Ilaria woke up at half past seven. Not until now had she noted the little clock on the drawer, and now thanked her mother for teaching her how to tell the time. She got out of bed and changed into her green dress. Tying the laces of her apron she rummaged her memory for the location of the bathroom. Quietly she crept out of her room and into the bathroom.

Eight o'clock sharp Ilaria was standing at the kitchen door.

"Good morning!" Mrs. Costa greeted. She was already working and seemed to be looking for something. Before Ilaria had time to answer she got her first assignment.

"Could you please set the table? Plates, glasses, knives, forks, spoons and egg-cups are all in the cabinet in the dining room."

Ilaria entered the dining room. It was a big rectangular room, furnished in the same antique style as the rest of the house. In the middle stood a long wooden table covered with a white tablecloth, and Ilaria counted all together twelve chairs on either side. Exactly on the middle of the table stood a large ornate candelabra. The cabinet was on the other end of the room. As Ilaria opened it she found an incredible amount of dishes. She stopped to admire for a moment, until she remembered she had work to do. The girl set the table as she has been told, taking care not to make very much noise or wrinkle the tablecloth. After she had finished her task she returned to the kitchen.

"Did you finish setting the table?" Mrs. Costa asked, and Ilaria nodded.

"Do you think you could boil the eggs?"

"Yes Mrs. Costa." Ilaria answered. She was happy to help with the cooking, since she had always helped her mother in the kitchen. She loved to cook, just as much as her sister loved tomatoes. Ilaria placed five eggs into a pot and ran water into it until the eggs were covered. Then she placed the pot onto the stove, careful not to break the eggs and let them boil for eight minutes. She placed the eggs into cold water to stop their cooking. By the time she was finished it was already fifteen to nine.

"Well, it's time to take the food to the table!" Mrs. Costa announced. Ilaria helped her take the food, and then they went back to the kitchen to eat their breakfast.

"Ilaria, I seem to have forgotten to buy certain items and I was wondering, if you could go to the supermarket for me?" Mrs. Costa requested, taking a sip of her coffee. Ilaria nodded, still munching her sandwich.

"Good! I'll write a list of what we need!" Mrs. Costa said and reached for a pen and a piece of paper. She scribbled a short list consisting mostly of food ingredients and then got up to get some money. Meanwhile, Ilaria finished eating her breakfast and then tidied away their dishes. As she was beginning to wash them, Mrs. Costa returned.

"This should be enough. The supermarket is close to the railway station. You'll find it." Mrs. Costa instructed and gave Ilaria the list and the money. Ilaria nodded, put the money and list into her apron pocket and went to put on her shoes. As she left the house, she closed the door as quietly as she could.

The street was quiet, and Ilaria suspected that everyone was inside enjoying breakfast. Then again, it was already fifteen to ten, but she didn't really think about it. When she was passing a beautiful wooden house, she heard a voice.

"Hey! Stop there!"

Ilaria turned around to find Gilbert running towards her from one of the houses she had already passed.

"You're that maid, right? What's your name?" Gilbert asked as he reached the puzzled Ilaria.

"I-I'm Ilaria Vargas, Mr. Gilbert." She mumbled.

"Ok. Now, could you deliver an awesome message to beautiful Elizaveta for me? Here goes: The awesome Gilbert won't give up until he's married to you, pretty Elizaveta. Got all that?" Gilbert spoke, grabbing Ilaria's arms to keep her still. After he had finished, Ilaria nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Gilbert."

"OK! Well, thanks a bunch. See you!" and with that, Gilbert dashed back to his house. For a moment Ilaria just stood there, possibly a little confused. Then she continued her journey, trying hard not to forget the message.

*6*6*6*

Sunday shifts at the supermarket were the most boring of all. Even late-night shifts were better. But he didn't mind working every other Sunday, since they paid him double for that. No, he was rather pleased to make money and get away from his annoying older brother. And since customers were rare, he had plenty of time to arrange items on the shelves into perfect order. He smoothed back his blonde hair and was just about to start arranging packets of coffee into neat rows when someone bumped into him.

"Ah! I'm terribly sorry! I was looking for honey and I wasn't looking at where I was going and…" Ilaria mumbled apologies, blushing and looking at her feet, embarrassed of running into someone like she had.

"It's ok. I could show you where the honey is."

Ilaria looked up. She had bumped into a tall young man with blue eyes and blonde hair that was neatly smoothed back. He seemed very serious, and Ilaria felt a little nervous.

"Ye-yes please…" she mumbled and looked at her feet again.

"Follow me." The boy said and walked to a shelf not far off with Ilaria trailing behind. All the while he racked his brains, trying to remember if he had seen the girl before. He came to the conclusion that he had not.

"Thank you!" Ilaria thanked and searched the shelf for the right kind of honey. She found it, took a huge jar into her hands and walked off to find the rest of the items on her list, leaving the boy to stand by the shelf, staring after her.

For some reason he felt the need to know who this mysterious girl was. Working at the only supermarket in town, he knew he had seen almost everyone who lived in St. Helen's. He decided to go and wait for the girl to check out. As he was currently the only worker in the supermarket on this particular Sunday, he arranged shelves and was the cashier at the same time. It wasn't very difficult, as Sundays were very quiet.

It didn't take too long for Ilaria to find everything she needed. Soon she was placing her shopping onto the conveyor. As she looked up, she realized that sitting behind the counter was the same boy that had helped her.

"Hello! I don't think I greeted you yet!" Ilaria said cheerfully, smiling like she always did.

"Hello." The boy greeted, doing something that made a funny beeping sound to the items Ilaria was buying. She had never been to a real supermarket before, so it puzzled her a bit, but she thought it must be normal in bigger shops than the markets back in Italy.

"That would be 10,45 Euros." The boy said, shaking Ilaria from her thoughts. She took out the money she had been given, and then blushed a little.

"Um… Could you help me a little? I'm not familiar with this money… I mean, which of these are the smaller ones and which are the bigger ones?" Ilaria mumbled, looking at her feet again.

"You mean which are cents and which are Euros? The coins with one or two on them are Euros, and so are the notes. The rest of the coins are cents. I can count it for you if you want." The boy explained, offering to help Ilaria. She nodded and handed the money to the boy. He counted the right amount of money and handed the change back to Ilaria.

"Thank you! Um… What's your name?" Ilaria asked.

"Oh, my name is Ludwig Beilschmidt."

"Is Gilbert your brother?" Ilaria asked, before Ludwig had time to ask her name.

"How do you know Gilbert?" Ludwig asked, surprised.

"He proposed to Miss Elizaveta yesterday." Ilaria smiled, "But I'll head back now! Thank you for helping me!"

Ludwig watched the girl dash off. He had been so surprised of the connection between the girl and his brother, that he had forgotten to ask her name. He made a mental note to ask Gilbert later, and went back to arrange the shelves.

*6*6*6*

Marietta didn't understand the Kirklands at all. They didn't treat maids like they should have, not at all! She had a huge room and a bathroom all to herself, she was allowed to call them all by their first name, no need for Mr. and Mrs., and to top it all off, she ate with the family! Didn't they know maids were supposed to eat in the kitchen? And to add more, since it was Sunday, she didn't have to work! At least they went to church.

She had now met the whole family. Mr. Kirkland was a plump blonde man with a toothy grin not unlike Alfred's, and the air of a car-salesman. Then there was the eldest son, Cidro, a smiling young man with dreadlocks and tanned skin, who had been adopted from Cuba. Marietta hated his habit of smoking cigarettes. The youngest son of the family came late for dinner, but, to Marietta's horror, wasn't scolded for it. The ten-year old Peter seemed very mischievous, wearing a grin on his face. Marietta made a note never to sit next to him, as the boy somehow managed to slip a fart-cushion on Arthur's seat during dinner. Peter wore a sailor's suit and hat which he never seemed to take off.

Even after meeting the whole family, Marietta felt like she was going to have a tough time holding her temper. With the exceptions of Cidro and Matthew, the Kirklands seemed a very noisy and obnoxious bunch.

Because Sunday now was free time for her, Marietta was walking around in the overgrown garden, hoping that she wouldn't have to tend to it, when Arthur and the twins came out of the house. Mrs. Kirkland leaned out of a window, and Marietta heard her shout.

"Take Marietta with you boys!"

Marietta had no time to wonder where she was going to be taken, as Alfred already yelped at her.

"Hey! Come to the marketplace with us!"

The Italian sighed, but decided to accept, as she had nothing better to do. She walked over to the boys, dodging what she supposed was a flowerbed. The group set off, Alfred chattering about this and that, Arthur telling him to shut up every now and then.

It wasn't a very long walk, but to Marietta it felt like ages. Arthur had failed to make Alfred shut up, Matthew didn't even seem to be listening, and as a maid, Marietta couldn't just tell Alfred to be quiet. All she could do was wish she could just block out the ceaseless chatter.

Finally they reached the marketplace. There were stalls selling almost anything you could wish for. Most of them sold food and ingredients, but there were stalls with toys, kitchen utensils and model-kits.

Systematically they went from stall to stall, buying things on the list Mrs. Kirkland had given them, and soon they were missing only the vegetables. Quite many stalls sold what they were looking for, and now the boys were pondering on which to choose. Marietta sourly noted that tomatoes weren't on the list. Then she heard someone shout.

"Tomatoes! Delicious tomatoes! All the best vegetables!"

The boys still seemed to have a hard time deciding where to go, so Marietta decided to go and take a look at the delicious tomatoes.

The tomatoes did look delicious, as did everything else in the stall. The vegetables were colourful and there were quite a lot of them. Marietta realized that she didn't have any money, but she still looked longingly at the tomatoes.

"Hey pretty little lady! You want some tomatoes?" the salesman asked. Marietta glanced grumpily at him. He had a bright smile, bright green eyes and curly brown hair.

"No! An I'm not a pretty little lady!" Marietta snapped and glared at the young man. To her disappointment, his smile didn't falter one bit.

"Well, would you want something else then, beautiful girl?" he asked.

"I'm not buying anything! And quit flattering me!" Marietta snapped again and turned her back to the stall just in time to see Arthur, Alfred and Matthew coming towards her.

"There you are, Marietta! We thought we lost you!" Alfred called, and to Marietta's dismay, the annoying salesman seemed to know her companions.

"Hey Arthur! How's it going with Kiku?" he called to Arthur, who went red in the face and grumbled something like 'shut up'.

"We could buy our veggies off you, Antonio!" Alfred said cheerily.

"Sure! I was trying to sell some of these delicious tomatoes to this charming beauty, but she didn't want to buy anything!" Antonio chattered, still smiling.

"She's our new maid, Marietta. She's from Italy." Alfred introduced Marietta, while Arthur and Matthew picked what they needed to buy. Antonio reached for a tomato.

"Welcome to St. Helen's. Care to have a taste?" Antonio smiled and offered the tomato to Marietta. Still glaring at the boy, she took the tomato and bit into it. It was delicious, just as Antonio had said.

"Tasty, isn't it?" he asked.

"Shut up." Marietta growled and ate the tomato. Antonio laughed, and turned to Alfred.

"She's a feisty one, isn't she?"

"Well, she's not one of the politest people I know." Arthur said, and handed Antonio the vegetables they were going to buy.

"Ah, no tomatoes? Oh well, 5 Euros, please!" Antonio said, smiling as if he had no worries of what so ever.

"Not this time." Arthur answered, handed Antonio the money ant took the bag of vegetables. They were about to leave, when Antonio thrust a bag containing tomatoes towards Marietta.

"Free tomatoes for pretty girls today!" he said, smiling widely.

"Why would I want your crappy tomatoes?" Marietta shrieked.

"Aww~ Come on! I know you'll like them!"

"Fine!" Marietta snapped and grabbed the bag.

"Thanks for shopping here!" Antonio called after them, as they weaved their way through the marketplace.

*6*6*6*

It was evening, and Marietta lay on her bed. She had continued exploring the yard after they had returned from the market, though she had first thrown the tomatoes into her room. She was now eating one, and made a mental note never to tell Antonio how much she liked them. Antonio. He was annoying! All the way home Alfred had talked about Antonio, asking Marietta if she found him attractive. After a while, Marietta had snapped at him to shut up. She did not find Antonio attractive, not at all! She decided to save a couple of tomatoes and go to sleep.

A/N: Sorry for the long pause! I've just started high-school, and right before that I was at the 8 day Finnjamboree. Anyway, here is the fourth chapter. I hope you like it :3