Hetty Feather's Diary: Pretending

My name's Hetty Feather - and this is my diary.

When I woke up this morning, the last thing I thought was that I’d lose my best friend! Well, I say best friend, but Sheila and I have sometimes been enemies! Though we’ve been through so much together – first at the Foundling Hospital, and now at Calendar Hall, we know each other like we’re sisters. So when she was sneaking around with a smile on her face, I knew she was up to something!

I suspected a sweetheart might be involved but I had no idea that she was pretending to be Miss Emily! Why did she do that? Sheila can’t have thought of the consequences. We’d had such a lovely summer too – the most fun we’d ever had. Agnes was in charge but sometimes she was fun as well. She even let us have a lie-in on Saturdays – until 8 o’clock in the morning! That’s luxury to us servants. But that’s all over now.

To make it worse, Master Ashok has arrived. He’s an Indian prince and he’s so grand he rules the house like he’s a king! Who does he think he is? I know we all pretend to be someone that we’re not sometimes. I do it, too. I look in the mirrors upstairs and pretend I’m a famous author. I even speak nicely as if I’m introducing myself to important people. It’s a secret game that I play but I’d never tell anyone about it! And I wish Sheila hadn’t done it either…