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Chapter Two – Music Player

The next few days went by in a blissful daze for Dawn. She had her own room in the attic. It was small and dark but it was her room. It was her space with her bed and her wardrobe. It was hers. Unfortunately the room next door was Ursula's which meant that the mean maid would often come into Dawn's room and drag her out of bed or throw water on her to wake her up.

Apart from having her own room, Dawn found that life in the house was a whole lot better than life in the orphanage. There was nice food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, hand made by Brock the cook. Dawn liked Brock. He was a kind man who just loved to cook. He would let people test his cooking before sending it to the family. He liked everything to be precise.

The cleaning jobs weren't so bad either. Ash, the stable boy, had shown Dawn the ropes in her first days. Ash had come from another orphanage in the city so Dawn felt a little familiar with him. They had a common talking point which was good for the first day or so. Ash taught Dawn how to clean the silverware and where to find all the cleaning supplies she needed. She was thankful at being tutored in such a way but soon found that Ash was a little tiresome after a while.

The two were often put together to do jobs when Ash wasn't needed in the stables. Ash would often talk when he was doing his chores, whether or not if Dawn was listening. Dawn was glad for the conversation sometimes but all Ash could talk about was how he would find his parents one day. Dawn couldn't agree with his enthusiasm.

On Dawn's third day she had unexpectedly bumped into the master's daughter, Sapphire-May. Sapphire-May, usually known by her first name only, was a spoilt little girl who was slightly porky due to the fact she loved to eat sweet things, mostly chocolate. Dawn was cleaning the young girl's fancy room when Miss Sapphire had come in and taken it upon herself to hit Dawn with a thin ruler every ten seconds or so. Dawn did well to control her temper but she wanted to yell at the girl so much it was unbelievable. By the time Dawn left the room she was shaking with anger and had to go stand outside for ten minutes to calm herself down.

One of Dawn's chores was to answer the master's bell. After the whole incident with Sapphire, Dawn had to take the master a cup of tea and a saucer of milk in the library. Dawn was surprised when she entered the library to find that it wasn't the master calling but the master's apprentice. The purple haired boy was reading a large leather bound book quietly. He was studying very hard with a collection of open books around him. Papers were thrown every where, even on the spot Dawn was stood. Dancing off the papers, Dawn looked into the bright green eyes of the Master's cat.

Now, the cat was by far the strangest creature Dawn had ever seen. It was a slim feline with neat ears and far too large eyes for its face. Its coat was silvery grey in colour apart from an odd fringe which was green and flicked to one side of the cat's face. The cat stared at Dawn as she looked at it before realising she had its milk on her tray and that she should put it down for him.

As Dawn walked into the library, towards a small stool where she could balance the tray while she put the saucer of milk onto the floor, she noticed Ursula dusting one of the big bookshelves. Ursula glared at Dawn but Dawn tried her best to ignore it. Dawn gently put the tray down on a large stool that sat in the centre of the room, trying to be as quiet as possible so that the apprentice wasn't disturbed. She placed the milk on the floor out of harms way and then put the tea cup on the table beside the apprentice's chair. He glanced up. For a split second his onyx eyes peered into her sapphire ones. Dawn gulped unconsciously as she felt a jolt rush through her entire body.

"Thank you," the apprentice muttered before he picked it up and took a sip. Dawn bobbed and left the library as fast as she could without seeming too rude. Her heart was racing. It felt like she had ran a marathon but she knew she hadn't. She composed herself and went downstairs.

Miss Delia was waiting for her in the kitchen. The head of the household seemed a little nervous about something.

"This is terrible," Miss Delia was telling Brock and Miss Joy, the scullery maid, "The master has company tonight and I have no idea how I'm going to prepare for it."

"What needs to be done?" Joy asked. Her voice was always remarkably calm and soothing. Joy was a very pretty lady with dark pink hair and blue eyes. She wore a grey dress with a white full length apron over the top of it. Dawn really liked Joy because of her kindness. When she spoke, Dawn couldn't help but smile.

"I need the silverware to be polished, the chandeliers to be cleaned, the dinning room to be blitzed and everything else that we usually do for guests," Miss Delia replied. She seemed to think for a few seconds until she turned to Joy. "I need everyone's help. Joy, get Ursula and start on the dinning room."

"Yes, Miss Delia," Joy said with a curtsey. The scullery maid rushed up the servant's stairs. Miss Delia turned to Dawn.

"Dawn, I need the parlour chandelier to be dusted," Miss Delia told her, "Get Ash and do that for me."

"Yes, ma'am," Dawn replied. She dashed off towards the stables to collect Ash and a ladder. Ash seemed to know what was what going on so he took charge. He brought the ladder into the parlour and propped it up ready for Dawn.

"Is that safe?" Dawn asked Ash as she shuffled into the parlour. Ash nodded quickly.

"If someone holds the ladders then it should be fine," Ash told her, "So hurry up, we haven't got all day."

"Aren't you going to do it?" Dawn asked, "I mean it is a little tall for me."

"It's OK," Ash told her, "I'll hold the ladders for you."

Dawn paused for a few seconds. She looked up at the large chandelier and then at the ladder. The ladder was made out of wood and looked quite old. She didn't trust it one bit.

"Fine," Dawn snapped, "If I fall and die, I shall blame you."

Armed with the duster, Dawn slowly began to climb the ladder so that she could clean the damned chandelier. She stood awkwardly on the ladder for a few seconds, getting her balance, until she began cleaning it. It was ever so dusty since it must have been cleaned only every so often. Dawn bet she was the only one stupid enough to climb up so high to clean it. Ash had definitely saw her coming, hadn't he? Only an idiot would risk breaking their neck to clean something like this.

"That's it," she heard him tell her.

"I know what I'm doing," Dawn mumbled under her breath.

The door creaked open but neither child seemed to notice. The grey coloured cat with a mop of green hair on its head walked unnoticed into the room. It looked around this way and that before walking up to Ash, curious as to what was going on. It looked up at Dawn and hissed. From this view, Ash could see Dawn's unmentionables. The cat, thinking it had a sense of duty to protect the poor girl from unknowingly flashing her delicates at the boy, stuck his claws into the boy's ankle.

Ash yelled loudly and jumped a mile. However the force of the jump knocked the ladders over. Dawn screamed as she fell off the ladder and landed oddly on her feet, twisting her ankle before she fell to the floor. She gasped as pain consumed her left ankle, rolling onto her bottom so she could clasp her hurting body part. Then she looked across at Ash who seemed to be wrestling the cat on the floor.

"Stupid cat," Ash snapped at the now hissing cat. Dawn couldn't help but sniff as tears began to pour down her cheeks. Slowly the cat and Ash turned to look at her, their eyes widening in horror as they saw her sat on the floor clutching her ankle in pain. Ash shot to his feet.

"I'll get help," he said quickly and ran out of the room, although Dawn was convinced that he was going to get someone. The cat trotted up to Dawn in an attempt to apologise, his head hung low and his ears to the side.

"Go away, cat," Dawn sniffed, "Go drink milk or something."

There were footsteps into the room. Dawn glanced up to see the purple haired apprentice walk into the room with a haughty smirk on his face.

"Drew," he said but then stopped as he saw the cat beside the crying Dawn. The smirk was gone instantly and the boy rushed forwards to see what was wrong. He glanced round the room: at the ladder, the chandelier, the cat and finally Dawn's ankle. It wasn't hard to work out what had happened here.

"Did you fall off?" he asked, walking briskly towards her. Dawn nodded. "That was stupid."

"I had someone holding it but the cat spooked him," Dawn explained, "And then the ladder tipped over."

"The cat, huh?" the boy asked, eying the cat wearily. The boy crouched down beside Dawn and checked her ankle. "It's just a sprain."

"No!" Dawn yelled, "It can't be! I started working here four days ago. If I get hurt they'll send me back!"

The boy looked bored at her exclamation. He put his hands gently on her ankle and closed his eyes. Dawn felt a strange tingling sensation in her ankle before the pain subsided completely. The boy stood up and beckoned for her to do the same. She slowly got to her feet and wobbled. Her foot had gone slightly numb.

"It will be numb for a few seconds," the boy told her, "But it's all better now."

"How did you do that?" Dawn asked in amazement as her ankle came back to life.

"Magic," the boy said. There was a hissing sound. Suddenly the cat was floating in mid air by the boy's side. "Thanks for finding the cat for me. He needs to help me with some work."

The cat stared at Dawn as if it was calling out for her to help him. Dawn just giggled nervously.

"Oh, Master Paul," Miss Delia said as she hurried into the room, "I heard Dawn had fell."

"She's fine," the boy, Paul, said, "The cat's fault."

"Thank you," Dawn said with a quick bob. Paul glanced at her before he walked out of the room, the cat floating behind him. Dawn looked at Miss Delia.

"Are you OK?" Miss Delia asked, "Ash said you'd fallen from the ladder."

"I'm fine, Miss Delia," Dawn replied, "Where's Ash?"

"In the kitchen," Miss Delia said with a bitter tone in her voice, "Brock is giving him a beating for making you climb that ladder. Getting a girl to climb a ladder? Never. A lady should never show off her under things. Be warned next time, Dawn. Never trust Ash."

"Yes, Miss," Dawn promised with a nod.

The two walked into the kitchen where Ash was sat awkwardly on a chair with a red face. Dawn bit her lip as she saw him. Brock was back at the stove, stirring something in a large black pot.

"Are you hurt at all, dear?" Miss Delia asked Dawn. Dawn glanced at her ankle but shook her head.

"I'm fine, Miss," she replied, "But, Miss, I have a question."

"What is it, Dawn?" Miss Delia asked as she walked over to the stove to check on Brock's cooking.

"Well, my ankle really hurt when I fell off the ladder but the master's apprentice came and helped me and it doesn't hurt anymore," Dawn said, "And when I asked him he said it was magic."

"Oh heavens," Miss Delia exclaimed. Brock turned round, chuckling loudly at Miss Delia.

"I suppose you didn't tell her," Brock said calmly. Miss Delia shook her head.

"Tell me what?" Dawn asked. She didn't like being left out of the loop even if she was new here. She wanted to be included in whatever it was the two servants were talking about.

"Mr Stone is the King's Head Sorcerer," Miss Delia explained rather quickly. Dawn blinked a few times, not quite understanding this totally. She glanced at Brock to see if it was a joke of some kind. His expression told her instantly that this was no joke. He nodded in a supporting sort of way which made Dawn look back at Miss Delia. "He does a lot of work for his Majesty, including making spells for the weather and other things to help with the ruling of a country."

"So Mr Stone knows how to do magic?" Dawn asked. Miss Delia nodded. Dawn paused for a minute to digest this bit of information. Finally Dawn nodded and smiled. "That's amazing, Miss Delia. Is the house magical too?"

"Oh, heavens no," Miss Delia cried, "If it were magic then we'd have no jobs would we?"

"No, miss," Dawn said.

"Right, then," Miss Delia said, changing the subject quickly, "I need you to go polish the parlour tables. OK, Dawn?"

"Yes, miss," Dawn replied with a bob. She rushed over to the cupboard to get the polish and the rag they used to clean with. Dawn turned and calmly walked out of the kitchen, not wanting to run into the apprentice or the lady of the house by accident. Miss Delia smiled after Dawn.

"She's such a sweet girl," Brock said to Miss Delia, "Too sweet to live the life of a kitchen girl."

"Yes," Miss Delia agreed with a sigh.

"Master Paul healed her ankle?" Brock said to himself, "That is strange. Usually Master Paul ignores any and all servants."

"I know," Miss Delia said, "But he's not so cold hearted to let someone be in pain if he sees them."

"I suppose not," Brock agreed. He glanced at the chair Ash was sat on. The boy had been sat silently for since Miss Delia entered the kitchen, probably hoping that she wouldn't see him. He wasn't so lucky. As Miss Delia walked past him, she whacked him over the head.

"Stupid boy," she told him.

Dawn was putting fresh logs in the fireplace of the library later that day. She leant back on her knees, letting out a sigh. It had been a long day. Miss Delia wasn't kidding when she had said there was a lot of stuff to do before Mr Stone's guest arrived. Running the back of her hand across her forehead, Dawn looked at her handy work. She was pleased with herself. The fireplace looked wonderful. Slowly Dawn got to her feet and stretched. Being hunched over like that for an hour was bad for her back. All she needed was a good stretch and then she could get on with her work.

Dawn paused as she heard some music coming from the next door room. It sounded quite loud, terrifying but brilliant at all the same time. Curious to what the music was, Dawn crept from the room, oddly in time with a quiet section. It sounded as though someone was behind her even though she knew it was just the music.

She found the source of the music coming from the school room. Dawn twisted the handle and peeked in just as the music exploded once again. Inside she could see people dancing on the floor, but the people weren't exactly real. They were miniature, wearing strange clothes with flames rising and writhing between them. Each couple were dancing the same dance, paying no attention to the flames. The flames erupted out as the dancers fell into a crouched bow on their knees. Dawn stepped into the room to get a better look at the show. As the dancers began to do strange movements to the sound of short bursts of music until the last note faded and the dancers fell to the side as if they were dead.

"Did you enjoy that?"

Dawn jumped out of her skin almost as she heard the master's apprentice talk to her. He was stood with his sleeves rolled up, his jacket on the back of one of the chairs.

"Sorry," Dawn said with a bob, "I just wondered where the music was coming from."

"Mars, the Bringer of War," Paul read out. He was stood next to a phonograph which was now playing a soft melody. "Holst, he's a new composer but not too bad."

"He sounded scary," Dawn mumbled.

"Sapphire likes the crescendos in the Mars song," Paul stated, "She's a strange child."

"The dancers looked brilliant, sir," Dawn said with another bob, "Even though I don't understand music, I thought it looked very nice, sir."

Paul looked at her in surprise for a few seconds before he smirked and closed his eyes.

"Of course you wouldn't know very much about music," Paul told her, "You're a maid."

Dawn frowned at this but found that she couldn't argue with him. It was true that she was a servant without very high education but he didn't have to point it out so bluntly. It was like he was poking fun at her. On second thoughts, she knew he was poking fun at her.

"Sorry for disturbing you," Dawn said finally before she left the room, closing the door behind her. Paul opened his eyes as he heard the door click as it was closed. He let out a short sigh. Why was that girl everywhere? Sure she was a maid but that didn't mean she had to appear everywhere.

The door opened once again. This time it was Mr Stone. He looked round the room, his eyes settling on Paul after a few seconds.

"There you are, Paul," Mr Stone said. He smiled at his apprentice. "I was wondering if you knew where the cat was."

"It is four o'clock, sir," Paul replied, turning to the phonograph. He lifted the needle off the large black vinyl disk. The music instantly stopped but the disc continued to go round. "He's probably in the kitchen begging for milk."

"Good," Mr Stone said, "Can I ask you to do something for me, Paul? My guest tonight doesn't like cats."

Paul's eyes darted towards his teacher, a glimpse of hope showing through his neutral facade. Was his teacher going to ask him to do what he thought he was?

"Could you please put Drew in his cage for the night?" Mr Stone asked. Paul paused then nodded. Maybe not what he was hoping for, after all Drew was a pain to get into his cage. Paul was rather hoping that Mr Stone would tell him to change Drew into a dog or something, they had been covering transfiguration of animals recently in his studies. "Splendid. Cheerio. Make sure you're down for tea by seven."

"Yes…" Paul didn't bother to end his sentence because the door was slammed the moment Mr Stone stopped speaking. Paul frowned slightly. What had gotten into his teacher recently? Leaving for long periods of time, not teaching Paul for weeks and not spending enough time with Sapphire. This was odd. Now Mr Stone was asking Paul to put the cat, his beloved feline, into a metal cage for the evening. Something was definitely up. Drew didn't deserve it and that was saying something. Never-the-less, Paul walked calmly down to the kitchens to retrieve the cat.

Well that's chapter two ^_^ Hope it wasn't too bad.

Please review!

RSx