Nine Steps to Sara (4 page)

Even though it felt weird to have a total stranger going through her things, Sara couldn’t bear to say so,
the girl
might start to cry.  “That’s fine, I know where it is.”  The floor was icy when she slid her feet out of the bed, and Sara couldn’t help but wince.

“I can get it for you…”

“No really, it’s fine… what’s your name?”

“Katie, Ma’am, I mean… my Lady,” her cheeks pinkened over the slip, and Sara hid a smile behind her hand.

“Ma’am is fine, or even Sara,” she assured her, keeping a blanket around her shoulders as she padded towards the bathroom.  “You take care of the fire and I’ll be back in a jiff.”  Please
d
to see there was a lock on the bathroom door, Sara took care of some pressing business before finding all of her clothes neatly put away in the adjoining dressing room.  Pulling on a fluffy, blue robe she’d gotten for Christmas with
Mom
embroidered on the lapel, she pulled on two pairs of thick
,
woolen socks and emerged feeling marginally warmer.  Katie had the fire crackling in the hearth, the flames already licking up the sides of the dry wood. 

“That’s better already,” she smiled, scooting the chair a little closer to the warmth.

“Oh, I can get that for you, my Lady…”

“Katie, I have a secret to tell you,” Sara held her hands up to stay her from moving the chair.  They had to get a few things straight between them, or she’d go nuts inside of a week.  “I’ve never had a maid before.”

“You haven’t?” Katie gasped, clearly scandalized.

“Nope,” Sara
shrugged;
glad to see she had her full attention.  “How much have you heard about me coming to live here?”

“Only that you’re the heir, or rather the young master is, and you’ve come from
America
to take ownership of
Darling
Park
.” 

Interesting perspective, and Sara couldn’t help but wonder if everyone considered Jack to be the real heir?  It didn’t matter one bit to her, she was glad to figure in there somewhere.  “That’s right, we’re from
America
,
and to be honest, I’ve done my share of cleaning rooms and fetching and carrying for people over the years.”  Maybe it was a mistake to admit such a thing to the help, but if the girl was going to spend any time in her company, they had to get on more even footing. 

“You have?”  Katie’s brows climbed skyward in disbelief, but Sara noticed her stance had become a little less stiff and severe. 

“Yep.  Up until a few weeks ago I was a waitress at the Pontiac Grill, working for little over minimum wage and tips.  So all the ‘my Lady’ stuff… it’s a little hard to get used to,” she admitted with a wrinkle of the nose.  “Maybe you could call me Sara?”

“Oh, but I couldn’t!” the girl’s bottom lip trembled.  “Mrs. Poole would have my hide if I did anything improper.  I’ve been given very strict guidelines as to what my duties should be,” she ticked them off on her fingers.  “See to your ladyship’s needs day or night, lay out your clothes and assist you with the dressing and your hair, make any repairs needed to your gowns or dainties, I’m to be the upstairs maid as well until we find a proper staff as time permits…”

“See that’s the thing,” Sara stopped her before she ran out of fingers.  “
I don’t really need a maid
; I’m used to doing all those things for myself
.
”
 

“
Does that mean I’ll be sacked then?
” Katie looked about ready to faint and Sara’s mouth snapped shut without saying what she’d intended. 

“
No, of course not
,” she assured her
. 
“
I… it’s fine.  I’m sure you’re a very good
lady’s
maid
,” Sara murmured, realizing it wasn’t all about her
; f
ar be it from her to deny the girl her livelihood because she was used to dressing herself. 
 

“Does that mean I can stay?”

“Of course.  And who knows, maybe in time we’ll become friends and it won’t feel so strange to call me Sara.”

“If you say so, my Lady,” Katie said carefully.  “I’ve hung out all your clothes.
After you’ve warmed yourself, I’ll draw you a bath if you like, or would you like me to bring you up a tray first?” she waited expectantly, and Sara shook her head gently.

“Thank you, but I’d rather take a quick shower before I eat.  Don’t worry about dressing me, I can manage that at least, but
ah,
if you’ve got some time, maybe you could iron out some of my clothes?  I’m sure they’re awfully wrinkled from the trip.”

Katie beamed at being given a task to do.  “I’ll see to it straight away
..
. Sara,” Katie tried experimentally, but she immediately looked around as if she expected to be struck by lightning. 

“See, nothing bad happened,” Sara winked, disappearing into the bathroom for some
much
needed privacy.  Katie was still puttering around the room, making the bed when Sara emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, dressed in jeans and a pretty, pink peasant blouse, dark hair plaited into a fat braid that hung down her back. 

“C
an you show me where
Jack’s
room is?
”  S
ara
hadn’t worried too much about him waking alone in a strange
place;
he’d been as excited as a boy of eight could be to learn they were traveling to the
land
of
Harry Potter
and Sherlock Holmes. 

“
I’ll have him brought down to you
,” Katie bobbed, preparing to leave, but Sara beat her to the door. 

“
That’s
okay;
I’d rather see where he is and
make sure he got settled in alright.”

“
You want to go abovestairs?
”

“
Um
,
ye
s
…
?”  Was there a reason why it was such an unusual request?  “I take it he’s not on the same floor as I am?”  She’d seen another staircase leading
up;
it seemed a good a time as any to check it out. 

“Yes, the nursery is on the next floor along with some
of the
servant’s quarters.”

“The nursery?” Sara chuckled.  “You’d better not call it that in front of Jack or we’ll have a riot on our hands.  The stairs are this way, right?”  Leading the way, she climbed the steep stairs to the third story which was a little gloomy in comparison with all the lights blazing on her level.  Katie followed along, darting frequent looks over her shoulder as if she expected to be caught doing something they weren’t supposed to do at any moment. 

“
Is there any
reason he has to be all the way up here?
” Sara asked as she turned down the second set of corridors.  “
I’d like him closer to me
.”  If the poor kid had a nightmare in the middle of the night, he’d get lost trying to find her. 

“
You’ll have to talk to Mrs. Poole about that, my Lady.
”

“
I definitely will.
”  Proper or not, it was her house now and her family; her wishes had to count for something.  Only Jack didn’t seem to have a problem with
the arrangements
at all.  When she stepped into the nursery, he barely looked up at her, busily digging through a stack of books.  “Hey kiddo, did you have a good sleep?”

“Yeah,” he murmured, intent on his task.

“What are you up to?”

“I’m sorting the books by genre and then author, and this pile are the baby ones I don’t care about,” he reported,
offering
a bright smile.  She should have known he’d be a sucker for the huge wall of books
;
even without the ‘baby’ ones
,
it far exceeded the books he’d had to leave behind in the move.   

“I’m glad to see you have a project, you’ve been spending way too much time goofing off lately,” she replied with mock severity; it had only been a week or so since she’d pulled him out of school. 

“Do you think I could look over the real library?  There is one, right?” he looked to Katie who
offered
her best impression of a marble column, staring straight ahead by the door.

“Katie?” Sara prompted, and the girl came to life.

“Yes, there is a large library and a smaller study, I believe.  They’re both chock full of books, though I couldn’t speak as to how appropriate they’d be for
Sir
Jack.”

“
I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Sara combed his hair into a better semblance of a part with her fingers.  “You’d be surprised by what
Sir
Jack can handle.  I’m sure there’s no problem with you checking out the library, but we should ask Mrs. Poole about it first, to make sure there aren’t any rare books that shouldn’t be disturbed.”

“Who’s Mrs. Poole?”

“The housekeeper, which you would have known if you hadn’t slept through the introductions last night,” she teased until he smiled back.  “Are you ready for our checklist?”

“Yep,” he nodded, leaving the books to give her his full attention.

“Teeth brushed?”

“Check.”

“Hair brushed?”

“Check.”

“Face washed?”

“Check.”

“Clean clothes?”

“Check.”

“Even your undies and socks?”

“Mom…” Jack gave her a pained look, darting a quick look to Katie who’d gone back to her statue impression.  Sara raised a single brow until he gave a long suffering sigh.  “Check.”

“What did you do with your dirty clothes?”

“I
left
th
em in a hamper thing in the bathroom.”

“
G
ood.  I see you haven’t made your bed though.”

“Aw Mom, do I really have to make my own bed?  I thought we were rich now,”
his
pained expression was back, the precursor to the sulk.

“I can attend to it now, my Lady,” Katie volunteered and after a moment’s hesitation, Sara gave her a short nod.  Maybe it was spoiling him not to have to do those basic chores, but then again, his life would be different now.  He might not ever have to learn how to cook or scrub a toilet or do laundry… it was still too much to take in. 

Seizing upon her surrender, Jack chattered on happily about the room which was easily four times as large as his room in the house they’d shared in LA.  Besides his bed, there were two other small beds on the same end of the room with a heavily grated fireplace between them, a high and lower set of table and chairs in the middle and a large play area on the opposite corner.  Along the far side were a series of built in shelves and cubbies packed with toys that Jack dubbed mostly lame, but overall he seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of staying there.