C8 Wandering

HAZEL’S POV

True to her word, Josephine took me to my cottage after I was done eating.

The cottage was not very big but it was bigger and better than anything I had ever lived in.

I had a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room and even a kitchen. It was also beautifully decorated.

The walls of my bedroom were painted a light blue, there was a small bed that had been dressed properly with navy blue sheets and a matching duvet, and there was a wardrobe and a side table.

The last time I had been in a room that looked like this had been at my family house when my parents were still alive.

“That’s my place right over there. You can come over whenever you like.” She said pointing to the cottage opposite mine.

“Thank you,” I said with a small smile.

“You are welcome.

The one adjacent to yours is Martha’s cottage. It is slightly bigger because she used to live there with her family.

Her husband, Robert, died a couple of years ago and her daughters, Carly and Phoebe are all grown up now.

They are both married but they still come over from time to time. Thomas is the only one that stays in the big house.” Jo explained.

I simply nodded in response while I stored all the information she had given me in my brain.

“Okay, so let’s go so that I can give you a tour of the house.” She said to me, “I hope you are not too tired?”

“Not at all. I have enough energy to run around this place twenty times.” I said in a very confident tone which caused her to laugh.

“Okay then, let’s go Ms. Energetic.”

***

The living room of the Storm Manor was as big as three of the Smiths combined.

Just like the foyer, it had been painted with black walls and dark brown wooden floors. Even with the lights on, the place still felt dark.

The air around the living room made me so sad. It was probably a reflection of how the owner of the house felt.

As we moved through the house, Jo chatted away about the house but she still hadn’t given me any more information about the man I worked for.

Finally, we finished from the rooms downstairs and went up the stairs where she showed me Mr. Storm’s room.

Not surprisingly, it was also decorated like most of the rooms in the house. The only rooms that didn’t have a dark theme were the kitchen and the pantry, from the rooms that I had seen so far.

“You will clean the boss’ room every day.

Just clean it, Hazel. Don’t go snooping around or trying to move anything, he can tell and he will be very mad when that happens.

Do you understand me?” She asked and I nodded.

Finally, we got to the one room I had been eager to see– the library.

I stepped into the room and I was in awe.

Unlike the other rooms, this place was bright and it was covered with books.

It was one of those home libraries that felt like a library, Everything was labelled and arranged.

I filled my nostrils with the smell of books and that brought an instant smile to my face.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Missy. You can’t touch anything in here.

Don’t move the books, Just clean them.

If even one book is taken out of here, he will notice. I don’t know how he does it.” Jo explained and my heart dropped.

Having access to a library and no access to the books in it was torture, Especially with the fact that I had not read any books in a long time.

“Let’s go so you can be rested before dinner. I don’t think the boss will be home in time today, he usually eats out when he stays too long at work so you might not get to meet him till tomorrow.” She explained.

“That’s good. I think I am getting really tired now.” I looked at the library one last time and sighed, then I followed her out.

When I got to my cottage, I took a bath, I found body wash and bath salts in the bathroom and decided to take advantage of it.

I hadn’t had a chance to soak in a bath for a very long time and I appreciated the opportunity.

I tried to relax but my mind kept on wandering to my new boss.

Everybody spoke about him with fear and respect, It was obvious that he was a hard man to please and from what I could see, he was a perfectionist.

I certainly didn’t like perfectionists, I always thought of them as crazy because they really believed that everything should be the way they wanted it to be and they usually lost their mind when it didn’t.

It freaked me out because I was not like that. I understood that no matter how much you liked things to be a certain way, life always had different plans and you had no choice but to deal with it.

The thought of working for someone who also wanted things a certain way made me anxious but I didn’t have much of a choice.

I needed the money and the stability that came with the job and I couldn’t walk away from it.

My other options for work were not very favourable, I had worked in a bar as a waitress before I found this job.

I never felt safe. I still didn’t feel safe around men, especially men when alcohol was involved.

Sometimes, the men would get touchy. I always left work feeling very disgusted and that always led to me having panic attacks which I hated so much.

My new boss might sound like a pain in the ass but I would gladly deal with him than deal with them.

At least I had a place to sleep, the money wasn’t bad and he was probably always at work so that meant our paths would not even cross all that much.

I willed myself to stop overthinking and just relax. I would let tomorrow worry about itself.

I got out of the bath and dried myself before getting dressed in my nightgown and slipping into bed.

I was exhausted and within seconds I was asleep, thoughts of my boss went completely out of my mind.