Malee was told Lunch was within the servants’ house as mistress was out and young master was still in school. As all the tasks were done, and she was still new to the tasks, she was told to go to the garden to pick leaves with Michael instead. Mary called Michael and introduced Malee as a servant and gave them a big black plastic bag each for the leaves. Michael nodded and asked Malee to follow him to the garden.
“Michael, why are you not going to school?,” asked Malee on the way to the spot where she could see there were piles of leaves to be collected. It was probably done by Michael and his father earlier in the morning before having breakfast.
“Oh, I used to attend school but I am not good at studies. George, I meant the young master, is much better.” replied Michael. Malee noted that Michael also called the young master as George. They were about the same age, so they must have been very close to each other when they were young. From what she observed from the past 2 days, they hardly made an eye contact, but then George was also busy helping his father. Jane changed the subject as she could sense Michael was uncomfortable talking about George.
“So where do we throw..”
“You know he is special, right? Did they tell you?,” interrupted Michael in a very low voice as he handed over one of the plastic bags to Malee.
“Special? No. Nobody tells me about him,” replied Malee as she held the plastic bag opened wide as if to expect Michael to throw the leaves into it. What is so special about George, she wondered in her mind. She couldn’t understand why every adult in the house is afraid of him, including his mother. Maybe Michael could help her understand.
“He is, you know, of special blood. His mother was a very close cousin of , you know who.” whispered Michael while trying to gather the leaves with his two hands. Malee couldn’t understand the meaning of special blood nor whose cousin his mother was.
“Mistress is his stepmother. His real mother died about 5 years ago and Master remarried.,” continued Michael. Malee understood some confusion that she had when she first arrived. Mistress looked too young to be his mother, and George didn’t give too much respect to her when speaking. They didn’t look too close during the morning breakfast either.
We filled the bag to the brim by that time, and Michael took the bag from her hands and walked towards the far corner of the garden. Malee tried to say she could have carried the bag with her hand, but Michael wouldn’t hear of it. His father would give him a scolding if he saw him and Malee with Malee carrying the bag. That wasn’t how men should do things, he would say. They collected the leaves from the rest of the piles, and Michael took the spare time to show her around the garden. He was especially proud of the part where there were white roses as he told Malee; he made those from his hands.
As Malee was admiring the roses, they heard Mary shout from far, telling them that lunch was ready. They quickly ran towards the servant house and into the dining room to join the rest. Lunch was simple by the standard of of which she had seen during breakfast but better than she ever had in her life. There were several varieties of vegetables and 2 bowls of meat, more than enough for all. Mary told Malee to each as much as she could and gave her extra meat for the job well done.
Mary reminded her to take a rest after lunch and a bath before the young master returned from school in the afternoon. Malee nodded as her mouth was filled with the rice to hearty laughter from the rest of the ladies. Once the lunch was done, Malee helped them with the cleaning of the plates and the table as usual. Michael, she noted, disappeared after washing hands as to escape from the chores. Malee then took a short nap on the grass, under the shade of a big tree, in front of the servants’ house till Mary woke her up for a bath.
Mary led her to the upper floor and showed her the common bathroom for the servants. Malee made a bitter note to herself that even the bathroom for the servants was much bigger than her home, if it could call. It was not only big and bright but Mary showed her inside the large cabinet with several bottles and explained to her which are for which parts of her body. Malee tried to remember as much as she could before Mary left her by herself and tried out several of the bottles. It was a while before she came out of the room and smelling much better than what she was that morning. Mary nodded in approval at the sight and smell and quickly showed her a new uniform similar to what the rest were wearing.