Chapter Two
The NOW HIRING sign hanging outside the hotel’s front door bids me to go to the side entrance, but I’m slow to get there because I dallied outside the main entrance’s glory for a moment too long.
Even before the sun shows its face, I can see how the frames around the Dominion’s windows will shine, and how cheerfully the door will sparkle to welcome the guests.
Folks will come from far and wide, just so they can pass through them very doors.
They’ll climb out of their long, shining cars, sleek and smooth in tuxedos and furs…
And I will be there to greet them. I walk around the corner toward the side door, noting with disappointment that I’m not the first in line.
Kiera and Deirdre stand shivering in the early-morning chill, observing me as I approach.
I’ll say it’s a fair bit rotten, the way they scowl at me, for everyone in The Ward knows I meant to get a job here.
It’s not like I’ll snatch up all the work, but these two are like that.
They could have waited to walk with me, but no, they preferred to go ahead and glare at me instead.
I don’t care one whit. They can do what they want. I know what I’m about.
By five thirty or so (Deirdre has a watch she shows off), a line of girls has formed behind us, and I am ever so glad I was up before four o’clock.
I had wanted to make sure I was early, and I’d been right about that.
The line’s so long that it stretches around the corner toward Union Station.
It’s cold out here, since ’tis too early for the sunshine to warm the air, and it whitens with shivering, nervous plumes exhaled by dozens of girls.
Every few minutes, I grab Deirdre’s wrist so I can see the time passing.
At last, on the stroke of six, I hear the lock click inside, then the door swings slowly open.
I can’t think, for my heart’s in my mouth.
Kiera, Deirdre, and I stand straight and tall, prepared to be scrutinized by anyone at any time.
Behind us, haven’t the other girls all gone quiet as ghosts in a cemetery, and I feel a sort of pressure at my back.
It’s like they’re all leaning in, awaiting the next moment.
A woman appears from behind the door. She is tall, and slender as a bird, with tight brown curls beneath a white cap. Her stern gaze travels down the line of girls, assessing. She is wearing a stiff black-and-white uniform. I want that uniform so badly I can almost taste it.
“Good morning, girls. My name is Mrs. Evans. I am the head maid here at the Dominion Hotel.” Her accent, I think, is from England. Mrs. Engle, the woman who taught me to read, sounded like that, and she was from England.
Mrs. Evans has a strong voice, but not everyone will hear it. I imagine all the girls behind me whispering the message to each other along the line.
I absorb every single word.
“I will invite three girls inside at a time. The rest of you will wait out here for your turn. I will interview as many girls as I am able, but I might not get to all of you.”
She drops her attention to Kiera and Deirdre, then me. Her face is all business, but her expression is kind. I already like her.
“Come in and follow me, please. Remember to wipe your boots at the door.”
It takes a moment to adjust to the dimness inside. I inhale the smell of new paint, plaster, and the wool in the carpet. ’Tis heavenly to me. I wipe my boots as she asked, and when I step forward, they sink into a soft cushion of red velvet.
Da might have put in this section of carpet, I think proudly.
We follow Mrs. Evans down the corridor, quiet as mice.
At first, I watch the back of Deirdre’s boots trudging along the carpet, then I feel the embrace of the dark oak walls around me, warmed by the light of a brilliant chandelier, and I look up.
It twinkles like a king’s ransom of diamonds.
But I’m no fool. Sure, they’re crystals, not diamonds.
Still, everything about this morning is pure magic already, so I pretend.
Mrs. Evans walks into a small room with a desk and gestures for us to enter then shut the door behind us. She sits, we stand.
“Right. I’ll take your names, please.” We give them, she writes them down.
“You’re from the same neighbourhood, I imagine.”
We nod.
“Experience? Do you have any at all?”
Kiera and Deirdre shuffle a little, and I push my voice to the surface. “I worked in the laundry at the Queen’s Hotel, ma’am.” A little braver now. “I did speak with Mrs. Lowell about my wish to work here.”
She taps her page, then lifts her chin. “Ah yes. I recall her mentioning something about a Roisin Ryan.”
My face flares with pleasure at being recognized. “Yes, ma’am. People call me Rosie.”
Her attention falls back to her desk, then she regards me directly. “Did you hope to work in the laundry here as well, Miss Ryan?”
Both Kiera and Deirdre are watching me like owls.
I know there’s envy in their expressions, but I don’t say a thing.
I’m not a mean girl. Truly, I’m not. But I’ll admit I’m glad to be the one getting Mrs. Evans’s attention.
I worked awful hard in that laundry, I did.
I deserve a chance to clean something besides sheets and towels.
I swallow through a dry throat, daring myself. Now is not the time to lose my nerve.
“Ma’am, I want very much to work here. If the only position available is in the laundry, I’ll gladly take it. But what I’d truly like, ma’am, what I’ve set my heart on, I mean, is to be a chambermaid.”
“I see. Can you follow rules?”
Granny says there is no luck except where there is discipline. Am I perfect to her? No, of course not. But I do my best. And I do believe I’m good enough to work for Mrs. Evans.
Still, my heart is beating like it might leap out of my chest. “To the letter, ma’am.”
“Mrs. Lowell says the same. She says you’re no gossip, either.” She considers the other two girls. “I will not hire anyone whose interest lies in other people’s business. Our guests’ privacy is extremely important.” She faces me. “Miss Ryan, do you feel you’ve earned this job?”
“It’s not my place to say, ma’am,” I say humbly. At the same time, I push my shoulders back, making sure she sees all the professionalism I can muster in the way I stand.
Mrs. Evans stares hard at me, but I don’t flinch. I’m not sure what it is she’s seeking, but I think I’m making a good impression. I must be, because she’s still talking to me.
“Mrs. Lowell assures me that you have.” She peeps at some papers on her desk, then writes something too fast for me to see.
I am fit to be tied, waiting for her answer.
“Please come back tomorrow morning, Miss Ryan. You’ll learn what you need to know, and you’ll get your uniform. Now. What about you two girls?”
Glory be. This is the grandest thing that’s ever happened to me.
Didn’t Mrs. Evans make my dreams come true with that one little sentence.
It’s like wings blossom from my back. I could fly home, but I can’t leave yet, since she’s speaking with the other two.
Instead, I am as patient as can be, trying to appear calm.
The wait is driving me mad. Finally, both girls’ cheeks burn red when she hires them as well.
We are all so glad, but we don’t say a word to each other as we leave her office.
I step into the sunrise and light up the whole street with my smile.
Granny will be so pleased for me, though she won’t say so.
She’s not inclined to encourage a nice girl to get a job.
The proper thing for a woman, she preaches, is to slave in her home without a penny being paid to her.
Mind you, she knows how I’ve wanted this.
And the money! To be honest, I don’t know what it is yet, but I am certain that ’tis more than what I was getting at the Queen’s Hotel.
I will learn all that tomorrow morning, when I walk through the staff entrance of the Dominion Hotel for my new job.
Heading to work at five in the morning is not new for me, nor is it a hardship.
I can see so well in the dark I’m like a cat.
Just like at the Queen’s Hotel, I’m to be at work by five thirty, and if I leave my home a half hour earlier, I will have plenty of time to prepare for the day.
I like the walk to work in the morning, when the air is still, only lit up by a dog barking and a blush in the east. Once, I saw an owl drop down on a mouse, bold as brass, right there on my street.
’Twas strange, but a fine, quare kind of strange, knowing I was the only one in the world to have seen it.
With so many hours of work, I’ll not be home until late, so I do worry it might wear me down.
Still, I won’t say a word about that to Mrs. Evans, or to anyone else.
I’ll never complain, me. Not a peep. Besides, why worry about that already?
I’d be a fool to break my shin on a stool that’s not yet in my way.
Past the crooked roofs, the broken chimneys, and the scrawny trees poking out between sheds, anyone can see the Dominion. It’s like a castle, and we’re the servants. That’s fine with me. I’ve no fool notions that I might become a princess or queen. I’m happy just to be near the shine of it.
Today is my first day of training. I arrive at the hotel fifteen minutes early.
Both Kiera and Deirdre are right behind me, so I go with them into our chambermaid room, where we are to leave our coats and boots when ’tis wet outside.
Three other girls join us shortly after that, and we all wait for Mrs. Evans.
“Are you worried?” Deirdre asks quietly.
I put on a brave face. “We can do this. We will learn how to do all the chores, and we already know how to work hard. Don’t be frightened.”
“Didn’t say I was afraid,” she grumbles. She’s a very competitive girl. Always has been.
Behind us, Kiera makes a gasping sound. She has opened the big closet, and a whole row of chambermaids’ uniforms is hanging inside, black and white, crisp and clean. They’re grand beyond telling.
“Here, Rosie. This one’s yours.”
I take the hanger from her and try to appear indifferent, but I can’t believe it. My name is pinned on the perfectly starched material, neat as can be. I prick my finger with the pin just to be sure I’m not dreaming.
“Good morning, girls.” Recognizing Mrs. Evans’s voice, we’re quick to replace the uniforms in the closet. “Today we begin training so you will be ready to work when the hotel officially opens in a month.”
We learn that we’re to be paid four dollars a week.
I say nothing when Mrs. Evans says that, for I cannot lie: I’d hoped for more.
Then she says that if we prove ourselves to be capable, it will be raised to seven dollars a week.
That’s more like it. Once I have been fully trained, she says I will be responsible for twenty rooms. Twenty!
On my own! And the news gets better: my rooms are on the sixteenth floor, which means I must take an elevator every single day.
Not one of the glamourous ones that the guests use, but a staff elevator, which is just as exciting for me.
I am keen to be the best chambermaid in the hotel, and I’m eager to prove that to Mrs. Evans.
She’s granted me my dream, and I’ll not soon forget it.
I listen carefully to everything she teaches us, and I understand the reasons for everything she does.
After the training is over, I will do everything right.
I will have my trolley loaded up with all its cloths and soaps and my ring of keys.
Up on the sixteenth floor, I will knock clearly and announce myself at the door, and when I know it’s all right, I will put my key in the lock and enter a guest’s room.
Well now, I imagine that will feel strange at first. Like I’m walking into their home without permission.
But ’tis my job, so I will get used to it, I’m sure.
Inside, I am to be invisible while I make everything neat and spotless, leaving the room better than it was when I first got there.
When the guests enter their rooms, it will be as if the room has magically cleaned itself.
Mrs. Evans will never have anything to complain about when it comes to my work because I will be the best chambermaid she has ever seen. My rooms will be the cleanest of all. That is my promise to myself. And I don’t break promises. Not ever.