Chapter 4

Once they finally settled down they helped me out of the cocoon. I don't look at any of them and make my way to the bathroom. I quickly showered than had Aslan and Ayla shower. Pulling the maid uniform out of the closet and holding it up I cringe. A black and white classic maid outfit. A black dress that reaches my ankles and a white apron that covers the front, there was even a white maid cap to go with it. With Rosemary's help we got dressed quite quickly, despite never wearing something like this before.

"Ok, follow me." Rosemary says, when we finished getting dressed. She leads us out of the maid's courters and down a hallway, through three doors and then down another hallway to another door that finally leads to the kitchen. There are three cooks and a few maids inside, counters full of used dishes and flour.

"Here we are." Rosemary says. She leads us to a table that sits against the far wall. On the table there's a few pieces of toast a pan of oatmeal that's almost empty and an empty pitcher of what I guess was orange juice by the looks of the orange liquid at the bottom.

"Sorry first come first serve." Says one of the cooks.

I grab a two bowls and fill them with oatmeal for Ayla and Aslan and grab toast for myself. I had them sit at the empty end of the table. Rosemary makes herself a bowl of oatmeal and sits next to us. As we eat I decide to question Rosemary on my sister jobs.

"Rosemary, what exactly are my sisters going to be doing?" I ask

"Hmm let's see if they work in the kitchen they will most likely be cleaning up after the cooks, and if they work in the laundry room they be separating the clothes. Don't worry they won't be given work too tough since their young." She replies.

When we finished eating I say goodbye to my sisters and leave them in the hands of the kitchen staff. I follow Rosemary out of the kitchen and after walking for a while we end up at the entrance.

"Follow me," she says as she starts up the stairs going to the second floor. "You will be working on this floor with me and 5 others, you'll meet them later." As we walked Rosemary showed around the second floor and talked about how the servants do their work. The servants are split into working areas, you have the third floor, which is where the owners and a select few stay, meaning Rowans room is on the third floor, then you have the second floor which is where most of the guest stay, this being said I should quickly learn how to blend into the background so that I don't get killed by a guest, the first floor which has the entrance way, dining room and parlor is in another area, then finally you have the kitchen and laundry room. Most servants never work in a different area than the one that they've been assigned. I should keep that in mind since I could get into trouble for being in an area I'm not assigned.

After Rosemary showed me around the second floor she brought me to a small library, "This is where you will be working for the time being, all you have to do is dust off the shelves and make sure the floor and table are clean. I'll come and get you around noon for lunch, so try to be done by then." She says as she starts to walk away. Just before she leaves she turns around and adds, "also don't leave the room if you finish early just stay in here." And with that she walks out.

Shrugging my shoulders, I walk over to the first shelf and start to dust with the duster she gave me. After I finish dusting the shelves I move on to the table. On the table lays a stack of books, in the middle of the stack is a really old dark book. Pulling it out I notice that it's so old that its falling apart at the seam. The cover was red but now it's a dirty brown that looks like dried blood. The cover is so worn that the title's just about nonexistent all that I can make out is an S.

I go to open the book when the door suddenly opens, I jump causing the book in my hand to fall to the floor. I look up at the door and there he stands, black hair disheveled, a black shirt and black pants. 'He must really like black.'

"What are you doing here?" He asks in a cold voice.

"I was told to clean in here." I reply staring at him wondering why he's looking at me the way he is. As if I'm a puzzle with a piece missing, annoyed yet determined to complete it.

"Leave." He tells me, then he walks past me going to the book shelf farthest from me. I just stand there looking at him. After a while has passed I bend down to pick up the book I dropped and continue to clean ignoring him. Noticing that I ignore him and continued clean he asks, "Why are you still here? I told you leave."

"I was told that I can't leave the room until Rosemary comes and gets me at noon." I say continuing to clean.

"Your still hurt?" I look at him confused. He points to my foot, I didn't think my limp was that noticeable no one else said anything about it, not even my sisters.

"I'm fine just a little sore." I stare at him and he stares back. 'I wonder why he would pay enough attention to me to see that I'm hurt.' I wonder. He starts to open his mouth about to say something when the door opens and Rosemary walks in.

"Oh master Rowan, I didn't know you were in here." She says when she sees him standing in front of me.

'When did he get that close.' I realize were only a foot away each other. 'Odd I could swear he was in front of the book shelf against wall.'

"Harper, its noon." She tells me. I walk over to her, she says, "Excuse us than master Rowan." And we walk out shutting the door behind us.