THE SERVANT AND THE ROSE

It all happened so long ago, I'm surprised that I still remember the events of that day. I'm twenty now, and it happened when I only thirteen. There was Mother, my sister, Grace, and I at home. We'd lost Father only the month before to the Demon Drink. We held a funeral for him, and even though Mother was very sad he'd died, she was quite glad in a way, because he would get drunk on the Demon Drink, and beat her up. Sometimes, he would beat Grace and I as well, if he thought we'd cheeked him.
Anyway, after Father died, we started living like poor people. We couldn't afford the nice little comforts we could when Father was alive, and had a nice job down the mines. And that is why, when I was only thirteen, I was forced to leave home to find work. Grace, being eight, was far to young to work, and Mother was pushing forty, nobody was interested in a woman who might keel over any minute.
After a week of looking, I became a servant to the Thomas household.
The Thomases were a very rich and aristocratic family, well known in our area. There were Mr and Mrs Thomas, and their three children; the twin, who were six, Perdy and Gertie, and an older son, who was twenty, he was called Edgar.
I was to become a nanny to the twin. I was to call them Miss Perdita and Miss Gertrude to their face. I was to wake them every morning at cock crow, and attend to their dressing, and also their breakfast. I was also to supervise their playing during the day, and then attend to bedtime as well. While the twins were sleeping I was to attend to the tidying up of their nursery.
As well as all this, I did other things. Their older brother, Edgar, who was twenty, was quite a handsome fellow, and whenever he was in eyesight, I would admire him. Once, it was such a beautiful day, that I took Miss Perdita and Miss Gertrude outside in the garden to play. Edgar was out there as well, picking all the weeds so the pretty flowers were able to grow through. I started to admire him from afar, and he turned around and saw me!
I blushed; my red face a great match for my red hair. I turned really quickly and pretended that I was attending to Miss Perdita and Miss Gertrude playing Catch. I stole a glance over, and was startled to see he was standing right beside me.
“Hello, Annie,” he said.
I blushed deep red again. What was a posh, but handsome, fellow doing talking to a lowly servant like me?
“H-Hello,” I stammered.
“I saw you,” he said.
“I-I don’t know what you mean,” I said.
“I saw you admiring me.”
I looked down at my feet, hardly daring to look at Edgar. I did this for a few minutes, then I plucked up the courage to look at him.
“I... I wasn’t checking you out. I came out here with your sisters, and I saw you, and I wondered what it was you were doing.”
“Oh, really? Well, I was snatching up all the weeds. They hide all the pretty flowers you see. Now, the garden is looking as radiant as ever.”
My heart thudded under my corset. Of course, I knew all this but I couldn’t let on.
Suddenly, I felt a hard thud on my shin. I turned. One of the twins had threw the hoop they were playing with too far and it had smacked me in the shin. They came running over.
“Oops, sorry Miss Annie!” One of them called out.
“That’s okay, Miss Perdita,” I called back.
“I’m Miss Gertrude,” she called back.
“Sorry,” although I really didn’t think it mattered. “Come on you two, it’s time for your tea.”
“Yippie!” Both twins cried. “Will we be getting scones with cream again?”
“We’ll see, have you been behaving yourselves?”
“Oh, yes, Miss Annie, we have, ever so much.”
“Well, then, scones with cream it is.”
I strode into the house, the sisters following me into the kitchen.
I set about, preparing their scones, and supervised them while they ate.
When the scones were completely demolished I ushered the twins upstairs to play in their nursery. The nursery is next door to the master bedroom where Mr and Mrs Thomas slept. As we passed the bedroom, I saw that Edgar was inside with his mother, and they were talking. I quickly pushed the sisters in the nursery, and then made out I was going back downstairs for a drink, and stood out in the corridor.
“But, Mother, I don’t even like her!” Edgar was saying.
“I’m not too keen on her family either, but they are the only other aristocratic family around here, so you either marry her or one of the servants.”
“I’d rather marry the twins’ nanny than Carrie Horse Face Wallace!”
“Edgar!” His Mother said, but there was a definite laugh in her voice.
My heart skipped a beat. It seemed like Edgar was being forced into a marriage he didn’t to happen and he’d rather marry me than this other woman. Carrie Wallace, whoever she was...
“Miss Annie?”
I hadn’t realised that Edgar and his mother had stepped outside, to where I was listening.
“It’s okay, Mrs Thomas. I was going back down to the kitchen because Miss Gertrude wanted a drink of water, but I suddenly felt dizzy.”
“Oh dear, perhaps you should go to bed if you’re feeling dizzy. I’ll go get Gertie’s drink. Edgar? Be a dear and help Miss Annie to bed.”
We watched Miss Thomas go downstairs, then Edgar wrapped his arm around my waist and hoisted me towards the bed in the twins’ nursery where I slept.
The twins came running over.
“What’s wrong, Edgar?”
“It’s okay, your poor nanny felt a bit dizzy, so I’m helping her to bed.”
“Will she die?”
“No, of course she won’t. She’s just dizzy, that’s all.”
Miss Thomas came back with a glass of water, which she gave to Miss Gertrude. Then she came over to my bed.
“How is she?” She inquired.
“I think she’s fine now,” said Edgar. “Listen Mother, about Carrie...”
“No, I don’t want to hear it Edgar. I know that the Wallaces are the most obnoxious, stuck up family around, but they’re also the only aristocratic family around. And Carrie’s the only Wallace daughter who isn’t married off...”
“No wonder, she’s such a horse face.”
“So you must marry her!”
“But Mother, even Miss Annie here is better looking...”
“Well, you certainly can’t her! I mean, Miss Annie’s a very nice girl and everything. But she’s just a servant. Think what it’ll do to our reputation!”
“Mother, I didn’t say I wanted to marry Miss Annie, I was just saying that she’s a damn sight better than Miss Carrie!”
“Edgar! Watch your tongue.”
I lay there listening to the line of words come streaming out of Edgar’s mouth. I did really feel dizzy then. I closed my eyes, and everything went black.

As I woke a bit later, everything came back into focus. Edgar was kneeling beside my bed. He saw that I’d woken up.
“Miss Annie! Miss Annie! Mother, Mother, come quick! I think she’s coming round!”
“Edgar?”
“It’s okay, Miss Annie, you just fainted that’s all.”
“I was feeling much better Edgar, and then I heard what you was telling your mother.”
“You heard all that. Look, it’s true, you maybe just the nanny to my sisters, but you are a good looking girl. Much better looking than Carrie Wallace.” He pulled a face.
“Who is she?”
“Carrie? Well, her family, the Wallaces are another aristocratic family around these parts, and because they’re the only one, I have to marry Carrie because she’s the only daughter who hasn’t married. I’d have preferred to marry Maria or Louisa, they’re so much better looking. And you know something else, if you wasn’t just a servant, Miss Annie, I would’ve married you like that,” he snapped his fingers.
I sat there, listening to Edgar, but not really taking it in. I was sure that in the time I’d fainted I was dreaming. A very nice dream, but a dream all the same...
“Miss Annie? Are you all right?”
“Edgar, I have a confession to make. Earlier in the garden, I wasn’t wondering what you was doing. I already knew. I was really admiring you.”
I dared look at Edgar. There was a twinkle in his eye.
“Ah, so I was right, you were admiring me! Oh, Annie, I love you too, but you’re just a servant, and I have to marry old Prune Face.”
Suddenly, Edgar reached in the breast pocket of his jacket. He pulled out something long slender with a red top. At second glance, I saw it was actually a rose. He laid it on the pillow beside me and planted a kiss on my forehead.
“Farewell, Miss Annie,” he said. “I won’t forget you. Keep the rose as a token of our forbidden love which never was!”

And I’ve kept that rose for seven years. Poor Edgar went ahead and married Miss Carrie Wallace, and I stayed nanny to Miss Gertrude and Miss Perdita until they reached thirteen, which was two months ago. The rose has long since died, but I still keep it under the pillow where I sleep, to remind me of the first love I should’ve had, but never did.
In a way, the rose being dead signifies the fact that any chance of a romance with Edgar has also long since died, but the fact that I keep it under my pillow signifies that my love for him has not.

The End by Charlene Samm