This is a completely new idea! So don't judge too harshly, I'm sort of 'testing the water', as it were. Seeing if you lot gobble me up. ;P
Chapter 1
A large building like this cannot look after itself. The carpets need to be kept pristine, the vases need to be sparkling, and the windows need to appear transparent with cleanliness. I always remembered that.
I stand alone at the bottom of the driveway, looking up through the gates as I watch the front of the mansion glimmer contentedly in the lowering sunlight. That had once been a place, which I had worked at and admired so incredibly. On the outside, appearance wise, you would not believe the stories I could tell about this place, the things I found out. The black oval sign sat on the pillar beside me. The golden inscription glinting warmly at me, bearing the registered name of this building and its founder.
My name is Francessa Miller. I have worked here, at this boarding school for just over a year. I used to be amongst many different staff that are employed. I used to be one of the housemaids. Mrs. Chadwick, the housekeeper, employed us. Mrs. Chadwick was a large frame of a woman who had a dissimilar face that was slim and sharply angled. She had eyes that often narrowed wryly with an odd glint of inner knowledge, and they were more often than not directed at me for doing my job incorrectly. However, I must respect Mrs. Chadwick, she's the one that rules this team. Any wrongdoing and she would have had us out on our ear. Although I'm sure Professor Xavier has words in the job applications. But then again, Mrs. Chadwick and he were friends from England. Mrs. Chadwick's earlier generations worked in the Xavier's English manor many centuries ago and since the families have not parted.
I came across from Britain last year to work for Mrs. Chadwick. It was a job opportunity I couldn't miss. Working in a top New York boarding school? It was a dream come true! I had worked at an English boarding school in the south of Britain for a long while. However, the Headmistress there was very much the opposite of the good-natured Charles Xavier. She was called Mrs. Harris. She was a very strict and impassive woman. She would never go out of her way to help anyone. She would stalk those long dark corridors with her head held high and her nasally high voice screeching commands to the nearest fleeing student. To tell you the truth, I'm glad I left. After all, I didn't want to miss this!
So, I arrived at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters one golden blustery day in autumn last year. I passed through these very same gates, which I now hold my hands upon. The school was more than I expected. The sheer grandness was alarming. I swear I got lost a few times on my first week. No, make that month. Also, I was rather unsettled about my boss. Was he to be the male version of Mrs. Harris? Luckily, he was the opposite in almost everyway, and it was hard to not like Professor Xavier, the man who held a warm smile for all who came his way. I could see why his school was favoured so much in America. And all over the world, there are students there from a whole range of countries.
We weren't to talk to the teachers or students. Mrs. Chadwick said we were to respect them and only talk if spoken to. I found this a little harsh. But Mrs. Chadwick had learned from the best and I could not doubt her unknown reasons. She had an air of power about her that made her every word final. You wouldn't dare cross Mrs. Chadwick. She had the power to write your name in mud for future employees. And being sacked from such a fine school probably wouldn't look good on record. Therefore, I never objected to Mrs. Chadwick's wishes to keep the cleaning staff apart from the school staff.
There was one point when I couldn't help myself. My fellow housemaids, Madeline Bellmore and Anna Luan witnessed my late night revelations about one particular man there.
But before all that, there was one teacher who I admired above all others. It was such a shame that teacher and staff relations had to be kept to a minimum. Although I did break the rules a few times.. Times I doubt my friends would spill or my partner in sin would care to mention!
As I stand here in front of the notorious mansion, I can feel my lips spread to a rather sly smiles as I think back over some of the more lighthearted times here. No matter how strongly Mrs. Chadwick had liked to keep us under control, there was always an excuse to be cheerful and have fun with the with maids, or go down to the stables and tease Mr. Williams. I remember one time when Madeline and I got a bit too giddy on the alcohol (a leaving party) and had decided to go and frighten poor old Mr. Angland, the groundskeeper.
With a sigh I shake my head, gently scolding myself for having too much fun at Mr. Angland's wide-eyed state after we leapt down the manicured paths all too merrily.
Anyway, fun and frivolities aside, the rules Mrs. Chadwick had were plentiful. But the two that stick most in my mind were the aforementioned rule of not interacting with the teaching staff and that we were not to question the private lives of the teachers and students. But that was naturally assumed. It was not a housemaid's place to pry her nose into hersuperior's personal matters. So once more, things were not questioned, and nobody was any the wiser about whom we worked for. We just kept our eyes down, responded courteously and did our job. Authority was never deficient, we always knew our place and knew better than to speak out of turn.
However, it was just Madeline and I who first looked after the inside of the mansion. Julia had left a few weeks ago since she was pregnant with her first child. There had been a rather raucous party for her leave, Mrs. Chadwick warned us all very heavily, but I could see the smile sparkling in her eyes, even if it did not reach her sternly stretched lips. We knew eventually a new maid would come join our flock, and in turn she would learn the customs at Xavier's School, and just how strict a modern day housekeeper could be.
Anna arrived in time to witness the changes in our little world.
I had expected my life to change when I went there. I just never determined how, or by whom. But here, as I look back, I can confirm to you it was a bewildering time. Nobody likes deception, and nobody likes secrets. No matter how discreetly they are brushed under the carpet. In a true housemaid fashion, the grime and dust was uncovered in a spectacularly disastrous manner, and the consequences were duly painful to hear.
First person narrative is new to me; don't know how obvious that is. I don't write with it often, this is the first online first person narrative text I've done actually, so please keep that in mind. The first chapter is the only chapter that will be written in first person narrative, the rest with be in my traditional and more descriptive third person narrative.
This chapter is liable to change. I feel it can be better, if you have any suggestions I would appreciate your review immensely.