"Mrs. Hall?" I said walking in the kitchen where the cook stood talking to her.

"The uniform seems to fit you well," Mrs. Hall stepped around me to examine the fit of the uniform.

"I believe so," I did not argue the close fit though in truth my arms would be thankful in a looser uniform.

"Gertie this is Miss Alice Stewart, our new house maid," Mrs. Hall said to the cook she called Gertie.

"Another young little thing? I tell you these girls will not do for the master; if Becca hadn't passed away we needn't keep hiring these girls."

Gertie took one glance at me before letting on how disappointed she was with the choice but I took it as her mourning her close friend and took no offense at her first slight. Yet it alarmed me the fact there had been more than one maid who quit this job, what was so dreadful to make them quit? No, I forbade my mind to imagine bad things as I did not like to give into an active imagination for I did not own one.

A man probably around his early fifties walked in the kitchen talking leisurely to Mrs. Hall.

"Mrs. Hall the master asked me to tell you he is going to take his bath before the supper is brought up," the man said without acknowledging the new maid standing in the room; me.

"Thank you Mr. Eugene," Mrs. Hall nodded her head slightly and Mr. Eugene walked so slowly down the hall it looked as if he would never make it up the stairs with the heavy languor he went on about.

"Miss Stewart you can do the fireplace in the master's room while he bathes then come down to get his supper."

"Uh..." I paused giving Mrs. Hall time to get the orders right, if anyone was to serve the master directly it would be his valet, not a house maid, never a house maid.

"Look at her face, you should let me do the hiring next time, I know a tough one when I see one just like our Becca," Gertie complained.

"Things work differently around here Miss Stewart, which is what you will be called while working here. The master rather's things a certain way, so if you will follow along you will soon know everything there is to know about your position here, things here are not so cut and dry as in other households. Our master happens to be I guess, an individualist, and I have no doubt that you will do your best," Mrs. Hall explained as Gertie scoffed a laugh at me rolling her eyes.

"Yes Mrs. Hall," I saw the logs stacked near the back door and followed the orders by going up the stairs to find the master's room.

"Be quick child he will not want to see you in here when he gets back."

Mr. Eugene, the valet scolded me with his mouse like voice holding a robe for the master and I entered the bedroom after him containing my anxiety at his command to be efficient as if I were suddenly a child who knew nothing.

The bedroom was a poor sight to behold, it was dark, drowning in all sorts of things even throughout the floor, books on top of tables, sad scribbled papers hung on the walls, the bed unmade. Though it was the trail of a proper black outfit thrown on the floor that flustered me deeply, Mr. Eugene would not have possibly left the master's clothes in such a way would he? Or worse had the master undressed himself without anyone's help?

Yet I kneeled in front of the fireplace and placed the logs in to light it up high so the room would warm up quicker and cleared a spot on the master's desk for eating.

"Is this the supper Gertie?" I asked down in the kitchen after tapping on my uniform to look presentable once again.

"I don't see any other," she was offended by the way I asked as if I were expecting something else. But she did not know or probably cared I wanted to be certain as to leave no room for errors at least not on my first day not upon seeing how troubled Mr. Eugene looked when giving me directions.

"Right of course my apologies Gertie."

"He will choose the wine and Mr. Eugene will fetch it for him, do not go near him, not until he asks you to, he is not used to strangers and does not take well to young little things like yourself."

"Yes ma'am," I picked up the tray and walked back up to the room where I knocked before entering.

"Come in," Mr. Eugene said pouring the wine for the man who sat on the chair with its back to me, "your supper is here Mr. Howard."

"I do not like to be told the obvious Eugene; I have much a brain as you." Instead of a tired or weak voice I heard a stern voice with a hint of annoyance and clear as a bullet piercing glass come from behind the tall chair.

"Of course you do, forgive me master" Mr. Eugene closed the wine.

"Off with you Eugene, leave me be with this girl and the wine."

"Yes Mr. Howard," Mr. Eugene exited out of the door as I desperately looked at him to stay, it was not proper to be left alone like this, a housemaid and her master?

"What are you waiting for?"

The master demanded and in his presence my nerves were stirred with Mrs. Hall's warning; the master was not to be tangled with and I was unknowing of the man, or if I was to meet a man at all in the next moments.

"Forgive me master," I began to approach the table where he sat.

"You moved my books," he signaled with his hand for me to go closer, his fingers were long lean, pale and the only thing I saw as the chair hid the master from my sight.

"My apologies master," I walked with the tray in my hands and finally beheld his wet dark brown hair, hands on his mouth and blunt stare looking outside through a sliver of curtain that was opened.

The master of the house was much younger than I presumed, instead of a disabled man in his sixties I was met with a man who could be considered a reasonably aged bachelor ready for marriage though not at the beginning of his youthful days. From where I stood I could only get a glimpse of his profile still his ghastly color gave him the sturdiness of marble and possibly high cheekbones made his face one to stand out. The master's long wave like hair was wet and not brushed; his beard grown and fuzzy along his eyes colored purple underneath with a heavy dreariness carved on to them.

"I will not have my bedroom rearranged; things must stay as they are, if I want anything moved I will do it myself understood?" His reproof was made as if talking to a child which I partly was not long ago and it was hard to keep the tray steady.

"Yes master."

"The food then."

"Right master." I put the food down in front of where he sat covered by a long napkin on top of the sleeping garments he wore like some mad man without as much as a blink while I fixed it. And before I could know whether to wait around as or to step outside of his room he gave me instructions.

"I eat alone off with you too, go say your prayers or whatever it is you do before sleeping, if you can." The master talked as if he could not sleep himself and the entire time I was there not once did he turn his gaze away from outside or changed his posture and I barely got a glimpse of half of his face before turning my heels down the stairs. The deductions I had made of the master were completely off so could it be that he suffered from some unknown illness? I could not tell but there was something mad about the man and I was to find out soon why his behavior was so outrageously informal at home.

"What did he say?" Mr. Eugene asked as soon as I got back into the kitchen.

"That I should not move anything in his room sir."

"Did you move anything?"

"Yes to make space for dinner Mr. Eugene."

"Oh what is it with you young girls? Have you got no common sense?" He talked as if I weren't there. "Surely you all enjoy to be fired and so you will be by the end of the week just like that other frilly maid I shall tell Mrs. Hall to start searching."

"Please sir I really do not want to be fired," I begged him.

"Hmm you shall go back in twenty minutes to get the tray from his bedroom then you may do the dishes until they sparkle and only then go to sleep," Mr. Eugene ordered ready to leave to his room.

"Yes Mr. Eugene."

"Nothing less nothing more, exactly as I say it got it?"

"Yes Mr. Eugene," I nodded and got started on the dishes to forget the intensity of the master's character and the household's unruly standards.

The hum of a melody of my repertoire filled the silence as I scrubbed the dirty pots and thought of how easy and light the work was here compared to the other house which boasted a family of seven people. Surely this would make it easier to prove myself worthy of the job to Mr. Eugene and the master for the job seemed heaven sent though my employer felt like he might have come from another place altogether.

"Beethoven Symphony No.9 opus 125?" The master spoke shooting my hair up as I grasped at the pot for it not fall without looking back at him.

"My apologies master, I did not know you were there."

"I assumed as much," I heard him put the tray down.

"Forgive me for not getting your tray master I was going to after I was done here," it had not been ten minutes yet I knew that much.

"No matter I just thought everyone had retired to their rooms."

"They have, may I be of help sir?" I kept my back to him because he was probably in his sleeping garments.

"No I am not in need of any."

"As you wish master," I thought he'd gone so I turned to get the plate to wash when he asked.

"What is your name?"

"Uh... Miss Stewart," I responded as Mrs. Hall had asked while looking down at my feet to not see the master in his night gown and waited for a noise to signal his departure. Nothing was heard once I looked up he had vanished, had he been there at all I scratched my head picking up the plate, for the house in mourning struck me as haunted. First with the master's madness, then the maids who ran off from such an acceptable job; then with the dead maid Becca and the odd staff was it any wonder my spine trembled at the noises in the dark?

Everything was out of order in this old stuffy London town house, a master whom did not get dressed for dinner and ate alone, drank alone in his bedroom in the midst of books? Which man of property in all of England came down to deliver his own tray of food because his servants were allowed to go to sleep before he did? The master, or Mr. Howard as only his old staff was allowed to call him, let this behavior go on and showed no shame in any of his uncommon actions. As for me I had no curiosity to know what made such an uncommon man live this way, be this way, reckoning soon I'd run away too like the other maids.

**********************************************

No part, character, names, plot, setting, conflict or resolution, point of view, theme or symbolism of this story may be replicated.

Copyright: All Rights Reserved to A. Sena Gomes.