This was a story that I started sometime around Christmas 2015. I had fully intended to work on it until it was finished, and then upload it for everybody to enjoy. However, depressing events in that January put pretty much everything on the back burner for me. I couldn't even work on this particular fic without wanting to burst into tears.
I started to rewrite what little that I'd written sometime over the summer, when I was starting to feel like I could think about everything without crying. However, at the time, I was starting to enter a really long period of mental constipation. (I'm certain that other writers on here know what that feels like all too well.) So I couldn't write more than a line or two before I would just come up blank.
Finally, a few days ago, I was looking for something to start working on before I went to bed, and my eye just landed on the folder for this. I opened it, certain that nothing would have changed since the last time that I'd opened the file. However, after catching up with what I'd already done, changing a few things here and there... suddenly! I was writing again!
I'm certain that this story turned out a lot different than it would have if I'd completed it sometime in January 2016. But that story was obviously not meant to be.
Regardless, I hope that you all enjoy this story!
Oh, and this story has not been proof-read, so if you spot any errors in this or the following chapters, please let me know so that I can fix them! Thanks in advance!
Sarah Williams could categorize her life in terms of Before and After. Her Before wasn't all that great, but she seemed like a princess in comparison to the After.
Of course, just because she spent most of her free time thinking about her Before, didn't mean that there weren't things that she tried desperately not to think about.
When her mother left. When her father remarried. When her baby brother was born.
Him.
Out of everything that she tried not to think about, He was the hardest to not think about. When she met Him, it was the start of the end. It set her onto the path that led her to the After.
She rested her elbow on the windowsill and looked out at the sky. It was an early day for her—she was lucky that she was able to get to enjoy the sunset. She sat in silence and watched as the sky shifted from blue to orange to purple, and finally, a rich, navy color.
The sight made her slightly homesick. She used to watch sunsets with Toby. It was a sweet yet simple memory from Before.
She wrapped her arms around her knees and continued to watch the sky as the stars came out, one by one. They were different than back home. She didn't know the names of the constellations, or if they even had constellations and stories about the stars here.
But she could pretend for two seconds that things were the same, that she'd go to sleep and wake up back home. That the entirety of the After was just some… fever-induced dream.
Sarah heaved a deep sigh and moved reluctantly away from the window. It was a peaceful moment, where she was allowed to breathe. However, in a few hours, the screaming would begin anew. Just like it had that morning, the morning before that, the morning before that… As it had ever since the start of the After.
She lay down on the narrow mat that served as her bed and pulled the threadbare blanket up to the chin. From her position, she could still see a thin strip of the sky.
Sarah remembered sleeping in until she couldn't sleep anymore. She hadn't been able to do that once since the After. She hadn't had a day off once.
But there was entirely too much work to do now. Her mistress was prone to screaming at Sarah for any sort of screw-up, and the screaming would be even worse if Sarah hadn't gotten up hours before she did in order to get everything ready for the day.
She yawned loudly as she walked down the narrow stairs to the kitchens. She scratched absently at her head under her headscarf. Her scalp was starting to itch something fierce—it was probably time for another bath.
However, they were a luxury that she couldn't afford. Only the rich could afford to do nothing but sit in a tub of water. Sarah was lucky if she was able to wash her clothes once a month.
That had been one of the hardest things that she'd had to get used to. She could deal with going to bed late and waking up early. She could live off of the scraps of what the family didn't want to eat. But to not bathe every day? To wear the same clothes for a month without washing them? It was too much for her, even after all of the time that she'd been there.
The kitchen was cold and dark when Sarah walked into it. The only source of light was a few embers in the fire from the night before.
"Wake up please," Sarah said as she passed by the goblin who was fast asleep on the kitchen island. Erna gave a loud snort as she awoke, and then rubbed her dripping nose off on her arm.
"Good morning, Sarah," the elderly goblin said. She was as blind as a bat and deaf as a post. Sarah didn't know exactly how old that Erna was, but she guessed that it was around a million years old. And here, that was no exaggeration. However, she was the best cook that Sarah had ever met. She was the only bit of sunshine in Sarah's abysmal After.
"Good morning, Erna," Sarah said as she piled fresh logs into the old, brick fireplace. "You do know that you have a perfectly good bed upstairs, right?"
"Eh, with my back and my knees and my hips and my toenails and my hips-"
"You said that already," Sarah said with a little laugh.
"It's not easy being old, Sarah," Erna said as she hopped down from the stool where she'd spent the night. She started to bustle around the kitchen to get breakfast ready. "You should count your blessings that you're human, and that you won't live to be as old as I am."
"I know," Sarah said with a sigh. She'd had the same conversation with Erna practically every day of her After.
Erna's memory wasn't as sharp as it once was. Sarah was just grateful that the old woman remembered her name now. For the first year or so, she'd called Sarah "Kristin", who had been the maid that was there before Sarah.
Sarah had just gotten the fire roaring, ready for Erna to cook with, when one of the bells on the bell panel rang. Both women looked over to see who was awake.
"Ah, Lady Lucia," Erna said as she adjusted the coke-bottle glasses on her long, hooked nose. "She's up awfully early, don't you think?"
"Yes, she is," Sarah agreed as she brushed past Erna on her way up to the servant's halls to get to Lady Lucia's quarters. "I'll go see what she wants. Probably a glass of water before she falls back asleep for another five hours or so." She rolled her eyes, grateful that Erna was on her side about their mistress's bratty, spoiled daughters.
Sarah knocked on the door to Lady Lucia's quarters before she opened it and walked in. Lucia was still in bed with a dour look on her face.
"Oh my gods, what took you so long?" Lucia asked. Her voice always seemed to be high pitched and whiny, even when she wasn't complaining about things. Sarah forced herself to keep from snapping at Lucia, and sunk into a curtsy.
"What can I do for you, Lady Lucia?" she asked calmly.
"I have important business to take care of in town today, so I need to get up," Lucia said. "Sasha, fetch my puce dress."
Sarah bit her cheek to prevent herself from saying something rude. Instead, she turned around and went into Lucia's large, walk-in closet. It was probably twice the size of Sarah's room up in the attics. It always ticked her off whenever she had to go into the closets, which was at minimum, three times a day, since the ladies could not dress themselves. The size always reminded her that they had so much, and yet, gave Sarah so little.
Sarah grabbed the first pink dress that she saw and carried it out for Lucia's inspect.
"Oh my gods, no! Are you blind? That's disgusting! I said that I wanted puce, not carnation!" Lucia flung the coves back and jumped out of bed. She roughly pushed Sarah aside as she went into the closet.
"Here," Lucia said as she tossed several dresses at Sarah. They all looked the same color as the dress that she'd originally pulled out. "Well? What are you waiting for, Sally? Hold the up so that I can properly see them!"
Sarah bit back yet another rude remark— all of the dresses in the closet were on proper display. How exactly did Lucia expect for Sarah to do a better job of displaying the dresses than the dress racks had?
But she somehow managed to hold all seven of the dresses up and Lucia had nothing to say about that. Lucia absently pulled on one dress, and then another before she pointed to a third.
"This one," she said. "Help me change."
Sarah moved to put the other dresses on the edge of Lucia's bed, and then she helped Lucia take off her nightgown. Before Sarah had started to work as a lady's maid, she'd always thought that the stories of women needing help getting dressed were just exaggerations.
Sure, she understood that a lot of those dresses had about a hundred tiny buttons up the back, and it was literally impossible to put on a corset by yourself. And yes, it was a status symbol to wear such things.
But the three women's inability to even so much as manage a single button on their own was completely outstanding. A button!
Sarah remembered when she was very little, her mom's oldest sister had made her a book that was full of little things: buttons to button, zippers to zip, pieces of string to braid. It was supposed to teach infant Sarah fine motor skills.
However, in the world of the rich, you could apparently pay somebody to literally button things for you. Since Sarah had started to work there, she'd found out a whole lot of things that people could do when they didn't have to worry about silly things like cooking or cleaning up after themselves.
Sarah absently thought about all of this as she helped Lucia into her dress, put her shoes on for her, and then did her hair.
"Tell the driver to bring the carriage around the back," Lucia said once Sarah was finished with her hair. "I don't want to wake mumsie or Antonia."
"Of course, milady," Sarah said. She gave a slight curtsy before she turned and left the room. Lucia followed after her, but turned to go down the main stairs rather than to slink through the servant's halls like some commoner.
The driver was the only other servant at the house, but he kept separate quarters, in a small room above the carriage house. Sarah ran up there now, since she knew that he'd still be asleep. Unlike herself and Erna, he only worked whenever the ladies wished to go somewhere.
"Ivar! Ivar, wake up!" Sarah said as she pounded on the door to his room. A moment later, the door cracked open and she came face-to-face with the young half-goblin.
"What do you want?" he grumbled.
"Lady Lucia is requesting that you bring the carriage around back so that she can go into town."
"It's the butt-crack of dawn. What the fuck is she doing awake?"
"The hell if I know," she said with a scowl as she turned to leave. She went back inside, only to find Erna stomping around and muttering angrily under her breath.
"What happened?" Sarah asked when she saw the cook.
"Lady Lucia rang for some tea, and since you were out fetching Ivar, I brought it up to her. She got upset and threw not only the best teapot at me, but also a cup to boot! What an ungrateful brat! If she doesn't want to look at goblins, then why does she continue to live in the Goblin Kingdom? Or keep goblins as staff?"
Sarah let out a frustrated sigh. She knew that the cost of both the teapot as well as the teacup would come out from Erna's next paycheck. Erna made little enough as it was, and she'd probably still be paying it off for a few months.
It had happened to Sarah a few times. Not like Sarah had much to buy, but Erna needed the money to help support her family.
"I'll deal with her," Sarah said after a beat of silence. She left the kitchen and went into the informal dining room. Although it hardly fit any prior definition of the word "informal", as it was overly stuff and ornate. Lucia was there with a cup of tea sitting in front of her.
"There you are, Sally," Lucia said. "That dreadful goblin woman that we keep on staff came up to try and give me some tea. I don't know why we keep her around. Is the carriage ready?"
"It will be ready shortly, milady," Sarah said as curtly as she could.
She saw where Lucia had thrown pot and cup; both had apparently hit the wall, and had created a horrible stain down the wallpaper. It was bad enough having to clean up Lucia's messes, but having to clean the wallpaper would take ages. Sarah mentally groaned before she walked across the room and started to pick up the larger pieces of porcelain.
The cup was beyond repair, but maybe Erna could do some magic and fix the teapot. Sarah piled the pieces into her apron, and put the pieces on the kitchen counter.
Ivar ducked his head in through the back door. "The carriage is ready," he said simply.
"I'll go tell Lucia," Sarah said. She spun around and stomped back upstairs.
After Sarah saw Lucia off, she went back inside to help Erna fix breakfast for Antonia and Lady Marit.
"There now, it's almost as good as new!" Erna said as she stood back from the teapot. With a little bit of magic, the elderly goblin had been able to cobble together the broken pieces into something that more or less resembled the original teapot. There were a few new cracks, but Sarah just wouldn't use that one anymore.
"It's a shame that the teacup was beyond repair," Sarah said as she arranged toast triangles and bacon ornately on a plate for Lady Marit.
"Yes, but what they don't know won't hurt them," Erna said with a wink. "And given the way that Lady Lucia snuck off, I highly doubt that she'll want to explain to her mother why she was up at such an hour in order to throw both cup and pot to begin with!"
"Ugh, those girls," Sarah said as one of the bells rang. "Their stupidity is going to be the end of the them some day."
"That's Lady Marit; you'd better go," Erna said as she adjusted her glasses again.
Sarah quickly put the plate and a steaming cup of tea onto the breakfast tray, picked it up, and practically ran from the room.
When she'd first started working at the house, she wouldn't have been able to do something like that. She hadn't exactly been clumsy Before, but she lacked the grace of being able to carry a tray of food and drink while running up several flights of stairs without spilling a single drop.
"Ah, Sadie, thank you," Marit said when Sarah came into her bedroom. "I'll have you lay out my purple and golden gown. I have a feeling that I'll be wanting to look my best today."
"Of course, milady," Sarah said as she put the tray carefully over Marit's lap. Once she'd set the tray down, she went to fetch the dress from Marit's closet. She bit back her rage as she did so, and laid the dress over the foot of Marit's overly large bed.
"Thank you. You are dismissed for the moment," Marit said with a wave of her hand. Sarah curtsied before she left the room.
She went directly into the informal dining room, where she'd set out a bucket of soapy water and some rags earlier. Then, she started to scrub at the tea-stained wall.
As she scrubbed, she started to reflect on the things that had brought her here. To the Underground. She was so lost in thought that she completely lost all track of time.
"Sarah!" Erna exclaimed as she burst into the room. "Lady Antonia is ringing for you! You'd better go, quickly! Give me that!" Erna marched over to Sarah and snatched the rag from her hands. "I'll see what my magic can do to hide that stain. At least, until Lady Antonia has finished her breakfast!"
"Thank you, Erna," Sarah said breathlessly as she ran over to the servant's halls so that she could go up to Antonia's quarters.
"Ugh, you are fucking worthless!" Antonia roared at Sarah. "I've been ringing for you for the past five minutes or so! Help me get dressed!" Antonia flung a dress at Sarah and then yanked off her dressing gown.
"Yes, of course, milady," Sarah said absently as she smoothed the dress out on the edge of Antonia's bed. Then, she went to go get a corset.
Antonia either wasn't very observant, or Erna's magic hid the tea-stained wall very well, because Antonia didn't even so much as glance over to where her younger sister had thrown to teapot and cup earlier. Sarah was willing to bet on the former, though.
After Antonia had gone into the library following her brunch, Sarah took the breakfast dishes down to the kitchen.
"Your magic is so wonderful, Erna," Sarah said as she stacked everything by the sink. "I wish that I could do magic."
"Eh, it's not always so great," Erna said. "Some people come to rely upon it so much that they forget how to do things for themselves. There's something nice about having a human as the new maid Sarah. I just put a conceal spell over the wall, though. It'll wear off eventually, so you'll have to go and finish cleaning it up. Go on, then! Shoo! I have luncheon to prepare."
Sarah gave a slight bob of her head before she dashed up the stairs and slipped into the informal dining room. It was two hours until noon, so she hoped to have the stain cleaned off before Antonia and Marit came in for luncheon.
After Sarah deemed the wall to be as good as she was going to be able to get it right now, she hurried off to clean up Antonia's, Lucia's, and Marit's rooms. She made the beds, put away all of the clean clothes, reshelved books, ran a rag over any surfaces that would collect dust, and gathered dirty clothes in a basket.
Although Marit lived in a huge manor house with ten bedrooms, Sarah only had to clean them out once a month, in case a guest dropped by unexpectedly for the night. However, that was very few and far between, and Sarah now knew the rooms to put the guests in. So unless she was hosting some big party, some rooms could do with only being cleaned out every other month instead.
Sarah went back downstairs with the basket of dirty laundry, and started to sort everything for the wash. Much to Sarah's surprise, there were some things that were very similar in the Underworld and Aboveworld. Although they used magic instead of electricity, they still had the concept of a washing machine.
Dirty clothes go in. Clean clothes come out.
Sarah still wasn't quite sure how the magic worked, but it made her job just a tiny bit easier, so she wouldn't question it.
Just as she'd started the white load, a bell rang. Erna and Sarah looked to the bell board in unison.
"Who'd ring the bell?" Erna asked with confusion as she saw that it was from the back door. Sarah and Erna were on friendly terms with all of the delivery people, and they knew to just come in. Possibly have a cup of tea and catch up on local gossip.
Sarah wiped her slightly damp hands off on a towel and went to answer the door.
"Hoggle!" she gasped with surprise when she saw who it was.
"Afternoon, Miss Sarah," he said as he pulled his hat off. "It's real good to see you."
"It's so good to see you, too!" Sarah exclaimed. She bent over and hugged her old friend tightly.
Hoggle had been instrumental in not only helping Sarah to get back to the Underworld, but also to help her find the maid job with Lady Marit. While it wasn't ideal, it sure beat some of the other jobs offered in the Goblin Kingdom, such as "trash digger" or "bog bottler".
However, Hoggle had been given the title of "Bog Prince" following the events that had transpired in the Kingdom nearly a decade earlier. They had thought that it was just a worthless, fluff title, but He worked Hoggle to the bone, often using him for fool's errands and such. So Sarah rarely saw him.
However, it was better than nothing. She only heard of what Ludo and Sir Didymus were doing thanks to the infrequent visits from Hoggle, and hadn't seen either of them once.
"What brings you by today? Do you have time for some tea?"
"Yes, but just a quick cup," Hoggle said as he followed Sarah into the kitchen. "I'm here on official business. I came by the back door so that I could see you. I know that Lady Marit works you to the bone, and she wouldn't want something so embarrassing on her or her family to come about. But this is for you."
He pulled an envelope out from his breast pocket and handed it to her. Erna's already comically over-sized eyes went even wider behind her glasses as Sarah took it.
The envelope itself reeked of wealth and having too much money to throw around. It wasn't addressed to anybody, but there was His green, wax seal holding the envelope closed. Sarah quickly broke it in order to pull out the enclosed letter.
The room was filled with eager anticipation as Hoggle and Erna watched as Sarah read the letter. "What's it say? What's it say! My poor, old heart can't take it!" Erna finally begged the woman.
"It's a ball," Sarah whispered quietly. Then, she repeated it, louder, for Erna to actually be able to hear. "His Majesty is holding a ball. It says that he's inviting all of the young women in the kingdom to attend."
"A ball! How romantic!" Erna gasped. She pressed her face between her hands and she beamed brightly. "Why, if only I was five millennia younger…" She started to hum to herself as she finished fixing Hoggle's tea.
"Why did you give this to me?" Sarah asked Hoggle. She kept her voice low, so that Erna couldn't hear.
"Like I said, I doubted that Lady Marit would let you go. It would be a huge embarrassment, to have one's personal maid show up to the Royal Ball."
"No, that's not what I meant," Sarah hissed. "This is a false hope! There's no way that I could go to something like this! I would be laughed out the door, because this is the only thing I have to wear!" She pulled on the skirt of her patch-work and dirty dress.
"I do have something else for you, but I'll have to come back later to give them to you," Hoggle said slowly. "Don't worry about it, though, Sarah. These things always have a way of working out."
"In fairytales, maybe. Not in reality. I'm a maid, in case you've forgotten."
Hoggle only just offered up an absent shrug before he threw back the last of his tea. "I should speak with Lady Marit and her unpleasant crotchfruit now."
"I'll announce you. Please wait in the study for them," Sarah said. Hoggle knew his way around the house well, and didn't need Sarah to guide him there.
Sarah went up and found both Marit and Antonia in the library. Antonia was trying desperately to plink out a tune on the harpsichord, but Sarah wished that she would give up any effort as music and put the poor harpsichord out of its misery. Marit was reading a novel and simultaneously trying to ignore Antonia's music yet encourage her at the same time.
"Lady Marit, the Bog Prince has come with a message from His Majesty," Sarah said to Marit quietly.
"WHAT?!" Antonia exclaimed as she immediately stopped playing. "Mama, how does my hair look? Do you think that I look skinny enough?"
"You look fine to greet the Bog Prince, darling," Marit said softly as she ran a hand over Antonia's hair. "He is, after all, both a dwarf-goblin hybrid, as well as the Bog Prince. He is nothing. Where is he, Sarina? Did you offer him any refreshments?"
"I showed him into the library and Erna said that she'd get tea for him right away, Lady Marit," Sarah said curtly.
"Very well, let's go, Antonia. Sarika, would you be a dear and fetch Lucia, too? I don't know where the silly thing has run off to today," Marit said as she ushered Antonia out from the room.
"I'm afraid Miss Lucia is not in," Sarah said quickly.
Marit stopped in her tracks and shot daggers at Sarah from over her shoulder. "What did you just say?"
"Miss Lucia left this morning, a little after dawn. She took the carriage. Said she had important business to attend to."
"And you didn't ask her why… No, never mind. The work of a Lady like my daughter would be well above your head, Saija. But honestly! That daughter of mine! What could possibly be more important than meeting with the Bog Prince on behalf of His Majesty?"
They set off again, which let Sarah breathe for a moment. Even if she had bothered to ask Lucia where she was going, she doubted that Lucia would have answered, let alone done so honestly.
"Whatever," Antonia said with a scoff. "It's not like we need her anyway. More for me." She hurried off to the study. Marit followed after her daughter without so much as a backwards glance at Sarah.
Sarah went around to the servant's entrance that opened up into the study, and listened at the door. Hoggle announced that there would be a ball, and that all eligible women were to attend.
"A ball!" Antonia gasped. "Mother, do you know what this means? It means that His Majesty must be looking for a bride!"
"Yes, of course, darling," Marit said quietly. "Thank you, Sir Hoggle. We are looking forward to this immensely." Sarah then saw Marit move to the bell pull on the wall through the crack in the door. She waited a moment before she went into the room to not give away that she'd been listening.
"Sir Hoggle is leaving now," Marit said dismissively. She was clearly glad that he was leaving, and didn't try to hide her disgust over him. Marit and Antonia swept from the room; Antonia would not stop talking about the ball and the kind of dress that she would have made.
"Pieces of work, aren't they?" Hoggle whispered once they were out of ear-shot.
"You have no idea," Sarah said sourly. She walked him to the front door.
"I look forward to seeing you at the ball, though," Hoggle said, his voice low.
"And I still don't have anything to wear," Sarah reminded him.
"Ah, but wait!" Hoggle exclaimed. His eyes went wide. "I do have something else for you! I completely forgot! But I don't have it with me; I'll have to come back."
"You don't have to give me anything else, Hoggle," Sarah said quickly. "Just seeing you is enough to make me happy."
"Regardless, I have it, and I will give it to you, Sarah. I'll be by later with it." He then left the house and started down the front steps. His carriage was waiting just beyond the gate, which was why Marit nor Antonia had noticed it.
Sarah closed the door and then turned to go back to her endless list of chores.