Waking to an alarm was quite familiar to Jessica, the sound that woke her was not.
She reached for the clock on her bedside table, only to discover that she were further into the middle of the bed than she had realised, leaving the button to silence the beeping frustratingly just out of her grasp.
She gave an exasperated groan as she heaved herself into a sitting position before shuffling sideways to terminate the alarm.
She could feel the darkness of her dreams trying to push through to the surface of her consciousness.  Again they had been less shocking but still as pungent and the fact that they were growing more disturbing and less deplorable was beginning to worry her.
Suppressing the strange urge to allow them into her waking mind, she felt it was past the time to get up.
With very great resistance to the soft cosiness of the sheets and pillows, which offered to engulf her, she flung her legs over the edge of the bed and pushing herself off, eventually found herself standing.
“If I am to be spending the next fortnight,” she thought to herself, “waking in this bed, I really have to find a way of making it less comfortable or I’ll never get any work done.”
The previous night she had made an agreement with Ms Moore.  She would be allowed to stay and work for the two remaining weeks until the day before David’s return at a double rate of pay, in exchange for an assurance that herself and any trace of herself were to be completely stricken from the house upon her departure, not to mention a lot of hard work in between now and then.
It was very clear to Jessica just how much Ms Moore cared about her master and his reputation.  Because of this, Jessica found herself holding a great deal of respect for the woman, not only as head of house but as what was clearly a maternal figure in David’s life, and so she was determined to do right by her.
Following breakfast, Jessica was put straight to work on the cleaning and organising of the rooms that would have been hers.  Ms Moore thought it best to do so for the time being, seeming oblivious to the knowledge of the masters’ new bride, especially as certain siblings that worked in the household were rather prone to gossiping.
The rooms themselves had been newly decorated and brand new furniture sat in place, however most of the extra furnishings were still in their boxes, stacked neatly in a corner of each room.
Jessica spent the entire morning arranging their contents around each room as instructed by a rather wordy dictation that Ms Moore had handed to her after breakfast.
So hard at work was she, that lunch time came and went without any notice, until Eloise appeared with a tray of food and drink.  She sat for a little while whilst Jessica ate, chatting about the random goings on of the household and the local village.  She even tried subtly quizzing Jessica about her extremely intriguing circumstances, although after about twenty minutes of vague answers and avoiding gazes, she apologised for being such a nuisance and scuttled off, back to the kitchen.
Jessica couldn’t help but feel a little bad at showing the girl such a cold front, and, although it was necessary, she couldn’t help but feel as though she could have poured her heart out to her, right there and then.
She could see in the girls’ eager face that what she really wanted was a friend, having a working environment that was more like a family than anything else was great, but being the only girl of her age clearly left true friendship somewhat to the imagination.
She frowned to herself, if all the girl wanted was someone to talk to, even if it were only going to be far a couple of weeks, then she would do her best to become her friend.
Determined to apologise and suggest a start over at dinner, Jessica set about trying to find a duster of small vacuum, because, as new as everything was, there was still somehow an inordinate amount of dust that was certainly making its presence felt.  There seemed to be neither in any of the local rooms, so taking initiative, she ventured out to the main corridor in search of a way of getting rid of the dust.
Opposite the three doors that lead to David’s rooms, her own would-be-rooms, and her bedroom, were many glass doors that opened onto the front balcony that ran the full length of the building.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a particularly smart looking vehicle just pulling onto the estate.
All of a sudden her communications device sparked into life.
There is an unscheduled arrival entering the premises, is anyone expecting any visitors today?
A chorus of no’s echoed into her ear along with her own.  Curiosity set in and Jessica found herself stealing out onto the balcony to get a better look at the unexpected guest.
The car came to a stop but nobody got out.  Jessica spotted Ms Moore trying to make her way quickly, yet looking as calm as possible, down the multiple steps.
The door of the car finally opened and the person inside was immediately blocked from view by Ms Moore’s bustling body.  Whoever it was though, was now slowly, almost reluctantly, emerging from the car, slouched shoulders and groggy movements showed the exhaustion that rested on his shoulders.
Jessica’s heart did several summersaults, back-flips and acrobatic executions at once.
Realising how visible she was up on the balcony she turned her back and all but sprinted to the glass doors, fumbling with the handle as she fought to close them behind her.
Her communications device sprang back into life, confirming what she had feared.
Eloise, get some food together, Trevor and Mathew, come and unload Mr Jacobs’ baggage, the Master is returned.

The house looked the same, as beautiful as it always had been, the sky was clear and the sun beaming.
As David dragged himself out of the car, he couldn’t help but feel that the entire world were over cast and the house huge and empty.
The past fifty-two hours had been spinning past in a perpetual blur, having not slept since that fateful day had not improved his stupor.
After several words with Ella, he had been convinced to allow the four of them to return to Earth.
They had spent the morning waiting around for Ernest Melda, Anthony and Aurora’s Great Uncle and new guardian to show up, having spoken with him late the night before he had promised to meet them as they arrived.  However he was not waiting for them and it took several phone calls to the gentleman’s house to find out that he had been ambushed by an old acquaintance and would be with them as quickly as possible.
So it was, several hours later, that David was alerted of his approach by Aurora, an overweight, balding man that he instantly took a dislike to.
His speech was rasping and he had all the airs and graces of a well bred gentleman which barely hid his annoyance at the situation.
However for the sake of the young people, David forced himself to remain civil towards the man, taking Aurora aside and making her promise that if there was anything even vaguely amiss in the future, that she was to call him or Miss Cox straight away. 
Aurora agreed without any hesitation, always having had an active dislike of Mr Melda.  She had so far been rather emotional, but now was forcing herself to turn her grief and anguish inwards, maybe from fear of her new guardian, or maybe just because she had realised that being so negative wasn’t doing anyone any favours.  She thanked David and Ella most profusely and, holding her head high, followed after Mr Melda.
Anthony was still wearing his cold front, not even acknowledging his Great Uncle when he had offered his pudgy hand.  He was doing his very best to play the wronged party, which, in a sense, was justified, however if his feelings were left unchecked, David feared that they could quickly turn into abandonment issues.  He would do his level best to help console the boy.
Not, however, until he had consoled himself or gotten some rest at the very least.  He made plans to visit, with Ella, in a week’s time, which was readily accepted by most parties.  Hopefully by then they would have news from Jessica and he could help Anthony through his issues.
They had not heard a single thing from Jessica since she had departed their presence two days ago, causing David nothing but overwhelming anxiety and an empty place inside him.
He had at the very least expected a message informing them that she had found work or an estimation of how long it would be before she felt able to reappear in society at his side.
He had shaken his head at the thought, he could very well hope for this sort of thing, but he would not let his outlook be mislead by expectations, especially when stern logic dictated that it would be a very long time before Jessica would allow herself to resurface, if ever.
None of this would be voiced to Jennifer, who was already calling for food to be prepared and bags to be taken up to the house.
She’d understand of course, but the matter was still fresh to him and the last thing he needed right now was another anxious person floating about.
She finished relaying her orders into her communication device and, turning to him, said, “I’m sorry there’s nothing prepared, but we weren’t expecting your return so early, were you not due back in a fortnight’s time?”
She was wringing her hands and her gaze was darting between her hands, his face and the house.  Had he been less exhausted David might have asked her if something were wrong, however, as his need was simply to rest, he put the oddness down to mere surprise at his sudden and unexpected return.
“Sorry Jennifer,” he said summoning up a grim smile, “circumstances on the cruise made staying any longer quite impossible.  I assume you’ve heard what happened,” at a nod he continued, “everyone on the ship suddenly became so paranoid and unfriendly that it became an almost hostile environment and I just felt so uncomfortable that I had to get out of there.  There’s been so much happening that I haven’t had time to sleep, otherwise I would have called ahead.”
“But could you not have had Trevor meet you at your landing?”
“As I said, I had no time or energy to do so, things were happening so quickly that I just went along with what felt right at the time.  Besides there was a very decent chauffer company at the landing, I thought it best not to bother him.”
“Even so, a momentary warning would have been helpful, there’s nothing ready.”
Managing a dry laugh, he put his arm around the woman, “Yes, I am sorry, you needn’t berate me like a school boy, I have genuine reasons for my ignorant behaviour, but right this moment I am too tired to relate my tale to you.  All I need is sleep, sleep like I never thought I would, as long as there’s a cover on my bed I’ll be satisfied.”  And giving her shoulders a squeeze he made an admirably energetic start for the house.
Ms Moore thought to herself, as she watched him ascend the steps, that he was hiding his grief well, though not well enough, she had seen the pain that had become imbedded in his eyes.  These next few weeks are not going to be easy, she just needed to keep them apart, and she could hardly send Jessica off, especially now that she had sent the money to her account.
It wasn’t until David had reached the first floor landing that he slowed himself down.
A door up ahead of him was quickly, quietly pull shut as he approached, but at the moment all his mind was on was the door beyond it.
The door that lead to rooms that he had meant to be hers, and though she had her own bedroom, he had hoped she would have spent more time in his.
Pushing the feeling of emptiness from him, seemingly enhanced but the large, echoing house, he carried on down the corridor to his rooms, going straight to his bedroom where he collapsed onto his bed and did not rise again until the following morning.