Maid for Friendship

4th April 1912

Lucy burst into the room arousing me from my peaceful sleep.
“I’ve finally been bought!” she yelled, laughing with glee.
Suddenly I was done stretching and staring at her with open eyes. How could she be so joyful? Now she was bought we couldn’t be as great friends as were now.
“But they’ve bought you too!” she finished. I jumped out of bed, still in m nightdress and hugged her.
“It’s a Mistress and she is moving to New York and needs some company. Do you know what that means?” I was speechless with happiness now so I just shook my head.
“We are going on the titanic, in first class!” she squealed. We were jumping up and down now, still hugging each other.
“She’s going to meet us for breakfast soon. We have to get dressed nicely and…” Lucy tried to continue. But now she couldn’t speak as the meaning of her words just hit her. She let out a squeal and we collapsed onto the bed, giggling like children.

Mary entered our room followed by Janice.
“Quiet down you two!” Mary bellowed. “I know you are happy but strangely this Mistress is paying a amount that pleases Mister. Mister has decided we are to get you dresses. You shall meet her so you have to wear your hair loose but when you return it must once again be pinned up. Janice and I shall come out your hair; dress you in two fine black silk dresses and in black leather boots. You shall wear metal chains round you necks. We are truly now a jealous throng of maids!”

Mary started working on Lucy. While Janice washed and dressed me I hummed quietly to myself. Two hours later I blinked at the girl who looked twice as rich as the girl who peeked in the mirror earlier. What was to become of me?

As soon as we were dressed we were escorted by Mister himself into a cab! It was me and Lucy’s first time in any type of automobile. It was small and smelly but that didn’t matter. We felt every bump in the road and heard every screech of the brakes but still we were excited. Lucy was cheekily eyeing up the driver even though I told her not to be so silly. But when we did stop the driver started yelling bad words towards us and even pushed Lucy out the cab by her bottom!

“Shame on him, I thought he was an awfully nice man.” Lucy was referring to the driver who had sped away at full speed.
“Come on.” I urged her as we started to walk in the direction of Modern food, the café we would meet our new Mistress.
“But then again he was a bit hairy and the rings on his fingers showed he must have had many wives. All I’m looking for is on devoted man. How hard is that?” Lucy continued.
I turned to face her. “Stop it. We are maids that is our duty. We can forget about love and all that nonsense until our to-be Mistress decides to free us.
“Why are you so against love?” Lucy teased.
“I am not! But we are still young, Lucy, we have time. Careful! Don’t trod on the edge of your dress! Hold it like this.” I held up my dress like a princess.
“Where’s your tiara?” Lucy asked.
“Oh forget it then, don’t be so cheeky!”

But we were only teasing each other and we both knew it. We both fell silent. A huge building loomed over us.
“No point in turning back.” Lucy shrugged. I quickly followed her. We were the only inside apart from a pale white woman with loose curly blonde hair similar to Lucy’s. She had green eyes and a small nose. We approached her cautiously.

What we didn’t notice until we crept closer was the small brown furry dog she had in her hands. It glared at us as we took a seat, but when Mistress didn’t react he jumped down and started licking Lucy’s leg.
“Good day –“I started.
“- Lucy and Ruth I suppose?” she asked. Since I was in no state to reply after she coldly cut me off, Lucy glanced at me and then nodded. She shook our hands and laughed. “I am not stiff like a mountain or as ferocious as a lion.”

Only after that comment did we start to relax. She was a nice Mistress. We sat and had the most scrumptious breakfast of bagels stuffed with egg and bacon. We talked of the titanic which we were both interested in, and then when she began to speak of clothing I paid no heed whereas Lucy was listening intently. Then she dismissed me and told me to wait outside.

When Lucy returned from her private talk she was crying and looked most angry. Her hands were balled into tight fists like a baby’s.
“Well, does she want to see me?” I asked.
“No.” Lucy spat. “Just lies. Nothing but lies. All she told me was lies.” I questioned her no further. She would tell me in enough time. But little did I know that we would never speak of this moment again.