Learn your place (book 1)

Humiliation

The next ten days Diana had gotten into a pretty consistent routine. Malak would read her the list of chores the night before, in order for her to memorize them. He never failed tossing in a mouthful of mockery, reminding her of her illiteracy. She would repeat them in her head till she remembered them, and she would make sure they were always done. Every two or three days the gold men would add an extra chore to the list as if to test her limits. Every time she managed to get it all done. It didn't come easy though. Sometimes she would manage to stay awake for dinner, and other times she could hardly will herself to get to the kitchen at all. It made her wonder if the gold statues even noticed that it was wearing her out. So far they added three extra chores, and knew they would likely add more in the coming weeks.

Alexander was her favorite of the men, or at least the one she despised the least, but ever since Benjamin called him a softie he's been much more stern, and she hated it. It did suck, but somehow Benjamin has sucked less. Before her daily tasks were finished, Benjamin always picked a random one to give her criticism. There was always something that could have been done better, but he became less scolding and more casual with it. Still she hardly spoke a word to him a day, and the less they spoke the less upset she was. As far as James was concerned, James had eventually learned that she wasn't worth his time and stopped trying to seduce her, which stopped Thomas from teasing James about it, so she had finally gotten to normalcy.

Unfortunately chore wise normality was becoming miserable. The boys were becoming a bit degrading and it was making her stomach turn. During times that she finished her chores,  and had to wait on them such as tea time, or meals, they treated her more like a plaything. James's flirting went down to humiliating her. The occasional tap on her rear made her jump a few times, and if it wasn't that Benjamin would make some remarks about her tiniest slip up. If she hunched over even for a moment, she was to straighten up, and stop "looking like a washer woman." Or if she tripped on the carpet she should've watched where she was going and stop getting distracted. She was starting to wonder what was stopping her from just sneaking out in the middle of the night and just throwing herself to the wolves.

"Diana?..."

"Diana..."

"DIANA!"

"Huh?!" She snapped back to her job, her tea pot nearly falling from her grasp. Benjamin was staring daggers at her. "Please, Miss Blarney Stone! Do pay attention!" He said holding up his cup. This was now common place. It seemed Benjamin always had an Irish slur at the ready. She focused on pouring the tea into his cup. It was hard to focus when you were worried about what your next hardship would be. He held it up for her to place sugar in it. Two cubes. Just they way he liked it. "Anyways where was I?" He asked stirring the sugar in. "Ah, yes, the ball. Have we decided where it will be? I was considering asking the Wiltshire's, but their ballroom is rather, err..... small." He said awkwardly. Diana heard about this ball a few days earlier. She didn't ask details since the men were growing more comfortable tossing her around. They hardly did anything apart from preparing food and drink. Quite recently her newest job was shining shoes. It was a lot for one girl to take on her own.

"This is getting ridiculous Benjamin. We can't keep renting other manors for parties. I do believe the time has come to host our own parties, here." Alexander explained. Half the men almost choked on their tea when he proposed the idea. James set his tea down. "Don't be daft. You know we only have one servant. How are we supposed to keep the guests satisfied when half the guests are starving." He argued. Diana was placing biscuits on Thomas's plate, listening to them talking about her ability to feed a bunch of gold jerks. Alexander leaned back. "I do believe that a few of them have a reliable staff that can handle their own. I say we borrow a few for the ball. Consider them on loan. A temporary job." They discussed it, and decided that it was settled that they would employ a few staff members from other manors to wait on their guests.

Just then Thomas called Diana over. She came with the tea pot, and waited for Thomas to hold out his cup. "Sit down." He said blankly. Her mouth opened slightly not knowing what he meant. "I beg your pardon?" She whimpered. "I said sit down." He pulled her down into a chair. She fell in and didn't know what their next cruel prank would be. Thomas poured a cup of tea, and offered it to her. "You should have some tea." He said handing her a cup. They added a cube of sugar, and cream. She looked at the drink, feeling a bit put on the spot. "That's very kind of you, but no thank you." She said placing it on the table. The men all stared at one another. Thomas persisted. "Oh come now, you haven't had a cup since you arrived." He said holding it up. He was practically one moment away from pouring it down her throat. "Please, Thomas. Stop Thomas, stop." The boys were snickering as Thomas was leaning into her to give her the tea. She felt the warm tea lightly spill onto her chest till she hollered.

"I DON'T DRINK TEA!"

After that all she heard was the tea cups all clattering around her followed by gasps. The boys all dropped their cups in unison, from the collective shock. Not because she raised her voice but because of their disbelief that she didn't drink tea. Benjamin dropped his saucer as well. "No..." he gasped slowly pulling his lips up to a grin. He looked at the others to take in their flabbergasted expressions. James mouth was covered, and Alexander was trying to make sense of it "What do you mean you don't drink tea? This is basically all we drink!" He said not tolerating this. "Everybody likes tea." She sneered in his direction. "Well consider me a nobody." She said picking up the tea cups on the verge of tears. Benjamin laughed. "Perhaps we should've gotten into the Irish spirit and offered her an ale." She wanted to tell him that she didn't drink, but what was the point? "I'll grab some clean cups. I'll be back soon."

She walked off. Once she she was out they heard her crying. There was no mistaking it. Once he heard it Alexander wanted to get up, but Benjamin pinned his hand down onto the armrest. "No, Alexander. She must learn her place. When we do have this party she must remember she is a peasant, and we are her masters." He raised an eyebrow. "You don't want the others to beat her to death do you?" He kept his sharp gaze locked on the one in black. "I understand. She's the new pet. You don't want her to avoid you. Think of her as an intruder. At one point she was one. If James and Thomas didn't persuade Malak to let her stay, we would've been combing her blood out of our shiny gold hair, with a smile on our face." Benjamin was making several points. "You're right, Benjamin." He said leaning back in his seat. "Of course I am." Benjamin scoffed.

~~~~~

Diana wiped her tears away trying her damndest to save face. She quickly grabbed four clean cups, and placed them on a tray to take out to the others. When she returned Alexander kept his head down, and even though Benjamin had no eyes his grin said his gaze was following her around the room. Thomas looked like he was swallowing a laugh, and James looked up. "I'm sorry Thomas spilled some tea on you." He said looking at her. James sounded like he was the first to care. "Let me take care of that for you." She thought he was going to grab a cloth to give her. It was not the case. He stood up and took his index finger running it above her chest sweeping it across the wet spot on her skin slowly licking it off his finger. When he tried to do it again she turned away, and grabbed the tea pot refilling their tea cups quickly.

Alexander couldn't stop the humiliation but he felt like touching her chest was too much, so before James could even get a second chance he spoke. "Diana I wanted to tell you that we will be having a guest tomorrow at noon." Her ear perked up. "There's... another one like you... coming tomorrow?" He nodded. "Yes, they are bringing a butler and a maid. I'm sure you will make them feel welcome?" She nodded and continued her duties till the tea was completely gone. Once they left, she worked on cleaning up the area. This was her worst bout of humiliation yet, and now that Benjamin was rubbing off on all of them, she had no reason to leave her room after her work hours.

~~~~~

As the men parted ways, Alexander grabbed James by the back of the jacket. He then slammed him against the wall. "Now you listen to me you little slime ball. I do not condone what you just pulled. I have bit my tongue on harassment, but reach for her breasts again, and Malak will find you a new home. I don't care if you fancy her. You cannot court her. Diana has learned her place. Perhaps it's time you learned yours." He unlatched his hand from him, and turned away. As he walked away, he heard him call out. "You're just jealous that I'm more handsome than you." He bit the side of his cheek and stormed off to his study.