Rose blushed, but also thought the butler was rather rude. Why was he speaking of the butler as someone else? And suddenly Rose's pink blush turned into deep red. Was he Mr. Meijer himself? Rose wasn't sure. This was awkward. She just nodded quietly, internally debating which was more likely. If it was mr. Meijer, she had been rude to him. Should she apologise? But was it him?

‘The butler’s idea of showing a room seemed to be announcing what it was, giving no job description, and moving on. He could not wait for this to be over with.

Rose followed him through different rooms, frowning. All of this seemed confusing. She was still debating whether this was the butler or mr. Meijer himself. And why did Mr. Meijer hire her without an interview, or - clearly - a background check? "Erm, which tasks will be expected of me, ser?" she asked timidly. And why did the former maid leave? But Rose did not voice that question.

[CW: Misogyny, anti-semitism.]

He had no idea. Truly, it was not his place to have an idea. But then, English gentile society was not designed for any of his family within it – nor were sidewalks paved with the intent of the grass and moss finding a way back through it.

Life found a way.

And if he and many of his classmates could go on to be practicing barristers, solicitors, and white-collared gentlemen, who was to say he could not go on to run a household without a wife?

“Cleaning,” he blurted out like a schoolboy who had just been called on a question he did not remember the answer to.

And so Rose figured out at last that it was the gentleman Mr. Meijer himself she was talking to. "Aye, ser...." she said, not wishing to offend him, and trying to mask the annoyance in her voice - quite unsuccesfully. "As you say, ser." She added, trying to sound politer.

Was it something her voice? Something in her face? He felt more boy than man for a moment, color rushing to his face.

“The butler is ill.” There was an edge of chastisement to his tone, though he did not look back at her. “He should be able to answer your questions on the morrow.”

He paused in front of a cabinet upstairs.

“Do not touch that.”

And then continued on to the next room.

"Yes, ser," said Rose, trying to sound more neutral. When she followed him upstairs and he showed her the cabinet, Rose's curiosity was tickled immediately. "I won't, ser," she said. Let's be real, would Adam and Eve have been interested in the fruit, had it not been explicitly forbidden?

Speaking of fruit, something smelled off somewhere.

There were a few other places he gave similar warnings to (“or that, or that, or that...”), but beyond that the journey through the household was fairly nondescript.

At one point he seemed to mix up the bedroom and guest room.

Rose followed, still confused. Why was Mr Meijer showing her around, instead of a member of staff, especially if he seemed to know so little about housekeeping. Where was the other staff anyway? "What time would ye like me to start, ser? Do I live in or stay home?"

He could banish the servants to live elsewhere? Appealing, but a little too late to plan for that.

“Live-in,” he answered with his mouth stretched thin.

Maybe she would drown next and he could wash his hands of the family.

His stomach churned at the aftertaste of the thought.