When Emily opened her eyes, Elisabeth had been standing over her for a few minutes, watching rudely as Emily slept. Elisabeth with her hands on her hips tapped her feet impatiently.
“My family is firing you today. I thought I’d tell you and save them the embarrassment of having to dismiss you. They seem to think you threw yourself at Harper and maybe fucked him which is why he broke our engagement.” Elisabeth turned pacing the length of the room and gazing at a surprised Emily.
Emily had worked into the early hours helping to clean up after the guest had gone, and she was a little groggy and tried to say the least.
Wiping the sleep from her eyes, her brain finally connected with Elisabeth’s words. She narrowed her eyes and said, “Why would your family think I would have sex with your fiancé?” Emily would never do such a thing. She never had a boyfriend and she couldn’t understand why they would come to that conclusion.
“Because I told them you did. I saw how you were looking at him. I saw the look in his eyes when he met you. You knew I wasn’t having sex with Harper and you took that as an opportunity to fuck him.”
“You know that’s not true. When have I had time? I need this job. Why are you doing this?”
“I’m not here to discuss how or when you made time to fuck him. I just feel you did.” Elisabeth opened the drawer and threw Emily’s few pieces of clothing on the bed. “A lot of people need things. I need Harper back. But until he comes back, you are fired. Get out today. I want you out of here in fifteen minutes,” she yelled. Her voice shrill and loud. The staff in the kitchen heard her. She wanted them to hear her throw Emily out.
“I don’t have any money,” Emily protested. “Can I at least stay on for another week until I find something?” Emily sat up. “Until I find some place to stay.” She didn’t want to go to her father and ask to stay in his room. She had taken her last money to pay his rent and buy him food and now she was homeless.
“That’s not my problem. I said you have to leave today.” And Elisabeth turned and walked out of the room closing the door with a bang.
Emily sat up straight, and put her feet down, and stepped on to the wood floor. In a daze she walked into the shower and stayed there for ten minutes. She had five minutes left. She dried herself and her hair, and stuffed her few things into a cloth satchel, and in five minutes she passed through the servants quarters hungry and confused with them looking at her and never offering her anything to eat.
An elderly man bent over, who had been a manservant since the family came to Nob Hill, touched her shoulder. When she turned around he gave her one hundred dollars. She looked up at him with gratitude and he said, “I don’t need it. Get yourself breakfast and leave San Francisco as soon as you can. Elisabeth is not a nice person. I’ve known her since she was a child.”
She took the money only because she would have hurt his feelings if she had given it back.
Emily stood outside waiting, for what, she didn’t know. The fog had settled last night and it wouldn’t leave until mid-day. She trudged up the hill thinking about how she would finish college and have someplace to sleep. She had no plans except to make it to her evening classes. She didn’t have a job so now she didn’t have the problem of not completing her class work. She would go to the library before and after class to study.
Still she hadn’t solved the problem of a place to live. She thought about a friend of hers from class. When she came up with this last minute idea, she had walked miles and was standing waiting for a cable car.
Hopping on with her cloth bag in her hand and a few dollars in her pocket she paid for the ride. Looking down she reached for a paper and looked through the wanted ads. That was the easiest way to get a job.
When she glanced up she was at her stop. She climbed out and walked down the street and looked for a three story house. When she found it she walked up the stairs and rang the bell. She range it again.
On the third ring she heard yelling.
“Hold your horses. Hold your fucking horses. Who the fuck is ringing my bell? You had better be a good looking bitch or you aren’t getting in here.” He pulled the curtain aside which hung on the door. When he saw Emily he said, “Oh, you.”
Opening the door, “Come in. I knew I shouldn’t have said if you need a place to crash come here. But then I talk too much and my heart is too soft. I should have known better by looking at you that you would be fucking crashing at my place one day. Come in. You are welcome here. If I seem a little grumpy, I haven’t had my coffee.”
Emily followed Stanley into the living room. It looked like an old parlor filled with antique furniture and Tiffany style lamps. He rented to young men and women who went to the local college.
“Stanley, I don’t have a place to stay,” Emily said with tears pooling in her eyes.
“I came to that conclusion the minute I saw you standing at my door this hour in the morning. I haven’t had my coffee yet, and I have a class at nine.” He sat down. “Don’t stand there. Sit and tell me all about it.” Then Stanley stood and waved for Emily to follow him. They ended up in the kitchen.
Stanley brewed two cups of coffee and handed her one. “Now what happened?” They sat at the table and Emily told him about last night and Elisabeth.
“I checked the newspapers and there’s a position as a maid.”
“You are better than that.”
“That’s all I can get that offers room and board.” Stanley thought about Emily. “I can keep you one night maybe two, but this place is full already. You can sleep in my day bed in my room. That is until my significant other decides he will visit me which maybe at any time.”
“Thanks, but I’m going on the interview today. If not I have to go with plan B.” Stanley raised an eyebrow.
Knowing Emily there wasn’t a plan A or B. She never did anything but work and go to school. She had no life.
“Can I use your phone?” Stanley shook his head yes and pointed to the phone. She stayed on it for a few minutes and then turned with a wide smile.
“I have an interview in an hour. The person I talked to said they needed someone desperately. Like today.” Emily gave out a sigh of relief.
“Where and with whom? You know you have to be careful. You are a pretty young girl and there are perverts lurking out there.”
“It’s at a mansion on Nob Hill.”
“They are the worse. I mean you have real scumbags looking to take advantage of a woman especially a small broke girl like yourself. They get you into that place and tell you they want you to be their maid, but what they really want is someone they can have when they want to visit your room late at night when the misses isn’t around.”
“I think you’re being too dramatic. You must be preparing for a part in one of Shakespeare’s plays. Who is it this time?”
“Iago in Othello.”
“I thought so. Don’t say any more. You make me frightened to go outside these days with your gloom and doom,” Emily said. “Where is your room because I need to freshen up?”
“Come on, follow me.”
As Emily combed her hair to go on her interview, Harper was sitting in his home office with his lawyer.