The Rose Master (2 page)

I scrubbed my hands with a wet cloth and shrugged at my untrimmed fingernails.

“Maybe she wants to congratulate you on surviving another year.” Elsie smiled at me. “How does it feel to be seventeen?”

“Well, when my fairy godmother appears and grants me all my heart’s desires, I’ll let you know.” I lifted my head and winked at Elsie. “Perhaps I’ll even meet a handsome stranger and fall in love. We’ll live happily ever after in a place where there is no silver to polish.”

Elsie barked out a laugh and shooed me off into the hall. As I stepped out, she turned to me again.

“Wait, what were you saying about the birds?”

“Oh, it was nothing. Forget it.”

I bounced down the hall and headed for her Ladyship’s rooms.

My footsteps thumped lightly on the wooden floors, their surface shining like water. I wondered what the Mistress could possibly want with me so early in the day. It couldn’t be a good thing, that was certain. I passed the overstuffed sitting room with its large chairs, their bulk swallowing the room like gigantic brown mushrooms. A hideous room, but one I knew very well. I’d dusted every arm on each porcelain figurine; I’d polished the silver decanters until I thought I would die from the nausea; and I’d rubbed at the dark wood for hours, making sure the surfaces became smooth mirrors under my hands. I could have described every object and its exact placement much better than her Ladyship, and yet, nothing in there belonged to me. It never would.

I grasped the stair’s banister without thought. Two steps later, I yanked my hand back.

“Damn it.” I cursed under my breath. I looked around, but there was no one nearby. I listened and heard the chattering voices of the cook and two scullery maids, their piping tones vibrating through the wood around me. Lifting the edge of my clean apron, I scrubbed the fingerprints off the banister. You would think after living under the weight of domestic service my whole life, I’d be able to keep my hands to myself. I peered at the wood and smiled. No evidence of my presence remained.

With a sigh, I clutched my hands together behind my back to keep them from further insubordination, and moved with sure steps up the winding staircase. At the top, I took a moment to catch my breath before knocking on Lady Caldwell’s door. It would not do to gasp out syllables in her presence; she might think it an impropriety. She seemed under the impression that if someone’s heartbeat clopped along at a quicker pace than her own sedentary one, her honor was called into question. Crazy old witch.

I gathered myself, checked my uniform for untucked hems or loose strings, and then knocked once, softly.

“Enter.” Her hoarse voice reached me through the coffin-like door. I rolled my eyes and opened it.

“Anne, it’s very kind of you to grace me with your presence. I only asked for you half an hour ago.”

I curtsied. “I beg your pardon, your Ladyship. I was delayed.”

“When I ask for something, it must be brought at once. You should know better, Anne.”

“Yes, your Ladyship.” I curtsied again, trying to keep from toppling over. I’d never been much good at curtsying.

A long moment of silence followed. Lady Caldwell fussed with her powders and creams, opening and closing jars that promised much more than they could ever grant. Her size always amazed me, no matter how many years I’d been coming in and out of her presence. She was a large woman, every aspect of her multiplied, from her chin to the creases in her elbows, all of them doubled, sometimes tripled. It didn’t help that her fashion sense hadn’t evolved along with her bulge.

My leg itched. How much longer did she want to hold me in suspense? I had the whole china cabinet to dust, along with a multitude of other pointless duties that just
had
to be performed every day. God forbid a pillow went without fluffing.

Finally, she put her creams down and inhaled. “You turned seventeen today.” It was not a question. Her Ladyship never deigned to ask questions.

“Yes, your Ladyship.”

“Good. Now, Anne, you have been in my household a long time, at least ten years, and in that time I have seen you grow into a capable youth, someone who has the makings of a competent housekeeper. As you well know, this house has many servants who are older and who have a better chance of reaching that position before you do.” She looked at me. “You also know how much I appreciated your mother’s company when she was my personal maid, and it’s because of her that I called you in here today. I feel I have a better opportunity for you.”

I kept silent and waited. This was certainly unusual.

After rummaging through her drawers, she pulled out a letter. “I’ve recently received a note from a distant relative, someone of whom I have little recollection, but who seems to remember me well enough to have sent me this by post. It appears his household, Rosewood Manor, is in need of a maid, someone who does not need to be trained in the managing of everyday tasks and who has potential to become a leader. I’ve been asked to recommend someone discreet, obedient, disciplined, and self-sufficient. The work would involve a bit more than what you are required in my service because it is a smaller staff, but for that same reason, you would have an almost sure place at the head of the household. I have sent word to your father at Exter House, and he has agreed with my decision. I have full confidence you are the appropriate person, having come from sturdy parents with impressive references. Your father’s employer calls him his ‘most attentive valet,’ a high compliment indeed, from someone who’s had as many as Lord Exter.”

The news she’d contacted my father shocked me more than her previous words. I hadn’t seen him in about a year, what with Lord Exter going off on one voyage after another, always dragging my only parent along.

Lady Caldwell’s voice brought me back to attention: “I have notified Rosewood Manor of your imminent arrival.”

Imminent arrival? “Pardon me, madam, but when will I be departing?”

“Why, in two day’s time. I thought I mentioned that. Now . . .”

Her voice faded, coming in and out, grazing me like a beam from a lighthouse. At first, all I could feel was panic. I’d been raised between the walls of this place—cold ones, to be sure, but the only ones I knew. A house I’d grown to like, if not love. But I now saw the silliness I’d lived under, thinking myself safe, not realizing I was expendable, a rug that could be rolled up and shipped somewhere else.

Her voice flooded in. “So make sure you are prepared to depart. It is a long journey. Plan to spend many uncomfortable hours on a coach.”

“A coach, your Ladyship?” I was stunned even further.

“Yes, it seems your new employer has eccentric ways of going about things, and transporting a new maid in a personal coach is just one of them. I expect, of course, for you to be on exemplary behavior. I will not have any relative of mine, however distant, suffering under my recommendation.”

“I would never dream of putting your Ladyship in that position.”

She cleared her throat. “Good. Now that this business is settled, you may go back to work.”

“Yes, your Ladyship.” I curtsied again and turned. I opened the door and stepped into the dark corridor, walking toward a corner in a more secluded part of the second story. I blinked back hot tears and clenched my fists, focusing my attention on the cuts my fingernails were molding into my palms.

It all seemed so sudden. In two days time, I’d be leaving—forever.

A wave of fear washed over and away from me, leaving me limp. Slowly, I got my breathing back to normal; after all, there was nothing I could do. My hands stopped shaking and, with a pair of newly dried eyes, I climbed down the staircase. My hands were gripped behind my back.

Two

Elsie yanked my arm toward her. “What do you mean you’ve been dismissed?” Her large blue eyes became even larger on her paling face.

I shrugged. “Her Ladyship no longer needs me in her household. She’s shipping me off to some relative’s home. Some place called Rosewood Manor.”

“She’s not really dismissing you, then. She’s lending you out for a while. I’m sure she’ll want you back.” Elsie’s voice sounded breathless and twittering from nerves. The cook, Mary, snorted behind us. I looked at her thick hands, the color and texture of rough leather, spilling chicken giblets onto the chopping board. I grimaced and thanked the Lord my days as a kitchen maid were long behind me.

“She might as well be kicking you off into the street, child. Rosewood is in the middle of nowhere, trees surrounding it on four sides, not a soul nearby. Not a pleasant place. Not when you’ve lived in the city all your life.”

“How do you know all that? Have you ever seen it?” I asked.

“Not me, but my husband had an acquaintance who worked there, back when old Lord Grey ruled the home. He used to complain about the silence, said it was worse than the cold. And it does get cold up there. I don’t know if Lord Grey still lives, but I’m sure he had children who still own the manor.”

“Lady Caldwell said they were relations.”

Mary smiled and poured chopped onions into a pan. “Wouldn’t surprise me. These lords and ladies are always tied to each other, what with marrying cousins off to one another and all that.”

“Ugh!” Elsie cried.

“Yes, it’s not nice to think of, but they wouldn’t want the bloodlines polluted with the likes of us, now would they?” She chuckled, a harsh sound. I turned to Elsie, who still had my arm clutched inside her moist palm. With a pang, I realized that I would be leaving her behind in a few days—the person I could very well call my sister; the only family I could truly think of as mine. I turned my head, trying to keep the rebellious tears from trickling out.

“The coach will be here in two days to take me to Rosewood.”

Elsie gasped and released my arm, surprising me with the force of her recoil. “That’s too soon.” She blinked and clutched at her neck, as if I’d reached out and wrapped my hands around its girth.

“There’s nothing to be done, my father has already agreed. I have to go.”

She shook her head, shock bright in her eyes, and ran out of the room. I sighed. She’d calm down on her own. It wasn’t for nothing I’d shared a room with her for ten years.

“Don’t you have things to do, Anne?” Mary said.

I blinked out of my thoughts and shook my hands in frustration. “Yes. Yes, of course I do.”

I headed to the blasted china cabinet in the dining room, with its cubbyholes that sustained whole populations of dust balls and its gleaming plates in perfect rows, like a grinning mouth. I had my cloth prepared—a soft flannel with a slightly moist side to pick up the grains of dust and dirt—gripped the first plate with both hands, and brought it down toward my body. The engraved, golden letter “C” seemed to mock me with its delicacy.

What is the matter with me today? It’s a plate, not a scheming oracle.

I began the tedious work, moving with the careful monotony of well-rehearsed steps, my mind unwinding as I brushed cup after cup, plate after plate. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, hadn’t I been complaining about Lady Caldwell’s manias just a half-hour ago? I would never have to straighten up her row of collectible porcelain again, the slippery figures tinkling even in my dreams.

It would be a change. I would miss Elsie, of course. How could I not? Even the thought of abandoning her threatened to set me crying, but . . .

But nothing, I told myself in stern tones. Nothing to be done about the whole thing. Besides, I’d never seen the countryside, and Rosewood Manor sounded like a peaceful place. As I lay a teacup back into its shelf, I smiled. It might not be so terrible.