One's Journey ends and another begins

Emma counted days...to weeks...that William hasn't visited.

She supposed his father is er...re-training him as he promised.

She spent time with Kelly as she's starting to eat less and less and that worried her.

She tried her best to have it normal while denying the inevitable.

The day after Mr. Jones left that day, was the day Kelly wrote down her will.

Al would receive her furniture to sell off, and Emma would have 50 pounds to her name, and her old clothes and shoes. Al would get Kelly's remaining retirement money as he would need it more until its his time to go as well. Emma is a young lady who has a very strong body, she can still work.

Emma had to look at hiring ads in the paper, and chose a far away location on purpose, for Kelly to send a letter to her next gig.

Nobody refuted Kelly's decision.

But one day, Kelly no longer woke up and Emma felt that ugly sensation, that same sensation when she lost Sirius.

Losing a family member totally sucks, that she called Al's hangout if he was there, tearfully saying 'She's gone,' and asked his help to help her arrange a funeral as she had no idea how.

She penned a letter to Mr. Richard Jones which she tied to a parcel containing Kelly's picture of young William, regarding Kelly's passing and the funeral is already held as a quiet affair. She had a few days left in London to clean up the apartment for the next tenant, before she goes to a new job and she won't say where, so William won't look for her.

'Haaa...' Emma sighed.

'You OK?' Al asked her as he was bringing stuff downstairs.

'Its been a decade.' said Emma as she looked up. 'I thought I'd be here till I'm an old maid as I just can't imagine myself marrying. But life is just too short. Too too short.'

'Aye. Next year it be my turn to go.' Al joked. 'I'll see Doug and Kelly soon enough meself.'

'There's that.' Emma said wearily. 'When I go, please get what's left of the kitchen too. Not like I can lug it around. It's bad to waste food too.'

'Yeah, you bought a lot three days ago, it's gonna help me out.' said Al with a sad smile. 'To think the cause of our short lives, was society's stupidity in the first place.' he said. 'We were poisoning ourselves since the day we were born and you figured that out. Kelly wrote me letters about what you know and I began shopping in Oriental too, but I reckon its too late for me to get healthy.' he said.

'You, will live past fifty and perhaps, be the first miracle of this country. You started when you're young. Unlike us, your family was ahem, thankfully too poor to afford poison.' he said with a snort. 'And being from a seaside poor village, you never had access to that garbage in the first place. I reckon I'll say hello to them soon enough.'

xxx

Once the apartment was clean enough to her satisfaction and thankfully the damaged wallpaper was NOT Emma and Kelly's problem but the Landlord's, Emma shut all the windows.

She sold Kelly's clothes to a second-hand shop as none of them fit her.

She also went back to her old ways, amassing five thousand pounds to buy herself new clothes and shoes and kept the rest, before moving on to her next gig. To Haworth, Yorkshire. It's 226 miles out of London through the Great Northern Railway.

The ones who put the ad, were German Traders, the Molders Family. They were traders, like the Jones Family.

They live in a countryside mansion.

Well, as Industrial Revolution came, times changed.

New technologies were introduced, further trade was established, and people's standard of living improved.

Along with it were Attitudes, Customs, Economics, and Society.

Things changed that the rigid aristocracy that had power back then in a tight grip also dealt with change. Some rode over change and coasted by through adapting to times than lose everything, while stubborn traditionalists fell to ruin, and had to leave their luxurious mansions, unable to keep them anymore.

Their mansions were sold and others moved in. Those called derisively by the bitter, ruined aristocrats, 'nouveau riche'. They see them as upstarts who were from the dirt who dared rise above their station and 'play pretend' as opposed to them who were born noble.

One such mansion in Haworth was purchased by the Molders. German Trader Wilhelm Molders and his wife Dorothea. They have two children.

When Emma checked the background of the Haworth Mansion, it originally belonged to a Viscount Family, the Campbells.

Emma listened to the social gossip. The Campbells have three daughters. Not a single son.

In marriages, dowries are expected to be in direct proportion to the groom's social status, thus making it virtually impossible for lower class women to marry into upper class families.

Viscount Campbell was a known classist. And throws his weight about simply because he's a noble and he can. He would exert his power over those he could.

His daughters married up to Count-level Families.

Sophia was engaged five times but those were called off until she married Mr. Six, making herself Countess Bradford. She was controversial for that for quite a while and nobody knows why.

Monica married Count Mildrake. He was a weak pushover.

Emma supposed those arrangements benefited their classist father. She suspected Sophia's previous arrangements were those he could not bully around for power and regaining his lost power back as the Campbells fell into hard times by their standards, being 'financially in the red'.

By that, an aristocrat's standard of being 'in the red', can make a poor girl like her 'live luxuriously for seven generations'. That's because owning a mansion and land is EXPENSIVE AS HELL, along with food, clothes, maintenance and servant pay, they ain't cheap.

And upon arriving at Haworth, Yorkshire, twenty minutes away from the station...it's an endless moor with potential, had the man bothered to develop it. But Emma supposed, like all 'blue bloods', just expected money to rain on his lap through tax revenues of people who lived here and simply do nothing.

Idiot.

Joke's on them now, now that they're impoverished patricians.

She paid for a carriage to the mansion. It was good she had money...but in a countryside like this, she can no longer pickpocket. She can live the rest of her life with 5000 pounds to be honest...

'So, you're Emma Potter.' here it is, the Interview. 'Mrs. Stowner has a lot to say about you.' this is the Housekeeper Mrs. Vieck. She was around Kelly's age, or older, considering she's still alive compared to her. 'We recently moved here and purchased a lot, but we were horrified to see that long letter and had everything in London Shops analyzed to be sure...and you were right.' she said in a tight, clipped voice. 'Our lady was glad she had no idea how English Work nor did she try those on the family. But now we worry about the consumables we bought from London Shops and what to do with it as we don't want to give it away and poison others with it while triple-checking the orient before ordering.' she sighed. 'Just what is wrong with this country?'

'...they follow who they think is smarter, and bleats the loudest with most influence.' Emma said wryly. 'Well, its not like I can voice out. I'm a mere maid, how can I compare to influential accomplished celebrities as I have no money nor resource to dispute with them? And I have no power against powerful enemies like that. I can only protect myself and my future family on the sly, and just be glad that at least, I saved a few lives. Better a few than nobody.'

'That also means watching others slowly poison themselves to death and die at age fifty or earlier.' said Mr. Bruch grimly. 'You are also carrying the weight of their lives on your shoulders because indeed, you are powerless.' Emma wilted at that somberly because that was reality. 'It seems whoever employs you, you warn them. And its up to them to listen.'

According to Mrs. Stowner, Emma was her last student as she wanted to see how far an educated maid can go, as Emma was worldly wise and street smart in order to survive the cruel realities of being an orphan. All that's missing was academics and was taught in a variety of subjects. She saw the dark side early in life that she changed Mrs. Stowner's life. She got better, but it was too late for her. She was too poisoned since young. Emma certainly tried.

She was reliable and dependable, and a good bodyguard while also aware she 'shot herself in the foot' by showing she's capable of dealing with crooks, when English Women are supposed to be 'Angels of the House' that nobody in London will marry her any time soon as she was too strong. This also means no husband can ever try 'domestic violence' on her if ever!

Emma was hired and was taken to meet Adele, the Head Maid who took her to get changing for her trial period.

'You're finally here.' said Adele, a sternly-strict woman. 'Wish more people answered our ad, but it can't be helped.' she said tersely. 'There's 36 servants all in all, eight maids including yourself.' Emma wanted to inwardly whimper as this house is huge. Eight maids won't cut it.

'...in a house like this?'

'Not enough.' Adele grumbled, understanding what Emma expressed. She instantly understood the situation just by one look, Adele approves. 'I wish I had four more people!' she complained.

'But not everyone's willing to come all the way out here.' said Emma. 'The only way would be to raise offers, defying England's rigid norms.'

'How much is a normal maid's salary here?'

'The lowest is 16 pounds a year and that's for an All-Work's like myself while Live-In Maids earn only 6 pounds a year and that could go higher, depending on the master's annual income and how nice the family is feeling. So a servant's fate here is pretty unstable. Especially with prices of goods going sky-high. So the smart ones would do serious time management and do two jobs a week. I have on me a diary of Costs of Goods in London in markets as well as apartment rent in various areas.'

'Let me see that after dinner but for now I want you to start as soon as possible.'

'Please guide me well as I have no idea how mansions are treated and what you use on what and where, I cleaned an apartment for ten years.'

Well, at least she knows her limits and willing to learn, Adele thought.

She put Emma to the test after a tour.

xxx

William was in utter dismay as his father informed him not only of his teacher's passing, also of Emma's departure hours after Emma left.

He visited the now empty apartment and met Mr. Al.

'Kelly's told me a lot of things.' said Al, inviting William to his dingy apartment. 'We would have talked at my old hangout, but it's closed today. Don't mind how messy it is.'

It was there, that Al told him of Emma's past, and her years with Kelly. How Emma knew too much, but powerless to act on it, thus only Kelly and Al benefited from Emma's knowledge.

'Lastly, little lady predicted you'd still come within the week, thus left this homemade book to me.' Al gave William a homemade book. 'A last gift to you. If you didn't visit Kelly's empty place within this week, I woulda went myself and give it in person. It's a good read meant to protect you and for you to make the correct choice for your happiness. Emma cares in her own way, she's just too painfully-aware. Even I agree that its best to stick with one's kind.'

So William took the book home, his last memory of Emma in his hands and gave it to his father.

'This is?'

'A last gift.' said William. 'You'll know what to do with it.' he said with a heavy heart. 'I can't bear to look at it.'

Richard Jones understood that this was Emma's parting gift to his son. It was about families of the aristocracy and the gentry. Information he'd pay a lot of money to get. How she did this, is anyone's guess. The book started with the gentry of course!

'And I need to triple-check if our workers are doing good...or if we earned our money through blood over the years because of unscrupulous acts!'

'...what're you talking about?' Richard frowned as William gave him a dark tale and he wanted their wares secretly tested to be sure, or he'll find himself firing and cutting ties with a lot of people.

William did not want to earn his money by poisoning people and he feared for his family. So they had everything tested on the sly overseas...and they were horrified.

'...so now you've cut ties with generations of business tradings and now you want to do business with us Indians and the Chinese regarding food and tea, eh?' Hakim grinned, patting William's back. 'I got your back William. But still, Emma's amazing to have figured all this out.' he said, impressed. 'Victorian Era's idea of Angel of the House is stupid.' he said in derision. 'The real angel in the end, is someone like Emma. She protects those she cares for by keeping death away and took nature's advice.'

'And I lost her because of stupid traditions and social class divide!' William moped in dismay. 'I wish we weren't born in an era like this!' he moaned. 'I wish things were different.'

'In your next life, maybe. We indians believe in Reincarnation.' Hakim reassured him. 'Maybe in the next, you'll meet...in a time and place where this stuff don't matter any more. Keep up the good karma and you'll get Emma in the next life.' he said in an attempt to cheer William up.

As for Richard Jones, he has prospects now for his children upon reading the book all the way. He hopes to raise his family's status with care, as society's upper-class pressure made his wife ill and had to retreat.

He would have to change the family in order to get the dues he feels they deserve, while also ensuring his family would be happy in the end.