Vincienne

I was in awe. The Congreve's house was so large, and no one I knew had ever been inside. The butler took my name and my jacket and handed it to a girl, younger than I, at the first door on the right. On my way past, I saw several coats in the large closet she was placing mine in.

They had a coat-check girl? They must be richer than I had thought!

The butler led me through a sun-drenched room and to the left, a set of carved doors. He opened one of the doors and motioned me to go first, so I stepped through. No lie, it was a ballroom! There were several white couches along the walls, and several other girls sitting on them. A grand lady stood in front of them. I don't know why I called her that, since she was wearing grey slacks and a nice shirt, but nothing extraordinary. The butler slipped in behind me and went past me to her. He bent slightly to whisper, and she turned. I felt like I had been pierced by the winter's sky in her eyes as she gestured me forward.

"Vincienne, please, sit and join us. We are going over the duties of the position you all are applying for." Her voice was politeness wrapped in silk, and I moved to sit before she had finished. She smiled slightly and nodded to the butler as he left the way we had come.

"You are here to apply to be a server at our gala at the end of the season." She held up a hand, as if any of us were going to interrupt. "I know, it is two months away, but we train all of our servers here and we need plenty of time to train you properly."

The girl I had sat next to was exquisitely beautiful. Her pale hair lay as perfectly as mine never did, and she sat with a languor that I could never portray. She caught my eye when she glanced at me, smirked and rolled her gray-green eyes a little.

"As a server, you will be expected to serve drinks and food primarily, but there is much more to the position than that." The lady picked up a tray from a table to her right and held it in front of her. "Today, I will be simply watching each of you. You will take this tray and serve the other girls." She placed glasses of water on the tray, and looked at us. "Who will be first?"

A dainty redhead from the next couch stood, and walked to the lady. "May I be first, please?" The lady smiled that faint smile and nodded.

"Please, Jan. Start at this sofa and go straight down the row." She gestured to the couch furthest from me.

Jan carefully lifted the tray, using both hands. She walked to the first couch and leaned over slightly so the girls could reach the glasses. She seemed a little shaky as she got to the second couch, and as she leaned forward to serve, one of the girls on the couch grabbed the tray, narrowly averting its fall.

Jan blushed brilliantly, and struggled to regain the tray. The lady stepped up behind her, and Jan turned her face away slightly. I could see that Jan's eyes were shiny with tears. Her arms shook as she attempted to gather the tray again.

The lady reached around Jan and rescued the tray. Jan looked mortified and bit her lip. "Thank you, Jan. Next time, if a tray is too heavy, please do not hesitate to tell me so. You did very well, my dear." The lady soothed Jan a bit more and motioned her back to her seat. I kept my eyes on the tray, not wanting to see the embarrassment on Jan's face.

I would melt into the floor if I did that.

"Who is willing to be next?" The lady asked of the remaining 15 or so of us. The girl on the couch with me stood, leaving me alone on the soft snowdrift. She walked forward and took the tray from the lady. "Allow me, please."

The lady arched an eyebrow slightly and replied, "Angela, of course. Resume where Jan left off, if you would." Angela barely hid her grin as she walked to the second couch to serve. She stepped up to the divan and held the tray towards the girls on it. Each reached for a glass, one of them stretching a little.

Angela moved to the next couch, and I could see her hips sway from the front. Her eyes met mine again, and a faint echo of her smirk passed over her face until she leaned into the sofa. Again, she held the tray almost disdainfully, making the shorter girl stretch to reach a glass.

"Thank you Angela, I think that is enough." The lady motioned Angela to set the tray on the table. Angela swung past to drop off the tray, and was almost past the lady again when she spoke. "Girls, I want you to realize something here. Angela thinks that she did very well at serving, but that is not true."

"What?" Angela sounded shocked. Angela stopped and swung back to face the lady as she spoke, he eyes wide. The lady's next sentence cut her short.

"Your guests should never need to overreach themselves to get a glass from your tray. It is extremely rude to try to make them do so." The lady eyed Angela, but Angela made no reply. The lady seemed to be waiting for a response, and when none came, she raised an eyebrow. "Angela, I do not think that your talents are right for this job. Thank you for coming."

Angela huffed and tossed her hair back over her shoulder as she strode out. "Waste of my time..." echoed behind her.

* *

After all was said and done, I didn't drop the tray. Out of the beginning seventeen girls, there were only eleven at the end of the first day. I couldn't see what had kept some and lost others. I was not the most beautiful, yet I was chosen to stay.

The lady let us know that we were expected back on the twentieth, and that the house would be our home during the two week training prior to the gala. We would get paid for each day, as well as room and board. We were told that uniforms would be provided, and to not worry about bringing lots of clothes.

I don't know about for the other girls, but for me, the anticipation kept me up late on the nineteenth, and I was almost as nervous at the front door this time as I had been the first time. I reached forward and rang the bell.

I reached forward and rang the bell. The same butler answered, greeted me by name, and asked for my jacket. I handed it over, feeling delightfully apprehensive. The young girl from the coatroom was to show me to where I would be staying for the next two weeks, so I followed her.

Again, I passed through the sun-swept parlor, full of antiques and lovely furniture. I wanted to admire it, but had to keep up with the girl, as she was talking. Her name was Chloe, and she had been with the Congreves for almost a year. We walked into the amazing ballroom, and I noticed the white couches we had our interview on. Chloe pointed out the chandeliers as she walked towards a grand staircase to the second floor.

The stairs swept up from either side, embracing a single-door entrance in its arms on the main floor. We walked up the steps, and I heard the sound of falling water. As we reached the top of the stairs, I found the source of the noise; a bronze carved fountain overlooked the joining of the staircases. I followed Chloe through a large room, very like the parlor downstairs. There was a beautiful roll top desk, where we paused. Chloe handed me a pen and some papers. I signed without reading; I was so entranced by the antique desk. We continued, turned right into a door that seemed tucked aside, and entered a small room with a padded bench and a spiral staircase going both up and down.

We continued up, and Chloe continued her chattering. "You won't be using the main staircase, since this stair is for the... hired help." Did I imagine that pause? "All the help is on the third floor, guests and the Congreves are on the second, and all the main rooms are on the first floor. It's pretty easy to figure out when you've been through once or twice."

So says the one whose been here a year, I thought.

We ended the tour at a set of doors in a well-lit hallway. Chloe opened the door into a large room, with beds along one wall. Most of the beds were occupied, so I chose one near the center of the group. Several of the girls were awake, and they watched me come in and sit down. Jan, the sweet little redhead from before had the bed next to mine. She smiled sleepily at me and waved as Chloe left.

I looked around at the room and the people in it. The walls were the palest blue, like the painter had dripped blue into white. Long, dark blue curtains brushed the white carpet on either side of the windows. The carpet was thick, the kind you want to walk barefoot on and feel between your toes. There was a door on the wall opposite the beds which must have led to a bathroom, as one girl walked out carrying a toothbrush.

She was beautiful. Her hair was so long it brushed the top of her ass as she walked, and the deepest brown color until she stepped into the sunlight. Red and auburn slid through her hair as she paced towards me.

"I'm Erica. Who're you?" she stood nearly posed at the foot of my bed.

"I'm Vincienne." I wasn't sure I liked Erica already. She had an attitude that I don't deal well with.

"Did they give you the paperwork?"

Paperwork? O, yes.

"Yes, I signed something on the way up here. Why?"

Erica laughed harshly and walked to her own bed. "I'll guess that you didn't read it. It says that we are essentially theirs to have for two weeks."

A shiver ran through me.

Theirs? The lady's? O dear gods, what had I signed?

I didn't say anything and tried to give no reaction, but Jan saw. She reached her hand out to me, and I grasped it. We were to be sisters in... whatever we were.