“Is my brother home?” Amy gasped excitedly, feeling exactly the opposite to Iris. “Is he here? Can I go and speak withhim?”
“He is very tired from his long journey,” Mr. Shipman warned. “But I am sure that he would like to see you, Amy. He is in his office, organizing hispaperwork.”
“Come on,Daisy.”
Amy grabbed hold of Iris’s hand and she dragged her along the hallway with her. Iris wanted to resist, she did not want to see the master before it was absolutely necessary, but there was also no reason to resist. Lord could not think of any reason she could give not to go along with Amy. Maybe once they got to his office she could make her escape. It was very unlikely that she would be takeninside.
Her heart raced, she could feel an iciness travelling up and down her spine, fear clutched at her chest and squeezed tightly on herlungs.
Amy did not let go of Iris’s hand until they both stood outside the master’s office. The large wooden doors appeared much more intimidating than Iris’s father’s office, but somehow there wasn’t that pure air of terror surrounding it. Iris was scared herself, but that wasn’t because of thisoffice.
“Will you wait for me?” Amy asked, now sounding a little anxious. “Will you sit out here while I goinside?”
No, let me go, I want to hide!Iris thought inside hermind.
“Of course I will,” she answered aloud instead. “I shall take a seat here and wait for you to comeout.”
Amy slid into her brother’s office without even bothering to knock on the door. She was that confident she was wanted that she didn’t have to, which made Iris wish that it had been the same way for her. Maybe things would have been different if she had come from a very closefamily...
Time passed. Iris wasn’t sure how much, but it felt like forever. The longer that Amy spent inside that room, the worse Iris felt for simply sitting there. She might have been doing her duty and looking after the lady as she had been assigned to do, but she felt awkward doing nothing. She could have been cleaning or tidying, even polishing the silver, instead of anxiously waiting on the edge of herseat.
Iris tried to hum a tune to herself for distraction, she attempted to tell herself a story, she even tried to lose herself in one of her famous daydreams, but nothing wasworking.
As the door clicked, Iris jumped up from her seat and she brushed her clothing down. She did her best to rearrange her expression into something a lot more neutral than she feltinside.
“Oh, thank you so much for waiting,Daisy.”
Amy appeared and she seemed to be alone. The master was still in his room. Iris breathed deeply as she realized that at least for the time being she wassafe.
“Of course, anything you need. How is... how is your brother?” For some reason that felt really strange to say, and she wasn’t surewhy.
“He is good, tired from his journey, but very well.” Amy linked her arm through Iris’s. “He wants to buy a new boat, which is what he has beennegotiating.”
“A boat?” That sounded very exotic to Iris. The idea of a boat and of travelling on the water to different lands sounded wonderful. “What does he need a boatfor?”
“He deals in trade. I do not know too much about it, but it keeps him terriblybusy.”
“I canimagine...”
“Amy,” a deep voice boomed through the hallway, causing both the girls to spin on the spot. “You left your ribbonbehind.”
“Ohsorry.”
Iris’s heart stopped dead in her chest as she spotted the man calling out to Amy, her brain tumbled and fell. She no longer knew what to think, any panic that she had been feeling previously doubled... tripledeven.
This was certainly a man that had been in her home, one that had attended the ball, and it was a face that she knew well. His dark hair, those beautiful eyes, those broadshoulders...
LordEwan.
Instantly Iris was transported back to a different time in her life, one where she was a maid at the ball she was supposed to be attending as a guest. One where a lovely gentleman spoke to her in the hallway and he held her close. They danced illicitly, his hands brushed against her hips and he made her feel a million different things atonce.
“See? It is much better to dance as we please,” he had whispered lightly into herear.
She hadn’t wanted the moment to end, she had wanted to cling onto this man forever. If Daisy hadn’t interrupted their special moment, then she might never have let him go. It was a memory that she hadn’t wanted to forget either, but she had forced herself to do so, to move on with herlife.
Now she couldn’t think of anythingelse.
That moment where they had danced, it was the most magical and special that Iris had ever felt. It was the closest thing to love. Even then it could never become real, but now the possibility was even further away. Iris was a maid in hishome.
