Chapter 1: Servant-a Prelude

Having class

The corner table next to the kitchen was reserved for family. It was big enough for all of them but out of the way of the wait persons who moved rapidly from the kitchen to the other tables in the restaurant. The family didn’t all gather very often. With Ransom promoted to Captain in the Army and stationed someplace in Germany, he couldn’t eat family meals, of course. Nor could Lawrence join the family now that he was married and had moved to Albany to take a position as clerk in the State House. Of course, eighteen-year-old Francis was never available, as he was still in school and had a job as assistant manager in the shoe department at Browning’s Department Store. So, the only one left to join Meredith at the table today was her favorite brother, twenty-year-old Isaac. And, of course, having heard her news, he would not miss lunch with his sixteen-year-old sister.

“Are you happy?” Isaac bit into his meatloaf with relish. It had always been his favorite.

“I’ve always known. Didn’t you?” Meredith ate the roasted chicken breast with equal relish. That was an advantage of having a family restaurant: you weren’t tied to just one menu for the entire family.

“Yes. Like you, I knew from early on. I remember the early days, though. You were surprised that your desire to make things run smoothly was a trait of the servant class. I think for a while there you thought you were royal.”

“Delusional. Where do you think you’ll work after college?”

“I hope to become a diplomatic aide. I’ve been in touch with the State Department and they are interested to the extent they have provided a scholarship for my last year at the University.” Isaac sopped up the remaining gravy on his plate with a dinner roll. “And you? What do you think you’ll end up doing?”

Meredith blushed. Unlike her brother, she’d been supported through all her schooling at Green Hill Women’s College by a single grant. She didn’t feel the least bit obligated to the royals for her good fortune but in her heart, she knew where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do. Isaac grinned at her.

“There’s never been a question about that, either, has there? The color in your cheeks is a confession. You fell in love six years ago and it has been unwavering. Let me tell you something, though, Meredith. In order to fill that role, you will need as wide a range of ... experience, shall we say ... as you are capable of getting. And you must be prepared to have your feelings rejected. Guard your heart. There are no guarantees in this life.”

“I’m aware of that, dear brother. There is not even a guarantee that I will be chosen. There are six of us in training and we are all very different. The matriarch might decide against a servant and choose an artist, a professional, a military, a craftsman, or a politico. But I know I need to expand my breadth of knowledge and experience. I’m prepared to do that. I believe my education will become more specialized now, as well. If I am to make things run smoothly, I will need to know all the things that need to run. And at every stage of life, that will be different. The life of a servant is an unending learning cycle.”