanted it to. When she was finished, Charlotte jumped from the chair and ran to the mirror in the corner of the room to examine her reflection. Happy with the way she looked, she ran from the mirror to the other corner of the room where she fished something out and stuffed it into my hand. With a toothy grin, she turned and ran away.
I furrowed my eyebrows as she ran from the room, her footsteps disappearing down the stairs, and opened my hand. In the palm of my hand a lay a small, hand-made bracelet and a little piece of paper. The paper had two words scrawled on it in untidy-childlike handwriting - 'thank you'. Tucking the piece of paper in my pocket, I moved on to the bracelet, examining it in a little more detail. It was made from a piece of string and several mismatched beads of all different colours. There were pink, purple, red, orange and even a blue bead. The two ends had been tied together in a knot.
Not knowing what to do with it, I attempted to slip it onto my right wrist, surprised to find that it fit my wrist almost perfectly. It was a little big for my wrist, but I appreciated the effort Charlotte had gone to in order to make it, I just wish I knew why. There was nothing I had done that earned a thank you and a gift from her unless she included tying her hair up for the party as something that needed thanking. In my mind, it was part of my job, but it was nice to be appreciated for something that I had done by choice rather than for work.
Stuffing the bracelet in my pocket, I left Charlotte's room and returned to the kitchen where I dumped the cloth onto the side and stood leaning against it, watching Miss Jenkins and Esther finish up the cooking. The table in the centre of the room was piled high with different pies and treats, there was even an Almond cake, Matilda's favourite. It smelt like heaven, but I wasn't going to be allowed to have.
"All done?" Miss Jenkins asked, removing another pie from the oven and squeezing it amongst the other items.
"Yes, the entire first floor has been dusted and Charlotte is dressed and ready for the party," I said.
"Good. We need to take all of this up to the drawing room as the guests will be arriving soon. That plate over there is yours. Remember to stay down here for the evening, I don't want to imagine the chaos Matilda will cause if she sees you."
"I understand. You won't hear a peep from me, I promise."
"We'll see you later this evening. I've left some cookies in the pantry for you to snack on during the night.
"Alright. Now go! It looks it'll take you a while to set up."
"See you later on." Miss Jenkins grabbed a pie from the table and left the room, with Esther following.
Before long, the kitchen was devoid of all the food that had been weighing the table down and I was left on my own. Sighing, I grabbed the plate from the counter and sat down at the desk, tucking into the chicken pie and vegetables that Miss Jenkins had left for me. Since leaving the factory, I had eaten a mountain of things I had never had before or things I no longer remembered eating. I wanted to try everything I had missed, all the things that we weren't allowed to have. The party would have given me the perfect opportunity to taste some of the sweet treats we had been forbidden to eat.
As I sat at the table, I could hear the gentle sound of the piano start to drift down the stairs and into the kitchen, filling the space with Music. Occasionally, the sound of laughter would carry down and I started to wonder what was going on. What they were talking about, the foods they were eating, the clothes everyone was wearing. I had thought staying away from the party would be the best thing for me, to keep away from such a large group of new people, but the longer I listened to the laughter and the music, the more I wanted to go up there and see what was going on.
With the temptation of slipping quietly upstairs and poking my head around the door growing stronger, I decided I needed to distract myself. Grabbing my supper plate off the table, I washed it up in the sink and stored it the cupboard before grabbing a cloth and wiping down the sides. After spending the morning cooking, Miss Jenkins had created a lot of mess, with flour covering most of the surfaces, I set my challenge to clean all the countertops off. Whilst the music from the party gave me something to listen to in the silence, I scrubbed down all the counters until there was no sign of the chaos that had unfolded during the day.
When I was done, I stood back from the surfaces, the damp cloth in one hand, admiring my work. Music still drifted down from upstairs, but after spending a considerable amount of time cleaning of the sides, my desire to go against Matilda's wishes to join the party had faded considerably. Dropping the damp cloth on the side, I stepped away from the kitchen and into the pantry, grabbing the small plate of cookies from the side and returning it to the kitchen.
"I thought you'd slipped out the house or something," Robert said, scaring me so much, I almost dropped the plate of cookies on the floor.
"You're almost as bad as Charlotte the way you sneak up on people," I replied, placing the plate on the table. "What are you doing down here? I thought you would be enjoying the party."
"I needed some air, I thought I would come down here rather than go outside. No one would suspect someone escaping to the kitchen, at least I hope they don't."
"I suppose that makes sense, just don't sneak up on me again, or try not to."
"I'll try. In my defence, I didn't know you were in the pantry, so it wasn't intentional."
"So, how's the party?" I asked, taking a cookie from the plate and biting into it.
"Pretty dull, I must admit. Matilda has spent most of the night talking to a possible sweetheart and it's a little vomit inducing. The only good thing is the food, Miss Jenkins and Esther have really outdone themselves."
"Sounds like fun."
"Hm, that's why I'm down here. You seem to have gotten the best deal out of everyone by being told to stay here."
"Maybe."
I wasn't going to tell him that I wanted to climb those stairs and see what was going on. After being told what the party mainly entailed, the only thing I would want to do was try the food. Smelling it was one thing but tasting it would be something entirely different and I wanted nothing more than to get my hands on a piece on the almond cake. I had never had almond before. I had almost asked Robert to try and sneak me a piece, but even for him that may have been crossing a line. I just had to hope there was cake left over.
Whilst Robert and I stood in the kitchen, occasionally taking a cookie off the plate, the sounds from the party continued to break through the silence. The soft keys from the piano travelled down the stairs and washed over me just like it had when Robert played, but there was a difference. The music that came down felt forced, someone who was simply playing notes on the keys without the heat that Robert had when he was creating his own piece of music. There was a difference in how the two played, and I preferred Robert to whoever was playing upstairs.
After several minutes of nothing but the piano music, the sound from upstairs was broken. Heavy footsteps echoed down the stairs and crossed the small hallway outside when they came to a stop, Dr Ealing was standing like a statue, a rather concerned look on his face. I had never seen him in the basement before and with the look on his face, it certainly wasn't anything good.
"One of my friends, Mr Warrington, would like to meet you, Rosie. It seems Charlotte mentioned you to someone and he wants to say hello," he said.
"Why on earth would be want to meet Rosie? No offence, it's just that Mr Warrington isn't known for wanting to meet servants."
"I don't know. We should be quick, though, he doesn't like to be kept waiting."
Glancing at Robert, who simply shrugged his shoulders, I followed Dr Ealing up the stairs and out into the hallway. Rather than leading me to the drawing room or parlour, like I thought he would, he took myself and Robert through the hallway and out to the front of the house. Once again, I looked at Robert who was just as confused as I was, his eyes darting between his father, and who I assumed was Mr Warrington.
I had barely even made it over the threshold before my entire body was soaked through with cold water.
~~~
A/N - Back with another update! Obviously, we're a little earlier than usual but that's because of Christmas and New Year. For more information about the change in schedule, check out my message board where I posted the dates of future updates!
Anyways, we got another interaction between Rosie and Robert, my favourite couple (even if they aren't a couple) and Charlotte! What did you guys think of the ending? Who is dropping water on Rosie, and why?
Comment your thoughts!
Dedication This chapter is dedicated to AliceHausling who left some great comments on Chapter One and is still waiting for one of my comment spams xD
First Published - December 23rd, 2018