Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater

Author:Olivia Atwater
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781777241797
Publisher: Starwatch Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

M rs Sedgewick was rightfully furious.

Effie endured quite the tongue-lashing—all the moreso because she could not explain to Mrs Sedgewick where it was that she had been. Effie suspected that she might have convinced the housekeeper of her story if she had shown her the gown made of wishes… but she was suddenly very fearful that either Mrs Sedgewick or Lady Culver would take the gown away from her, if they knew of its existence. As such, Effie spent much of the hour waiting to be told that she would be dismissed—but Mrs Sedgewick instead exhausted herself yelling, and then told Effie that the lace tablecloth would be deducted from her year’s wages, and that she would spend every night from now until the end-times taking her supper in the scullery while she washed it top to bottom.

And so, Effie found herself in the scullery that very evening, scrubbing at dirty dishes.

Effie was used to being irritable when things like this happened—but this time, she could not dredge up even a lick of anger. All she felt instead was a sense of failure. What maid in her right mind ever expected that gallivanting off to faerie would turn out for the best?

Someone knocked softly on the doorframe to the scullery. Effie cringed instinctively, expecting another dressing-down from some other angry upper servant—but it was only George, who had stopped by with her food.

“I can’t believe you disappeared without tellin’ me,” he sighed. “Mrs Sedgewick wouldn’t say where you were. I thought you might have finally quit the place an’ run away.”

Effie took the bowl from him with a worried frown. She set it aside just long enough to hug him tightly. “I didn’t mean to scare you, George,” she said softly. “I feel so awful about it, I promise.”

George laughed at this for some reason. Halfway through, the laugh turned into a hacking cough, and he had to release Effie to catch himself against the scullery counter. “Mrs Sedgewick tells you to practise your French, an’ instead you’ve gone an’ practised your English!” he wheezed. “What have you been doin’ the last two days, Effie?”

Effie knitted her brow at him. “That is quite a cough,” she told him again. “I don’t like how it sounds on you.”

George waved her away. “Cookie’s been givin’ me some awful tea to drink,” he said. “She told me to put orange peels up my nose too, but I wasn’t so keen on that idea.”

Effie looked down at her food. “My disappearing must not have improved your health,” she mumbled. “Won’t you go to bed, George? I feel more wretched every moment that you’re here.”

George waved her off. “I’ll sleep better now that you’re back,” he said. “Don’t work too hard on the scullery though, Effie. Mrs Sedgewick was never goin’ to dismiss you—we’re too short-staffed as it is, and we all know Lady Culver won’t hire a replacement if you go.”

Effie pursed her lips. “I wondered why Mrs Sedgewick didn’t dismiss me on the spot,” she admitted.

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