A MAZE OF GREED

Every day since Rees and Thea's wedding date announcement felt like a war to Ruth. A war in which her role was only to avoid the enemy and live the day safely.

She escaped from Mrs Green's trap of setting up her with Edwin Berrycloth with the help of Rees, Thea and surprisingly, Mr and Mrs Welby.

It took Mr Welby to give a two-minute explanation of why Mr Berrycloth was not ready for a wedding proposal just yet, that finally shut up Mrs Green. But one could tell that she had not yet dropped her mission and had just kept it on hold.

Ruth had so many ideas for Thea's wedding dress. Looking at the white gown, she realised that she had no such memory of her mother. She had never seen her mother's wedding dress or the wedding band. Ruth did not even know who her father was, let alone know his name.

Working in 'the great manor', taking care of Mrs Payne, helping in the wedding preparations and working on Thea's wedding dress- these all together were more difficult to do than she thought.

By the time her back rested on the mattress, it was already past the midnight hour and the time she closed her eyes, already the morning was calling her to get up for the next day.

She was exhausted, to say the least. Elsie, as a woman, could understand how much it stressed Ruth, but she could not do anything. Thea had requested to let Ruth have some days off, but according to the norms set up for the O'Dell servants it was not possible.

Edwin argued that Ruth had already attracted much more attention than necessary, and giving her favourable treatment would send a wrong message to the others. Besides, he was suspected that people might see through their act, especially his uncle.

Thea had thrown a tantrum, and it took Rees a lot of effort to calm her down. In the end, Edwin promised that Ruth would be with Thea two days before the wedding.

If not before, then now Ruth wished she should have listened to Elsie and moved in the servants quarters. It would have saved her a lot of time and effort. Although Henry was always there for taking her from one place to another whenever she needed, it felt wrong to keep him engaged when he should be doing his duty.

Mrs Payne was washing the utensils from the morning breakfast when she heard a knock on the door. Washing her hands, she wiped them on her dress in hurry.

Thea's smiling face appeared after she opened the door. "Hello, Mrs Payne! How are you?"

"Thea? I am fine my dear! But what are you doing here at this time? Are not you should be at Mr Cooper's shop?" Mrs Payne let her enter inside the room then closed the door behind her.

"Oh, please Mrs Payne! Do not remind me of that chameleon. I have kicked his job and wished to kick his butt too." Thea told nonchalantly.

"Thea! Do not talk about your elders in such a disrespecting way!" Mrs Payne chided her.

"He does not deserve any respect, Mrs Payne. You know what he did with Ruth. I would have at least set his pants on fire for that and how he exploited our hardwork for all the time. But then I thought better than that and with a great heart decided to forgive him." Thea said proudly.

But Mrs Payne could see through her smile. "You are planning to teach him a lesson after you get married to Rees, am I not right, my sweet Thea?" She cocked her brow challengingly.

Thea replied with a sheepish smile, not caring to deny her words. She was there to collect the list that Mrs Payne had made for the things they would need for the wedding. She had also added some contacts that she thought would help them with the requirements.

While talking, their topic took a turn on Ruth's. Mrs Payne was worried about her health. She did not want her to overexert herself, but the woman was too stubborn to listen.

Thinking that it was a nice opportunity, Thea struck the subject that she was intending to discuss with Mrs Payne for days now.

"You are right, Mrs Payne. Ruth is so stubborn and a acts like a fool some times. I do not understand why she acts so dense some times and refused to see what is good for her." Thea said angrily.

"What do you mean?" Mrs Payne asked in confusion.

"I am talking about the servant quarters, Mrs Payne."

"Sservant... quarters?"

"Wait! You do not know? Ruth did not tell you anything?" Thea asked by feigning surprise.

Mrs Payne only shook her head.

"Oh, well... then let us not talk about it then." Thea observed how she had successfully sparked the old lady's interest.

"What is it Thea? Please tell me." Ruth had asked Mrs Payne about it before. But as expected Ruth's approach was indirect. At that time Mrs Payne had discarded that idea thinking Ruth was not serious about it.

"I am sorry Mrs Payne but if Ruth has not mentioned it to you then its probably best if I do not say much about it too." Thea said.

"But I want to know. I want to know everything that concerns Ruth."

Thea was little taken aback by her possessiveness but understood that she had grown loving Ruth like her own daughter and thus was worried for her.

"Every head maid and other important servants of the O'Dell family gets a place to live in the property of 'the great manor' which is known as servants quarters.

When Ruth was appointed to work for Lady Elsie, she was also told to move into one such apartment with her family. But Ruth declined that offer by saying she needed some time to decide." Thea explained.

Mrs Payne was confused. Was Ruth trying to convince her to move there?

"Does Rees also have an apartment there?" She asked curiously.

"Of course, he has. But he wanted to live with his parents instead and used that apartment only when he needed to spend the night in 'the great manor'. But after our marriage we are planning to move in there as I will also join service there." Thea told.

Mrs Payne fell in silence.

Thea could not gauge her train of thoughts and thus persisted the matter further.

"I wonder why Ruth declined this offer? Do you know why she did that?"

Mrs Payne looked bothered.

"I do not know." She said unsurely.

"Hmm... do you know Rees was telling me about a maid who used to work in 'the great manor' some time back. She also declined the facility of the servants quarter because of her family as they did not want to leave their family home.

The poor woman could not manage the travelling and... one night... Oh, God! I do not want to even think of that. Ruth has been through that once, and I do not want her to-"

"What are you saying Thea?" Mrs Payne asked with a shocked face.

Thea's eyes widened in realisation. She should not have touched that forbidden topic. Ruth had not told anything to Mrs Payne about the day she went to Harold Davies office and what happened after that.

"N-nothing, Mrs Payne. I think I should get going." Thea tried to run, but Mrs Payne stopped her.

"You can not leave without telling me what were you talking about!" Mrs Payne declared with determination.

"but-"

"I am listening Thea." She said sternly.

Thea did not want to break that to Mrs Payne, but now that the topic had already been mentioned, she wanted to try the luck and see if it would bring the desired result.

Thea told everything about that day, from how Ruth went to Harold Davies's office, what happened there, which Ruth had told only to Thea and Thea had not revealed that to Rees or Edwin, and how four goons tried harassing Ruth.

With every event that Thea described- little dramatically- Mrs Payne's eyes kept growing in size. She could not believe what she was hearing. And the worst thing was it was all her fault, was not it?

Seeing that the news had shaken Mrs Payne from the core, Thea panicked. She sped to the kitchen and brought a glass of water. Mrs Payne managed to take a couple of sips, but that did nothing to calm her heart.

Mrs Payne did not say much after that, and Thea thought it was only wise to leave before the situation got out of control. She stayed for some more minutes, till she was sure that she could leave Mrs Payne on her own.

Taking the list that she needed, Thea left only after taking promise from the old lady that she would not mention their conversation to Ruth, to which Mrs Payne agreed.

An hour later, when Mrs Payne had come to some conclusion, she opened the only shelf in the room. Removing the bunch of clothes, she pulled out a small box from under it.

It had been years that she last opened this box. It was old- years old. She opened its lock and lifted its lid. Inside it was a white feather of a bird. Mrs Payne took it in her hand, holding it between her first finger and thumb.

A teardrop rolled down her eyes as the memories that she had stuffed in a lone corner of her mind resurfaced again after years.

She was determined with her decision, and now she only wanted to reveal it to Ruth when she would be back home tonight.