Secrets

New York

1904

1.

~ Ariadne tried to sit as strait as she could. It would look bad if her future employer thought she was any smaller than she was.

Her sister's words were clanging in her head just now. Instructions on how to sit in front of the fearsome lady. To keep her hands folded, her ankles crossed and for the love of God, sit strait.
Mrs. Willows looked over Ariadne as if she meant to buy her.

"You're very small." The older woman said.

"It's never kept me from my work." Ariadne said quickly.

"Tell me what skills you have." Mrs. Willows said airily. As if she had made up her mind that she wouldn't take Ariadne and this was a simple formality leading up to the 'No' that would end this little game.

"I can sew quite well. I've brought over a few pieces." Ariadne said hopefully. She pulled out her homemade bag and tried to fish out the neat little hems she had done by hand. The examples of darts she could do.

Mrs. Willows waved her away and picked up her own embroidery.

"I understand you worked as a house maid for the Dawson family." She said slyly. Her dark clever eyes never leaving her small stitches.
"Yes, ma'am." Ariadne said sadly.

"How long?"

"Ten years." Ariadne said. She swallowed hard. "My mother had become ill and she sent me to train in service before she died. I was twelve when I started as a third house maid."

"Managed to work your way up to ladies maid then?" Mrs. Willows mused.

"Yes, ma'am." Ariadne said quickly.

"Why did you leave? After so long there?" Mrs. Willows seemed genially puzzled but Ariadne suspected the older woman already knew everything.
"The house changed so much. The young ladies were all married off. There wasn't a need for a ladies maid and I didn't want to go back to being a house maid." Ariadne said quickly.
"I should think not." Mrs. Willows huffed.

Ariadne sat a little straiter.

Mrs. Willows was quite and the only noise in the sitting room was the sharp rickety sounds of the mantle clock ticking.

Finally, Mrs. Willows sat down her needle work and looked Ariadne in the eye.

"My sons wanted me to hire an older maid. Someone with whom I'd have more in common with. They think that, with my husband so ill, that I need companionship." She said.

Ariadne nodded.

Here comes the no.

"I'm not sure what I would talk about with you. You being so young and all." She said.

Ariadne smiled. But it was a sad smile all the same.

"I can tell you right now, I won't spend my time with a woman my own age talking about their grown children and grandchildren. I get enough of that from Mrs. Thomas at club meetings. I want a young person who isn't so stuck in the past. This is a new century after all. Amazing things are happening all over the world." She went on.

Ariadne felt a small ray of happiness rush through her.
"Now, you'll start at 9 am every week day. You're duties will be a type of paid companion. Someone who will go out with me on my daily excursions and keep me company here at the house. My husband isn't exactly ill, nor is he healthy. My sons have all married except my youngest, Arthur who is traveling. For now, it's just myself, Mr. Willows, our maid Jenny our cook, Sophie and our gardener Jeffery who is also our driver. I can't exactly take Jenny around town with me, what with her being Irish and all. But you speak very well for a house worker and you look very pleasing. Mind, you'll have to dress better on the occasions when we go out for lunch."

Ariadne couldn't think of anything to say, her mouth opened and she thought a 'yes, ma'am' cam out.

"Now, you'll start on Monday and first thing we'll do is ready my spring wardrobe. I'll need a few things let out and it's a project I need help on. You're not to take any orders from my sons, Jacob and Eugene. Understand?"

"I do." Ariadne said. Relief, wonderful relief was flooding over her.

"About pay, I think eight dollars a week will be more than enough. Especially when you'll be eating your meals here and all. Do you have family or any other obligations?"

Ariadne paused. Only eight dollars a week? She had made that at the Dawson's but she didn't have to contribute to rent then either. Not with the cozy little attic room in their big manor house.
"I live with my sister now. In the city." She told her.
"Well, then you should be all set." Mrs. Willow said happily.

Then, just as easily, Ariadne was dismissed.

~ The walk home was slow, but happy. Yes, she had a job. An easy one to. The bad part, the really troubling part, was that it wasn't going to be enough pay. Her sister, Annabelle, was going to need at least twenty dollars a month for her share of the rent and for watching Wesley while Ariadne was at her new job.

Annabelle's own husband, Bill, didn't care to have Ariadne, or 'the bastard' around the apartment, but they had no where else to go. After the disaster at the Dawson's place, Ariadne still owed money for the hospital bill, and a few other creditors.

She wouldn't even have enough money to buy the new clothes Mrs. Willows was expecting her to buy. Not even to mention the groceries she needed to pick up along with Wesley's medicine.

Still, after eight months of relying on her sister's charity, Ariadne was grateful to have a job at last.

~ Annabelle's apartment was large, airy and well worth the amount the landlord charged in rent. There were three bedrooms and a whole bathroom all to themselves. Unheard of! It had been a part of a tenement rehabilitation project the city had founded and Annabelle's husband had claimed the apartment because he was a foreman on the project.

They couldn't make the rent without Ariadne working however. It always felt like they were living on borrowed time.

"How did it go?" Annabelle asked as soon as Ariadne came home and took her hat off. The children, all five of them, were caged off in the sitting room. None of them were over the age of seven, including the twins.

Annabelle got them weaned and off dippers as quickly as she could, only to find there was another baby on the way.

Ariadne said nothing, and spotted little Wesley, his dark patch of hair ruffled from sleep, sitting up all on his own.

"When did he start doing that?" Ariadne asked in amazement. She had never seen Wesley want to sit up before.

"This morning." Annabelle giggled. "Cora was playing school and made all the little ones sit up.

Ariadne sat down next to her little boy and curled an arm around him, kissing the top of his head.

"So, how did it go?" Annabelle asked impatiently.

"I got the job." Ariadne said sadly. "I can make my share of the rent now."

"That's wonderful. Bill will be thrilled." Annabelle whooped.

"Don't get too excited." Ariadne told her. "It's only eight dollars a week and the woman expects me to buy new clothes and everything."

"Well, as long as you come up with the five dollars in cash every payday." Annabelle said.
"What I'm saying is, I don't think I should pay so much." Ariadne said defiantly to her sister. "I only rent out the small bedroom and Wesley and I don't eat much."

"Ariadne." her sister said worriedly. "We agreed on this."

"It doesn't take that much to look after him during the day. Not with the other kids."

"Bill is not going to let you stay here if you keep saying stuff like that." Annabelle told him. "He's already mad that the boys have to camp out in the sitting room each night."

Ariadne sighed.

Annabelle was scared of Bill. Scared of being on her own. When he came home, Ariadne was quick to take herself and her little boy to the small bedroom and not come out again till morning.

The two of them were their own family in the little room. They ate their meager dinner together, played and Ariadne whispered fairy tales she made up to him. Wesley would look back at her with his father's eyes. Eyes that made Ariadne's heart hurt, but not from love.

~ Arthur thought it was like their own little family in this train car.

Everleigh was keeping herself occupied with the blank paper and pencils he had given her for entertainment. He was grateful the child didn't take much. They sat on either side of their private train car, each keeping a suspicious eye on the other. Two strangers, yet family, on a train ride.

Everleigh liked the captain's desk Arthur let her use during the ride. He had to clear out his own stationary and ink jars for her. It was worth it to keep her occupied on such a long trip.

"Everleigh, tell me when you're hungry." He said worriedly. He wasn't sure how often he was supposed to feed the child or exactly what she needed to eat. Everleigh seemed to need food more often than him and she ate much less.

"Yes, sir." She said in her high child's voice.

"Everleigh." Arthur said.

The child looked back at him with her warm, brown eyes.

"Remember we talked about this. You need to call me papa. Remember?"

Everleigh nodded, but said nothing. Her pencil still cradled in her thin little hand.

She was only four years old, he sensed she was far more intelligent than the other, sloppy children had had seen her age.

Everleigh was like his own mother, calm, reserved and kept her thoughts only to herself. She wasn't like a child at all, but a strange little alien.

He leaned back against his seat and they stared at one another for a while. Neither of them seeming to trust the other.

'Mother will know what to do.' Arthur thought. He willed the train to move faster as his daughter went back to her drawing.