Finding Him

5l Meeting The Master

Hadassah arched her back and swept her hand across her sweaty forehead, exhausted. She had been scrubbing the floors for nearly half an hour and had done very little to cover the ground she had hoped to cover. Certainly, the hall was bigger than she had initially suspected, she sighed, rising to her feet. A soft wince escaped her lips as pain shot through her muscles.

She especially hated scrubbing floors, she thought, her eyes scanning the wide hallway. But what choice did she have? After spending nearly a month in the estate without seeing nor being summoned by her new master, she was beginning to feel useless. Berta must have noticed too, because she began to put Hadassah to menial labor around the house. Of course, scrubbing floors could not be seen as menial, but Hadassah wasn't about to complain.

She turned around sharply at the sound of approaching footsteps. Pushing her limp, messy hair aside, she clasped her hands before her and waited patiently for the mysterious guest to appear.

“Dasa?” Berta tired form appeared through the hallway. Taking hold of Hadassah's hand, she began ushering her through the small hallway. “You must get ready. Apparently, Lord Talbot is expecting a guest for dinner and I cannot possibly do this myself and with Marcia ill...” She stopped before Hadassah's room and pushed the door wide open. “Change out of those clothes, you will help serve dinner.”

Hadassah nodded quickly to Berta's instructions and waited until Berta had turned from the door, before closing it.

She hadn't met with the masters of the house, except during her brief interview with the man whose name she didn't care to know. Everything in her hoped she wouldn't see him tonight at dinner. Still, everything in her knew she would and so much more than that, she knew she couldn't appear ugly and smelling of smoke.

Propelled by her determination to appear somewhat beautiful before the condescending master, she rummaged through her small pile of dresses and found a presentable yellow house dress.

Simple with white lace fringes, the dress seemed perfect for a valet who was now reduced to a maid. She slipped out of her dirty work clothes and into the clean dress, tugging at her hair until she had succeeded in pulling it into a neat bun behind her head.

Not wanting to be late, she turned to the door and made her way out. A loud crashing sound immediately followed her actions.

Stunned, her hand remained frozen on the doorknob for a few seconds. When she regained her composure, she closed the door and hurried towards the direction of the crash.

“Arrggh.” A loud groan filled her ears as she approached the large hall. She reached the source of the crash, eyes wide in horror at the sight of a grown man seated on the floor, drenched.

Her eyelids continued to grow as her eyes traveled the scene to find the bucket she had been using to scrub the floors only a few minutes ago, broken, dirty water from the bucket, soaking into the wooden floors and messing up the work she had spent so much time doing.

Mouth falling wide open, she turned her attention back to the man, her fingers curling in annoyance. She couldn't see his face for his wet hair had succeeded in covering it as he sat helplessly in the midst of the mess.

Swallowing a bitter sob, she made her way to where he sat and took hold of his arm. He shrugged her off, an annoyed mumble escaping his lips.

“What idiot leaves a cleaning bucket at the foot of the stairs?!” He asked pointedly.

Placing her hands on her hips, “You were the one clumsy enough to walk into a bucket of dirty water. Surely, you can take responsibility for your own clumsiness.” She hissed, taking hold of his wet arm once more and pulling him to his feet.