You Belong To Me

Chapter Intended

Chapter Intended
'i have always lived a life of preordained privilege.
living without plans in for the poverty stricken.'
the intended...

The old estate had not changed much at all in the time Ali had been gone. Most of the staff was even still the same with the exception of the occasional footman or scullery maid Ali had never seen before. All of it was very strange considering her capacity in the house was completely different than the last time she was housed there.

Now she was a guest of sorts. Upon arrival someone had opened her door. She'd only been inside four cars in her whole life and no one had ever opened her door for her before Theodore. What's more she was allowed admittance into the estate through the front door. Ali took in the surroundings. She'd never before seen the foyer of that house. Her instructions there had been menial things, changing sheets or beating drapes for dust. She had put coals in the upstairs parlors once but that was all she could remember about what she'd seen of the house.

There were two sets of grand stairs the color of richly polished brown oak wood. There were two couches, both a greenish color, and a large round table in the center of the tall room with the grand shining chandelier. The stairs gave way to a balcony but there was one more rail of Oakwood above that, a balcony to the third floor. Ali could only turn in circles in wonder. To think she'd lived in this house for almost eleven years and she had not even seen it... not really.

The butler was the same man. Ali had tried to smile at him when he closed the front door behind her but he had had none of the look. Instead he peered down his thin nose at her and declared that he would 'show her to her quarters.'

She was shown to a room that looked entirely spun of gold. There was a small sitting area with two high backed white leather chairs beside a fire already lit. The rug underneath them looked plush and inviting to lie upon and think. Her bed was draped in fine gold linens. Even her sheets were the color of hay in the summertime. The drapes here freshly beaten, she could tell by the smell of them, and the beige marble floors underneath her feet had been newly polished. She timidly touched the chase lounge whose fabric sparkled with the hints of its own spun gold. A small set of lamps on either side of the bed lit the room just barely, perfectly really, as the butler informed her that her things had been tucked away in the closet in the adjoining bathroom.

"I will leave you to your rest. If you'd like anything at all, simply ring for it."

"Do you remember me?" Ali blurted.

He did not seem kind around the eyes of his stoic facial expression. It was like his face did not even move. If there was any recognition or gentleness about him she certainly couldn't see it. "No ma'am, I can't say that I do."

"Is the young lord back?"

"No, ma'am."

When she worked in this house he called her girl. And he never actually referred directly to her, Instead he communicated things scullery maids did to the housekeeper, even if they were in the room. 'Send the girl to polish the silver, no pilfering!' or 'have the girl strip the beds on the left side of the third floor on the west wing.' He had to have remembered her. But as she was not there under the same terms as she'd once been it would have been inappropriate for him to speak to Ali at all, about anything that didn't directly serve her as she was now a guest of the St. Laurent's and therefore above the staff.

When the door closed she was very aware of her aloneness despite the crack of the fire. She was also, looking around the giant room even bigger than Abigail's parlor, very aware of what wing of the house she'd been ushered to. What half of the house.

While she picked through the bathroom sinks. Finer porcelain items than anything she'd ever seen in her life, she wondered why she had not attempted to run again along the way. Her mind conjured up images of Theodore gassing up the automobile. Of all the times she might have made a clean getaway if she'd calmed herself long enough to think.