Chapter 5: Lucy's First Tasks
For 3 hours, Juliet worked the already exhausted Lucy as hard as possible. Several times, Lucy messed up something. On those occasions, Juliet would slap Lucy across the cheeks, surprisingly hard.
By the time Juliet was ready to depart, she decided to take an old handmaiden of her mother's, Rosa, to serve her instead of Lucy. Lucy was not disappointed at first.
She was disappointed, however, once Minerva, the head of the servants came to take charge of her for the night.
Minerva led Lucy to a massive hall. When they got there, she roughly pushed Lucy to the floor, next to a big bucket of water and soap.
"Get to work," she barked.
"Ma'am?" Lucy didn't understand.
Dame Olga walked in on this scene.
"Minerva," she said with fake kindness, "Be gentler. Here, allow me. Lucy, dear, would you do something for me? Just wash this floor. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"No," Lucy said flatly.
"No?" Dame Olga shrieked and pushed Lucy into the wall. Then to Minerva, "Continue, and show no mercy."
As she left, Minerva smirked.
For the next 4 hours, Minerva stood over Lucy, while she scrubbed on her hands and knees. Minerva frequently kicked Lucy in the side.
The next couple of weeks went on like this. Lucy's living conditions were even worse than they had been at Madame's.
At Dame Olga's, Lucy woke up at 3:30 a.m. She was forced to work hard labor and endure Juliet's constant orders.
Then, usually about midnight or whenever Lucy finished her nightly scrubbing of the great hall, she was allowed to retire to her room, an old closet with no furnishings except for 4 bells, one rigged to Juliet's room, one to Dame Olga's, one to Hattie's, and one to Minerva's.
Lucy was miserable and Juliet was pure evil but things could always get worse.