Bella scrubbed the dining room floor, rubbing her brush in circles on the wood until she had whipped a nice soapy lather. She had finished with the front hallway and was working her way through the first floor- it was a process which would take most of the day.
Even though she had already been working at the Cullen manor for two months now, she still marveled at the level of craftsmanship and the attention shown to every aspect of the house. Even the floors were laid perfectly, each piece of oak lining up and meeting in exactly the right place. It was almost as though the floors themselves were works of art.
Suddenly sound of footsteps broke the comfortable silence of the manor. Even though the Cullen house was constantly filled with movement, Bella had learned to differentiate between the calm footsteps of everyday activity, and the purposeful, focused steps of someone who was either looking for her or in a foul mood. These were definitely the latter.
Bella stopped what she was doing to hear better- they sounded like Jessica's footsteps. Bella took a second to wonder why on earth Jessica would be looking for her; she had already assigned her to scrub the first floor today, and there wouldn't be time for her to do anything else.
Bella tucked her head back down and resumed scrubbing as hard as she could. If Jessica saw her pausing in her work, she was sure to get a dressing down and an earful for it. Bella waited as the footsteps got closer, hoping to work up as many suds as possible so that Jessica would be impressed by her work.
"Bella!" Jessica shouted when she reached the doorway. "Put that down and get up!"
Bella dropped her brush into her bucket of water, and quickly got to her feet. She bit back the fear of hearing from Jessica about whatever she had done wrong.
"Stop what you're doing and go change into your serving outfit. Then head to the front of the house."
Bella nodded and ducked out of the room, heading to the servants stairs. As she ran up the staircase, she wondered what was going on. She could tell from Jessica's voice that it was a serious matter, and that time was of the essence.
Running into her room, Bella quickly stripped off her cotton dress, which looked stained and washed out from years of doing laundry and scrubbing floors. She wore this dress for the hardest labor she did, and had picked it because she hadn't been fond of the gray color of it in the first place.
Running to her dresser, Bella removed her favorite dress, the one she used for serving the Cullen family in the most formal of settings. She had different serving dresses, all hand me downs from the Wellingtons, but this was the one she liked the most. It was an empire waist, like all her dresses, and made of a deep red cotton. It was not as bright as it had been when Georgiana had first gotten it, but Bella still felt that the crimson color brought out her skin and hair color.
Bella let her hair down from the bun it had been in and quickly brushed it out. She quickly pulled it back up into a bun and tied it, before dashing out of her room and racing down the stairwell.
The urgency in Jessica's voice had been clear, and Bella knew that Jessica liked to stick to a schedule and wouldn't stop her from finishing the floors unless it was something big. Since Jessica had asked her to change into her nice serving outfit, she surmised that Jessica's purpose wasn't to fire her, unless she was feeling particularly cruel and wanted Bella to look as grand as possible when she let her go.
Bella figured that the most likely scenario was that she was summoning her to join the other servants in greeting some unexpected dignitary who was paying a visit. The Cullens had guests all the time, but visits were usually planned, and if someone extremely important dropped by without notice it was reasonable that Jessica would have them line up outside to provide a grand entrance.
Bella sprinted out of the servant stairwell and down the hall, through the main entry doors to the paved driveway outside. When Bella made it outside she noticed there were no other house servants, only a single coach and some footmen lined up outside.
Stranger still was that it was one of the Cullens' coaches, and not that of a guest. Before Bella had time to consider all this, one of the footmen approached her and stretched out his hand, almost as though she was a gentlewoman and he was escorting her to her coach.
"Oh no!" Bella pulled her hand away. "I'm just a servant. Jessica told me to come out here?"
The footman nodded and kept his hand outstretched, impatience marking his face. Bella hesitated before raising her hand and placing it in his. He led her down the stairs to the driveway, and Bella was sure they were heading for the coach.
She wondered if this was Jessica's way of firing her. Get dressed in your finest outfit, then sending her in a coach back to down, without any of her things and any chance to say goodbye to her friends. On that note, she wondered if maybe Jessica had discovered about Jacob and was angry enough to fire her for it. It seemed like an overreaction, even by Jessica's standards, but what other explanation could there be for her stopping Bella's work and ordering her into a coach?
The footman opened the door to the coach and lifted his hand up so Bella could use it as support. Feeling tentative, Bella placed her foot on the first step and was finally tall enough to see inside. Sitting there, in a suit and tails, was Edward.
Bella's mouth fell open but she managed to contain her surprise, pausing only for a second before she took the next step and then climbed into the coach.
"Your grace." Bella attempted to bow but found the coach's size didn't allow for her to fully stand or to stretch her arms in the full movement.
"Sit down."
Bella nodded and sat, placing her hands in her lap and staring straight ahead. After a few seconds she felt the carriage give way and begin to move.
She had felt confused before, and now she truly had no idea now of what was going on. She knew that it would be improper for her to ask, but she felt she had no choice.
"Your grace, if you wouldn't mind, where are we going?"
Bella lifted her head and looked at Edward, who was watching her with a look of anticipation.
"I am visiting Lady Warren. I need a servant to attend to me."
Bella's mouth fell open again, and before she managed to close it she saw the delighted glint in Edward's eyes. She leaned back against the seat and directed her attention out the window, willing herself to look calm and collected.
As she watched the English countryside pass before her eyes, she found herself wishing that she were back in the dining room on her hands and knees, scrubbing the wood floors until they shone.