Charlie

Chapter two -

I seemed to be shaking in my bed, uncontrollably! Was I on a ship? Where was mother, father and jack?
Oh, right.

"Come on! Charlie! We're already ten minutes late! Get up!" That was Eliza, who had seemed to be the one shaking me.
At first, a blurry little face peered right at me, then transformed into Eliza.
"Get a move on!" She said, strictly. I realised that Eliza wasn't someone to mess with.

"Eliza!" A load voice coming up stairs yelled.
"Oh blow! That's nurse Whinterson! Get a move on now, Charlie, er, Charlotte. You don't want to be caught by her, one of the worst of the lot of servants, that one!
Come on, now, get dressed!" She hurried me.
"How are we late? You said we had an alarm clock!" I complained. "I forgot to mend that thing! Been brocken for months, that has!" She groaned.
Suddenly, footsteps approached my door.
"Eliza! Charlotte! Open this door this instant!" Nurse Whinterson shouted.
I grabbed my uniform, and climbed into it, quickly, pulling my hair up, into a decent bun.
Eliza rolled her eyes, drifted towards the door, and then opened it.
Nurse Whinterson didn't look very nasty, at all! She had bright blue eyes, and lovely silky brown hair, tied up in a perfect bob. "What on earth have you two been doing up here, so late! Mrs. Ahalou was complaining about the noise this morning. Now, if you could please get off to work. And there will not be any more fuss today, understand?" She said, quite crossly. "Yeah, miss, but we don't have any jobs this morning, so we don't really need to be off, anywhere." Eliza said. "Mmmm, no jobs for the new one, either?" She said eyeing me, in an uncomfortable way. "Nope, we've got the whole morning off, only happens once in two months, ya know. Quite rare for a new servant to land on this day." Eliza replied. "Give us your timetables!" Mrs. Whinterson suddenly yelled. I obediently handed mine to her. Maybe she wasn't quite the nicest, out of all the staff. She gritted her teeth, whilst scanning the page. "Not a particularly hard-working afternoon." She muttered.

After she had left the room, Eliza grabbed my timetable. "Oh! What! That's not fair! So, no work in the morning, and then you get to work with Cassie and Opal, on your first day! How lucky you are! Well, I suppose you want to meet the other servants?" I nodded, nervously. After meeting nurse Whinterson, I wasn't so sure. "You were asking about Tom last night, weren't ya? What d'ya think makes Butler Boy so special?  One of the most annoying servants we have here." Eliza groaned. I just shrugged. Was Butler Boy his nickname? "Tom's actually our real butlers' son. Our real butler, Mr.Alldale, has been sent home for a few months, his wife's having her 11th child." "11th child! How does Mrs.Alldale handle that many children, with her husband off to work all the time?" I asked. "When I first met Tom, he gave me his family's life story, every single day! I know it off by heart, now! So, one of Tom's sisters,Hetty, let's start with Hetty! Poor Hetty's had to go to a foundling hospital, foster mother, Peg, who died, many years ago, she had three foster brothers, and one foster sister. Eliza, was her name! Saul, Jem and Gidian were her foster brothers, Jem was Peg's real son. When each child turned five, they went off to the foundling hospital, Saul died there, and one day, Jem came and took Hetty away, but that was after she had found Gidian and Eliza. Before Hetty was reunited with Jem, she went off to the circus, and escaped, with a little girl, called Diamond, who had no family. She searched for her mother and father, but found them both dead. Except, they were her fake parents. Then somehow she found her real family, blah blah blah... And a lot of other stuff happened to Hetty... So, maybe I don't know the WHOLE story." Eliza blabbed.

We tiptoed out of my door, across to Ben and Jane's room, and woke them up.
Jane seemed quite a nice girl, very welcoming, but when we three went to wake Ben, she quite frankly pulled Ben out of bed. Jane had short, brown mousy hair, unlike Eliza's, which was slightly longer, but not as long as mine, and Eliza's was beautifully blonde.

Ben was a black-haired boy, with sweet freckles on his cheeks. When he saw me, he took a bow! We all the boys here like this! Even Tom had seemed polite! "Ah! Who is this fine lady, then?" He smiled.
Eliza rolled her eyes. "Ben, it's Charlotte. The new maid." She said. "Quite a posh name, Charlotte!" He looked at me with trickster eyes.
Eliza pulled me away sharply. "Don't listen to silly old Ben, he always does this. Flirt, we call him. Just ignore him." Eliza told me. She looked at me with sharp eyes. I began to think that Eliza fancied Ben. How strange! Drama taking place on my first day, with servants!
Ben winked at me, as Eliza pulled me out of the door, with Jane. "I shouldn't like to see Ben getting dressed!" Jane giggled, at the very thought!
I decided I liked Jane, actually. She seemed the nicest girl I had met here yet. I almost wished she had been the one to show me around the mansion.

"Well, Charlie, I do hope you get used to Whitethorn!" Jane smiled. "Whitethorn?" I asked. "Yes, that's the name of this place, unless you'd like to call it 'the big place that rich people live in, that I work, and live in.' But I suppose 'Whitethorn' is easier?" She joked.
Just then, Tom arrived at the top of the staircase, where we were all standing. "Girls, I've been sent up here to tell you to get a move on, do you realise how late you are?" Ben told us. "T'was Ben's fault, Tom, not ours. We must wait for each of us four to be ready until we start, otherwise it looks messy, servants getting up at different times. By orders of the mistress." Eliza said.
Tom rolled his eyes, then noticed I was there, and waved. Tom would make a great friend, if I saw him more often.
Ben finally scuttled out of his room, just as Tom waved to me. "Hmph!" He muttered.
I ran off with Eliza, as she lead me to Opal's room.  I had just realised that I did not have the morning off, I had the whole day with Cassie and Opal.
"Here we are, Charlie, if Opal asks you to do anything, then just go to the servant's kitchen, or somewhere..." She said, running off. I did not have time to explain to her that I did not know where half the rooms were here.
I nervously knocked on the door. "Come in, please." A voice answered.
The door on her room was a plain white colour, but the rooms itself was beautiful! Flowers and floral designs were painted onto the plain wallpaper, and each vase seemed to follow a storytelling pattern! I did not think that floral things were quite in fashion at the moment, but they ought to have been! The room was indescribable! There, on the pink and purple couch, sat Opal.

She had beautifully long silky hair, tied up in a neat plait, with spotless clothes on. And what beautiful clothes they were! A lovely long cream dress, and a cute petticoat!
Opal did wear glasses, which I must admit, looked brilliant on her!
She sat reading a large book, which I could make out the title to be 'Alice In Wonderland.'

"Hello?" She said, in a soothing voice, as she looked up from her book. "Please come hither, child, do not be scared." She said to me. She acted like a mother would! Even though she was 14, like me! I could understand why she thought I was a child, but that was not a great start.
"If you please, miss, I am not a child, I am  14, miss. My name is Charlotte." I said, as politely as I could. "Ah yes, the new girl! Well, you reckon you are no child, hmmm? Well, do you know what age counts as a teenager? That is 16." She smiled at me.
"Oh! Your face! You are so funny, Charlie! Of course I m not that posh! It looked like you thought I was an adult, or something! Well, I am far from that!" She giggled.

"You need not be so serious, Charlie! Let us act as friends!" She said to me. How did she know to call me Charlie? And wasn't being a servant only meant to mean serving people, and doing chores?
"Um, of course, miss..." I began. She giggled again.
A few minutes after, we were laughing, and chatting to each other, as if we had been friends for years! At ten o clock, I had to go to Opal's sister, Cassie, as I saw on my timetable, which I had put in my pocket.
"Sorry, Opal, I must go and serve Cassie now, it is on my timetable." I told her, disappointedly. "Oh dear! How time has flown! Well, I hope to see you sometime soon, Charlie, my friend!" She said. "We are friends?" I said hopefully. "Why, of course, Charlie, would acquaintances be laughing around with each other as we just were?" She asked. "No, I suppose not! But I am ever so glad that we are friends!" I said. "Yes, me too!" Opal giggled, as I left her room.
Just as I did, I remembered that I had no idea where to go.
"Oh, do come back in, Charlie! I was wondering how long it would take you to realise that you did not know where you were going!" Opal called out to me. I giggled, and walked back into her room.

"Go down the hallway, until you get to the third turning, then turn, and the 5th door on the right is Cassie's room." Opal said. "Thanks, Opie!" I say, following her instructions, as I stride happily down the hallway.

To be honest, when I first came here, I thought that it would be a terrible experience for me, but now, I have totally changed my mind!
Little did I know, that evil things were coming my way...