(OOC: Charlotte's last post was in "Minding Someone's Buisness.")

Charlotte Kendall was sitting in her husband’s study, at her husband’s desk. Christopher was standing beside her, holding three sheets of paper, looking somewhat less than pleased.
”What’s wrong with the first one?”
“Nothing. I just don’t like her. She’s… prettier than me.” Charlotte hid a smile and looked down in the papers in front of her, waiting for her husband’s exasperated reaction. It came. He stared at her in disbelief and snorted.
”First of all: She’s not. Second: She’s at least 15 years younger than you, and third: That is a ridiculous argument!” Charlotte merely shrugged.
“Also, she is far too bright and cheery,” she added.
”Really?”
“Really.”
”So we are opposed to bright and cheery?”
“Not necessarily, no. She just seemed… false. I didn’t like her.”
”Right. Well, I did agree that this would be your decision, and you do often seem to have a knack for knowing people. So I suppose I will trust your judgement.”
“Thank you.”

It was a beautiful room, and it functioned simultaneously as a study and as the family’s private library. The walls were covered with wooden shelves full of books – many of them leather-bound and most still of excellent quality - that Christopher had collected through the forty-one years he had lived. Behind the desk was a large window, and a door leading out to his little greenhouse. On a sunny afternoon that garden was one of the most beautiful places Charlotte could imagine. Right now it was raining outside, and the grey skies caused the usually so vivid colours to be somewhat less dazzling, but it was still an impressive sight. On a chair to Charlotte’s left, a few feet behind her, sat her sister Anna. She was quiet at the moment, flipping through the pages of a book.
”What about the second one?”
“I don’t want any of these. The second one was too weak – too frail. The third one was robust enough, and she seemed stable and nice, but –“
”- And with excellent references,” Christopher reminded her. ”Very experienced.”
“Yes, but she’s too old.”
”Too old? Are we also opposed to middle-aged people now?”
“Yes. For Anna’s sake. I want a young one.”
”For Anna’s sake? We can easily find Anna a friend in our own circles; she does not have to-“
“I don’t want any woman who is older than me,” Charlotte insisted stubbornly. Christopher sighed.
”So no one older than you and no one prettier.”
“Pretty shmetty. I don’t care about that, not really.”
”Right…” Christopher cast a glance in Anna’s direction, but she was occupied and did not notice. Charlotte, however, did notice, and did the same thing, at which point Anna looked up and Charlotte smiled warmly at her before turning back to her husband.
“So who is the next one?” Charlotte waved her own papers towards Christopher’s to indicate that he was the one holding the list of names.
”One Miss… Edith Wood.” He walked to the door and opened it, calling out into the hallway. ”Miss Wood? Edith Wood.”

To say the least, Edith was having a busy day. However, it was not your average energy-draining, stress filled kind of busy day. It was, in quite some contrast a different, a rare sort of busy. It was overwhelmingly good and more eventful than one could possibly handle. Edith knew not whether all the events of the day had in fact happened that day or she simply had not slept for several weeks. It was her fifteenth birthday, first and foremost, and it was also the day she was allowed to leave the Stonewell Orphanage for Girls. It was, to say the least, a good day just from those two events. To add to it all was a wonderful birthday breakfast with Edward, her
"unofficial father". He had given the newly free girl wonderful gifts with which she could start her new life off on the right foot. Such items included a few simple dresses, a coat, hat, boots, and other important items of the sort. She looked, in her new gifts, somewhere between upper lower class and lower middle class, a decent spot to be for sure. Especially for a girl fresh out of an orphanage. Edith was, without a doubt, lucky to have befriended Edward, even if she could not be his daughter legally. Edward's kindness towards the girl was always constant and copious. Along with all of the things he had given her, among the most valuable was one Edith could not understand herself. It was a list of aquaintances needing assistance and looking for a girl to hire for just that. Even though such a thing seemed so simple, Edith was illiterate and could therefore not understand it. However, Edward had been kind enough to promise to escort Edith to each interview for the next few days.

The first one was in Westcheap for a job as a maid. From Edward's briefing on Interview Etiquette
and the people for which she was being interviewed by. There was so much to remember that a strong-willed like her could not help but feel a bit uneasy and nervous.

"Don't be nervous Edith. Everything will be alright. Just remember what I told you and be yourself. You are strong and I know that, you will not need to worry, and even if you do not get this job there are plenty more." Edward stated as he looked upon Edith's worried expression.

"I...I...I am not nervous" Edith stammered,"I..I...I just hope that things go well and these people are not like the people at the thread factory or the people at the orphanage..." Edith trailed of for a second. The bitter memory of the orphanage made her shudder. "I...I mean the only person I have ever really trusted has been you. Everyone else had shown me nothing but hatred, anger, and cruelty...Is...Is everyone like that?" She asked with a wide-eyed worried look on her face.

Edward laughed lightly at her strange comment but as he turned his head towards her he saw the emotion on her face and pondered upon what it must be like from point of perspective. Up until she met him all she had ever known was cruelty. With that thought his face was fixed with sincerity.

"I'm incredibly sorry...I am an inconsiderate fool. Please forgive me."

"No. Really, it's alright. We have both lived two completely different lives. It is hard for both of us to understand what the other has been through, but that's why it is important for us to know eachother. This way we can understand eachother"

"That's quite a philosophical thought for a girl of fifteen."

"When you're cooped up in that prison of an orphanage, you find a lot to think about."

They were both silent as they walked down the street. Both incredibly deep in thought. They approached their destination in Westcheap and they both stopped in front of the door.

"Remember everything I said and smile but not too much that they think you foolish, be polite, and as I said before just be yourself." With those last words of wisdom they said their goodbyes and they were off on their seperate ways.

Now Edith sat on a chair in the hallway of the house of her potential employers. She nerviously went through all the tips Edward had given her earlier. As she heard voices in the room next to where she was sitting, the tension inside her had built up. With every second she became more and more nervous.

Then after what seemed to be a lifetime, she heard her name called. She got up and entered the room.

"Hello. My name is Edith Wood. It is a pleasure to meet you."

As she looked upon the other people in the room her intuition told her that she could probably trust them, and the tension within her eased.

(OOC: I had permission to mod Christopher since Kris won't be able to post for a couple days. Also, if you mind the last name I gave Edward, Edith, just let me know what you'd like it changed to (he didn't have one before). :) )

Anna was pretending to read a book in the corner of Christopher’s study. She wanted to be a part of the selection process for the new maid that they needed, since she would have to live with that person coming in and out of her room to bring in wash water, change the sheets of her bed, and other similar tasks. Yet at the same time she was far too shy to actually say anything to the hopefuls applying for the job. Anna would have been able to converse with them naturally if they had not been trying to gain employment, but she was completely incapable of talking to them when they were looking at her with hope in their eyes. How could she bear to dash those hopes, if they weren’t suitable? She couldn’t, and so it was much better to not talk to them and let Charlotte and Christopher pick one. Anna would just sit here and let Charlotte know what her opinion was when the time came to hire or dismiss a candidate.

The book she was pretending to read was Pride and Prejudice. Of course, since it was a novel it was considered to be perhaps a bad influence on ladies like Anna, filling their heads with fluff and dreams. There were many of Anna’s acquaintance who disapproved of such things and would have told her so had they been there. But after many years of Charlotte’s encouragement, Anna had grown bold enough to inform those who would tell her what to read that she much preferred fluff and dreams to any thing else, thank you very much. Perhaps in another ten years she might grow bold enough to say it above a whisper. Anna wasn’t actually reading the book, being much too busy thinking about other things. Besides, she had read it more than ten times before—she knew the story by heart. She particularly loved Pride and Prejudice because of the misjudgements of and about the main characters.

Charlotte and Christopher were arguing about the first three candidates in not exactly hushed tones, but not loudly either. Anna thought that her sister must be trying her best to make it so that Anna would not be upset by what they were talking about, and she appreciated the effort. She had thought the first one was very nice, but somehow disturbing. She had indicated to Charlotte that she wasn’t over fond of the woman with a shake of her head. The second had been fine, but too weak; Anna had nodded her approval but since the girl failed the physical specifications of the job she had not been hired. And the last one, Anna had shaken her head again. Very nice, experienced, kind… but that one, the idea of having the woman in her room, touching her things… no, she was too much like Mrs Humperdink. Charlotte had dismissed her as a possibility as well.

Anna smiled at Charlotte and Christopher as they looked at her, and Charlotte returned it before they got back to the business of the interviews. They called in a new candidate, a Miss Edith Wood, and she walked in rather unconfidently, before glancing around and seeming to pick up spirits. Anna watched her out of her peripheral vision, her eyes focused straight forward on the page of her book. This girl had not lost her faith in the world. This one was not like Charlotte, and made the world bend to her will without fail—she would not be a maid if she was—but neither was she like Anna who let the world trample on her without a peep, if it chose to do so. This girl had confidence in her judgement, just like Charlotte did; and her nervousness was less because she seemed to feel that Charlotte and Christopher, and likely Anna too if she had noticed Anna, provided no threat. Of course she was right, except for one thing. Just because they were nice people did not mean that they would hire the girl.

“Hello. My name is Edith Wood. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Anna felt bad, just as she had for the pretty one, and the young one, and the older one. Miss Wood seemed like she would very much like to have the job. It was all throughout her carriage—as was proper, of course, for who would hire a maid that seemed half-hearted?—and it would be terrible to disappoint her should she prove to be unsuitable. Anna gave Charlotte a glance, continuing the farce of reading afterwards. So far this one was the best yet; not too old, young but not seeming too weak, and the girl didn’t seem particularly false—although she had only said a few words as yet. Anna wondered what Charlotte and Christopher thought of her.


Christopher saw the glance that passed between his wife and her sister, and for not the first time wished that he could understand why such glances were necessary, and what they meant. It was as if, even though he had agreed it would be Charlotte’s decision whom they ultimately hired, she was tacitly asking her sister if the choice would be acceptable. Why? They always did that sort of thing, and no matter how many times he tried to bring around the subject Charlotte remained mute on it. Anna cried if he tried to discuss it with her, so he’d given up on trying to winkle a clue out of her. But, interview. He was supposed to check the girl’s references and suchlike, to give Charlotte—and Anna, he supposed; there was no way she was really reading the book, since she was flipping through the pages at about five per minute except when there was a candidate in the room, when she stopped completely and stared at it fixedly—time to evaluate her.

Shuffling the papers he had in his hands, Christopher brought forward the references pertaining to Edith Wood. “Very nice to meet you too, Miss Wood. I understand that Edward Middlestone referred you to us. You lack slightly in the area of references, I’m sure you know—his is the only one. Nevertheless, he is a friend and a gentleman, and so I shall take his word on your character. Let us talk of your other qualifications. Why do you think you are correct for this position and what skills will enable you to fulfil it?”

(OOC: Edith Wood has not posted in well over a month (in fact almost two), and will thus be removed from the lists of active characters. She did not get the job as the Kendalls' maid. This thread is hereby closed.

Anna's next post and Charlotte's next post appear in the thread "The Easter Ball"
After that, they appear in the thread "Tomorrow")