Page 5 of Euphoria
“Well, you travel light,” she declared with a huff and waved me forward. “That’s not a bad thing. I’m envious! I’m a woman who loves her creature comforts, indeed.”
I followed her up the stairs and over the landing, all the while Alice telling me about the rooms and renovations that had changed Thornfield over the years. It had been built in the early eighteenth century by a noble family and had been their ancestral home for generations before finally becoming a hotel in the nineteen sixties.
In recent years, the manor had been renovated and shaped to fit the trappings of the modern world. Larger rooms had become smaller, and electricity and plumbing had been installed with great care to preserve the heritage of the building, but everywhere my eyes dared to look, the edges seemed worn and tired, almost as if the house itself had given up all hope of the hotel becoming a successful venture for its owner.
“Is the hotel yours?” I asked as Alice led me down the hall to the employee’s lodgings located in the east wing.
“Oh my, no!” she exclaimed with a hearty laugh. “What a thing to say! Thornfield belongs to Mr. Rochester. We are related, quite distantly, but I never assume to think he cares for the connection. I’m just the same as anyone around here.”
Who is Mr. Rochester?I wondered as my boots hardly made a sound on the plush crimson carpet. He sounded as if he were an older man who was so rich he had no regard to maintaining all of his holdings and had let the staff and guests at Thornfield run amok in his absence.
“Is Mr. Rochester here?” I asked, curious to know more of the man who let his grand hotel slide into disrepair.
“No, he’s off in Europe somewhere,” Alice informed me. “He comes and goes as he pleases. He’s quite a good employer, he pays well, but he can be unpredictable at best.”
Unpredictable? I didn’t like the sound of a flighty rich middle-aged man, but as long as I performed my duties and did nothing to ire him, then it shouldn’t worry me. Deciding to leave the identity of Mr. Rochester be, I turned my attention to where I was walking, memorizing the lay of Thornfield.
“We are all very pleased you have come, Jane,” Alice said as she came to a halt in front of a closed door. “It’s been so long since we’ve had a new face around here.”
“I must admit, I am as well,” I replied. “It’s not a position I would have normally agreed to, but I’m never one to back down from a challenge.”
“Thornfield is a challenge, for sure! But don’t let that sway you. We have a great deal of fun here, don’t you worry about that.”
I smiled, her extroverted energy beginning to tire me after my walk from the village.
“It’s past midnight, and you must be exhausted,” Alice declared as if she sensed the fatigue in my limbs. “Here is your room. It’s quite small, but it has its own bathroom, as many of the rooms here do. It is yours to do what you wish with, short of painting and putting holes in the walls, of course.”
I waited patiently as she unlocked the door and turned on the light within.
As the little light bulb illuminated the interior, I found her description quite apt. The space was compact without much room to be had around the bed. It was a double mattress squashed into the place of a single, and I was thankful for the extra room I would have to stretch out at night. The bathroom was in much the same state, the basin was installed over the toilet, and the shower took up three quarters of the remaining area. It was much like the budget hotels in London with their single room shoeboxes.
I didn’t intend to stay in here if I could help it, and with my meager belongings, it was quite fine for me.
“It’s not as grand as the guests’ rooms,” Alice said, trying to make light of its smallness. “But it does fine enough.”
“It’s perfectly adequate,” I replied kindly.
“Tomorrow, come and find me in the reception room beside the main gallery,” Alice said, handing me the key to the room. “Then I will show you the whole of Thornfield and introduce you around. We have a lot of work to do!”
Her enthusiasm, although at such a late hour, was infectious, and I found myself smiling in return. She had not once scolded or made me feel inadequate for my attire nor my proper speech, not like the teachers at Lowood had. Ruffian, thief, and charlatan they’d called me, simply for my choice of wild hair, boots, jeans, and leather jacket. Not once had they looked into my heart to see my true intent. They saw the surface, took judgment upon it, and that was that.
Alice was overtly pleased at my reaction to the room and left me to become acquainted with it. I placed my duffel on the trunk at the foot of the bed and surveyed the space now that I was in it alone.
Peeking out the window, I could see nothing but darkness beyond, the surrounding grounds disappearing in the reflection of the light behind me. I was sure it would all look different in the morning.
Peeling off my travel-stained clothes, I slipped into bed and found it quite comfortable, and in no time, I fell into a deep sleep.
My room lookedto be a bright, cheery place as night became day.
The sun shone through a crack between the curtains, showing the space in a much better light than the washed-out bulb had previously. The walls were papered with an old-fashioned green design, which was adequate for a home of its period, and the matching carpeted floors were in need of a shampoo, but the bed and furnishings were a sight better than those I’d endured at Lowood.
My lodgings were as compact as I’d expected, but I’d already climbed a step higher in the hierarchy of the world. I was by no means at the top or even the middle, but I had a roof over my head, paid work, and the promise of three meals a day. It was more than someone from my situation could hope for.
Pulling aside the curtains, I leaned my forehead against the windowpane, studying the florets of early morning frost that clung to the outside. Rubbing the side of my closed fist against the coldness, I was able to catch a glimpse of the manor grounds through the ice.
There wasn’t much to see besides an acre of grass, a long winding trail leading into a small forest, and then the fog-laden moor stretching far off to the horizon and most likely farther still where my eye could not follow.
A smile found its way onto my lips, and all at once, I allowed myself to believe this was the beginning of a better era. Life, adventure, and the promise of more was finally beginning to rise in earnest for me, Jane Doe, the girl,who was now a woman, with no name.
Maybe this time.
