Chapter One – Help Wanted
Blair Waldorf-Bass dipped her gold nib pen gently into the ink well. She wrote neatly upon a piece of parchment:
Wanted:
In a Aristocrat's home, in the Village of Overstrand a good Housekeeper who understands writing, arithmetic, and communicating well. She must be a respectable trustworthy woman with very good personal character. For name and address, apply at office of this paper.
Blair just fired her other housekeeper for making a mistake with the finances, and no other servant of the household would do, so she sought out someone new.
She got up from her desk where she was picking up her deep blue floor length skirt revealing her square toed black leather slippers. Her servant approached, attempting to help her get up. Blair just waved her extremely small looking hand compared to the large ballooning sleeve of her gown to make the servant aware that she was able. "Fetch my mantelet as it is chilled out." Blair again waved her hand demandable for her servant to grab the cape.
She made her way down the staircase and to the doors, but not before her husband, Mr. Bass grabbed her by the shoulder. "Going someplace my dear, are you?"
Blair adverted her eyes to the floor due to the reprimanding tone of her husband's voice, "On my way out to print my advert, so I can find a new housekeeper."
"Ahh, I see…" His voice trailed off as he walked off to another room.
Blair knew why he was asking, he felt it necessary to know everything that Blair was doing, as if she were property. The truth was that she was his property, the marriage stemmed from arrangement and not that of love. She only meant money and children who would inherit the families' fortunes in the future, not much more. Not uncommon, her family a family of Aristocrats and his family also. He owned much land and had pride in making money atop of the inheritance, caring for this more than for Blair.
She hated how she was treated but knew that there was no other way to live if she wanted to live the comfortable life that she was used to.
Blair left promptly out the front door to the coach outside waiting, her Lady's Maid in tow.
Two months had passed and over two dozen letters had been received. She had withered the letters down to just two. And today the women would arrive for an evaluation by Blair and Charles, naturally, along with the Lady's Maid. Normally she would just pick whomever had the best references, but she did not want to make the same error that she had the last time.
The first woman arrived, her name Laura, curtsied as she met the heads of the household. She had great references but was unable to do the simple math that Blair had given her to figure out. Blair thought this out of the question and in turn asked her to leave immediately.
The next girl arrived, and Blair had originally picked her out of the others due to the connection that she had with her own family. This girl, named Serena was the daughter of her mother's housekeeper, and thought it interesting since Blair grew up with that servant, who she remembered to be pleasant. Serena completed all of the tasks and answered all of the questions that Blair had to ask, completely and with some amount of grace. She happened to be quite young to perform the duties of the Housekeeper, but Blair saw something about her that she really liked, be it her sunny and happy disposition or just her glowing complexion, Blair knew that Serena would be a perfect maid.
"Have there been previous households that you have worked for?" Blair questioned.
"Yes Mrs. Waldorf-Bass, down the street actually, for the Chanson household, but as you may know the lady of the house perished. So I seek new work." She looked at Blair when answering.
Blair nodded at the answer and looked her right back in the eye. She was not used to a servant looking at her like so. Usually servants did not make much eye contact at all, yet Blair liked the directness.
Blair motioned Serena to step outside the room. She, Charles and her Lady's Maid came to the agreement that they liked Serena. And Blair also had decided that she would make her Lady's Maid the Housekeeper and Serena her new Lady's Maid as Serena was too young to be the Housekeeper. The other servant agreed, as she would get a raise.
The other servant went to retrieve Serena who was standing outside of the room. Serena curtsied as she re-entered the room.
Blair spoke, "It has been decided that you should make a pleasant addition to this household. Although the advert in the paper requested a housekeeper, I will have you as my Lady's Maid."
Serena smiled as she was happy to have work and Blair seemed pleasant enough, and she was lucky to get the job in the house that she had.
Charles left the room to attend to whatever business he had as Blair gave orders the now Housekeeper. The Housekeeper now left to do her duties as Blair walked over to Serena. "I'll show you around the house."
Serena followed Blair as she made her way up the staircase. Blair turned into a room with a large bed with a canopy; the fabrics were some of the finest that she had ever seen. From the opposite wall of the bed was an enormous fireplace. "This is my bedroom as for Charles, though majorly of the time it is spent separate in our own rooms, unless he disputes." said Blair in a dull voice. Serena sensed some tension in Blair but did not question because that was not very professional.
Blair continued, "I like my fire made before dawn and right before I go to bed which is approximately 11 o'clock. And I usually read a book before bed so adequate lighting is necessary…" Blair continued on with the list of duties that she expected done. Serena tried to make a mental note of everything, although that seemed impossible with everything she was saying. Serena realized that the girl was much shorter than her and had gorgeous porcelain skin, as her voice faded as Serena caught interest in the young woman's beauty. She thought that they had to be about the same age.
"Do you happen to be keeping track?" Blair interrupted.
Serena snapped out of her trance, "Yes, Mrs. Waldorf-Bass."
"Please just address me as Blair, since you are the servant that is closest to me." Blair said.
"Yes, Blair." It felt weird saying Serena thought.
"I will show you where you will be staying." Blair said walking out of her room. They made their way to the cramped servants' quarters. "Here we are." Blair stated as she handed Serena a white apron and a white feathered hairpiece, which was rather nice. Serena had already brought her black dresses along with all her other underpinnings and such, in case she were hired. She was made aware that she had her own bed and dresser to store her things.
Blair felt a connection to Serena for some reason, but she could not place it. She thought that maybe they met when they were younger due to the circumstances of her mother being her mother's maid. She thought of Serena very quaint and was content with her being her new Lady's Maid. Blair just hoped that she did not have to deal with any problems with Serena because she did not want to have to chastise her. But she figured that there would not be much problem.
