Chapter 8: The Plan
Sydney had gone to bed the previous night feeling violated and defeated by Jim, whom she thought she liked, whom she thought was an alright guy, but that was then and this is now. He had ruined his self image to her. It had all come out as him being a spoiled, entitled, rich, little snob. His statue she had created, had shattered into bits as she bashed it with a fireplace poker and stomped it with her foot.
Sydney woke up to Margaret shaking her vigorously, she had her hands on her shoulders.
"Wake up already. It's time to get started!" Sydney wiped her eyes, kind of annoyed, not ready for the day, not really caring. The time after Jim had done what he did moved slower than anything she'd ever dealt with before. It crept by like pancake syrup. She couldn't focus on one particular task the night previous, and she was starting to make Margaret angry. Right before she put her head down on her pillow, Margaret spoke her own opinion rather vocally.
"You should of just given what he wanted, girl." Margaret had stopped her coming in their room right at the door.
"And that would be right? In what way?" Sydney pushed past her, she didn't want to hear it, and she didn't want others to either. None of anyone else's business, and she wasn't interested in getting in further trouble with her masters.
"It would just be easier than what's to come!" Margaret shook her head and pressed her fingers to her forehead where her temples were.
"I'm not his doll, his plaything, his tool!" Sydney was enraged about the injustice she had been through.
"Useless you are right now!" Margaret barked.
"What do you mean, Margaret?!"Sydney looked confused.
"You've been messing stuff up all day long!" She scoffed.
"What do you expect, I can't keep my head straight!"
"For you to move on like it didn't happen, it's the only way to survive this ordeal, young one." Margaret put her hand on Sydney's.
"How would you know about all of this, what I'm going through?" Sydney frowned acutely, staring up at the slanted ceiling.
"It's happened to many maids around her, you weren't the only one!"
"What?" How long had this gone on for? The whole thing was a surprise to her, she had been living there for years, and didn't see things like that going on. She was wondering when such things had happened to who.
"Right. I'll tell you." Margaret patted Sydney's head. Shaking her head again.
"Every pretty maid for the past twenty years had been preyed upon by the head of the house, Mr. Phillip."
"Why hadn't I seen any of this going on?" Sydney was confused again.
"That's a long story, but let's just say Mrs. Rose Taylor, put a stop to it for awhile. Right before you were brought on."
"Well, you said twenty years. Why hadn't she stopped it before then?" Margaret closed her eyes.
"The lady is an adamant follower of Christ, our lord and savior, through the catholic church, she spent many hours in her room praying, and studying the bible. She didn't see what happened in her own home. Except, at some point, she was visited by her daughter, Jules. Who told her what happened to a little maid named Rebecca." Margaret went on to tell her what had happened to poor, unfortunate, Rebecca. Of course, it was the story Margaret had decided was appropriate, leaving out her own not so decent part in it.
"Where'd they send her? How could they do such a thing to her?!" Sydney lost her respect for Mr. Taylor and Jim, and she also achieved a new understanding of Jules. She did not like what Mrs. Taylor did to Rebecca, as clearly it was her own Husband's fault. Maybe she wanted to protect him.
"I don't know where she went. I became numb to the maids in this household cycling through, all of my friends and coworkers not being the same from year to year. I don't tend to make any friendships anymore. That's just how it is, girl." Margaret sighed.
Sydney had a new found hate for the masters of her house, and almost was determined to take some kind of revenge. She wanted to hit that bible thumper with her own book. She wanted to cut off Phillip's male parts. She wanted to rip a hole in Jim's lips. But, instead, logically, instead of murderously, she just went to bed, crying.

A few days later, after working diligently and doing her best to ignore Jim and the other masters, Sydney had an argument about what do about her problem.
"Why can't I?!" Sydney yelled, kicking and screaming. Margaret put her hand over Sydney's mouth.
"Shh!! You don't want to wake them!" Margaret looked concerned.
"Who even cares?!" She hissed trying to be loud even though Margaret was forcing her to be quiet.
"You should be smart about all of this! What about your job? Your lively-hood? How are you to get revenge without playing it on the cool side?"
Sydney had always been a bit raging and foolhardy. She preferred to take everything head on, and honestly. She wanted to make her intentions clear, right at the start. To her dismay though, if she were to try a full throttle approach she would likely get canned.
"I could just go up to that damned bible thumper and tell her what's going on."
"There's no way you'd get to stay in this house. You'd go to where Rebecca is." Margaret put her hand over her old crinkled face, taking it off of Sydney's mouth. Sydney decided to stop being loud. She knew she was right.
"So, what do you suggest I do?"
"Make Jim fall madly for you." Margaret stared.
"Do fucking what?" Sydney was really mad now. Her blood boiled hard. Her face was as red as a beet in the summertime sunshine.
"Like I said." Margaret rolled her eyes. "Simple as that."
"I've never been with a man." Sydney said, petrified. "I don't know what I'd even do!" Sydney shook her head in defiance. Why are we all seen as sexual objects and nothing more? Sydney thought, enraged.
"You make him want you really bad. Play with his affections." Sydney had no idea how Margaret knew all this, she didn't seem like she'd ever been pretty or with someone. To toy around with someones feelings... As much as she wanted some justice to be served to those ingrates, she didn't like the idea.
"Can't I do something else?" Sydney pondered another scheme. She thought about just poisoning the master in his sleep, but all involved routes of mass destruction and not ones that would end up in her favor. If she were to kill her masters instead of manipulating them, she was going to end up on that penal colony somewhere in the pacific she heard of. She did not care for that outcome.
"You can't think of anything can you?"
"Nothing good. What Margaret, do you have in mind then? It seems like you had thought of something yourself." Sydney stared into the old maid's dirty water brown eyes.
"Just give in to his demands, but insist on playing hard to get, all at the same time. Eventually, tell him you love him, your life depends on him, you love his member. He'll start to send romantic gestures your way, I know it. Remember not to claim love too soon, keep at the hard to get game. Don't let your own feelings into it, even if he looks to be genuine." Margaret was proud of her plan, she smiled.
"That sounds about right." Sydney didn't even want to touch the guy, but she was out for his head, and his dad's, especially. In her own heart though, she did not see how she was supposed to do this, or what was to be done after him claiming his love for her.
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