A/N yes, there will be some romance between them - but it will take a while until I get there. Elsie is only 16 at the moment. There'll probably will be another time jump soon after I've sorted out how Charles returns to a life in service. For now: Young Elsie Hughes's first month as housemaid.

Enjoy!

She got up early every day still but she was not the first on her feet in the mornings at Campbell Hall. Scullery maids or kitchen maids woke her up. Elsie had climbed up one step of the social ladder. On the farm she had been at the lowest end, right at the bottom. Now she enjoyed the one hour she could spend longer in her warm bed each morning immensely. Beth on the other hand hated to rise early and could not understand that Elsie was grateful for their early start of the day.

"How can you be so positive about this?" she asked. "It's awful." Beth turned around once more and covered her head with her pillow.

"You did not grow up on a farm", was her simple reply. "I had to get up much earlier there." She pushed her duvet off her body and stretched her legs and arms.

"Stop being so cheerful, please!" Beth mumbled from under her covers.

After three month in the house Elsie already felt so familiar with everyone and everything that she could not help it but tickle Beth's left foot. It stuck out from underneath her duvet. At first nothing happened but Elsie could hear the suppressed laughter. She tried it again and her effort was rewarded by Beth throwing her pillow in the general direction of Elsie's bed. "Now get up before Mrs. Taylor gives us the men's bedrooms again."

=o=

As expected the work as a housemaid was almost as tiring and hard as the farm work she was used to. There was one big difference though: nothing really smelled bad and there was hardly any dirt, only dust and the occasional muddy footstep on the carpet. Some of the girls found it disgusting to empty the chamber pots in the morning, Elsie did not care. It was better than cleaning stables.

The housemaids took care of the large common rooms first. Bedrooms could not be entered before the Lord and Lady of the house and their two children were downstairs for breakfast. Elsie's first task every morning was to draw back the heavy curtains and then open the large double windows. It did not matter that winter was close. The house needed the fresh air and she enjoyed the smell of the grass, the forest, nature in general because it brought back happy memories from home and made her feel at home at this place even more.

"It's so cold already", Beth complained after Elsie opened the third window in the library. "Can't we just keep them close for once?"

Beth had been in service for one year already and would soon turn 18. Although she had taught Elsie a lot in her first weeks, Elsie soon found out that the young housemaid was actually a bit lazy and crabby sometimes. She liked to complain about things when they were only amongst themselves. As soon as Mrs. Taylor was near, Beth transformed into the ever obedient servant. Elsie on the other hand tried to make a good impression at all times. She was still new and a few of the servants had not stopped to eye her suspiciously. She could not make any mistakes as long as she was the young girl from further north with the peculiar accent. She is from a farm, they whispered on the quiet, her mother send her here because she had flirted with all the boys, she is here to learn some discipline and order. They all believed Elsie did not know that they gossiped behind her back about her. And in her first two weeks their words had really hurt her a lot. She had cried herself to sleep too often, feeling miserable and lonely. What did it matter that she had found a way to leave her home and start a new life if the people she thought were on her side now, were not better than the ones she had left behind?

But then her capability to learn and work fast and efficient had impressed Mrs. Taylor the old housekeeper. She never had to remind Elsie of any of the rules they had explained to her on her first and second day. She had memorized them as quickly as the different tasks she learned. How to make a bed, how to dust a chandelier, what it meant to really clean something, not just wiping the dust away. You are smart girl, Els, you know that. Her mother had told her before she had left. And she was always fond of learning something new.

"Would you like to be in this room without any fresh air all day?" she opened the last window, took the liberty to inhale the fresh air deeply and look at the park that stretched behind the house until the edge of the forest. Not a single tree or house restricted the view. All Elsie could see was green grass and the bare trees in the forest covered in the early morning mist.

"They have plenty of other rooms they could use." Beth plumped the cushions on the settee, then proceeded to take care of the small tables. "And besides, we let in fresh air for twenty minutes and they are in here for hours."

Elsie rolled her eyes. "Of course they are but they ring for one of us to open the windows during the day too." One last curtain was drawn back to reveal a hidden door in the huge bookshelf.

=o=

As soon as the rooms downstairs were ready for the day, the servants took their breakfast. This routine was not so different from the one she was used to on the farm either. Beth always complained about having to work before she had a bite to eat. Elsie enjoyed breakfast and thought it was some kind of reward for the work they had already accomplished. Besides, the kitchen maids waited at her, poured her the first cup of tea and also took care of cleaning the table and the dishes later. All of this she had done additionally to her other tasks at home.

The food was delicious, of course Beth had complains about this too, but Elsie loved it, enjoyed the porridge each morning, the fresh bread, jam and honey. She was about to take a second cup of tea when one of the bells rang. Mrs. Taylor looked at the board. "Elsie, Beth, the ladies maid has finished dressing the two girls. You can go up and take care of the rooms."

Elsie rose from her chair, curtseyed and quickly made her way over to the stairs. Beth should be close behind her but when she turned around to talk to her and ask her a question, the housemaid was not there. Instead she heard Mrs. Taylor raise her voice. "Beth! Hurry up now!"

Amused, she shook her head. Beth would never learn.

=o=

The Campbell's had two daughters, Emily and Charlotte. It felt odd at the beginning to be the servant of two young girls that could be he sisters. Emily was ten and Charlotte turned fourteen a month ago. Elsie was not much older than them but she was their servant, one they seldom saw but who was always there in the background. When she got up early, the young girls were still fast asleep. During Charlotte's French lessons, Elsie enjoyed a few minutes of rest in the servant's hall next to the kitchen to read in one of her books before she continued with her work. Their worlds were so far apart although they lived in the same house. So far Elsie had only been amongst people of the same social class. Of course they were not all farmers in her village but when she spent an afternoon with the butcher's daughter they never cared about class or what their parent's did to earn a living. Here, everything was different.

There was a downstairs, with servant's hall, kitchen, all the different storage rooms, the rooms for butler and housekeeper. And there was the world above it. Large, bright, beautifully decorated dining rooms, a library, bedrooms, drawing and sitting rooms. The difference between these two worlds was difficult to understand at first. She had never thought herself as being of a lower class and status but here she somehow was. Still, Elsie did not mind it. This was work, it had been her choice.

=o=

One of the doors to the young ladies bedrooms stood wide open when Elsie and Beth approached them. Someone sang quietly and Beth began to giggle, covering her mouth with her hand. "Is this Miss Sullivan?" The ladies maid to the girls was a small, blonde girl, shy and not very attractive according to the footmen. Everyone made fun of her and no one really knew why she was chosen for the position. Elsie liked her because of her kindness and her naïve thinking.

"Shush, if it is her, let her sing." Elsie tiptoed towards the open door and took a peek around it. It was in fact Miss Sullivan. Not only was she singing but also dancing a bit. Now even Elsie had to suppress her giggles. "Let's not disturb her and maybe do the other room first", she whispered but Beth was already at her side to also have a look. Unlike Elsie, she now fully broke out in laughter. Miss Sullivan immediately stopped what she was doing, her face white with shock.

"Who is it?" Her voice was shrill.

Elsie had to bite her lip to calm down before she was able to answer the question. "May we come in?" She straightened her back and adjusted her apron and cap.

"Elsie?" She could hear Miss Sullivan walk towards the door where Beth was still having a problem calming down. "Is that you?"

Two steps to the right and she appeared from behind the open door. "We are here to take care of the bedrooms now." A small smile was still on her lips but the urge to laugh out loud had blessedly subsided.

A deep, relieved sigh escaped the young ladies maid. "And I thought you were Charlotte! Whatever you saw, please don't tell anyone."

Gossip was what kept the house alive and it usually travelled fast. Elsie never indulged in it, probably because she still was also one of the other servants main object of interest. She would not say a word but she could not be sure about Beth's trustworthiness. "Not a word, promised."

=o=

"She sang! And danced! In the middle of the room!" Beth told the story during tea time. As much as Elsie tried to ignore it, she was unable to avoid it completely. There weren't many places she could go to be on her own. So she had to sit at the large table in the servant's hall when they had a moment to relax. She was sure that there was a place for her to hide, be herself, take her book with her and be alone for a while, somewhere in this house or on the grounds surrounding it. She only had to find it.

"Elsie, is everything alright?" Mrs. Taylor was sitting next to her, writing something down in one of her ledgers.

Startled, she put down the book she was not really reading anymore. "Yes Mrs. Taylor, everything's fine." She tried to smile but it did not reach her eyes. The housekeeper seemed to notice it.

"Do not listen to Beth. She has always been like this." Mrs. Taylor closed the large book and looked at her. "All housemaids love gossip. You will learn to ignore it or you will on day enjoy what they have to tell."

The woman was always so kind to her and Elsie wished she could tell the truth, that the reason for her absentmindedness was not Beth's behaviour but the fact that they made fun of someone who had done nothing wrong at all. She also could not tell the housekeeper that she sometimes wished to have a moment for herself where no one would disturb her. To sort her mind, think about the day and résumé it. "I think I prefer to ignore it."

TBC