Waking up, Penelope felt a gentle shake of her shoulder, and opened her eyes to meet light brown ones staring down at her. The events of the previous night laid heavily on her mind and she controlled the desire to bolt out of her bed, when she noticed it was Victoria. She honestly felt as though last night had just been a horrid nightmare, but considering she could still smell the strong perfume Lucy used to wear on her, Penelope shuddered, knowing that it was definitely not a dream.

"Good morning mistress, Mr Faustus has gone out to do some business and he told me to inform you that he will not be too long. In the meantime he asks if you could perhaps make notes on some work he has left you in the study". Victoria was moving around as she spoke, carefully opening the curtains causing the disgruntled teen to shield her face using the covers as bright beams hit her tired eyes. Even though she had slept well, by the time she had fallen to sleep, she was sure it was way past midnight and because she was not accustomed to saying up so late, her mind and body resented being woken up. Even if it was nine o'clock.

"Morning Victoria, did he say what business he was dealing with?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes and allowed the maid to pass her dress for the day. Upon joining the estate, Victoria had allowed Penelope to dress herself, although she would never tell Claude this as he wouldn't agree. The only thing Penelope needed help with, was the corset.

For today, Penelope was given a dark purple dress with a lighter purple ribbon at the back. Penelope had never seen this dress before and narrowed her eyes wondering where it had came from. She was going to ask, but had already guessed that it was Claude's doing. The corset was almost black and she gasped as Victoria gave a slightly sharp tug on the ribbons lacing the corset together.

"My apologies mistress!" She exclaimed and backed away quickly. Waving her hand in response to demonstrate that she was fine, she gazed at herself in the mirror and smiled. She definitely looked older wearing darker colours and was shocked how well the colour made her of her skin look pale. Yet it was not unattractive, but rather more impressive. She had to admit as she looked closer, she looked striking. But like most girls, Penelope saw many faults with her image and turned away before she could analyse her image any further. For Penelope wasn't a vain person, but rather more of a realist when it came to her beauty. She knew that she was pretty, but would not have considered herself beautiful, especailly after her uncle had called her that. No, to Penelope true beauty didn't exist and the word 'beautiful' meant nothing to her if it was directed at her looks. Looking behind her, Victoria was standing near with a brush, and Penelope grimaced every time an unruly knot would get caught in the brush. After another ten minutes of failed attempts to control her hair, Victoria had pulled it back into a thick bun on the top of her head, allowing smaller curls to frame either side of her face. Thanking her, Penelope followed her to the kitchen, saying that she found the dinner table too lonely to each there by herself.

Victoria, although a little nervous, especially around the intimidating character of Claude, slowly but surely became more open with Penelope and even discussed her family. For a good hour they chatted and the two females even shared a few laughs. However, Victoria suddenly gasped.

"Mistress, it is almost eleven o'clock! Mr Faustus may be coming back soon and you have done no work. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble". She exclaimed worriedly. Nodding her head, Penelope stood up and made her way out of the room. Yet she stopped just as she was about to walk out completely.

"Thank you for your company Victoria, I have not felt quite so happy in a long time. And don't worry about Claude, I wouldn't allow him to punish either of us". Smiling she gave a wave at the maid and was glad to see Victoria looking a little less worried.

But knowing that Claude still wouldn't be impressed if she didn't complete her work, she suddenly lifted her dress and began running to the study. Sitting down, and feeling a little out of breath, she rubbed her eyes before doing some hard work.

It was about an hour later and she was thoroughly enjoying herself. Claude had left her some history work to complete and immediately she became consumed by the events she was reading out. The work he wanted her to focus on was the english civil war of 1642. She had written several pages of notes about the build up to civil war, including the extravagance of James I of England and VI of Scotland. She found the monarchy particularly interesting and soon had become absorbed in learning about his son, Charles, who ultimately lost his head. She was in fact so absorbed in the story, that she gave a loud scream when a hand placed a letter down in front of her.

"My apologies, Mistr- Penelope" he corrected himself. "I didn't mean to alarm you. Although I must say, I'm quite impressed by your work ethic today". He added as he picked a piece of paper of the floor, which had fallen without her noticing.

"May I ask where you had gone so early this morning?" She asked as she started to open the letter that he had placed in front of her. When he didn't reply, she ignored him and carried began to read the letter. The letter had a beautiful font and she marvelled how someone could write so elegantly.

Dear Lady Penelope,

You are personally invited to the masquerade ball which will be at the beginning of next month, and are expected to dress accordingly...

The letter went on to describe the event in greater detail, discussing entertainment and other frivolous things. She blinked as she read it and bit her lip as she looked at the bottom of the letter.

Yours most humbly,

Viscount of Druitt, Lord Aleister Chamber.

She could only guess that the Viscount had in fact not written the letter, as it was most likely his butler, but she felt quite honoured to be invited somewhere. She hardly got any invites anymore, especially after her parents had died. It had seemed as though the world had forgotten about her. Handing Claude the letter, he took it from her and scanned the page, his eyes looking rather bored at the fancy writing.

"Do you think I should go?" She asked, uncertainty laced in her voice.

"I wouldn't have bought you a dress, had I not accounted on you going Penelope" came Claude's calm reply. Before she could say anything, Victoria had knocked lightly in the door and came in with her head bowed.

"Dinner is ready" she said and then proceeded to walk out. Getting out of her chair, Penelope stopped and turned to Claude.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, not only have I not forgotten about what happened last night but now this. After dinner, please meet me in the living room and perhaps you can actually enlighten me to what is going on. As oddly enough I'm feeling rather confused". Her voice became slightly colder as she finished her sentence and didn't wait for his reply. However, just as she was about to leave the room she stopped once more.

"And for Victoria's sake, please can you dismiss her, or send her to collect something from town. She doesn't need to hear any of what we will discuss as I don't fancy loosing another maid". And with that she walked out of the door, missing the smirk that was plastered to Claude's usually emotionless face.

'I'm so very glad the dress I bought her suites her so well' he thought as he began to tidy away her work. 'I believe the ball-gown I chose will make her look even more radiant'. And with that thought, Claude carried on with his jobs before making his way to the young maid, ready to give her a time consuming job for the rest of the evening.

A/N

Thank you S-Lioness for the lovely reviews! The next chapter should be more interesting hopefully! Hope everyone is enjoying it so far and can't wait to see what you guys think of it :)

Also I'm a massive history nerd and couldn't help getting in my favourite period of history in this story. Thankfully I managed to prevent it becoming a history essay!