I'm surprised I managed to get this finished in time but I did!
Chapter 4
"My Lord, I present to you Ian Taylor."
Ian stood before the Earl of Croydon as Edmund introduced him. He was trying to make a good impression, maintaining good posture with his hands behind his back, his head slightly bowed in respect and he wouldn't speak a word until he was spoken to. Edmund gestured towards him with a bow and took a step back, and the earl finally stood from his throne-like chair and approached Ian. He walked slowly, looking down on him with an unreadable expression. Ian did his best to hide his nerves.
He listened carefully as the earl explained to him the rules of the household and the skills he would learn as a servant, and the logistics of his wages being sent back home to his parents. Ian nodded along throughout, until the earl was about to finish and asked if he understood. Again, Ian nodded.
"Yes, sir."
Behind him, Edmund took in a sharp breath as the earl stiffened, his eyes narrowing and his teeth gritting behind his lips. He kept his composure as he came a little closer and leaned down.
"I will leave you with this one piece of advice, Ian," he said in a low voice, "Do not address me as anything else but 'my Lord', or 'your Lordship'. I have earned that title, and I expect you to respect it. Do I make myself clear?"
Ian gulped and glanced over at Edmund, who stared back at him with wide eyes, motioning for him to nod. He did, turning his attention back to the earl, "Yes, my Lord."
The earl's demeanour suddenly changed. He straightened up again and smiled almost warmly down at Ian, and waved Edmund over.
"Edmund, show Ian around and introduce him to the rest of the staff, then take him to the servants' quarters. Make sure he's well acquainted with his surroundings, I want him ready to begin working as soon as possible."
Edmund bowed, "Yes, my Lord," and escorted Ian out of the room. Once the door was shut behind them, he turned to him and whispered, as if someone might overhear him, "He takes his rules very seriously, you know. You'd better stick to them."
Ian wasn't sure what to make of that. All he could think to say was "I will."
– SUCH SWEET SORROW –
The first member of the Earl of Croydon's staff who Edmund decided to take Ian to was the cook; a woman in her thirties named Agnes with a soft, round face, bright eyes and a friendly, somewhat motherly smile, which she flashed as the boys entered the kitchen. She dusted the flour off her hands and looked Ian up and down, one hand now on her hip.
"Ah, the new kid's arrived, has he? What do they call you, then, love?"
"Ian, ma'am."
Agnes scoffed, "Now, I'll have none of that 'ma'am' business 'round here, it's just Aggie to you, alright?"
He cracked a smile, "Alright."
"Good. Have you gotten the whole rundown from his lordship already?" she asked with a slight smirk, tilting her head back in the direction of the earl's quarters. Ian nodded and Agnes turned back to her work as she went on, "Well, be sure not to get into any trouble with him, Ian. He's absolutely full of himself, and lord knows no-one can take him seriously sometimes, but still," she paused and looked Ian in the eye, suddenly serious, "You don't want to anger him. So just mind how you go," she smiled again, "And I'm here to help should you ever need it. If Ed can't handle it, of course."
She shot Edmund a teasing look and he just nodded once in return, then with a short goodbye, he escorted Ian out of the kitchen.
The tour continued on around the house, and Ian could hardly believe how far it seemed to stretch on compared to the homes he was used to seeing. It went even beyond the necessary space required to house the earl's small staff, and yet, as Ian was shocked to learned, the earl apparently often complained about it being small. He wondered how massive other courtiers' homes must be to warrant even thinking such a thing.
A few times, Edmund would tell Ian a room or area was off-limits, except under very specific circumstances, when the earl himself gave permission, and quickly move on. At one point, though, Ian stopped still, and Edmund stopped to question why. Ian cocked his head, looking thoughtfully at the closed door in front of him.
"You know, I've gotten away with sneaking into places before. The earl wouldn't have to know."
But when he looked at Edmund expecting at least a smile or a roll of the eyes, he was in fact met with a stern, almost frightened, frown. Edmund shook his head quickly, and leaned in close.
"Don't even joke about that, Ian," he hissed, as if the Earl of Croydon could be eavesdropping, "It isn't worth the risk. Come on."
He set off again, and Ian could only follow him.
– SUCH SWEET SORROW –
He really didn't know what Edmund was so worried about.
Ian's first few days on the job went quite well; far better than he had expected based on the warnings his new friend had given him. Although he did wish he could have more free time, he'd settled nicely into the new routine and the rest of the staff seemed friendly enough to get along with. He shared his small room with Edmund, of course, along with a stable boy and a couple of other young men who took care of their own areas of expertise. Over the course of that week, Ian had gotten a taste of each of their roles, shadowing them for a while, watching and learning. More often than not, he was following Edmund around, but he did spend a decent amount of time with each of them, as well as with a selection of the female servants, where it made sense to, one such place being the kitchen. He'd been glad to see Agnes again so soon.
But he couldn't help but wonder what exactly his position here was supposed to be. He was only ever told that the earl was looking for a new servant, not any particular kind of servant. Was that normal?
It had to be. That was the way it was going. And not one of the other servants acted like it was anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps he would be considered some sort of an apprentice. Perhaps it was just standard procedure at this early stage to have a new employee try different roles to see where best to place him. Whatever the reason, Ian was just doing his best to stay out of trouble.
He caused Agnes some annoyance in that area.
She was generally easy-going and was usually up for a chat, so long as she wasn't distracted from working, but it was evident that Ian might be pushing her to her limit. She hadn't shouted at him or anything (at least not yet), but she would absolutely make it clear when she was about to snap, and Ian would drop his head and grumble to himself, but comply.
Sometimes he was simply spending a little too much time on chatting rather than paying attention to Aggie's cooking lesson, but sometimes he got bored.
Aggie snatched the salt from his hand before he could add a single grain more to the soup.
"Give me that!" she shot him a sharp scowl as she quickly moved it out of his reach, "I've had about enough of these little pranks, Ian, what do you think you're playing at, eh?"
"It was just a bit."
"It was certainly more than a 'bit' last time, wasn't it? And I just barely saved it then," she said with a scoff as she went back to stirring.
"Maybe his lordship would like something... different...?" he mused, a mischievous glint in his eye, but Aggie was having none of it.
"And maybe you would like to lose your job," she said plainly and Ian huffed. Aggie sighed and crouched slightly to his level. She met his eyes, stern but gentle, "You have a duty not only to this household and his lordship, but to your own family, remember. Do you want to be sent back home with nothing?"
"... No..."
"Then do as you're told."
– SUCH SWEET SORROW –
It only took a single word to knock Ian back down again.
A minor slip up like spilling a few drops of wine wasn't something to be too concerned about, especially so early on, and it hadn't even begun to stain. But that didn't matter.
Ian quickly stooped to clean up the small mess, Edmund and the earl both watching him closely.
"I'm sorry, sir, I won-"
A hand clamped onto his shoulder and the words died on his tongue as he looked up in newfound fear at the earl glaring down at him.
"What did you just say?"
Ian cast his eyes over to Edmund, who stared back at him, visibly concerned, and realised what he'd done wrong.
"M-my mistake," he stammered out, "My Lord-"
But the earl's grip on him only tightened as he wrenched Ian back up into a standing position.
"No, no," he silenced the young boy, "Answer my question. What did you say, Ian?"
His mouth ran dry and he gulped nervously.
"... S-sir..."
"Sir," the earl parroted, "Sir...! The disrespect! Does my title mean nothing to you?" his voice thundered and Ian was frozen to the spot. He dropped to the floor as the earl released his shoulder and started to pace in a circle around him. Ian began to frantically apologise and correct himself, and quickly turn to begging for forgiveness when the earl said nothing. His face was stone, and his steps were slow and solid against the floor. Now, after the anger he had shown mere seconds ago, this quiet was even more intimidating to Ian.
The earl came to a stop in front of him, and opened his mouth to speak, but Edmund, apparently having mustered up the nerve to say something, stepped in between them, giving the earl a pleading look.
"Please, my Lord, he hasn't been with us for long. He is still learning, and it's only his first offence," he said with such desperation, Ian almost didn't know what was happening, "An-and there shan't be a second. It won't happen again, my Lord. I'll see to it."
There was a pause, then the earl straightened up, looking down his nose at the both of them. He turned his attention to Edmund.
"You are responsible for him, Edmund, Remember that. His transgressions reflect on you as well as himself. So, yes. See to it," he then looked back at Ian, "Watch your tongue, lad. Now. As you were."
It took several seconds for Ian to stop shaking.
"Come on," Edmund muttered to him gently, "Let's get back to work."
