Her life had once been perfect…
She couldn't remember her Mama, being a little under three when she had died, but she loved her Ayah fiercely and he loved her just as hard.
They lived on a large estate, with a small team of loyal servants. They looked after her when her Ayah was away for his work. Miss Lillian the cook, Mr Wayne the valet/chauffer, Mr Perce the groundskeeper and Mr Ned the gardener. A boy called Conrad came from the one of the farms to care for the horses and help Rigsby with the carriages.
Sometimes, when Ayah was home from his frequent trips and went to work daily, he would take her with him. Five-years-old and she adored dressing up in her finest clothing and riding in the best carriage, Mr Wayne up front driving the horses and Conrad riding on the back to assist them down when they arrived.
Bapa, as she called him when in company, would stride through the fine halls of the Big House where he worked, and she'd trot beside him to keep up, excited to be out for the day. The last hall they came to was always full of people dressed even more finely than she was. Bapa stood out here, dressed in only the best cloth but in the traditional dress of his people.
Once there he would greet the man sitting on the shiny chair with a respectful bow and take his place at the right and slightly behind the chair, with her Bapa Saudara standing similarly behind the man's left, then the man would turn to her and beckon her forward. She loved the man like a Pakcik. Bapa would sigh with fond exasperation as she would be given something sweet.
'Jeff. You'll spoil her dinner.'
'Nonsense, Kyrano. It's just one sweetmeat. Anyway, Little Tan deserves to be spoiled.'
She would take the sweet and savour it. Sometimes she would sit beside her Bapa as people came and went, talking to the man named Jeff while she drew or daydreamed, but mostly she would be collected by a servant and taken to play and learn with the other children.
There were five in the big house. Sometimes in her dreams she almost remembers their names, but they were always gone when she woke. The eldest two were older and bigger than her, and she had vague memories of one being a quiet reader and the other being always on the go. The middle child was the same age as her, and they would often spend hours drawing and painting or she'd curl up underneath the giant piano with the fourth-born son as the middle child played. She had even more fleeting memories of the youngest, the baby was not around too often.
Then one day, when she was seven, everything changed.
She didn't know what had happened, didn't find out for a long time. Ayah went away as usual with the man called Jeff and then neither came back. For a short time everything went on as normal, but then one day her Bapa Saudara came to visit.
And he stayed.
With him he brought his own servants, and by the end of the first week all the familiar faces had disappeared. But there were worse things to come.
Bapa Saudara brought a girl and a boy with him. The girl, older by around two years, was harsh and cruel. The boy, clearly not physically related but he called her 'sister', was a little kinder when the girl wasn't around, but when she was he was completely different.
Bapa Saudara introduced them as her sepupu. Cousins.
With her friends gone and the visits to the big house a fading memory along with her life of comfort and happiness, she found herself cook, cleaner and more to her sepupu while her Bapa Saudara continued to leave every day for his work, whatever that was.
She grew strong under the constant nature of the chores she had to perform, working from dawn to dusk, and late into the night to keep the large house and estate going without any help from anyone.
Forgetting the life she once had and the people she once knew, Little Tan grew up.