“I am sorry, I didn’t mean to..” apologized Malee once she realized Georgia must have noticed her looking at the paper over her shoulder. It must have been a very important paper to be kept secret from even Mary, who would usually know everything about the family. Georgia waved her hand and Malee gave a quick bow and exited the room in a hurry, leaving Georgia staring at the notes on the paper. Malee paused outside the door and wondered if she should ask Mary if she knew anything about it, but then she reminded herself of who she was, a servant. If they decided that she was not to be told, it meant she didn’t need to know it. Satisfied with that, she went back to the servant’s house for the night.
As expected, there were more activities and buzz than during the party last night. Each of them were spreading rumours they heard to the rest. The conspiracy theories went from George having a terminal illness to the princess moving here to marry him. Malee found Mary standing by the door with a long face. She must have guessed what was the emergency after delivering food to George’s room. If she wasn’t sharing with the rest, it must truly be an important event for everyone. Mary looked at Malee who was staring at her but instead of coming over to her, she walked away into the kitchen.
Malee decided not to pursue the subject with Mary further and left for the night rest, leaving the rest of the servants in the lobby. The night was long with noise from conversations below ad the lights stopping Malee from falling into sleep, along with her mind unrest from wondering what was on the piece of paper that Georgia was trying to hide from her. She didn’t realize she fell asleep till the alarm rang, waking her up for the breakfast. She got out of bed in a hurry and washed her face before going down for breakfast with the rest. She had forgotten about the paper and soon she was in her uniform, on the way to the main house to prepare breakfast for the family.
Mary was there at the kitchen with 2 plates of breakfast dishes.
“Bring this to Georgia.” said Mary before picking up the other plate, which Malee assumed was for George. She picked up the plate that Mary had pointed out and went up to Georgia’s room. She tried to push the door open with her toes as previous night, but it was locked. She knocked on the door softly and waited for the instruction from inside.
“Come in” said Georgia. Malee pushed the handle bar down and the door opened as expected. Georgia was still in her nght dress, sitting on the bed with her hair disheveled. It was clear to Malee from the look on her face as well as the papers on the desk that she spent the whole night on the plan that she didn’t want anyone to know. She pointed on the empty spot on the table beside the bed to which Malee placed the plate. Georgia got up from the bed and slowly dragged to the bath room as Malee turned around to exit from the room.
“What do you think about George going overseas?” asked Georgia suddenly. Malee stopped moving and turned around to Georgia.
“I am sure it would be better than here.” replied Malee. She wondered why was Georgia asking her since she had left the school a years back and she had never been out of the city, let alone the country. There must be some underlying reason Georgia was asking her and it was definitely not the level of education.
“But there are overseas schools here right?” asked Malee. She had seen several white children in school uniforms playing on the field so why can’t George go to school with them?
“Good question” said Georgia with a smile before disappearing into the bathroom. Malee bowed as usual and exited the room with more questions in her mind than before she went in. Was Georgia sending her brother to overseas for some reason other than education? George had several professors attending to him so it wasn’t as if he needed school from overseas. He could bring the entire school to here if he had wanted. There must be another reason. But she had other duties and the rest would be needing her hand at washing and drying clothes after a few days of not doing so. She rushed down the stairs and ran towards the back of the servant’s house.