The house was so big that she's pretty sure it could be described as a miniature castle - or maybe even a real castle. It was quite lovely too. The moonlight had peeked out from behind the passing storm clouds and it layered the whole property in a beautiful if not haunting glow. Right now, there were several lights on inside of it, making it look warm and inviting. All around her is land; she couldn't even see where the next house might be. Even in the daylight, she was pretty sure that it was too far away to see. She had been told there are trees and gardens and stables and everything that a woman could ever want. She could even hear the sound of a fountain behind the carriage, but she was so fixated on the massive house in front of her to be bothered to really look at anything else.

The house is all stone and masonry, and from the looks of it, it stretches out quite a ways. She was suddenly worried that she might get lost in such a big home. The biggest ones that she had ever been inside were the townhomes that she would clean from time to time. Those and the academy, which wasn't really a home when it came down to it. The ground was still wet from the rain and her heels slipped a bit on the stone walkway as Miss Marie took her arm and pulled her along towards the steps. She was barely paying any attention and Miss Marie thought for a moment that she was losing her nerve.

"Maka? Maka?"

The third time her name was called Maka looked up. "Yeah?"

"Come on silly girl; pay attention." When Maka brought herself back to reality she realized that somehow she had made it from the steps of the carriage all the way to the front door. Not without some help, she reasoned.

"Oh, sorry." She mumbled. For once, it hadn't been nerves that had made her stomach knot up so tightly. Instead it had been the fascination of the place in front of her. Under different circumstances she may have found it all to be a great adventure. This was definitely like something out of one of her books. Miss Marie took one of the giant knockers in her hand and rapped it against the door. They stood in silence for a moment.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Maka nodded. "Mr. Evans owns several opera houses across Europe as well as doing business abroad. His wife is a very famous Opera singer and both of their children are prodigies with their respective instruments. I believe their older son is traveling around Europe at the moment playing concerts of his own creation. Violin is his specialty. The young boy, the one you'll be attending to, is versed in piano. I'm pretty sure they are related to the royals or something, some distant cousin through marriage." This was actually information that Maka had been fed earlier in the week after she'd had a very interesting meeting with Mr. Evans. She hadn't liked the man much and it had done little to ease her stomach when she realized he wasn't the one who was buying her. No, she was to be a gift for his younger son. The hope was that she could pull in his rebellious spirit and keep him focused. Word through the grapevine had it that there had already been a pregnancy scare that was being kept quiet due to the fact that the two families had not wanted their children to get married. False alarm, Maka could only assume. She really wasn't sure that she was going to enjoy the company of such a brash, spoiled young man who could take whatever he wanted. She was entirely prepared to dislike him.

The door finally opened, and a tall man stood in the doorway looking down at them. The butler, she supposed. He reached out to take her escort's hand and placed a kiss upon it. "Ahh, Miss Marie, how very good to see you again." Maka wondered just how they knew each other.

Miss Marie smiled brightly and placed a hand on Maka's back. "It is good to see you again as well. Let me introduce you to Maka Albarn. She's going to be working for the family. If you would be so kind as to inform Lord Evans of our presence?"

"A pleasure, Miss Albarn." Maka offered him a polite little curtsy. "Please do come in; his Lordship is busy in a meeting at the moment, but he will be with you shortly." The butler stepped to the side and held the door open wide for them. He led them to a parlor room. "Please make yourselves comfortable. Let me know if you need anything."

Maka could barely take in everything that was around her. She was surrounded by warmth and light and colors so exquisite that until that moment she could not even be sure that they had really existed. Everything in London was so dark and dreary and even the homes were not as bright as this one. There were lavish red curtains that draped down to accent windows that touched the ceiling. The sofas were covered in bold patterns that made them look like the fire roaring in the hearth, and the wood floors were decorated with exotic looking rugs. The whole place smelled of wealth; like perfume and the aroma of home cooked food. Her stomach actually growled for a moment in anticipation of an actual meal. Of course she was going to be fed here, and well kept. Not that they hadn't been attempting to fatten her up at the academy, but school food was different.

"You sound hungry. I'd forgotten we hadn't eaten an actual meal since breakfast. You take a seat and I'm going to go see if I can go find Jack." The Butler, she guessed. Apparently Miss Marie was plenty comfortable to walk around the house and was on a first name basis with the staff, or at least some of them. She wondered if there had ever been some spark or relationship between them. Not that it was really any of her business.

"Thank you." She mumbled softly, still trying to take in the entire place. She was feeling overwhelmed. Earlier that morning she had been an entirely different person, living in a different world. Perhaps food would help ease the discomfort of the situation.

Her thoughts of supper were pushed aside as her eyes fell onto a gorgeous black piano placed against the back of the room. It was probably the biggest piano that she had ever seen and she made her way over towards it. Music was not a big part of her life, but she had always been fascinated by it on a fundamental level. She ran a gloved hand over the smooth black of the instrument. Delicately she reached out to touch one of the ivory keys. It sounded odd, interesting and even pretty. The chord echoed in the room and she pressed another to fill the silence. Moving down the keys, she tapped each one and had made it halfway when a voice interrupted her.

"You play?"

It was the voice of a young man, and she spun around her cheeks crimson with the embarrassment of being caught. He must have been about her age, but he looked infinitely more refined. His black suit showed that he was no worker in this house. His face had a lazy sort of look upon it, one eyebrow lifted at her in an almost curious expression. She was quite sure that animals reflected upon other animals that way while trying to figure out if they were prey or not. Those eyes of his were almost hypnotizing and the way he looked at her made her sure that she wouldn't have stood a chance to get away if he had been intent on sucking the very soul out of her. She'd heard stories of vampires, and those teeth might have given her reason for pause, but she was intelligent enough to know such things didn't exist. Yet at the same time there was a sort of easiness to his posture and something extremely non threatening about him. It was very confusing to a young girl who had just spent the better part of a day traveling to a different world. Her stare must have given away her nerves and he ran a hand through his messy white hair before laughing.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"I wasn't startled, I just wasn't expecting anyone." She turned away from him, back to looking at the piano. She could hear him approach her, and was acutely aware of his presence in the room.

"So, do you play?" She shook her head.

"No. I just haven't ever seen a piano like this before." She wanted to reach out and touch the keys again, just to try and understand the sound they could make, but she didn't dare with him standing there. "Do you?"

"When the need arises." The young man stuffed his hands into his pocket and took a seat. He continued to watch her with that same curious look. "So, care to tell me why you are banging the keys on the family's piano?"

She blushed deeply, fixating her eyes onto the ivory, but not daring to press a key again. "I was hardly banging! And I'm just waiting to speak to the Lord of this house."

He nodded. "On what business?"

Maka was starting to grow flustered with his excessive questioning. He hadn't even bothered to introduce himself and he was already giving her the third degree. Not to mention her own embarrassment at her present situation made it difficult to figure out what exactly to say about herself or why she was there. "I'm to be employed here." Well, it was the truth.

"That's quite a pretty dress for a maid." He lazily dragged his glance over her, reaching out to take one of her hands and look at the gloves. "Why I'm almost sure these are silk." She quickly pulled her hand back as if it had been burned. How rude could one man be!? Not that she didn't expect it of men at this point, always glancing at girls as if they were some fine delicacy that could be picked apart and savored. He chuckled again. It annoyed her that such a chuckle could pull at some deep and confusing place inside of her. The boy might have been handsome, but his manners were certainly lacking.

"Okay, sorry. Didn't mean to frighten you..." She opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off. "...let me guess; I just 'startled' you?" She turned away again and made her way over to look out the window, wishing there was more than darkness that she could see. "Hey look, I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I didn't mean it. You just don't look much like our maids, I figured you were some young noblewoman come to spend some time with family. My mother's had a habit of throwing them at me lately."

She continued to stare out the window. She felt so awkward and out of place. A million miles from everything that she knew and understood. She almost craved the damp apartment she shared with her father, just for the familiarity of it all. The last thing she needed was some rich boy to treat her as if she were dumb.

The boy stayed quiet for a while. She was unaware that his eyes were on her, and had changed to a more sympathetic nature. The terrible silence was broken with the sound of a single pure note from the piano. Then another and another. Soon the room was filled with the gentle playing of piano notes that offered her music in a way that she had never heard it before. Maka dared glance out of the corner of her eye towards the piano and could just see the boy concentrated on his art. He was no novice at such an instrument; in fact, he was the most exquisite musician that her ears had ever heard. With each note emotion seemed to flow through her. Each note that he struck hit a chord of emotion deep within her. She could feel the heaviness of the burden she was carrying and the weight of exhaustion settle over her. It was peaceful and safe and everything a person could want to feel from music. Leaning her forehead against the glass panel of window, she wondered how music could strip her so bare in such little time. She'd never fancied herself that vulnerable, but there she was feeling as raw as she had ever felt in her entire life. When the playing finally subsided, she opened her eyes just a little to look over at him. They stared at each other for a while and simply couldn't quite make sense of the other.
Her voice was somewhat breathy; "That was bea..."

She was cut off by the loud screech of a woman who has torn her way into the room, looking furious. "What are you doing!? You are going to get marks all over my window!" Maka quickly pulls her head away and goes to wipe it off.

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't bother, just get your head off my window." The older woman was graying, with dark eyes and wrinkles that showed age. Maka wondered if those wrinkles have partly come from scrunching her face up into such an awkward look of distaste. It made her feel uneasy, the way she'd being stared at with such disdain, as if this woman could not even stomach her presence.

"Honestly," the boy drawled out, letting out a sigh. "It's just a damn window, it can be cleaned; she didn't do anything wrong." Maka guesses the mistake that she made was really more about existing than spots on windows. All the same, she went to smudge at the tiny mark her forehead had made with a gloved hand once more. The boy jumped up to reach over and still her movements. "Seriously, don't worry about that, my mother is overreacting." He turned and glared at his mother, who returned such glare with fire. She wasn't sure he would win the fight and she hated being caught in the middle of a family argument.

The son won and his mother gave a huff, looking away. "Nevermind, there isn't time for that right now. You're wanted in the office." He stood up and offered an apologetic smile to her, before walking past his mother and out of the room. Luckily, Maka wasn't alone in the room with her for long, because she's not sure she could hold her tongue if any other nasty words came out about that window. Being a proper lady was extremely tiring.
Miss Marie entered and offered a polite curtsy to what Maka can only guess is the mistress of this manor. The woman gave another huff, glaring at Miss Marie, before exiting the room.

"Don't worry about her, she's all bark and no real bite. She has control over the house and the house alone; she won't get in your way. In fact, she often travels with her older son and you may not see her around all the time."

"Good." Maka can't stop herself from spitting out the word. "Do we have dinner?"

"It will be waiting for you in your room as will a nice hot bath after your meeting with Mr. Evans and his younger son." She wanted to skip the meeting and go right to her room and maybe just maybe have some freedom for a few minutes, but work was work. Luckily, they didn't have to wait much longer because the butler returned. He led them from the parlor and down through a series of hallways until they reached an office. They were ushered in and Maka got to look for a second time on the famous Mr. Evans.

She hadn't missed the man at all. One thing she knew about the lord of the house was that he enjoyed horses and had several prized ponies. When they had met, he had sized her up the way one would expect a man to size up a horse. She was far from pedigree, but he'd still walked around her, and placed his hands on her in a way that one would before they considered who to bet upon. He'd talked about her like she wasn't there and Maka had been purely terrified that he was actually considering taking her for himself. She wouldn't have been able to go through with it; in fact she'd already been planning her escape that night when he'd mentioned that she would be just fine for his son. Of course she wasn't sure at all what a child of this man's would be like, but at least he was apparently about her age. She could handle someone her own age.

"Ahhh. Miss Albarn. You are looking lovely." He spoke a little more kindly than he had a few weeks ago, but she far from trusted the older man. "I apologize for my wife, she has a certain way of handling things. My son informed me she was quite rude to you." Maka wanted to spit out that at least she hadn't introduced herself with a hand trailing her throat, but she held her tongue. Instead she offered a curtsy when indicated by Miss Marie. "Anyway, please come in and let me introduce you." Mr. Evans stood up from his desk and motioned to a large easy chair, which was apparently holding a person.

"Soul, do stand up and greet your guest." Obediently the boy in the chair rose. She sucked in her breath when she realized that she was now face to face with the piano player she'd met just moments ago. She felt like an idiot for not placing two and two together about him. Of course he was the son of Mr. Evans. They looked quite a bit alike, except that the son was far more attractive and held a more amusing look to him. He had been rude to her at first, but then he'd stood up for her. There was that beautiful piece of music that he'd played for her as well. She had no idea what exactly to think of him, and the realization that in a short time she'd be in his bed struck her in a very funny way. "Miss Albarn, this is my younger son, Soul Evans." She swallowed a knot that had formed in her throat and offered him a curtsy.

Soul didn't bow, didn't barely look at her, instead her turned to his father. "We've met' she told me she was the new maid."

"No, I didn't. I said I was to be employed here."

"Fine, whatever. She's an employee here. What's she to me?" She was once again struck by the fact that his looks couldn't cover up one hell of a sour attitude.

The father nodded. "She's going to be yours; an attendant, to keep you out of trouble. Your mother and I agreed that you need a companion, since you seem to get so lonely." Mr. Evans was putting a lot of emphasis on certain words, as if to try to delicately break that he'd gotten his son his own personal prostitute.

"Huh?"

"I'm to sleep with you." She finally just spat out.

"Maka!" Miss Marie all but hissed at her.

She was too tired of to be dealing with candy coating anything. She'd been told before her tongue would get her into trouble, but right then she didn't care; she had a foul taste in her mouth for the whole damn family.

Soul stared at her and blinked a couple of times, before slowly looking back to his father. "Excuse me?"

His father nodded. "She's a gift from us."

"I wasn't aware we were in the habit of giving people in this family." Soul looked downright disgusted. He turned around glancing at her for only a moment, obviously holding a temper. He then went to the door and sought out the butler that was patiently waiting outside. "Jack, will you show Miss Albarn to where she'll be staying? See that she has everything she needs; my father and I have some business to discuss." He didn't look at her again.

The whole conversation had all happened so quickly and she hadn't been sure what to expect, but the fury on the boy's face hadn't been one of them. As she was ushered from the room, she glanced over her shoulder to see Soul leaning on the desk straight into his father's face. She was glad to be getting the hell out of there, and all she could really process was that food, bath and a bed were close at hand and she was going to escape and pretend the rest of the world simply did not exist.