By the first evening in the house, Jesse was completely exhausted, both physically and mentally. After supper, he followed Juri upstairs to the servants’ corridor and into the small, simple bedroom that he’d be sharing with the other footman from now on. Jesse walked to the left bed that was to be his and immediately flopped down on it. His suitcase was still standing unpacked beside it.
“You need to change and wash first,” Juri said, smiling a bit. “Mr. Inohara won’t like it if he sees you slouching on the bed with your livery on.”
“What, does he come here to check?” Jesse sat up at once.
“Sometimes,” Juri shrugged.
Jesse heaved a heavy sigh, but got up and started unbuttoning his vest. “There are so many rules and invisible etiquette. I don’t know if I’ll ever learn it all.”
“Of course you will, just give yourself time. It won’t happen in a day,” Juri said encouragingly. “And you did well today!”
“I don’t know…”
Jesse had followed Juri around the whole day like a useless shadow, while Juri had shown him the house, all the main rooms and passages for the servants. Jesse still couldn’t say he knew his way around; his head was spinning with dining rooms, drawing rooms and the library, not to mention the dozen different bedrooms on the second floor. And everything was so grand and majestic to him; the high rooms, the pillars, the dark wood and all the expensive looking furniture, rugs and huge paintings on the walls. To him, the Abbey felt as magnificent as Buckingham Palace.
Then there was setting the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner, all with a little different cutlery, silver and china carefully chosen by Mr. Inohara. Jesse had helped setting the table, copying everything Juri did and then watching how Juri slightly adjusted the knives or glasses he had set so that everything lined up perfectly (“Mr. Inohara will notice if anything is out of place and you will hear about it afterwards, believe me,” Juri had said).
But the most nerve-wracking part of the day, and the moment to make all the possible mistakes, had been waiting at table while the family ate. Jesse had never done it on such a large scale and he had been concentrating so hard not to drop a tray or spill anything that he had almost no proper memories of lunch or dinner. He had felt Mr. Inohara’s eyes boring on his back the whole time he had been serving the Lord and the Lady. Somehow, he had made it without any bigger incidents, though afterwards Mr. Inohara had given him a list of things he should improve.
The family itself had been quite friendly. It had only been Mr. and Mrs. Kyomoto this time. Their eldest son was living and studying in London and the younger son was visiting the capital for a couple of days, so Jesse had heard. Mr. Inohara had introduced Jesse to the Lord and Lady at lunch and they had given him polite smiles and wished him welcome. It was more than Jesse had expected, to be honest. They had both felt elegant and distant, Mr. Kyomoto handsome while his wife was very beautiful with fair skin and soft features.
“What do you think about the family?” Jesse asked Juri after a moment. “Since you’ve been here sometime already.”
Juri put his livery carefully in the cupboard before answering.
“I think they’re good employers. The Lord and the Lady have always been kind to me, and to other servants, too, from what I’ve heard.”
“And what about the sons?” Jesse found that he was quite curious about the two younger Kyomotos.
”Well, Mr. Ichiro lives in London so he’s seldom here. I think I’ve only seen him a couple of times while I’ve been working here. He seems serious and reticent. And then Mr. Taiga…”
Juri trailed off, clearly pondering what to say. He looked over at Jesse and lowered his voice.
“I don’t want to, and I really even shouldn’t, say anything bad about the family members, but I think you should be aware since you’re new. Mr. Taiga can seem a bit arrogant and harsh at times. He’s not the kindest towards the servants but it’d be best to just ignore it, if you ever see it or experience it. That’s my advice.”
“Huh. So he’s a rich lad, who’s a,” Jesse dropped his voice to a barely audible whisper, “prick. Not very surprising.”
Juri shrugged. “I suppose. At least we don’t have to serve him so closely. As long as you do your duties well and stay out of Mr. Taiga’s way otherwise, you should be fine.”
Jesse nodded slowly and opened his suitcase. “Yes, I can do that.”
–
The following day, Jesse was momentarily feeling like he could do the job. Morning with ironing the papers and setting up breakfast had gone rather smoothly. He also wasn’t tailing Juri anymore as Mr. Inohara had given them separate tasks to do. Jesse hadn’t seen Juri after the family’s breakfast. Now, Mr. Inohara had sent Jesse to deliver a couple of letters for Mr. Kyomoto to the library.
Clutching the letters like they were from the King himself, Jesse strode across the empty entrance hall. The whole house felt quiet and empty at the moment; the Lord and the Lady were both out somewhere and all the servants spread around the house, quietly carrying out their tasks. Jesse entered the library and placed the letters on Mr. Kyomoto’s writing desk according to Mr. Inohara’s instructions. His eyes flew over papers and books that were piled on the mahogany surface, but then he caught himself and hastily lifted his head and looked out of the window instead.
“Hello…?”
Jesse jumped a bit at the sudden greeting and turned towards a man that had just entered the library. He was young, around Jesse’s age, and dressed in a dark grey suit, hair combed up neatly. With pale skin and noble features, he looked weirdly familiar but Jesse was quite sure he had never seen the man before.
“Good afternoon, sir,” Jesse greeted instantly, straightening himself. “I’m afraid both Mr. and Mrs. Kyomoto are not available right now, but if I can help somehow…?”
Jesse did not know how to proceed with surprise guests when the family was not home. He supposed the man would have to wait in the library while someone fetched Mr. Kyomoto…
The young man snorted quietly, looking amused. “Who are you? The new footman?”
Jesse blinked. How did a guest know that?
“Y-yes, my name is Jesse Lewis. I started here yesterday.” He didn’t know why he added the last part. Just answer the question and don’t babble.
The man looked him up and down, amusement still prevalent on his face. “And you do know who you’re serving here, right?”
Jesse was confused. “Uh, I…”
“What is going on? Why is there a suitcase in the hall–” Mr. Inohara strode to the library at that very moment, looking from Jesse to the stranger. His eyes widened slightly and he bowed his head at once.
“My lord! Good afternoon. I’m very sorry, I wasn’t aware that you had arrived.”
Jesse flinched. What?! My Lord? It couldn’t be…
“Jesse!” Mr. Inohara snapped. “Why didn’t you take Mr. Taiga’s luggage when he arrived?”
Oh dear. It took Jesse a moment to find his voice. “Uh, I was just delivering the letters when, um… When…” He trailed off helplessly.
“Yes?” Mr. Inohara looked impatient.
“I think,” the young man, Mr. Taiga, said, “what happened was that this footman didn’t quite recognize me upon my arrival. Which is an honest mistake, of course, given that we’ve never met before.” Despite the words, his tone was full of ill-disguised mockery.
Mr. Inohara looked perfectly aghast, like he was ready to eat Jesse alive, while Mr. Taiga seemed to be enjoying the whole situation. The silent amusement on those refined features made Jesse’s face burn with embarrassment. He remembered Juri’s words from last night, and couldn’t quite believe that he was already in the situation Juri had warned him about. He also had to admit that Juri’s description of Mr. Taiga was perfectly accurate.
—
“I’m sorry, what happened?” Juri looked absolutely incredulous. He had just taken a seat next to Jesse in the servants’ hall, now looking between Jesse and Shintaro. Jesse was leaning his head against his hand, not wanting to discuss the matter with anyone anymore. Across him, Shintaro was trying his best to suppress his laughter.
“You heard me,” Jesse said flatly.
“But… You couldn’t…? How? Boy, Mr. Inohara must have been mad.”
“Oh, he was.”
Shintaro’s laughter had died down and he apparently took pity on Jesse, patting his arm.
“Hey, cheer up! Everyone makes mistakes. When Juri started here, he broke a glass during one dinner and then almost spilled wine on Mr. Kyomoto’s mother.”
Juri threw a dirty look at Shintaro. “Thank you. And who was it that almost drove the car in a tree on their first day as a chauffeur?”
Shintaro just shrugged. “Yes? My point exactly. We all make mistakes and it’s not a big deal. And later we can even laugh at them. Well, Juri apparently still hasn’t learned that, but maybe he will, too.”
Jesse couldn’t help but smile at that, while Juri evidently kicked Shintaro under the table, but there was a smile on his lips, too.
Mr. Inohara marched into the hall right then, and they all scrambled up from their seats. Jesse couldn’t help but glance at the butler and saw his eyes flash dangerously over at Jesse, Juri and Shintaro. Some maids in the middle of the table had been giggling and now looked like they wanted to ask something but Mr. Inohara raised a silencing hand over them all.
“I do not wish to discuss the earlier incident any further nor do I want to hear talk about it in the servant’s hall, is that clear?”
“Yes, Mr. Inohara,” they all muttered in unison. Jesse personally was more than fine with this rule.
Now the only thing he wished he could solve: from now on, how to avoid Mr. Taiga as much as possible?