On a time when women did not have rights on their own, and were expected to marry young, Janet finds herself with the responsibility of managing an estate and following society's expectations of a proper lady. At the same time a suitor and an old fr...
The big manor was full of noise and life as every servant moved about the colossal house, attending to their daily tasks and the added ones of preparing for a ball. One of the servants was opening the curtains of the purple room to let in the bright light of the waking sun, while the little girl of the house moved around her gigantic bed trying to avoid being woken up so early in the day. In her 12 years old mind, waking up so early should have been deemed unholy, but the child knew to wake up nonetheless. As she stands up from her bed, the same servant sets up the basin with water to clean her face and puts out the flowy blue dress the girl was going to wear.
After the girl cleans up and puts her dress on for the day, she refuses to tame her bright curly red hair in any sort of decent hair style, and decides to let it flow and do whatever it wants; besides, the rebellious hair suits the little girl even if society would not deem it acceptable for a young lady of her bearings. When the servant continues to argue with the girl about her hair, she decides to stop the discussion abruptly and starts to run down the stairs and towards the garden in the back of the house.
Young decent ladies such as herself should not be running and less of all have their hair wild and down, but that will just make up the first two rules of high society that the little girl will break that day. She had made up her mind and she was just going to enjoy her life the best she could, no matter what society said. Such a young girl with such a mature mindset; she was going to live life by her own set of rules.
Down in the garden, she stops to appreciate the beauty of the wild flowers growing in the outskirts of the beautifully kept and precisely made garden of roses. The juxtaposition of the rigorousness and strictness the roses were kept in and the freedom the wild flowers were given, never failed to amaze the little girl.
"Janet!!!" and just like that, the loud call of her name by her father brings the little girl out of her thoughts. She turns around, with a bright smile set on her face and her deep blue eyes twinkling with unkept happiness. Her father, Mr. Williams is standing by the back door, waiting for her to go and have breakfast together. She does not think much and once again sets on running to lovingly embrace her dear father, who graciously and happily accepts her love. He is a strong and sometimes cold man, but his daughter brings out the loving and caring part of him. After the death of his wife due to tuberculosis when Janet was only 5 years old, he was left without the love of his life and had only happiness in his life thanks to his beautiful daughter. He has tried very hard ever since to raise her to be an educated and respectable young lady, while also keeping her happy. Janet could not be more thankful to her father and thought of him as the best one in the world.
After the hugs and good mornings are exchanged between father and daughter, they move on to the sunroom where a table has been set for the family to have their breakfast. The duo continues a conversation about what they are going to do in the day and any random thing that may come to the girl's mind. The father reminds the little girl about the ball being held at the house which has completely gotten out of her young mind. After breakfast is finished, Mr. Williams sets on to attend his duties of managing a manor and all the tenants that he has, while Janet goes on to take all the lessons, a young lady like herself should take if she was part of the high society.
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After all the dancing lessons and the etiquette rules Janet needs to learn to be able to appear in society, she starts practicing on her piano. Her piano has always been her escape, she does not know anything she loves more than playing it, once her fingers touch the pristine white keys, she is transported to another world, where breaking the rules could create a beautiful sounding master piece, another world where the little girl can be in control. She finds, she could be playing her whole life, but more things are expected of her, so she finishes her practice and goes on to the kitchen to have some lunch with the maids since her father is busy working.
Janet has never been a girl to take advantage of her position in society, even though she was born with money, she finds that helping the servants either in the kitchen or anywhere in the house is the right thing to do whenever her time is free; it makes her happy. She does not like to spend leisure time if there is work that could have been done by her in the house even if it is not expected of her, and in such a hectic day like the ball day, she decides she should help and do something productive.
Late afternoon came, and the estate was prepared for all the guests that were coming for the ball. This ball was to celebrate the great harvest that the manor had, and so the farmers were invited too. Janet had already put on her evening dress and was expectantly waiting for her friends to get there, she was extra excited because they have not seen much of each other lately. Her friends, she had known all her life, they were siblings and the children of her father's best friend, Mr. Gregsby. Mary was the same age as her and Edward was 2 years older, but that did not stop him from hanging around the two girls, he always said it was to protect them and because his dad asked so of him, but deep down he knew he enjoyed being around the girls and playing with them. He always listened to whatever the girls had to say and even though he was usually serious and quite, around them he laughed and smiled.
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The ball was in full swing, a band was playing in a stage in the front of the ballroom, and the attendants were either dancing and chatting or picking up the food from the tables set up at the sides of the room. The children were in a corner of the room after scurrying away due to the vast amount of guests attending. No one payed much attention to them, but they were aware that after they grew up, they were not going to be able to get away with something like that.
Mary started enthusiastically talking to Janet about the new baby her mother was going to have, and how excited she was to take care of him or her. Janet thinks to herself that she has always wanted another sibling but knew that the dying of her mother made it impossible. She stops paying attention to Mary's talking and realizes that Edward has been even quieter in the conversation than is his usual. She knows there is something wrong with his overly serious face and the worry in his eyes, so she decides to voice her concern, to what Mary answers with a dismissive gesture of her hand, "oh, you mustn't worry about him, he has just been behaving like that since papa told him that he was to finish his education up north." Janet gasped after hearing the news and asked, "Edward, when is it that you must leave?" Edward finally acknowledges the girls and grudgingly says, "Towards the end of this month."
Edward was not happy with his father's decision to send him away, especially because he was going to go alone and leave behind his sister and Janet, but Edward has always done whatever his father asked of him, and after some questioning gave up on convincing his father of doing otherwise, and accepted the decision of going away to further his education.
Edward was not the only one unhappy with the news, Janet found herself being enveloped by an inexplicable sadness and decided to not comment anything about Edward's departure. Mary breaks the silence that had fallen around the small group of friends and continues to talk about the unborn child. For the rest of the night, Janet does not pay much attention to Mary's talking and steals glances from Edward until the ball ended and she retired to her room. That night, Janet fell asleep thinking about how much her life was going to change without Edward and how she would miss him. Still life was going to change much more for her in the future years, and her young mind could not even imagine how different it would become.
