Argute Manor

03 'dinner'

"Sometimes it's inevitable, but when we can make sacrifices, we do."

── 〔  🗝️ 〕──

Luckily we didn't run into Caspian for the remainder of the tour. It ended promptly after he had made his entrance, anyway. Mason told me that I had free roam of the house, except for any doors that were locked. This included the second floor, where their bedrooms were, the basement and another secret door that I didn't know led to. He dropped me off to my room with a smile, and instructed me to go to the dining room at seven, for dinner.

After he left, I locked the door and shuffled to my bed, before jumping into it face-first. My stomach came into contact with something crinkly, and after a bit of a struggle, I pulled out a piece of paper that now had fresh creases. Oops.

My eyes narrowed to read the teeny words, but adjusted soon after, to find that it was a timetable of sorts. After scanning it once, my mouth only curved further down.
   My day would start at six, where I was expected to eat breakfast before making everyone else's. Then, I'd have to clear the dining room and kitchen until about nine, where I'd then move on to dust the library. At eleven, prepare and serve lunch as well as clean up after. From two until five, I was expected in the ballroom. Afterwards, a quick sweep of any other ground-floor rooms I had yet to clean before starting on dinner at six. At half-nine, I was allowed to retire to my own room.

It could have been worse...but it certainly wasn't ideal! I thought I was just a cleaning lady, so why was I in charge of making meals? Even though I had told Julian that I was confident in cooking, I didn't expect to take on another big responsibility! Was this even in my contract? Honestly, I felt like I was a maid in the Victorian era.

Groaning at the prospect of doing more chores, I instead decided to focus on unpacking. The timetable only seemed to be for tomorrow, so perhaps I'd get a new schedule everyday. Hopefully they'd be more lenient in the coming days.
   After placing the paper on my desk, I had nothing better to do, so I got out of bed and began exploring the room. Some of the doors and shelves of the dressers were stiff while others had layers of dust settled on them so most of my clothes remained folded in my suitcase.

I organised the clothes I could, as well as my toiletries, into their respective places. Though my room wasn't an en-suite, the door to my bathroom was literally three steps away once out in the hallway, so it wasn't that bad travelling in and out.

It took me about an hour to settle in, and glancing up at the small clock above my desk told me that I had some spare minutes before I was summoned to dinner. Luckily, this house—manor—was more library than living quarters, so I picked up a random book from the shelf and began reading. It took a while to properly get invested but by the time I did, a knock sounded at my door.

Patting my hair down to look presentable, I opened it to find Mason on the other side. "Hi," he breathed out. "I decided to collect you instead, since I didn't want you to walk in alone."

"Oh, that's, um, very considerate of you," I smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem!" he beamed. "Are you ready to go?"

We walked side-by-side as he chattered mindlessly about his favourite foods, occasionally asking me for my opinions. Unlike other chatty people I encountered in the past, Mason seemed to be the least obnoxious. He had a nice voice for storytelling.

Since the doors to the dining room were a double set, we pushed one each and were welcomed to a pleasant view. The long, mahogany table, that seemed to span at least eight feet, had been set up with plates and cutlery already. A candelabra was situated in the centre along with some bread and fruit in baskets.