In Victorian England slums, the oldest and quietest girl of four trying to keep a roof over her family's head accepts a job with an odd staff and mysterious employer. Until she finds out all the maids before her are dead and she must face a mystifyi...
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"After almost three years of putting me through hell you come to claim forgiveness?" I walked away so he would not try to hold me down again, "you must be laughing at me."
"What would give you the impression of a joke?"
"Every time I take a resolve about you, every time I begin to accept reality and make peace with it, you come back and I begin this puzzle from the beginning, let me be sir!"
"No, I will not accept things are as they are."
"You must!"
"There is far too much we may not change, things which must be a certain way but not this, not us, not you," he touched the sleeve of my nightgown and tugged it down to see the top of my shoulder.
"Mr. Howard what do you think you are doing?" He swiped his finger over my lips.
"Every time I hear you call my name it beckons me to come to you, to take you Alice, to be yours..." He took me up to his lips and kissed me then I slapped him remembering how he almost married my mother, and of his obscure situation with Lydia.
"Liar!" I shouted after my hand had flung at his face made of stone which hurt my own hand in return. "What happened while I was away? Did you get sick of Lydia? Did she lose her day in the sun with you? Or did you find no one else to play your games with and decided to come for me?"
"Did I find no one else?" He was offended emphasizing the "I" to mention Mr. Henry which was another reason he deserved the slapped for he knew the rumors of Mr. Henry's proposal and alas how I would have no choice but to say yes to Mr. Henry.
"You made no apologies after I stood there watching the mother of your son kiss you, a son who feels the loss of his mother and will never know the truth about her! Then you decide to ask for an apology after so long and it is not even because of Lydia or everything else that you put me through?"
"I apologize for Lydia then!" He shouted and I pushed my hair back in anger.
"Oh thank you that was very sincere of you milord."
"Fine then I do not apologize, it was only a kiss, I did not plan for it."
"Only a kiss? Everything between us can be summed up the same way, only a kiss, do you not understand that?"
"No, not only a kiss."
"Yes only a kiss, a kiss here, a kiss there and nothing else."
"Nothing else?"
"No I forgot one thing, my mother."
"What about your mother?"
"Have you forgotten so quickly of your involvement with her now that she is sick?"
"I do not see what you are getting at?"
"How you almost married my own mother of all the ladies to choose from? You went and chose to pursue my mother."
