Reaver's Servants
The Smudge
"WILLA! BERYL! GET DOWN HERE AT ONCE!"
That shout, followed by angry tapping from a walking stick, gave the two maids a horrible cold shock through their systems. Willa and Beryl had been instructed by their boss to clean up the guest rooms (they weren't expecting anyone, Reaver just liked to have them clean just in case) but now felt that task would have to wait.
The morning had started off well enough. The weather as of late had been unfavorable, as the snow was starting to melt and rain had been in the forecast for at least a week. Though there was overcast, the day was pretty clear and the servants found relief at the prospect of leaving the manor after being cooped up for so long. The windows welcomed brief moments of sunshine every now and then, but the day stayed gloomy all the same. It wasn't until late morning that things started to get interesting.
One would think that after having a brand new portrait of himself commissioned and nearly finished, Reaver would be in a better mood. Well, he was not.
Willa and Beryl slinked from the upstairs and slowly made their way in front of their boss. Reaver stood in the middle of the foyer, leaning against his walking stick. The servants often wondered why he had a walking stick if he had no need of one. Sometimes, Reaver would chase them with it if they did something wrong and sometimes smacked their behinds with it. Barry told them it was more for fashion and crowd control than for an actual limp or anything of the sort.
When Willa and Beryl stepped in front of their boss, they could tell this wouldn't end well. Reaver didn't speak immediately. He only glanced around and then back to the two bewildered maids before him. "Ladies, what do you see here?" Reaver asked, pointing to the floor. The foyer floor was some type of marble tile that Reaver took pride in.
Not sure what he was pointing to specifically, the girls just looked at each other. "The floor, Mr. Reaver." Beryl answered simply. Reaver's chuckling at Beryl's simple answer was unsettling. Despite the chuckles, Beryl felt this wasn't the answer Reaver wanted, so she thought hard. "A checkered pattern not unlike a chess board, to be precise."
Reaver's chuckle turned into an even more unsettling guffaw that caught the attention of Rosie, who was passing through the foyer from the study and Reavie, who was napping on the piano stool near the front door. Reaver looked at Rosie, who stopped dead in her tracks. "My dear Rosie, tell me what you see here." Reaver pointed to a specific spot on the floor with his walking stick.
Rosie bent down slightly and then back up again. Straight as a pole, Rosie turned to her boss. "It looks like a smudge of dirt, Sir." She answered simply.
With an approving nod, Reaver waved Rosie away and then glared at Willa and Beryl. "Why can't you two see a deeper meaning, like Rosie?" Reaver mumbled. Willa and Beryl bent down and took a closer look. There was indeed a small smudge of dirt, barely noticeable, almost under Reaver's walking stick. "It is your duty to keep the front of the house clean and yet you let refuse stain my beautiful imported marble floors!" Reaver tapped his walking stick fiercely on the spot, making it bigger.
Huddled together and quivering, Willa and Beryl stood there in complete silence. Reaver didn't give them a chance to explain themselves. "Clean up the entire foyer again and get rid of that smudge!" With that, Reaver cantered off. Willa looked at Beryl, who only shrugged.
As the two girls examined the offending smudge, Barry saw Reaver off. "You're in charge while I'm at the factory as usual, Hatch. Make sure all the chores get done and I had better not see that smudge when I return this evening." Reaver announced, loud enough for Willa and Beryl to hear. "Tell Miss Sarah I want that salmon in the ice box for dinner tonight." Barry handed Reaver his hat and waved as he left.
Barry turned around and walked over to the two maids. Beryl adjusted her glasses and tried to see the spot better. "What do you think it is?" she asked, placing her glasses over her eyes again. Willa shrugged and stood back up. "If we knew what this stain was, we'd probably get a better idea of how to get it off."
"Mr. Hatch, do you know what this stain is?" asked Willa.
Shaking his head, Barry knelt down and cocked an eyebrow. "My eyesight isn't what it used to be, but if I had my guess I'd say it is ink mixed with mud." He answered, standing back up. Barry rubbed his chin and thought harder. "I hope it's not ink because if it is, there is no way to get it up." With that, Barry left to begin his rounds.
Barry's statement didn't give either girl hope. "It's not dark enough to be ink or mud." Beryl chirped.
"Well, whatever it is, good old soap and water should do the trick." Willa directed Beryl to a nearby closet and took out a mop bucket and a mop. "Go to the kitchen and have Miss Sarah fill up this bucket. I'll start looking for the floor cleaner."
When Beryl left, Willa started digging through the closet. Not knowing what the stain was wasn't going to stop Willa from doing her job. Every cleaning apparatus that Reaver allowed the girls to use was in the foyer closet. Bottles of cleaner, varnish, polish, and some scented oils were at Willa and Beryl's disposal on a daily basis. Reaver often thought he was giving them too much power, but Barry often assured him that two girls couldn't get into much trouble with cleaning products.
Barry has been wrong on many such occasions, most of which Reaver doesn't know about.
When Beryl returned with the water filled bucket, Willa started looking over the cleaning products. "Let's see…this stuff should work." Willa shouted excitedly. She held in her hand a bottle of yellow liquid, the label had fallen off long ago and the liquid already looked watered down. Willa poured the entire bottle into the bucket with the already soapy water. Beryl took the mop handle happily and sloshed the water around with an almost child-like joy.
With one swoop, Beryl mopped up the area of the offending smudge. Willa and Beryl looked down at the tile with renewed hope only to have it dashed. The smudge was still there, and now it was somehow a lot more noticeable. Willa cocked an eyebrow as Beryl mopped up the tile again. The smudge stayed right where it was. Beryl tried again. And again. And again. She kept trying until the mop itself was completely dry. Beryl eventually tired herself out and leaned the mop handle against nearby pillar.
"It's a stubborn stain…" Willa remarked as Beryl regained her breath. Bending down, Beryl took her thumb nail and attempted to scrape the smudge up. It did little good. It wasn't until Beryl started scrapping harder that the smudge suddenly got bigger and bigger. "Stop, stop!" shouted Willa. Beryl looked at her thumb and then at the now bigger smudge. If it wasn't noticeable before, it was now. Still not knowing what the stain was, it was now as big as Beryl's thumb.
The girls stared at the stain, horrified. It seemed to take on a life of its own. "Eww, now it's bigger!" Beryl whined.
"Rosie knows about stains. She's cleaned Mr. Reaver's unmentionables many times. Maybe she can help us." Willa insisted. Beryl nodded, stopping herself from touching the smudge any more. During the day, Rosie was usually in the basement/laundry room if it was too cold outside. Most of her laundry duties required her to personally scrub all of Reaver's clothes. She often saved it for the end of the week, so her other cleaning duties wouldn't suffer too much. Despite Reaver's clothes being expensive and of fine fabrics, it often didn't take Rosie long to do the laundry.
The door to the basement/laundry room was tucked away near the kitchen. A dark, dank corner that the servants usually stayed away from, though Rosie had no problem with the basement. For some reason, the lights from the rest of the house never fully reached the corner where the door to the basement was. Beryl gulped loudly and followed behind Willa. "Well, here we are. The door to the basement is right ahead. In that dark corner where Mr. Reaver refuses to put more lights."
Willa summoned all her courage and reached for the doorknob. Before she could turn it, it started turning on its own. Willa and Beryl screamed loudly, falling backwards in fear. From the basement emerged Rosie, holding a basket full of wet clothes. Rosie herself was quite scary, but mostly harmless. "What are you two screaming about?" she asked, holding the basket close. The two didn't answer, so Rosie just shrugged and kept walking.
"Wait, Rosie!" Beryl shouted, picking herself up. Rosie stopped and turned around slowly. "That weird stain on the floor from earlier, do you know what it is?"
"We figured we've have a better chance of getting it up if we knew what it was." Willa picked herself up as well and straightened herself out. "Mr. Hatch thinks its ink and mud, but it's not dark enough to either one. We tried using soap and water, but that only made it worse. We figured since you deal with mysterious stains on a regular basis, maybe you'd know."
Rosie, not offended by the truth, placed her laundry basket down and followed Willa and Beryl back to the smudge. It was bigger than she remembered thanks to Beryl's thumb scrubbing, but it gave her more to work with than just a spot. Taking a close look, Rosie examined the spot and cocked an eyebrow. "I've worked with odd stains before, but this one is new." She murmured, standing up. "It kind of looks like soy sauce mixed with ground up seasoning."
All three girls got the same idea. "Miss Sarah!" they shouted, heading toward the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Miss Sarah was busying herself washing dishes. It was too early for lunch and the breakfast dishes still needed to be done. "How can one man make such a mess on one plate?" she asked, holding up Reaver's breakfast plate hopelessly. She submerged the plate again and kept scrubbing. She turned around slowly when the kitchen doors burst open. Miss Sarah turned around and grabbed a nearby towel to wipe her soapy arms off. "Oh, hello girls. What do you need?" she asked.
"Miss Sarah, can you help us with something?" asked Beryl, yanking Miss Sarah away from her dishes. Before she could respond, Miss Sarah found herself being tugged toward the foyer. Rosie pointed to the smudge the moment Miss Sarah was out of the kitchen. "Can you tell us how to get soy sauce off a tile floor?" Beryl asked again.
Miss Sarah knelt down and scratched her chin. "That's not soy sauce. It can't be." She mused, standing back up. "I haven't used soy sauce in a recipe since that sushi incident a month back. Mr. Reaver banned it from the house, remember? Did you try the soap and water Beryl came into the kitchen for earlier?"
The girls nodded in unison. Miss Sarah took the point of her shoe and rubbed it against the stain. It soon got bigger, to her and the others amazement. Miss Sarah looked closer and nodded. "Well, it's nothing from my kitchen, I can promise you that. From the looks of it, I'd say it's probably paint. Whatever it is, it's a recent stain. Why else would it still smear like that?"
With that, Miss Sarah went back to the kitchen. Beryl folded her arms as Rosie left to hang up the laundry outside. "Who around here paints?" she asked.
Willa leaned against the stair banister and thought for a moment. "Mr. Reaver recently had a painting commissioned, remember?" Willa shouted. "The artist came back to touch it up last night. Maybe the artist dropped some paint on the way out this morning! But it doesn't explain why it's still fresh."
"That might be because of the soap and water we used earlier. But in any case, the artist's stuff is still in the guest room, maybe there is some paint remover in there." With that, Beryl and Willa ran upstairs. The guest rooms shared the same wing as Reaver's room, Barry's room, and Reaver's office. The guest room was still covered in tarps and had paint equipment everywhere. "Alright, somewhere in here there has to be paint remover or some kind of cleaning agent for paint."
Beryl reached into a box and picked up the first thing she found. "All-purpose paint remover right here." Beryl shouted happily. "According to the label, it also strips varnish off wood and tastes good in salads."
"They weren't kidding when they said all-purpose." Willa laughed. "I'd rather not test the salad dressing theory, though. Let's get that stain cleaned up before Mr. Reaver gets home." The girls ran downstairs with the little glass container, happy that their mission was almost done. But it was terror that hit them like a ton of bricks when they came downstairs.
In the middle of the foyer sat Reavie, as happy as can be, covered from tails to ears in whatever the odd stain was. She mewed happily in that spot. Oddly, the rest of the foyer was still clean, but the tile with the smudge now had kitty pints and the smudge was much bigger. Willa and Beryl shrieked loudly. From one smudge came a plague of cat prints.
"REAVIE!" Willa and Beryl shouted together. "BAD KITTY!"
Rosie didn't seem to mind giving Reavie a bath. Reavie, despite being a cat, liked baths. "So, you've deduced the stain to be paint?" Rosie asked, scrubbing Reavie deep into her fur. Willa and Beryl nodded softly. "You'll need more paint remover/varnish stripper/salad dressing than that. I already used half a bottle on Reavie." Rosie leaned back as Reavie shook the suds off and waited for more scrubbing. "There might be some in the garden shed out back. I know Gordon uses some kind of chemical mixture to clean the tough stains out of the flower pots."
The girls left the house, looking defeated. "Miss Sarah will be calling us in for lunch soon. We've wasted almost half a day on one stain and we still have our other chores to do." Beryl whined.
Not one to admit defeat, Willa scratched her cheek and thought for a moment. "We started with a small smudge and now we a big blotch! It wasn't ink, it wasn't soy sauce, it's most likely paint, and our only can of paint remover has been used to wash the cat. If Gordon has something in the garden shed that we can use, maybe this day hasn't been a waste."
"Maybe if we used paint thinner, it will help get the stain up." Beryl chirped.
Willa shook her head. "I heard Mr. Reaver talking to that painter who did his latest portrait. Paint thinner damages marble. I don't think Mr. Reaver wants to have the entire floor redone, which is why he's making us clean it. This is one mean stain."
Beryl nodded. The girls looked around the garden but didn't see Gordon anywhere. They decided to just look through the garden shed themselves. When they reached the garden shed, they started digging through all the equipment. They couldn't find anything that matched Rosie's description of Gordon's special mixture.
"Maybe we can paint over the stain." Willa chirped. "But the thing is we don't have time to paint tile that Reavie messed up or for the paint to dry. Besides, I don't think that artist has any paint matching the tiles. We just need something a little stronger." That last word gave Willa and Beryl an idea. Grabbing what they could from the garden shed, the two ran back inside and found their mop bucket. "I have an idea, but I think we will need to keep the front door open so the fumes don't kill us." shouted Willa, her arms full of random cleaning agents.
Grabbing everything from the closet, Willa instructed Beryl to refill the mop bucket with clean water. "Alright, let's get to work." After opening the front doors, Willa found another bucket and started combining the cleaning agents from the closet and the chemicals found in the garden shed. The fumes were making Willa dizzy and she had to stop every so often to take another big breath of fresh air. When Beryl returned with the fresh warm mop water, the fumes fogged up her glasses.
"Willa, what is…?" Beryl put the mop bucket down and leaned against the stairs. "Woooohhh…" she moaned, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. "I haven't gotten a head rush like that since the ice cream cart at our old circus broke down and we had to eat the ice cream before it melted."
Willa fanned the fumes from her face and stood up to the best of her abilities. "Tell me about it. I still can't look at peppermint ice cream the same way. But we need to get this stain up and soon!"
Beryl put the mop into the bucket of chemicals and slushed it around. She pulled the mop up and noticed the mop head was gone. The end where the mop head used to be now had an ominous green glow and it was creeping its way toward the top of the handle. Beryl tossed the now useless stick down and gave Willa a worried look. "I don't think this is such a good idea, Willa. Liquid isn't supposed to glow like that. Or make such a weird humming sound." She chirped.
"We don't have any other choice!" Willa went to the closet and found another mop. "We'll just have to be quick." After the mixture stopped glowing, Willa dipped the new mop into the mixture and started mopping the spot of the stain. Beryl's eyes widened. The stain was gone. The girls celebrated and started putting their equipment away as Barry came downstairs.
"What is that…?" Barry didn't get to finish his sentence. When he stepped on the tile where the offending stain used to be, Barry's foot went right through the tile. With a yelp, Barry tripped and fell. Barry stood up and straightened himself out. To his and the girls' horror, the stain was gone, but now so was the entire marble tile. Whatever the mixture was, it ate through the marble tile as if it were nothing. Now instead of a stain, there was a hole. Barry looked down at the hole and then at Willa and Beryl.
Barry looked like he couldn't even speak. "Wha…" was all that was coming out of his mouth. "What…did you two do?!" he shouted, after regaining his composure. "How did you two go from a smudge on the floor to a hole in less than one afternoon?!"
"We couldn't get the stain up by normal means, so we…mixed all our cleaning products together…" Willa chirped.
Trying not to panic, Barry rubbed his head and turned his attention back to the hole. "Master Reaver is going to blame me for this, somehow. I knew I should have stayed down here to supervise you two. Alright, I have a plan but you two are taking full responsibility for this if Master Reaver finds out. I'm not biting the bullet for you two this time."
Agreeing with Barry, the two girls followed him back outside. "When Master Reaver first had the marble floors put in, there were some tiles left over since he miscalculated and ordered too many. Since they were so expensive, he didn't want to throw them out. The thing about marble is that it cracks like any other tile. So, I kept the extras in the garden shed just in case we needed to replace one."
"I didn't see any marble tiles earlier." Beryl insisted.
"They are in a trunk, along with some other odds and ends." Barry answered. Barry had the girls wait outside the garden shed as we went inside. He came back out with a fresh new tile. Barry was nice enough to carry it inside for them and help them set it in place. "Hopefully, he won't notice. I suggest polishing the rest of the foyer so they all match."
Barry decided to stay and watch them this time. He sat on the middle stair and watched as Willa and Beryl polished and waxed the entire foyer over and over again. Miss Sarah brought him a sandwich when the first coat was dry. After a few hours of polishing and buffing, the foyer glistened majestically. The shine was immaculate and Barry was even able to fix his hair in the reflection.
"Never…" Barry glared at the girls. "Do…that…again…"
With that, Barry left Willa and Beryl in the foyer. The two looked at each other and sighed. They didn't have much time to get the rest of their chores done.
When night time came, Willa and Beryl had just finished their chores. Reaver had returned home not long after that. Willa and Beryl nervously held each other has Reaver inspected the spot where the smudge would have been. Willa knew they were caught. The smell from their cleaning mixture was still somewhat present in the house and took most of the afternoon to air out. Reaver didn't ask why the front door and all the windows were open when he came home.
Reavie pawed at the tile as if she was digging, but Reaver shooed her away. After his inspection, Reaver stood up and straightened himself out. He turned to Willa and Beryl and smiled. "Girls, I am a gentleman first and foremost and I can admit when I was wrong. I can, but I won't. You two did well and I shall be adding a small bonus to your next pay."
Willa and Beryl practically melted when Reaver left the foyer. Barry walked up behind them and grinded his fists into their heads. "Don't do that again." He growled, following Reaver into the study.
Sitting on the middle stair, the two maids seemed pretty relieved that their nightmare was over. "We dodge a bullet, Willa." Beryl sighed, straightening her glasses. "We could have lost more than our jobs today if Mr. Hatch hadn't come to our rescue. What did you do with the rest of the cleaning mixture?"
"I paid the kid on the waste removal wagon to take it as far away from here as possible. Half of my pay is gone, but it's worth it to make sure this never sees the light of day again." Willa, obviously exhausted, got up from her spot and started up the stairs. Beryl was getting up just as Miss Sarah was passing by the stairs with a tray of tea.
The girls had their backs turned, but they heard it all. The hollow sound of marble being walked on, the sound of crashing, and Miss Sarah's yelp as she fell through the floor. The entire front of the manor shook. Willa and Beryl turned around slowly and shrieked in terror. The cleaning agent apparently ate through more than the tile, as the entire foyer floor under the tiles was completely gone. Miss Sarah wasn't skinny, but she was by no means fat enough to make an entire floor collapse. The girls figured that the rest of the floor finally gave way.
Willa and Beryl wasted no time walking around the hole and running out the front door. Reaver and the other servants heard and felt the commotion and ran into the foyer. Over Miss Sarah's soft moans of pain and soft whimpers for help, Reaver fumed and clenched his fists.
"…WILLA! BERYL…!"
Willa and Beryl were already passed the guard's booth when all of Millfields awoke to the sound of Reaver screaming for the two.
N'cha, everyone!
Don't worry, I promise Reaver will go easy on them haha.
I know it's been a few months since I've updated anything, and I wish to apologize for that. I've had a few issues going on that needed my attention and all of my projects have taken a back seat because of it. If you've read my profile, the reasons are listed there. I know I said a week and it's been… *looks at watch* three months, but I promise this won't happen again.
Luna Peachie loves you all and wouldn't just leave you hanging like that. Not on purpose, anyway lol.
So, what did you guys think? Was it worth the wait? I hope so, I know a lot of you guys are getting pretty impatient, and as a thank you, I want to let you guys know a little secret: The next chapter is going to start a series of events that's going to lead the very last chapter of this story. The ending is still a while off (a very long time, I have a lot of ideas I want to push out before I officially end this story). But if you guys pay close attention, you'll figure out something big.
So, how did I do? Was it worth the wait? I hope so. Let me know how I did in the review thingy and don't forget to add me to your watch over at deviantArt. That's where I post my updates and odd little musings. The name is LunaPeachieWasHere.
Oh! And I now have a Steam account as well! If anyone wants the name, just let me know and we can be friends on Steam! See what games I'm planning, who I'm Portal 2 co-oping with, stalk me...wait, no don't do that last part lol but I am always available for a chat if you just want to wax poetic haha.
And now, with this chapter, on the very first fic I ever post on this site, I officially declare my hiatus over. *fanfare and streamers*
Read, review, and be merry! Oh, and don't forget to take a break every now and then.
Reaver and Barry Hatch belong to Lionhead.