Chapter 2
The sound of the rooster came a little too early for Charlie.

He eased between Samuel and Eli on the bed. He tried not to wake them, but he saw little Eli’s eyes open. He kissed his brother on the forehead.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered.

He quietly got dressed. He looked over and saw Lucas and Robert. They were sound asleep.

He knew the routine. He walked out to the chicken coop, joining his mother as they gathered eggs for breakfast.

“How are you doing this morning, love?” she said.

“I’m doing fine ma,” he said as he gathered enough eggs for his basket.

“Are you excited about going to Windham manor?” she asked.

“Yes, ma, I am,” he said.

“I can’t blame you,” his mother said. “I know Mrs. Windham will work you hard.”

“I do not mind work, ma,” he said.

“I know that you don’t,” she said as they walked into the kitchen. Charlie helped his mother cook the eggs and helped get the get the bread out of the oven. He helped set the table before going into the room to wake his brothers.

“There is a mister fancy pants at the door,” he heard his father say as they finished their breakfast. “It must be for you little Charlotte.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. His mother chastised his father for picking on his son.

“Let me get a look at you,” his mother said as Charlie prepared to leave the apartment.

“You look fine,” she said, giving her son a hug. “Put in a good days work.”

“You know I will, ma,” he said, hugging her in return.

The mister fancy pants was Myron, who waited patiently for the young boy to climb into the carriage.

“I suppose I could give you a hand,” he said as he lifted Charlie into the carriage. “I am still very surprised by this. Madame Windham has been very withdrawn. I don’t know why she’s taken a liking to you.”

Charlie smiled. He didn’t know either. He had no idea what was ahead of him. Maybe Madame Windham was a taskmaster. Maybe she was his guardian angel, a way out of the slum life. He was treating it, as his mother told him to, as an adventure.

The journey was a short one out of the neighborhood. He could see the other neighborhood children watching him as he rode by in what could be best described as a majestic carriage. He didn’t feel as his father described, just as a hired hand.

He felt more like royalty.

The servants opened the gates to Windham manor as the carriage approached. Charlie paid attention to nearly every detail of the place. It didn’t seem quite as majestic as the carriage.

There were weeds growing up around the place. The once white paint on the home seemed more of a touch of gray. It looked like a somber place, one of great sadness.

Waiting for them as they arrived was Mirilla.

“Come this way young lad,” she said as she led him into a bedroom that seemed as large as the small place where his family dwelt. Charlie couldn’t help but notice the dresses on stands. There were very elegant dolls on the dresser and on tables around the room. But most were covered up.

“Madame wants you to put these work clothes on and join her in the garden,” Mirilla said.

Laying on the bed was a pair of trousers and a shirt. There was also a pair of gloves and a straw hat. Mirilla slowly closed the door behind her. The work clothes actually seemed nicer than the ones he actually wore.

He put them as he was told and was amazed by how well they fit. He then looked at the room before he walked out the door. Like the house, there seemed to be a touch of sadness to it.

He imagined there was a time when that wasn’t so. There had to have been a princess living in this room, he thought, much like the ones in the fairy tales his mother told him about.

“There you are,” Mirilla said, interrupting his train of thought.

“Follow me,” she said, leading out of the house into the back of the estate. The yard was grown up, but the actual garden itself seemed more like a jungle.

Toiling away was the woman Mirilla and Myron called “Madame” Windham. She was dressed in a fashion that didn’t seem to go well with a woman of that stature. She wore a dress similar to the ones he’d seen his mother and other woman wear down by the river while they worked.

“See Mirilla, I told you the clothes would fit him,” Mrs. Windham said.

“Are they comfortable?” she asked Charlie.

Charile nodded.

“Good!” Mrs. Windham said. “My Emily was about your size. I knew you probably needed some work clothes. My guess is the clothes that you wore here were about all you had. I hope I didn’t just embarrass you.”

Charlie nodded to the affirmative. The clothes he wore that day were the only ones he had. And he was also embarrassed that was the case.

“Well, you’re lucky,” Mrs. Windham said. “I bought those clothes for Emily to help me out here. Girls aren’t supposed to wear trousers, so it is the only pair she had. I couldn’t see you out here wearing one of her work dresses, wearing a bonnet like mine.”

Charlie laughed and blushed.

“When I help my mother sometimes outside and it’s really hot, she makes me wear a bonnet to protect my head,” he said. “But I don’t have to wear a dress, Madame.”

Mrs. Windham smiled. She took a finger and tapped his nose.

“You’re almost too pretty to be a boy,” she said. “Sometimes I think a dress would suit him better, isn’t that right, Mirilla?”

Mirilla nodded in agreement. Charlie again blushed.

“Now, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Mrs. Windham said.

She wasn’t kidding. One could hardly tell the flowers from the weeds. Charlie spent the better part of the morning helping Mrs. Windham clear the overgrown weeds away. He was amazed to see how many flowers still grew amidst all of the chaos.

“Believe it or not, this was once a very beautiful garden,” Mrs. Windham said. “It was the envy of the town. But after my dear Emily died, I couldn’t bear to come out here.”

Charlie wondered what made her change her mind. He wasn’t the only one. Mirilla, Myron and the other servants were also very curious in the change of attitude in the lady of the manor. They were equally intrigued with her interest in Charlie.

“It is almost as if she is talking to Emily out there,” Mirilla told Myron as they watched from the porch.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Myron said. “As long as she’s happy. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen her laughing like she is right now.”

Most of the servants on the property took note of the laughter coming from the garden. It didn’t interrupt the work. Charlie helped “Madame” as he began calling her helped her pile up the weeds and the brush that they managed to clear.

Mrs. Windham spent part of the time making fun of Charlie’s Irish accent. Each time, she corrected his poor grammar and tried to get him to speak properly. Charlie didn’t seem to mind.

He suddenly came to a complete stop.

“What’s wrong?” Mrs. Windham asked.

Smack in the middle of the garden was a beautiful fountain, one that could not be seen from outside the fence before they started their labor.

“Oh my gosh, that is so beautiful, Madame!” he said. He didn’t mean to blurt it out.

“I think so, too,” she said. “It was also my Emily’s favorite place on the whole property. She used to come here by herself and read her favorite books. Do you read, Charlie?”

“Only the Bible, Madame,” he said. “It is the only book we own.”

Mrs. Windham stooped down and picked a yellow flower.

“That is something we’ll have to change,” she said as she took the straw hat off his head.

She placed the flower in his head.

“My dear Charlie,” she said. “You remind me of this garden, this fountain and this whole estate. Underneath the dirt, there is so much beauty to uncover.”

Charlie smiled and blushed. He was somewhat embarrassed. He was really perplexed.

“We’ve done enough work for today,” she said as she put her arm around Charlie. “We’ll get you cleaned up, get something to eat and get you home.”

Get you home were not the words Charlie wanted to hear. But he knew the day could not last forever.

He was surprised by what came next.

Getting him cleaned up included a lot more than he was expecting. Getting cleaned up in the O’Hara household meant getting a bucket of water and a sponge and washing off.

“Mirilla, take the tub into Emily’s room and draw Charlie a bath,” were the words Mrs. Windham spoke that caught Charlie by complete surprise. “And get Helen to draw mine in my bedroom.”
*****

“No ma’am, I can’t do that,” were the words Mrs. Windham heard coming from Emily’s bedroom.

“Is there a problem in here?” she said as she peeked through the door.

“I told him to give me his clothes and then I will help him get in the tub and bathe him,” Mirilla said.

“She can’t do that….ma’am, she’ll see me naked!” Charlie stammered.

“Nonsense!” Mrs. Windham said as she tapped Charlie again on the nose. “Give her your clothes. She’s seen children naked before. She used to bathe Emily!”

“But Emily was a girl!” Charlie protested, but then he complied, rangling out of the filthy work clothes.

“Give me the clothes Mirilla and I will take them to Helen on my way to my bath,” Mrs. Windham said.

She winked at Charlie as Mirilla helped him into the tub and then departed from the room.

There were no more protests from Charlie. The water was warm. It reminded him of the baths his mother told him about that rich ladies take. There were bubbles. The water smelled like perfume.

He didn’t seem to mind as Mirilla scrubbed every speck of dirt off his skin.

He relaxed and didn’t want to get out when Mirilla picked up a towel off the dresser.

“Step out,” she ordered.

He complied and stepped into the towel that she wrapped around him. She then led him and sat him down at a chair in front of a mirror.

“Shouldn’t I be getting dressed?” he asked.

“Just a minute,” said Mirilla as she pulled a brush from one of the drawers. “Got to brush your hair first.”

“Brush my hair?” Charlie asked.

“You don’t want me to?” Mirilla asked. “It’s something I used to do with Emily.”

Charlie thought about saying “Well I’m not Emily”, but said “it’s okay.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he actually enjoyed the pampering. He didn’t protest as she helped him into his longjohns and his clothes.

“Don’t you look nice!” Mrs. Windham said as he came down to dinner, which compared to what he normally ate each day was a bountiful feast.

Mrs. Windham continued to ask him about his home life as they ate. It seemed she wanted to know everything about him.

“Goodbye, you worked very hard today,” she said as he hopped into the carriage. She gave him a bag of coins.

He looked inside. It was more wages than old Walter O’Hara would make in a month when he actually worked.

His heart sank as the carriage drove closer and closer to the slums he called home.

He knew how Cinderella felt after the ball, after the clock struck midnight.