There was no chance that Ella could possibly like Buttons back.
Timothy pretended to be ill to avoid serving dinner to Mable after she tricked him into believing that they were married since 'giving a beautiful girl bread with the olive oil on the left of it means a proposal in Italy' the last time he served dinner, which led to Fable responding with 'then it's a good thing that you are ugly or else he would have to marry you!', which swiftly resulted in Mable throwing herself at Fable and coating Timothy in boiling hot soup in the process.
Because the hot soup gave Timothy cold feet, Buttons was made the serve the family dinner. He was not usually trusted with serving food, on the account of how clumsy he was, so he had been dreading it all day. With Ella giving him a beautiful, handmade birthday present however, Buttons had completely forgotten about it until Peter, the chef, reminded him that he needed to take the plates up to the dining room.
Stepping slowly, he gradually made his way over to the large dining table, with the family gathered around the end.
Gratefully smiling at Buttons, Ella sat next to her father, who stared impatiently at his servant, who was moving at the speed of an elderly snail in tar (which was agonising to watch) as to not drop the starters.
Opposite, Fable and Mable were whispering to each other with their hands hiding their faces. If they had noticed Buttons drizzling in, they did not show it.
Lastly, at the head of the table, perched the baroness, with her cold, squinting eyes, daring him to trip.
But he did not trip.
He had to physically restrain himself from crying out at his delight of not dropping his first set of plates as he laid them down on the satin tablecloth.
But that was just the starters- he was not out of the woods yet.
As he was about to bring in the second set of plates, he suddenly halted by the door, which did not make much of a difference to his already stagnant speed. The reason that he had stopped, was that he heard his name being mentioned in the dining room. He waited outside to listen to the rest of the conversation.
'A poor excuse for a servant. Why, if I were in charge of choosing the staff...why is he taking so long? My daughters will have finished their food before mine even arrives at this rate!' he heard the baroness bark.
'Now, darling, I am sure Buttons is doing his-'
'Quiet! Never speak with your mouth full.'
'My father is right, Buttons is so sweet, and he is trying his hardest not to drop-'
'And you, girl, be quiet when you are eating!'
'But...my food has not arrived yet'
'Well, be quiet anyway if you are going to speak nonsense that no one understands'
Fable and Mable sniggered.
Buttons nearly dropped the plates in anger.
How dare she speak to Ella that way! He was fighting the urge to dash in there, throw a spoon at the baroness, and scream at her for being so cruel. However, he knew that would be futile as he would definitely lose his job then. Luckily, he had another idea.
'What's the joke?' Buttons asked innocently as he shuffled in slow-motion to the table.
'Servants should be seen and not heard' snapped Fable.
'In my opinion' drawled the baroness 'servants should not be seen either, if they can help it'.
Buttons felt his cheeks turn red.
