'
For once, Rey's wishes were granted and she suffered nothing but a slightly sore throat and headache. She informed no one of this fact and doggedly carried on with her tasks, until a few days later she stood looking around her, surprised to find that she had finished her labours in the parlour.
Everything that could be cleaned was clean, everything that should be polished, shone. The furniture was arranged properly, the pictures and portraits were where they belonged and everything looked fit to show company.
There was still something about the room that made her dislike it, but it was nothing she could put her finger on and it was still a vast improvement to the oppressive and melancholy atmosphere it had emanated when she began.
'
It was a slightly strange feeling, to know that she had achieved what she had set out to do. Her aim had been to get as much done before she was sent away, and if possible, to make the entire ground floor worthy of Lady Solo visiting.
Only, she hadn't been sent away, she had fitted in, made friends, fallen in love with the house and countryside, made it her home… and it looked as if she was here to stay. Lord Ren had made no mention of sending her away since that awful business in the billiard room during her menses.
While she had been content with her life when she worked for Mr Plutt, simply grateful to be free of the workhouse and have employment along with her own room, she had not felt the deep belonging that she did at Varykino.
Eventually, she would surely become accustomed to Lord Ren's peculiarities and learn to not be affected by him, though it may take her a little while.
'
Now the parlour was finished, she went and found Mr Hux, so he could inspect it before she put the now clean dust sheets back on the furniture, in case he thought she hadn't done something properly.
"You truly are a wonder, Rey," Mr Hux said as he walked around the room, sharp eyes roving over everything.
Beaming, Rey bobbed a curtsey, trying not to feel too proud, "Thank you, sir. Though I am afraid the chaise longue will need reupholstering, which I do not have the skill for, and I do not think this vase," she brushed her fingers gently over the article in question, "Can be mended."
Mr Hux's wandering eyes settled on the broken vase, "A shame," he shook his head as he gathered up the pieces, "I will enquire about the chaise longue, Lady Solo may have some ideas about how it should be done." He smiled as he looked at her, "I will inform her of how hard you have worked and how glad we are that she engaged you."
Rey ducked her head shyly, heart so near to bursting she was unable to reply with anything other than a, "Thank you, sir."
"Not at all, Rey. I am happy for the sheets to go back now, if you would."
He left, taking the pieces of the broken vase with him, and Rey set about closing up the room. Although she didn't like the room as much as the others at Varykino, it was still sad to be hiding it away from life once more, but it was pleasing to know that when it came to be opened up again, it would only require airing out, a sweep and a dust.
'
As the Great Clean had been completed, she fell back to cleaning the rooms in use, cooking, and aiding her fellows in their tasks. Even with her pet project completed, there was always plenty to do with a house that size, even though the inhabitants were few.
As summer bloomed, the kitchen garden exploded with life and she helped Poe with some of the work harvesting and taking care of the plants.
It was nice to work outdoors, the fresh air and kiss of the sun on her skin was delightful, as she picked broad beans or helped pull carrots out of the rich soil.
The best thing was the first of the strawberries, Rey had never had fresh ones before and she almost cried after Poe urged her to just eat the first one she picked. The flavour burst on her tongue, mouth prickling as she hummed lowly, eyes closed, ignoring Poe as he laughed at her.
'
One day, when she was helping to weed around the peas, she felt him come up and turned to see him carrying a chain of daisies in his hands.
"As you're the queen of peas, I felt you ought to have a crown," he said with a grin as he gently placed the flowers on her hair.
Rey rolled her eyes, "Thank you. For my first decree, I would like you to make less crowns and plant the brussels sprouts and cabbages, as you claimed you would."
Poe huffed, "You're no fun! I see the power has already gone to your head. Eat a strawberry, they're medicine for misery!"
"If I eat a strawberry every time you tell me to, there won't be any left for Lord Ren, or the others."
She thought she heard Poe mutter, "And the man could certainly do that sort of medicine," before saying at a normal volume, "Fine, fine, but please will you be making a cake or biscuits soon?"
"Will dessert be acceptable?"
Stroking his chin, Poe nodded sagely, "Yes. Yes, that would do very nicely."
Rey stood, brushing the soil off her hands, "In that case, I better get to it. Unless you have need of me?"
"No, no," he emphatically shook his head and made shooing motions, "Away with you, dessert is much more important than weeding."
With a laugh for his antics, Rey left the kitchen garden and washed her hands at the outside pump near the stable before going inside.
As she turned away, she was confronted by Lord Ren, yet again catching her by surprise and she vainly wondered if she was going slightly deaf, or if a man his size really could move so silently.
He looked absolutely furious.
"Lord Ren," she blushed slightly as this was the first time she had properly seen him since her fainting spell, "May I help you with something?"
"No," he told her curtly, and narrowed his eyes, "You have flowers in your hair."
"Oh, yes," was he angry she wasn't wearing a cap? Feeling slightly confused, she reached up to pat her hair and removed the daisy chain.
He remained staring at her a moment longer, expression now shuttered, almost glazed, then extended a huge hand to gently tuck a wisp of hair behind her ear.
Rey remained frozen as he did, her heart a quick pitter-pat in her chest, then blinked as Lord Ren suddenly whirled around and stalked back into the stable. She stood there, dumbly staring after him for a moment before stirring herself and going back to the house.
"That's a nice daisy chain," Dophled observed as she entered the kitchen, "Are you finished helping Poe for the day?"
"Hmm?" Rey placed the daisies on the table, unsure what to do with them now and still very bewildered by what had just happened - could she have simply imagined it? Absently she re-tucked the strand of hair behind her ear.
"Rey?"
She looked up at Dopheld.
"I asked if you were finished in the garden? I found a stain on one of the master's shirts that I cannot seem to get out, if you wouldn't mind looking at it?"
Rey blinked, then nodded, "Of course, just let me whip up some meringues to go with the strawberries this evening and I will go and look as soon as I am done."
This seemed to interest Dopheld a great deal, and he watched carefully as she separated the eggs and vigorously whipped the whites until they were stiff, then added the sugar.
The beauty of meringues was that they required only two ingredients, and were easy to put together if you knew how and had a strong wrist.
Mr Plutt had enjoyed Mont Blanc on meringue and she had the idea of doing a variation using strawberries instead of sweet chestnut purée.
When the egg white and sugar mix was in the oven, she and Dopheld went to the laundry room. The shirt was made of lovely fine, soft material, so unlike its stiff owner, and the scent that was so specific to him still permeated the material, even though Dopeheld had already tried to remove the stain with soap and water. As she examined it, she breathed a silent sigh of relief, the little fear that the stain may be blood turned out to be wrong, it was clearly just ink.
"Please would you put the kettle on? We will need boiling water for this."
Dopheld disappeared and she found the bottle of citric acid, carefully using a bone spoon she pressed a teaspoon of the acid onto the ink spots, then moistened it with water to check that the ink was bleeding properly. When Dopheld brought the kettle in, she simply poured the water over the stain until it ran clear.
"That is all you need do for an ink stain," she told him with a smile, "But be sure to use the bone spoon, as the acid will tarnish anything else."
'
They had paused for a quiet cup of tea after finishing the rest of the laundry and Rey was pensively curling the insistently loose wisp of hair between her fingers.
"Dopheld? Has Lord Ren ever…" she floundered around for the right words, "Has he never been courting?"
A strangled gulp indicated that Dopheld's tea had gone down the wrong way and she put her own cup down so she could pat him on the back.
When he regained his composure, slightly red faced, he shook his head, "No, I, ah, do not believe he is the courting sort."
Rey frowned, "But he is most eligible, surely? He has wealth, his family has rank, his temper may be poor but he is not unpleasant to look at..."
She trailed off as Dopheld once more choked on his tea and again she patted his back. "Perhaps he would be less miserable if he were to find a wife?"
With a very certain shake of his head, Dopheld coughed briefly and sat up straight again, "No, no, his illness prevents him from moving in society, so I do not think it likely that he will ever marry."
That seemed so strange, because while Lord Ren clearly was ill, it wasn't all of the time, there was a definite pattern to his malady, one that surely could be worked around? She let the subject go, however, as judging by Dopheld's sudden jumpiness, he was very uncomfortable talking about it, though forwhy she wasn't certain.
"Where did your crown go?"
Rey looked up from her tea to see Dopheld frowning at the table, where the daisy chain had last been.
"I don't know," she answered curiously as she looked around, "It was here when we went to the laundry room.
Such a small thing should hardly matter, but they couldn't find it anywhere, which left her a little sad as she had planned to press and dry it for a keepsake.
'
The meringues turned out well, and were very gladly received. She had pressed them into little nest shapes before baking, and served them with whipped cream in the centre and the freshly picked strawberries on top.
It all felt very summery, as they ate with a warm breeze coming through the windows, carrying with it the scent of the grass and fresh water, and the song of birds.
Whatever good fortune had led Lord Skywalker to stop and address her that fateful day, she thanked it silently.
Life here was incredibly good.
'
Whenever she was cleaning upstairs, laying fires or in one case, answering the front door because Mr Hux was out, she would cross paths with Lord Ren.
It seemed almost as if he were purposefully doing so, often approaching her without her realising until he spoke, or in one instance, taking down a book that she had been straining to grasp on her own.
A change had come about him, but not his monthly mood swing - for by her calculation (if she had reckoned correctly, anyway) that wasn't due for a week yet.
She lost count of the amount of times he caused her to jump and she was starting to wonder if he were making a sport of it.
The unfortunate result of seeing him more, was that her… attraction? No, no, her unwilling fascination by him, continued, rather than dwindled as she had hoped.
She kept telling herself after each encounter that it couldn't last forever, that his dark stares would lose their hypnotic quality someday soon, but it felt like a hollow reassurance.
Even though she made every effort to avoid him, he would unerringly appear, even sometimes materialising in the kitchen gardens, ostensibly to inspect Poe's progress, but it felt as if he were there because she was… which, she realised, was absolute nonsense! What on earth was she thinking? Of course Lord Ren was not there to see her and of course he appeared in the rooms she cleaned, because it was HIS home.
Rey wondered absently if Maz could make a tea to un-swell her head, because clearly she needed it! Where this self-importance had come from, she wasn't sure, but it was ridiculous and she really ought to know better.
'
After that stern talking to, she made every effort to avoid eye contact and tried not to interact with him, even if he was in the same room, politely answering him if he spoke to her but otherwise staying silent.
It proved to be surprisingly hard not to look at him, especially when he made her jump, but she did her level best.
When he started slamming doors and snapping, it was almost a relief, because his deep voice, when he spoke quietly, had started to make her feel a glow in her chest, and between the butterflies in her stomach and the often elevated beat of her heart, she was in sore need of respite.
'
Yet even while he was so out of sorts, he didn't stop appearing, and strangely he didn't snap at her if they spoke.
Perhaps it was just calming for him, to be near a woman, maybe men were more comfortable around women when they were unwell, used to their mothers, (or in Lord Ren's case, presumably a nanny), tending to them when they were children? She didn't know for certain, but she thought if she asked Dopheld, he would just choke on his tea again.
'
A/N: Just in case you were concerned, Poe and Rey are/will only ever be friends in this fic. The slow burn is real, but we are getting there (sorry, I feel like I said that ages ago! *facepalm*).
Also, some of you have asked for a Kylo POV, originally this was just going to be from Rey's POV, that won't change as such, but I am writing a sequel/companion piece from Kylo's POV.
Also, Rey won't be turning, some people wondered if her being ill a few times and fainting meant she was, but it's not the dynamic I wanted to go with, sorry if that disappoints people.
Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, do feel free to dm me any questions you may have, though I won't answer any that could spoil what is to come.
