Chapter Text
There’s a strange quietness in the morning when the village stirs awake. The pub signs creak in the silent wind, and every now and then, hushed footsteps pierce out of the haze. Bakers rush to prepare the first loaves of bread, young boys run around the empty streets with newspapers in their hands, ready to deliver them door to door. It’s a quiet waking, and somehow, Will has always been fascinated by it.
Sitting at his window, he watches the streets slowly fill with colour and lively sounds, a pen in his mouth and his new clothes already on. His mother had bought them a week earlier, and when Will pressed her to bring them back to save the money, she insisted that everything had to be perfect for his new job.
Will can’t say he’s had an easy life, but the last three years have been his personal hell. He spent all his time locked up underground, from dawn until late at night. He came home with red hands and a broken back, most times with dark bruises on his arms, and the money he left on the kitchen table was always too little for the hours he worked. He was the quiet guy, the one with a sketchbook in his back pocket filled with drawings that earned him mocking looks and jokes that stuck with him from morning to night. His boss refused to pay him what he was owed simply because of how Will looked: he was a small kid, barely of age, a foreign and creative soul stuck in a coal inferno, who only deserved the bare minimum and pity.
Then, when he came home one night with more bruises on his face than light in his eyes, his mother refused to let him return to the mine, and just a month before July began, she came back home with a big smile on her face and a hug that seemed to warm each of Will’s bones.
“I think I found a good job for you,” she said, leaving a gentle caress on the bruise on Will’s cheek.
Joyce had always been a hard-working woman; in a male-dominated world, she never let any man dictate her choices, and when his father left them with nothing but a name, she crossed the ocean, found a job as a washerwoman and built a reputation from scratch.
She was well-loved in the whole town, and her hard work paid off when she ended up cleaning clothes for several high-ranking families.
There was a small family just outside Bromfield with whom she had formed a particularly close bond. It was Baron Hopper, a lonely man who had lost his wife shortly after the birth of their only daughter, Jane, and after his last governess left his mansion, he found help in Joyce. He wasn’t a man who concerned himself much with social class, and he always invited Joyce for tea whenever she brought them their clean laundry, and it was during one of those afternoons that the Baron told Joyce that the Earl of the county was looking to hire someone new.
“The Wheeler family is looking for extra help for this summer,” Joyce told him. “Their property is just outside our town, in Onibury. They’d be willing to take you.”
Will hugged her tightly, thanking her with a kiss on her cheek, his hopes lifting at the thought of bringing home more money.
“Are you up already?” Will turns around and smiles when his mother enters the room with a steaming cup in her hands.
“I’ve been up for a couple of hours. Is that tea?” Will asks, reaching out when his mother hands him the cup, letting the warmth seep into his cold hands.
“I thought you were still sleeping.” She ruffles his hair, her eyes shimmering for a moment. “Oh, you’re wearing your new clothes! You look good.”
“You think so?” Will hides his smile behind a sip of his tea. “They’re definitely better than my grimy clothes from the mine.”
“And they better stay that way,” she remarks, giving him a stern but gentle look. “Be careful with that tea. You don’t want to show up on your first day with a stain on that shirt!”
“I’m always careful,” Will answers back, and rolls his eyes when his mother raises her eyebrow.
“I’ve washed more stains of colours off your clothes than anything else in my life,” she replies, but with a hand on his cheek, she smiles at him and heads towards the door. “Breakfast’s ready. Your brother made your favourite.”
Will thanks her and smiles, and after taking a fast but careful sip of his tea, he follows his mother downstairs to the kitchen, where he finds a plate full of eggs and a strip of bacon.
Jonathan pushes the plate towards him as soon as he sits down, and Will smiles up at him.
“Thank you,” he replies, and his eyes widen when his mother sets a plate with bread and honey right next to him. “It’s too much.”
“It’s definitely not too much for your first day of work,” she replies, and Will thinks of all the times his mother eked out their supplies, not to waste them too soon, and how he’s given honey and bacon all in one go.
“I managed to trade the bacon for some extra work in Newport,” Jonathan says, setting the same plate in their mother’s place.
“When are you going back?” Will asks, grabbing a forkful of eggs.
Jonathan left home two years prior after landing a job in shipbuilding at the port of Newport, and sometimes, Will finds it ironically fitting that his brother ended up building the same kinds of ships that brought them to England all those years ago, when they left the States in search of a better life overseas. Jonathan is gone most of the time, with Newport being his new home, but he sends them letters and money whenever he can, whenever he has something to spare. He managed to get back home for the weekend just in time to see Will before his new job.
“I’m expected for a night shift tomorrow,” Jonathan replies, taking his cup of steaming coffee and sitting in what used to be his old place. “I’m leaving first thing in the morning.”
“Thank you for being here,” Will says, and Jonathan nods his head as he drinks. “But it’s not a big deal. It’s just a new job.”
“It’s a big deal that you left that coal mine,” Jonathan responds. “It was killing you.”
It goes unsaid that it wasn’t just the respiratory issues that came with digging coal in a closed place, but also the beatings and the insults that were thrown his way every single day.
Will gives his brother a gentle smile, and he lets himself enjoy the rest of the breakfast as if it were old times when his brother still lived with them.
At eight sharp, a car parks in front of their house, and Joyce opens the door to find Baron Hopper standing in front of them.
“Good morning,” the Baron says, and Will quickly bows when he sees him. “Mrs. Byers, Will.”
“Good morning, Baron,” Joyce says, giving him a warm smile. “Thank you for offering Will a ride for his first day.”
“I’m more than happy to give back some of the kindness you’ve shown me and my daughter,” Hopper replies, tipping his hat, and Will beams at the Baron’s words. He knows that his mother is a rare soul, one who shows kindness to every person he meets, and that sometimes she stays late to help Jane with her reading.
Will passes a hand on his new beige trousers, and he fixes the braces on the white shirt before kissing his mother goodbye and getting into the car.
It’s a silent ride towards the mansion, and Will tries to memorise the streets he will have to bike on as he ponders this new job.
For what he knows, he’s going to be working mainly in the mansion’s gardens, and just the thought of that puts Will in a good mood. It’s quite an improvement to go from working in tight and dark places to breathing fresh air while moving dirt around, and for once, Will is excited to start a new job. He knows that he’s also supposed to help another servant with simple repairs around the house and sometimes, with the cars, too, and Will is thankful that Jonathan has taught him all he knows about cars. In his short life, he’s worked many jobs; from being the town’s paperboy to taking groceries around and occasionally working in a repair shop, and Will can safely say that whatever awaits him will not be as terrible as the coal mine.
A fresh breeze tousles his hair, and Will feels his breath hitch in his throat when the Baron rounds the corner to take a tree-lined road, and the mansion comes in sight. If he remembers it correctly, the Baron called the place Stokesay Court.
The gates are open, and the Baron enters the front yard with ease as Will takes it all in. The building expands to horizons he cannot mark, and the yellow bricks show all the ages this place has gone through. There’s a glass window on almost every wall, and as he gets out of the car, Will sees some movement inside the house, realising at that very moment that he knows too little of this family and this place. He has no idea how many people are in the Wheeler family – he’s only ever heard the name every now and then around the village – and the three stories make him realise that there must be quite some personnel, too.
The front door opens, and a young, well-dressed man runs down the main stairs, his brown curls hopping around his head.
“Baron Hopper,” the young man says. “You’re as punctual as Wheeler junior.”
“Isn’t he always late?”
“Precisely.” The boy – Will thinks they might be the same age – takes out a pocket watch from his waistcoat, and Hopper rolls his eyes. “You’re seven minutes late.”
“Then go and tell the Earl I’ve arrived with Mr. Byers, the new manservant.”
The boy nods, and before he runs off, he gives Will a kind and fleeting smile, and Will wonders how many times the Baron has come to this mansion for this boy to have such familiarity with him, to speak with him with such ease.
“Come with me,” the Baron says, and Will hesitates for only a second.
“Shouldn’t we wait outside?” Will asks once he realises that they’re actually headed inside.
“I’ve visited this house more times than I can count, I assure you, it’s fine,” the Baron replies, and Will makes himself small as he enters the mansion.
The foyer is almost as big as his own house, and the open doors on each side make Will wonder how many rooms he won’t be able to enter because of his rank. He figures that his job might allow him to wander around the house, sometimes, but surely not alone.
“Ah. Hopper.”
Will’s head snaps up, and he sees an old man – not quite old, but definitely old-looking – enter the foyer from one of the many open doors. He has a pipe in his hands, and he looks weary, almost bored.
“Earl Wheeler,” Hopper says, and when he bows his head, Will does the same.
“I thought we were going to see you on Sunday for our weekly lunch,” the Earl says, and Will suddenly understands why the Baron doesn’t wait for the Earl’s permission before picking up a cigar from the box on the side table. “Where is Jane?” the Earl asks, grabbing a box of matches from his pocket, and Will is hit with the strong smell of smoke that he is sure is impregnated in each carpet in that room.
“She’s home, I’m not here for that,” Hopper replies, taking a puff. “I’ve come to bring you the new boy, William.”
He’s only ever heard his full name whenever he got into some trouble with his mother – which was definitely too often when he was a kid – but nevertheless, he straightens up his posture and nods.
“Ah. Right.” The Earl gives him an empty look – did he forget? Was he not expected today? But the boy at the stairs said they were seven minutes late – and he sighs, looking back at the newspaper in his hands. “I’ll have one of the servants called to show him around.”
He turns around and leaves, without so much as a word of farewell, and the Baron’s snort echoes in the empty hall.
“You won’t be seeing him much around the house,” Hopper says. “He’s either hiding in the library or in the dining room, and even when he’s there, it’s like he’s completely out of this world.”
Somehow, even though Will has seen the Earl for barely a minute, he has no trouble believing that. Before he gets to ask where he can find the servants’ room, a woman appears in the hall.
She has wavy, blonde hair, held up by a silver pin, and her smile brings lightness into the room.
“Jim! It’s so nice to see you.” She approaches them and kisses him on each cheek. “And you must be the new manservant.”
“Madam.” Will bows his head again. “Thank you for this opportunity. It’s an honour to be working for you.”
His mother had reminded him over and over again to thank them and make sure they knew how grateful he was.
“We’re delighted to have found someone to replace Adam,” she replies, and Will believes that she must be the Countess. “You’re quite young.”
“I’m eighteen, ma’am.”
“Oh, just like my boy! You will be seeing him around sometimes.” She squeezes Hopper’s arm, and her smile never once falters. “Have you met the Earl already?”
“I have, ma’am,” Will says. Barely, he thinks, but doesn’t say anything.
“Good. I’ll get one of the boys to show you around.”
“Thank you.”
She smiles at him and turns to Hopper. “Do you have five minutes, Jim? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
“Of course.” The Baron inhales all the smoke from the cigar before nodding his head to Will. “I’ll be back around six to take you back home.”
“There’s no need, I can walk back.”
“I insist. I’ve promised your mother.”
Will nods, not wanting to upset either his mother when she finds out he stubbornly decided to walk home, or the Baron himself, since he’s being kind enough to offer him a ride.
“Thank you.”
They leave him alone in the foyer, and Will takes this moment to enjoy the silence he knows won’t last long during his workdays.
He doesn’t have to wait much; the boy who opened the door for them – Dustin, he finds out – comes to pick him up and starts to show him around.
“As you’ve probably noticed, this is the main entrance and foyer, and each door leads to a different room,” Dustin says, leading him down the stairs. “There’s the smoking room, which is only ever used during formal dinners or when the Baron is here, which is almost every Sunday. It’s the second room on the left. Then, there’s the library.”
“Where the Earl hides.”
Dustin stops before a door and smirks. “You’ve been informed. Yes, he’s either there or in the dining room, which are close to each other, just the way his lordship likes it.”
He says the last words almost whispering, but the grin on his face is there for everyone to see.
Dustin tells him all about the different rooms: the tea rooms, the small library that is usually where Countess Karen stays, the writing rooms where the Earl’s children study, the private bedrooms upstairs where he won’t enter unless there’s something to repair, and as he’s telling him all about the garage, they enter the kitchen.
The silence that was fluttering around the foyer disappears in a moment when he steps into the kitchen; a woman shouts at her maids to get the butter and the parsley, and some other young boys run around as they gather plates and napkins.
“You’re in the way, Henderson,” someone says, and Will moves to the side before he’s accidentally pushed, and a boy his age reaches for a bowl behind them.
“And you’re not supposed to be here, Sinclair,” Dustin replies, and he stops the boy by resting a hand on his shoulder. “Will, this is Lucas, our handyman and mechanic. You’re going to work mainly with him.”
“Ah, the new boy.” Lucas reaches out and shakes Will’s hand firmly. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s been quite a hectic summer.”
“We had another boy, Adam, and he left in May.”
“Why?”
“He got married.”
“Ah.”
Will smiles, and Lucas leaves to help around the kitchen with what Will believes must be breakfast.
“Come. There’s still much to see!” Dustin exclaims, and with a pat on the shoulder, he takes Will around the house.
It feels like an endless tour as Will realises just how big the house really is. They walk around the servants’ room, where they can rest and have their meals, and Will knows he’ll get the chance to get accustomed to that space in the future.
They pass through various rooms: the lounges, the private rooms, the reading rooms, the grand library – where the Earl is soundly sleeping in a chair – and finally up to the servants’ quarters, where Dustin quickly shows him where they sleep. Everything in that house feels so old.
After a good hour of walking, Dustin leads him to the gardens to show him around, and as they reach the entrance, they hear laughter coming from the stairs behind them.
It’s a fleeting sound that comes running down and fills the air like a sweet sparkle of joy, and a boy runs away from a little, shrieking girl.
“Stop, I said, stop! Give me back my book!” the girl yells, and the laughter continues until they realise they’re not alone. The little girl runs up to Dustin and pulls on his sleeve.
“Dustin! Tell him to give me back my book!” the girl cries, stomping her feet on the ground.
“I’m sorry, miss, I don’t think there’s much I can do in this situation,” Dustin says, trying to hide the laugh behind his smile, and when the girl notices Will, Dustin takes a step back. “May I introduce you to Will? He’s the new manservant.”
The girl looks him up with wide eyes and a funny smile on her lips, and she dangles from her feet as she inspects him.
“Will, they’re Earl’s children. This is Holly,” Dustin begins, and Will’s small bow makes the girl chuckle. “And this is Michael.”
The boy, with curvy hair like his mother's but as dark as his father’s, simply stares at him. There’s no sign of greeting, not even anything that suggests he realises who’s standing in front of him. Will tries to bow again – he’s honestly lost count of how many times he’s bowed today – and, with an uncertain smile, he introduces himself to the boy. After several seconds of awkward silence, Michael cracks a faint smile, and Will feels something pull him forward.
“Are you going to stay forever?” Holly asks, and Will realises he’s been staring at Michael for quite some time.
“I can’t know for sure, miss,” Will replies, putting his hands behind his back as he shifts his gaze to back to her.
“Are you getting married, too?”
Dustin snorts, rolling his eyes and sighing, and Holly slaps him gently on the arm.
“It’s not funny!” she protests. “You will get married, too, one day!”
“Of course, miss,” Dustin replies, and Will realises this was not the atmosphere he was expecting to find in an Earl’s mansion.
“I have no plans of getting married any time soon, miss,” Will replies.
“Neither does Mike,” she states, and Will is about to ask who she’s talking about when her brother finally speaks up.
“It’s none of your business, Holly,” Michael – Mike, Will thinks, definitely suits him better – answers back, and Will finds himself smiling at him just a little too long.
His voice is stinging, but still, it’s sweet and gentle, a soft tone Will secretly finds himself longing to hear more. When Holly rolls her eyes and Mike smirks, Will feels an overwhelming desire to daydream.
“If you’ll excuse us, I need to finish showing Will around the house,” Dustin says, and Holly takes advantage of her brother’s distraction to snatch back the book, and before they know it, she runs off with Mike chasing her and screaming her name.
Will inhales deeply, the lingering scent of Mike passing next to him. It’s fresh, and it smells like roses, and Will shuts his brain before it gets the chance to spiral into something far more dangerous.
The rest of the day passes as fast as he imagined it would. Dustin bombs him with all the information he needs to know, where he can find the tools, where to start, and when it’s lunchtime, he gets to meet the rest of the servants.
Claudia, his mother, is a lovely woman, an excellent cook, but definitely strict when it comes to working in her kitchen. Dustin and Lucas bicker back and forth like siblings, even if the colour of their skin proves differently, and there’s a young girl, Max, whose gentle smile is the first thing Will notices. She introduces herself as a maid, and explains that her main job is to take care of Holly.
He learns that there aren’t many people working in the house – a few maids, a couple of footmen, the kitchen staff and a butler who is nowhere to be seen.
“Your accent is quite a strong one,” Lucas says, taking a big bite of the bread Claudia just took out of the oven. “Where are you from?”
“I’m originally from Indianapolis,” Will replies, fixing his shirt. It’s getting too tight now that he’s eaten. “We moved to Bromfield when I was six after my father left my family.”
“Indianapolis?” Dustin asks. “You’re American?”
“Yes.” Suddenly, Will feels an old feeling emerge from where he managed to hide it all those years ago. He feels off, like an intruder, like he’s once again the foreign boy from the strange and faraway land overseas.
“So is Max,” Lucas replies, and the redheaded girl kicks him under the table.
“I can speak for myself,” she replies, and turns to smile at Will. “I’m from California.”
“How did you end up here?”
“Same as you, I guess. When my father left my mother, she decided to start all over and leave America for good. She found a job as a housekeeper not too far from here.”
She smiles again, but her eyes hide a type of sadness that Will knows all too well. Suddenly, the door cracks open and a tall man enters, followed by another young woman carrying a bag full of apples.
“And I said that no¸ we did not order just random apples but precisely, red apples, and he wouldn’t give me what I was demanding-” the girl chatters, and she stops dead in her tracks when she notices the new face in the room. “Oh! It was today!”
“Oh, you’re here already?” the other guy says, and Will is confused.
“Will, these are Steve, the butler, and Robin, the head maid,” Dustin says, and Will gets up to introduce himself.
“It’s nice to meet you,” he says, shaking Steve’s hand, and he grabs the bag from Robin’s hand before shaking hers.
“Thank you, it was getting quite heavy,” she replies, and grabs an apple from the bag before Will puts it down.
“What took you so long?” Lucas asks, and he starts to gather the empty plates around the table.
“The tailor couldn’t find the new dresses that her ladyship ordered, and it took entirely too long to retrieve the groceries,” Steve replies, removing his jacket and hanging it near the door. “So, Will. Did they show you around already?”
“They have, yes.”
“Perfect. When you’re done with lunch, I can show you which part of the garden you should start with. Her ladyship wants the flowers to be at their best for next month.”
“Next month?” Will gets up and brings his plate to the sink, where one of the kitchen maids takes it.
“It’s Holly’s birthday in just over four weeks,” Dustin replies. “There’s going to be a big party, and since it’s summer, the Countess wants to do it in the gardens. That is, if the flowers will be ready.”
“They will, we have Will for that now!”
“And me,” Lucas adds, patting his back on his way out. “I’m a handyman, too, after all.”
He grabs an apple, too, and heads out as everyone starts to find their way back to work. Will looks around, feeling quite lost for a moment, and one look from Steve redirects him towards the exit door.
He follows the butler out to the gardens, and he starts telling him all about how beautiful the garden looked just a couple of years before, when Nancy – the Earl’s oldest daughter – still lived with the family. Steve shows him his workplace and tells him precisely where to start, and Will spends the rest of the afternoon settling in and tidying up the place, which was probably left abandoned after Adam left.
He enjoys the silence for however long he gets, and when at six o’clock sharp a car stops at the house’s entrance, Will goes to gather his things.
“How was your first day, son?” the Baron asks as soon as Will runs down the stairs.
“It was perfect, my Lord,” Will replies, stepping into the car.
“Perfect, even?” He chuckles and turns on the car. “I’m glad to hear that, and I’m sure your mother will be delighted.”
“I know.”
As the car leaves the estate, Will feels the urge to look back at the house, and a shiver runs down his spine when he sees the young Wheeler sitting on a windowsill looking out, and for a millisecond, Will can’t help but hope that he’s looking at him.