Heart of the Beholder

6

brIDGETTE WOKE UP EARLY TO make sure everything got done before heading off for Lord Thornwood’s estate. Her mother’s condition hadn’t changed since the day before, which was good, but Bridgette would give anything to see improvement. She laid a kiss on Clara’s forehead and patted Birdie on the shoulder before leaving the cottage just as the sun was beginning to peek over the trees. Bridgette yawned and stretched her limbs as she walked. The trek to and from the estate the day before had worn her out and made her muscles sore. But she knew her body would get used to it after making the trip daily for an extended period of time.

Just over three quarters of an hour later, Bridgette crested the last hill that let her look upon the meadow full of wildflowers. There was something magical about the stillness of nature in the morning light. It was definitely a view she could get used to seeing every day, complete with the steady flow of the stream. Bridgette walked the rest of the way to the manor and knocked on the door with the newly fixed and polished brass knocker. She didn’t have to wait long before Edgar opened the door for her.

“Miss Meadowbrooke, please come in,” the butler said with a bow. He wore a different colored cravat today, and in the morning light, Bridgette was able to make out the bluish-gray tones in his eyes. His thin, gray hair was neatly parted and combed. She smiled and stepped inside. “I thought we might start with a tour of the place, and as we go, I will let you know what will be expected of you. I have opened as many curtains as I can without upsetting the master, but we will have to close them as we go.”

Bridgette looked around with admiration. The entrance hall was large without feeling too spacious. Carefully laid tile made intricate designs on the floor. An unlit chandelier hung from a high vaulted ceiling. A wide wooden staircase ascended up to a platform where a large grandfather clock sat. Two more staircases led up to the second floor from the platform on the right, and on the left, with baluster railings. The entrance hall also had four closed doors, two on each side. The walls were white, and only one dusty painting of a vase with flowers adorned the wall.

“As I said yesterday, the manor has been empty for some time. I have uncovered most of the furniture and done a lot of dusting to make the rooms liveable. Putting up decor and other nonessential things have not been high on my list, but I do find them important, so I will have you work on that a little every day. As you know, the first door to your right is the sitting room,” Edgar said as he gestured toward the door. “Just a few sitting chairs and a settee right now. The second door leads to the dining room.”

Bridgette followed him through the door and was amazed at how long the table was. The house she lived in before the cottage had had a nice dining table, but it had only sat eight people. This one could easily fit sixteen. The tall candles that ran down the middle were lit. Cabinets with glass doors displayed beautifully painted dishes along one wall. “Though I have done my best to prepare this room, the master prefers to eat upstairs in his study. Through here, you will find the kitchen.”

Edgar led her through a swinging door into a neat kitchen. It was a large room with a long table that took up the middle of the space. On the far wall, a large metal stove sat next to a large sink with a water pump. Bridgette gasped, “You get water inside?”

Edgar beamed and said, “Yes, it seems to be one of the last additions to the house before the previous occupants… left. Now, over here on this wall are the calling bells.” Bridgette looked up at the bells attached to strings, each one labeled with the room it was associated with. “When the master needs something, he will ring a bell. He is impatient, and if his call isn’t responded to in a timely fashion, he gets angry, but for the majority of the time you will not have to worry about that. Your main job will be to clean and make sure everything is where it needs to be. I may have you do some cooking and other odd jobs as well, but I will be the one to help Lord Thornwood when I am here.”

“Will there be times you are not here?” Bridgette hadn’t thought she would ever be in the house alone with Lord Thornwood.

“That was one of the things I had wished to discuss with you. I expect you to be here every day starting at seven in the morning, except Sunday, of course. You will work for at least six hours daily, but I won’t keep you longer than eight. I am here most of the time. The only instances when I am not, are when I go into town to buy food, other needed supplies, and to learn of the current events. Lord Thornwood likes to be kept up to date,” he said with pride. “I have tried to minimize my trips into town to as few a month as possible because I hate leaving the master by himself. But with you here, I could make that trip once a week and not feel rushed to get back. On that day of the week, you will come later so that you can see to your personal affairs in the morning before coming to the manor, then working in the afternoon and evening while I make a trip to town. Does that schedule work for you?”

Birdie is going to have to learn to adapt to it, she thought. Any kind of change was hard for the woman. “I can make it work, Mr. Stillworth.”

“Edgar,” he corrected her.

“Edgar,” she repeated with a smile.

“Very good,” he said, straightening his waistcoat. “Now let's move on.” On the other side of the sink was an old brick fireplace with a built-in oven to cook things over the fire, and next to that was a narrow door. Edgar opened the door and gestured down dark stone steps. “This leads to the cellar beneath the manor, where we keep the produce cold. If you ever have to go down there, use this brick,” he said, pointing at a single brick on the ground, “to hold the door open because sometimes it can get stuck and is hard to open from the other side.”

“Understood," she said as she followed him through another door into a small hallway.

“If you look down the hall, that door at the end will take you out the back of the manor and into the garden. This door over here is to the servant quarters. This is where I stay, and if you ever choose to live at the manor, it will be here.” Edgar turned and walked down another hallway. “This is the servants’ hallway to the small ballroom.” He pushed open another swinging door into a large room with dull wood floors and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the back garden. “This will probably stay a very empty room while Lord Thornwood lives here.” Bridgette nodded, but her attention was caught by the dead bushes and dusty stone benches out the window.

“This door will put you back in the entrance hall, but this door over here will take you to the music room.” He opened the door, and Bridgette smiled at the large shape covered in white sheets. “I haven’t had time to uncover the piano or anything else in this room. Perhaps this will be one of your first tasks.” Edgar led her out another door and back into the entrance hall. She followed as he walked quickly to the stairs. “That covers the main floor. The second floor is mostly bedrooms.” Bridgette examined the beautiful grandfather clock as she followed Edgar up the staircase on the right. The clock was a bit dusty, and the pendulum didn’t swing. “Up these stairs you will find six bedrooms not being used by people, but some of them have been used as storage. Four bedrooms on the east side of the hall, two on the other. If the room has a wall along the front or the back of the manor, it has a private balcony. Here is one I have completely finished preparing, just in case the master has any visitors.”

Edgar opened the door, and Bridgette walked into the well-lit room. It had a large four-poster bed against the far wall. To her left was a cozy fireplace with two sitting chairs, and on the opposite wall were double doors to what she guessed must be a balcony on the front of the manor. The room was decorated in soft pink and deep mauve. Contradicting feelings swirled inside her. A small part of her felt peace and nostalgia. It was bigger than her childhood bedroom, but it gave her familiar feelings with the sheer curtains hanging from the bedposts and the ornate vanity and matching chair. She missed that room deeply. The other part of her was frustrated by the fact that her humble cottage would fit in this single bedroom with room to spare, and there was no one living in it. Her sore body yearned to try out the soft-looking mattress. A whole bed to herself. She took a deep breath and reined in her thoughts.

Everyone is dealt different cards, but we all have to work for what we have and what we keep, she told herself. Things will get better soon.

Edgar took her back to the hall and turned to her. He had a hesitant look on his face. “It is now time to take you to the master’s side of the house. I just have to forewarn you of a few things. He mostly keeps to himself in his bedroom, the study, or his spare room. The curtains are always shut, and there are never any candles lit. He is sometimes quick to anger, but unfortunately, I have not found any pattern in what tends to trigger him. It will be my main duty to serve Master Thornwood, so you need not worry. Except when I am gone, and in that case, you only have to converse with him when he rings the bell. But he is usually a man of few words, so you might not have to talk to him even then.”

Bridgette took a deep breath and nodded that she understood. She just couldn’t understand how such a sweet old man could find joy in such a dark house with an employer that could snap at any moment.

“You are permitted to enter the study when it is assigned to you to clean or when you are answering the master’s call. I will take care of his bedroom.” He turned on his heel and said, “Now, if you will follow me.”

“Wait,” Bridgette said with piqued interest. “What about the other room?”

He stopped and turned around with a convincing look of confusion. “What other room?”

“You said he was in his study, his bedroom, or his spare room,” Bridgette said with her own look of confusion.

“It doesn’t matter. Let's move on,” he said, going down one staircase and up the other. Bridgette shook her head and hurried behind him. “There is a way through one of the bedrooms to get to the west side of the manor, but I like to take the stairs. Keeps me young.”

Bridgette smiled to herself as she followed. He led her to the front of the manor and into a room twice as large as the bedroom; shelves stretched from floor to ceiling. She blinked as she took in the room and the startling amount of books. “I have never seen so many books in my life,” she said. She ran a hand along them as she walked past.

“If you think this is a lot, you should see the library in the Shadowmont Castle,” Edgar said lightly.

Bridgette looked at him with wide eyes. “You have been in the castle?”

His brows pulled together, and he opened his mouth, but no words came out. He cleared his throat and said, “Yes, Lord Thornwood has been invited to the castle many times. I have had the pleasure of accompanying him there.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Bridgette said as she continued along the shelf, not recognizing any of the titles. She stopped at the window and looked down at the front steps of the manor. This was the window she saw something move in yesterday. “The Master doesn’t come in here?”

“Not usually,” Edgar said. “Shall we continue on to the Master’s study?”

Bridgette turned and saw the butler standing beside a door she had overlooked when she entered. “You can access it from the hallway, as well as the library. It is also directly connected to the Master’s bedroom,” he said. Edgar lifted a fist to the door, and looked at Bridgette. She nodded, then he knocked.

Bridgette felt frozen to the floor. Her heart sped up, and her fingers twitched. The tour had been enjoyable and interesting, but now she felt like she should hide. If she was never in the same room as Lord Thornwood, he could never yell at her.

“Enter,” said a strong, deep voice.

Bridgette held her breath as Edgar opened the door. The window behind her spilled a patch of light onto the decorative floral rug. Edgar stepped into the study and said, “Master Thornwood, may I present the new maid, Miss Meadowbrooke.” The butler held out a hand, and with a jolt, Bridgette realized she was supposed to be in the room too. She quickly took her spot next to Edgar and curtsied low toward the darkness. She couldn’t see anything. “Miss Meadowbrooke, this is Lord Thornwood, your new employer.”

Bridgette rose from her curtsy and said, “Good day, my lord. I can’t express how grateful I am to work for you.”

“Pleasure,” the voice said from the darkest corner. Bridgette squinted and could barely make out a hooded figure sitting behind a desk. He didn’t say anything else.

“I will do my best to serve you, Master Thornwood,” Bridgette said with another curtsy.

He grunted.

“Can we get anything for you, my lord?” Edgar asked with indifference.

“Leave.”

“Right away, my lord.”

Edgar escorted Bridgette out of the study and out of the library. She couldn't help but look back as Edgar closed the library door. Questions started to overcrowd her mind.

“He just sits in the dark all day?” Bridgette couldn’t help but ask.

“For the majority of it, yes,” Edgar replied.

Her brows pinched together, and she asked, “What does he do while he sits in the dark?”

Edgar looked at her with his hands behind his back. “Do you want my honest opinion, Miss Meadowbrooke?”

“Yes, please,” she replied.

“He broods.”

Her brows shot up. “All day?”

Edgar started walking, and Bridgette followed behind. He sighed. “It seems the only activity he thinks he is good at.”

“How depressing.”

“Indeed,” he said and stopped. “This is the door to Lord Thornwood’s bedchamber.”

Bridgette took in the large door, then looked down the hall. “What does that door lead to?”

“Those are two more bedrooms, one of which has the door that connects to the east wing.”

“I meant that door,” she said, pointing at the last door on the Master’s side of the hall.

“A door you shall not enter,” he said as he looked at her with raised eyebrows.

It was almost as if he were taunting her. His mouth said one thing and his eyes said another. She could leave it be for now.

“So that finishes the tour?”

“Indeed,” Edgar said. “I will need to take a few measurements for your uniform, then I will have you start sorting through some paintings in one of the bedrooms.”

brIDGETTE SNEEZED FOR THE TENTH time since starting her first task. She stood up and swatted the dust particles away. She walked toward one of the windows. Fresh air would probably do her some good. She flipped the latch and pushed up on the window, but it didn’t budge. She tried again with a grunt and got nowhere. She didn’t want to break anything, so she moved to the balcony doors. The handle stuck for a minute, but after some jiggling, it swung open, and Bridgette welcomed the cool breeze into her lungs. She stepped out onto the small balcony and looked down over the abandoned garden. There was a section that looked like rows for a vegetable garden with nothing but weeds. The rest had potential for a flower garden, but currently contained shriveled bushes and several dusty benches. It had probably been breathtaking in its prime. She took one more deep breath, then went back inside. The breeze made the floating dust dance in the sunlight.

She propped the balcony doors open and got back to work. Edgar had told her to look for paintings in good condition that could brighten the manor up a bit. So far, she had only found faded paintings of fruit or flowers in muted colors with broken frames, or portraits of pudgy men with deep frowns. She picked up the next painting and smiled. It was a painting of the wildflower meadow and the manor. It perfectly captured the beauty of the purple, yellow, and white flowers next to the flowing stream. The waterwheel and manor were small at the top of the hill. The beautifully carved frame completed the art nicely. It had a signature at the bottom corner, but Bridgette couldn’t make out the letters.

“This one will definitely go on the wall,” she said out loud, and set the painting carefully on the bed, which was still covered in white sheets. She turned around and surveyed her progress. There was a large pile of art she’d already gone through and an even bigger pile still needing to be looked at. She sighed and rubbed at her aching neck. Something caught her attention. A white sheet covered what looked to be a very large frame that leaned against the wall. Bridgette carefully moved the paintings in front of it out of the way and pulled the sheet off. A cloud of dust sent her into a sneezing fit. When she finally got control of herself, she stared wide-eyed at what she’d uncovered. It was a full body portrait of a beautiful woman in a gorgeous, teal gown made of satin. She had dark hair and beautiful skin. Her lips were a deep burgundy, and her green eyes looked back at Bridgette with power and authority, but also kindness.

There was a quick knock at the door. “Hello, Miss Meadowbrooke. I am just checking in on your progress, and seeing if you would like a spot of lunch and some tea?”

“Do you know who this is?” Bridgette asked. Edgar entered the room and came to her side but said nothing. Bridgette looked at him and saw tears brimming in his eyes. “You know her.”

The butler took a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed his eyes. “She reminds me of someone I used to know, but no, I do not know who she is. She was probably one of the ladies who used to live here. Very beautiful, if I may say so.”

“Yes, very beautiful. Can we hang it up? I was thinking she would look perfect in the entrance hall above the clock,” Bridgette said, hopefully.

“I will have to ask Lord Thornwood,” he started.

“Would he even see it if he only comes out when everything is dark?” Bridgette protested.

Edgar gave a chuckle. “You have a point, Miss Meadowbrooke.”

“Please, if I am to call you Edgar, you must call me Bridgette,” she insisted.

Edgar smiled. “Very well, Miss Bridgette. We can hang up our beautiful lady in the entrance hall.” Bridgette beamed. “But if the Master is unhappy, I will not hesitate to put the blame on you, and tell him you threatened to tie me up if I didn’t hang the picture there.”

It was such an unexpected response that Bridgette let out a loud laugh that sounded like a mad goose. She clapped a hand over her mouth and blushed. Edgar pinched his lips together and looked like he was holding back a laugh of his own.

Bridgette wiped at her eyes and laughed some more. “You said something about lunch?”

“Yes, Miss Bridgette. I think we both could use a small break and something to eat.”