Coffee-man from the Sixth Brigade, part 2

Few years had passed after Arnold's tearful, however, hopeful visit of the Dagaz household. His business kept flourishing, making it possible for him to provide family as a token of gratitude for Friedrich's good deeds. Margaret, the mother of two sons, was unable to work ever since her husband passed away and year by year her health worsened with no signs of recovery. At one point, the entire family had to move from Paris to Arnold's home town, due to logistical issues that were present in such a distant relationship. Fortunately, there were skilful doctors at a local hospital, who were acquainted with Arnold and were happy to help out the woman in need.

Two young men were not slacking as well, little Eugene soon started school, while his brother was working part-time at "Monso Rooster" and about to graduate high school. All went well for the recovering family until the disaster fell upon them once again. The financial crisis took place in the beginning of 30s, right at the time when Christopher returned to Paris to enrol into medical school. He was capable of paying the fees from his savings, but since it was impossible to find a job at that time for him, Arnold had to step up once again. 

The earnings from "Monso Rooster" did fall off too much, but it was still hard to keep up with the money outflow. Something needed to change and for better or worse Arnold had a plan for such a desperate situation. Back in the days of war, he acquainted himself with one officer who was a trained butler of some kind of noble blood. Moreover, this same person wrote a letter of invitation to work at their place right after the war was over. He had declined, but now wished this place was still available to him. Thus, Arnold wrote the letter to the household that was situated in Switzerland.

Of course, he noticed Margaret of his plans, and she was not too bewildered about them.

"Are you planning on working elsewhere? No, not just elsewhere, but in another country! What about your business here, Arnold?" she said in a concerned tone, to which Arnold replied, "It's going to be fine, for now, it will be really hard for the café alone to sustain us all. I will be able to leave the business in the hands of my employees and Eugene. The drop in quality of coffee would certainly lose some clients, but those ridiculous numbers Monsieur Vincent had written to me about would certainly pay off!"

Margaret shook her head and argued, "Exactly, your business will suffer from this, Arnold! I do not want you to sacrifice the work of your life for our sake. I will… I will find work, I will work, I promise!"

"I am not sacrificing anything, clients come and go, but the brand will prevail. I will not be gone for too long, a few years perhaps, until this turmoil is over. Moreover, Margaret." He took her small, but soft hand and squeezed it hard, yet gently. Then, Arnold looked into her eyes and said, "You are no strangers to me. I gave my all to help you and would not back off from this so easily. We are family, after all."

After his words, tears ran down Margaret's cheeks. She pushed her body into an upwards position, which scared Arnold a little, but after she successfully pushed herself into a sitting position, the woman hugged him tightly.

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The days of wait had passed slowly, but in the end, an answer letter was delivered to him. More importantly, however, was the fact that the household was still in search of the new employee and was more than happy to accept him for the position. Arnold was as happy as when he got his first ever client in the cafe, he was so eager to start the work at the new place, that the luggage with his personal belongings stood for a little over the week until the time of the family's representative arrival. The same middle-aged man, Vincent, who served under the French command along with Arnold.

Only Margaret was aware of his new work place to not bother two brothers, who were fighting for their own success. Christopher, of course, could not possibly even know of Arnold's absence in the "Monso Rooster" as long as he was in Paris, Eugene, on the other hand, was aware that Arnold was going somewhere at that time. He was told it was simply a business meeting, and so he thought until the present day. In the end, Arnold's stay in Switzerland would not last too long.

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From Arnold's hometown, they went to Paris by car. It was one of the few times Arnold was able to ride a non-lethal vehicle. He did not own a car, since loud engines made him feel uncomfortable. This uneasiness was still present during the trip, thus for the most part Arnold slept until they reached their first stop. In Paris, they spent just a few hours until the train to Switzerland arrived. And while a car engine brought distress into man's heart, the melodic sound of steam train tracks as well as rare whistles brought him comfort. He was able to look outside the window to witness French grasslands, vineyards and small villages. Moreover, the silence in their cabin was finally broken by non-other than Vincent, his employer.

"I was concerned that you would sleep this entire time, but it seems like we can finally have a talk."

Arnold was still looking out the window, but perfectly heard what was said to him. After a few seconds, he turned to Vincent and said, "Yeah, sorry about that, cars make me dizzy, but trains for some reason do not. What would you like to talk about?"

"You do not seem to be concerned about whom you are going to work for."

Arnold giggled and took a sip out of a cup of coffee that he ordered earlier, "Sorry, there is just a lot going on in my head. But I would be delighted to hear about the family I will be serving."

It was indeed quite ignorant of Arnold to simply agree to work for someone he did not know anything about. The reasoning of his attitude, however, was simple. All he cared about at the moment was money, to provide himself and the Dagaz family. Besides, he was certain that his skills of serving common folk would be enough to please the noble family, thus he planned to look more into it upon their arrival. But since their butler asked for his attention here and now, there was not much reason to back off from this deal.

Vincent nodded at Arnold's words, however, remained silent with an intense gaze at the cup of coffee in the man's hand. Only after Arnold put it back down on the side table, he spoke, "You will be serving the la Avise family. One of noble families of Switzerland. There are many rules in regard to servants of the household, and they are strict, please, bear that in mind. First of all, you must never speak in the presence of your lords, even when you are asked a question, never answer it until you are asked the same question twice. Secondly, never let yourself be in the way of your lords or their guests, but you must not hide yourself anywhere, they should know of your presence anywhere at any moment. And finally, do not interact with their daughter. If she approaches you, ignore her until you are asked to fulfil her request by Monsieur or Madame of the house. Those are the main rules, more trivial stuff we will discuss at the spot."

Arnold was left dumbfounded after the explanation. Not only he learnt nothing of the family he would serve, besides their name, but there were also a handful of bizarre rules. He immediately wondered, "Wait, how am I supposed to let my presence known at any time if I am not allowed to speak?"

"Appear in our lords' peripheral vision, or produce noise while working. Not too loud, however."

"But thats dumb!"

"Such are the rules, and you must obey them if you want to work for the la Avise family."

Arnold narrowed his brows and crossed his hands in displeasure, alas Vincent did not react to his protest, denser than he appeared to be! Soon enough, Arnold accepted these rules and presented another question, "Alright, whatever, but what about their daughter? No servant is allowed to talk with her, or only a handful of them?"

"No servant is allowed to talk to her, until they are asked."

"Would she feel lonely, because of that?"

"It does not matter, such is the rule."

At this point onward, Arnold shushed himself. This small talk really brought out the worst from his comrade, who would have thought that Vincent was this spineless? Regardless, Arnold simply leaned onto the seat and enjoyed the rest of the trip by the cup of coffee and magnificent view of plains and forests that soon were overtaken by beautiful alleyways of Lyon and later, astounding mountains of the Alps region.

Their train stopped at Geneva, from which they hopped into another car and drove along the Lac Leman river. Both of these cars were black Peugeots, however, their plate numbers differed, which made Arnold wonder what happened to the car that they left in Paris. He did not present this question, though, instead slept yet again until they reached the vast household hidden in between two small hills. The main mansion was situated at the centre of the spot, it was built in gothic style, although from lighter material to better contrast the Alps. On either side of the mansion, there were several smaller buildings, perhaps guest and servant houses. And all these buildings were connected via sett that formed a large circle with several pathways that lead to each of the houses like tentacles. The widest of these paths, of course, lead to the mansion.

Instead of the main building, Vincent led their new employee to the servant house. It was designed in the same style as the main building, but the interior was rather dull, mostly consisting of light wood and some plants in darker corners of each room. Together they went along the hallway towards the end. They passed a man, who was clutching his ruined with paint suitcase, his tired eyes were overfilled with tears. Arnold bowed to the man, but was ultimately ignored, the man quickly strolled past them without saying a word.

"Who was that?" wondered Arnold, to which Vincent replied, "Monsieur Birdie, he was fired a few days ago, due to failures in following the rules."

Arnold narrowed his brows, but kept silent. Then, Vincent opened the last door of the hallway to reveal rather modest accommodations.

"This is your room. The uniform is in the wardrobe, please, change and go outside."

Arnold nodded, and the door closed, but after a few minutes opened once again. The uniform was reminiscent of black cardigan suit, but without the top part and with a red bow tie. It was surprisingly comfortable with a light scent of freshness, a much better suit than Arnold was wearing on his way here.

He followed Vincent's directions and found the man standing sideways, looking over pocket watch. After the door opened, Vincent nodded with satisfaction, turned his head to Arnold and was immediately taken aback.

"Where is your monocle?"

"Should I wear one? I did not see it in the wardrobe. Hold on, I will fetch it."

"No need, just take mine." Vincent extended his hand with a shiny monocle already between his fingers. After Arnold hurriedly took it, the man said, "Follow me, the sun is setting, soon the la Avise family will be enjoying their dinner. I should be present there, thus will not be able to help you with your work."

"And what I am supposed to do, then?"

"Go to the kitchen, you will be washing the dishes for now. Afterwards, I will come after you and show you around."

Vincent was in such a hurry, that Arnold did not even have time to be awestruck by the interior made of dark wood and filled with pieces of art as well as magnificent plants, enjoying the amber sunlight. He was immediately sent to the kitchen with no one Around except for dirty dishes. With nothing better to do and the task at hand, Arnold delved his hands in the sink.

As it stands, years spent in the kitchen of the café paid off with good skills at chores and soon, Arnold was done cleaning the dishes. Now he waited for the arrival of another batch as well as Vincent. And while he waited, a peculiar machine was noticed by his keen eye. In the corner stood an espresso machine and judging by its size, an automated one.

"Wow, I have never seen one like this before. I wonder how well it makes coffee."

Curiosity took him over, and he began preparing the machine to make a shot. Since he was not too familiar with it, good minutes were needed for Arnold to figure out its work. And as he was busy pawing over it, he did not notice the arrival of another person.

"What are you doing?" said a child, which made Arnold jump in surprise. In the doorway, he saw a young girl with blonde hair and a red dress. Her entire attire seemed to be expensive, which led Arnold to assume that it was the daughter of the family. And as the 3rd rule stood, he was not allowed to speak with her, thus the man kept silent. His effort, however, was futile. The girl immediately dashed towards the machine and extended her little hand, to which Arnold reacted.

"Please, do not touch it!" he exclaimed, which now took by surprise the girl. She looked at the man with curiosity glittering in her emerald eyes.

"This is an espresso machine, let me show you how it works."

He set in roasted coffee and pulled the trigger and after a while, a small amount of liquid was poured from the short valve into the espresso cup. The coffee was ready, and the little girl took it. She first sniffed it, but immediately pushed it away in disgust. This made Arnold laugh, and he said, "Must be bitter even by the smell. This is coffee, a drink not for kids."

Afterwards he took a sip of it, and it was nothing special, just a regular espresso shot, bitter with a slight sour tone. Arnold was long used to the taste of coffee, but still demonstrated its bitterness by sticking out his tongue and squinting. The girl looked him in the eyes for a few seconds, but then fled the scene as quickly as her little legs could carry her. After a minute, however, Vincent finally came to the kitchen along with the chef and dirty plates. Arnold was ready to cleanse another portion of the dishes, but Vincent had other plans for him.

They left the chef behind, after Arnold initiated a handshake with him, and for the rest of the day, Vincent showed him around the mansion and acquainted him with Martin and Victoria, heads of the family. Neither of them cared too much about their new attendee and just left him be. Such was Arnold's first day in the la Avise household.

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Arnold worked for the family for the entire month. It was harder than he expected due to the ridiculous rules in the household. One time he broke it by answering Victoria la Avise's question, even though it was not needed. Martin punished him severely, perhaps, a bit too cruelly. He was not given food for 5 days straight, as well as was banned from speaking even with the staff. At that time, he truly felt like a hermit. Needless to say, he hated this work with passion and worst of all, the few maids and butlers they had been way too scared to disobey orders or even hear the ill words regarding their masters. Arnold expressed his anger and spitefulness regarding heads of the household, but was quickly shut by those he expected empathy from. And if it was not for the daughter of the family, Sylvia la Avise, he would quit long before he got his pay cheque.

Even though it was the rule to ignore the daughter of the family, Arnold did not have a heart to submissively obey it. The combination of politeness and rudeness in Sylvia's speech was uncanny. She was well-mannered on the surface, but it was fairly easy to notice the faint rudeness in her tone, which might unintentionally hurt.

"What are you doing?" she once asked, while Arnold was sweeping the room on the upper floor of the mansion. Once he answered her question, she replied, smiling, "Indeed, no person could sweep the dust better than those who are a few years away from it."

Despite that, she appeared to be a normal child, ever so curious, always asking questions and occasionally giving him the brightest of smiles. Arnold was fond of her, which, in the end, brought the disaster upon his shoulders.

One day, the la Avise family found out about their interactions. He was told that the young lady prepared a cup of coffee for her mother, something that Arnold taught her one of the times. The man was brought to his knees in front of all the workers in the household, as well as heads of the family, though, without their daughter.

"We were kind enough to give a working place to such a failure as yourself, and not only you dared to desecrate this household with your gnarly voice, but also broke the most important rule of disengagement with Sylvia la Avise, our sage!" said out loud Martin la Avise, who stood right in front of Arnold. Master's foot was on his head, disallowing him to look up to Martin and show his rage.

"Nothing to say, huh? That's good, I would not tolerate any more rule bending from your presence. Pack your belongings and leave today, the lawsuit for your wrongdoings will follow you later."

"The lawsuit?" as soon as Arnold spoke, the foot pushed him further down, with his face nearly touching the floor.

"And here you go again! You never learn, huh? As a mean of compensation for your stay here, you will be stripped of ownership of your café."

After Arnold heard his reasoning, he pushed away the foot of Martin and finally raised his face full of fury, "For my stay here!? I did more than enough work to deserve that pay. And you want me to pay just because I disobeyed your ridiculous rules? Quit this bullshit! I couldn't care less about speaking with garbage like you, but if you truly think that shutting your own daughter in the limbo of silence is a good idea, then you truly are nuts!"

Arnold stood up and moved towards the door, ignoring a strong wish to physically harm Martin. He did not want to further escalate the situation, because there was still a chance for him to win this case. He had quite a few respectable lawyers in his circle of acquaintances. As long as he did not cause any harm, he believed in his ability to win that court case. But before he had a chance to leave, another voice spoke up to him, which made him freeze.

"I see, you are not afraid of taking the matter of this case to the court. That's a good move."

Arnold turned over and saw Victoria la Avise, slowly walking towards him. She, however, did not close the distance fully, and stopped at around 2 meters away from Arnold. Martin's face was red like a tomato, but he kept silence, giving a way to his wife to resolve the situation.

"If you are this confident about your innocence, then I am not sure whether we would be able to win this case. But that's fine, perhaps, the disappearance of the Dagaz family would pose a greater threat to your well-being?"

Arnold froze in shock upon hearing her words. Did his ears deceive him, or she blatantly threatened the safety of the family he had taken care of? Judging by her mocking smile, it was the real deal. Arnold removed his palm from the doorknob, clenched it tight, and hit the door.

"What the fuck do you mean? Are you serious right now!?"

"Why of course! You are a kind man, Arnold. Moreover, you are quite influential, which forces us to step over the ethical boundaries in order to punish you."

Arnold looked over the room, and besides sinister smiles, saw only empty gazes of those present. As if they were staring at a dead man. Even though still enraged, Arnold understood that pushing their moods further would cause irreparable damage to him. They are devils that would cross any boundaries to harm their foes. Arnold shivered from the thought of losing those important to him, he immediately cooled down and bowed to the woman standing in front of him.

"Sorry, I am sorry for everything I said and did to you. You can take money from me, but, please, do not hurt that family."

He stood like that for a few seconds, not being able to see their reactions. But then, the woman's cackle broke the silence in the room, and she said, "You are such am amusing pal. Very well, I forgive you!"

A sudden wave of relief ran over Arnold's body, but as soon as he raised his gaze, he realized this was not the end of the story, but rather its beginning. The woman's emerald eyes were closer than ever before to his own. They were empty, devoid of any emotions and reeked of the devil. 

After their eyes met, she said, "However, a slight punishment would discipline you well. From now on, your entire existence has one purpose, to serve the la Avise family. Your body, mind and soul are in our sphere of influence, and you shall never disobey our orders. Quite a good deal, considering the alternative would be a world with no place for your being, do not you think so, Coffee-man from the sixth brigade?"

With a shaking hand, Arnold accepted this course of actions. As long as no harm would ever befall the Dagaz family, he was ready to serve those devils. And thus ended his working days in the la Avise household. Despite him being afraid with every fibre in his body, what kind of task he would be given, he never heard from them all the way until their moving to his hometown.