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Kitchen Backrooms - Late Day.

Jennet has been working in the kitchen all day, doing her best at whatever tasks she's been pointed to by Princeton or whatever member of the kitchen staff she's able to assist. Mostly, that has been working as a trash girl... she's not qualified at all to be touching the food, but a few times she's been asked to run and grab something out of the kitchen cellar.

As the dinner service started and the servers and kitchen staff all got busy, Jennet's own tasks mostly slowed. She stood nearby, trying to keep out of the way, but ready for whatever orders she might need to fulfil, such as fetching a few spare utensils from the back like she's doing now.

She fumbles through a few drawers, the cook having told her where to find everything, but the labels don't exactly help her. To the outside observer, it might seem like she's just wasting time, checking each drawer. Still unable to find what she's looking for, she moves on from the drawers, finding the next thing she can find with a label on it. She opens the door, but isn't quite tall enough to peek inside, stretching her arm to feel around inside.

Bernadette is walking nearby as Jennet works, pausing to look at the mouse. She has had to admit to herself that the mouse is a hard worker, and has not voiced a single complaint over the occasionally less-than-desirable conditions of the kitchens. And if Bernadette is fair to the mouse, it's not her fault Princeton went behind the Lynx's back either. So she can not really hold it against Jennet either.

She slightly tilts her head as the mouse fumbles around, going from drawer to drawer. She opens her mouth to ask what the girl is looking for when she notices which door she is about to open.

"What..."

Springing into action rather than waiting for a second longer, the Lynx pounces forward in a relatively unladylike but very feline fashion, tackling Jennet away from the door before the girl has a chance to react, tumbling them both down to the stone floor, the mouse under the considerably bigger cat.

Jennet barely has time to react, standing there one moment, and finding herself painfully pressed against the floor the next. Her face reflects the pained terror as the mouse looks up at her attacker, eyes going wide, only to clench closed.

"P-please don't kill me! Please!" Is all she can stammer out as she braces herself, fighting back tears (unsuccessfully).

Bernadette gasps for breath, lifting her weight off of the mouse but still staying on top of her. Her teeth are bared as she speaks: "D-do you have a death wish, girl?!"

Jennet cringes, shaking as she is still thinking the Lynx is threatening her, "No! No! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Bernadette swallows, sighing as she frowns: "Then why-" She takes a breath: "-why do you put your hand into the machinery like that?" She glances behind her at the open latch leading into the industrial potato peeler and chopper, which thankfully is not on right now, not that Bernadette exactly had time to check.

Jennet peeks one eye open at the Lynx, who has not yet torn her throat out, or mauled her to death, then peers over at the panel she'd opened, "T-the... what? I... I was looking for a straining spoon..."

Bernadette blinks: "From the... Potato peeler machine? Why would we store any kitchen tools in there?"

Jennet cringes, "I... I d-don't know where they're stored..."

Bernadette blinks again, anger giving way to confusion. "Can't you read? The cupboards are clearly labeled, even with Princeton's handwriting." She gets up enough to sit on her knees on the floor, offering her hand to the mouse.

Jennet glances away, face red with embarrassment. She slowly lifts her hand to take the Lynx's as she whispers out a choked "N-no..."

Bernadette starts: "What do you mean-" She stops herself as the message registers: "... Oh. Oh."

She hesitates for a second, before pulling Jennet up to sit next to her: "You mean to say... You were never taught?"

Jennet lets Bernadette more or less pull her up and set her down, still shaken by the ordeal. She nods, deeply ashamed, "No... But I'm not stupid! A-and I'm doing my best... I really am!"

Bernadette hmm's, nodding. "I... I did not say you are stupid, cheri. Just..." She glances at the sign warning about the potato machine. It could really use a drawing of some kind.

"Just... Trying to understand."

Jennet settles down, realizing how much she was bristling over the whole thing, "I... I'm sorry." She swallows, "Just... never told anyone. Everyone in the cities seems to know how and... I never got the chance and..." It makes her feel stupid, even if Bernadette didn't call her such.

Bernadette nods, looking the shivering mouse: "I can see why. It is generally expected... May I ask, where do you hail from, cheri?"

Jennet blinks, "Uhh... Ambermill, ma'am. Or at least... Ambermill is the closest place with a name to the farm I grew up on."

Bernadette frowns slightly: "And your parents, they never taught you? Tsk." She pauses as she is suddenly not certain at all how much literacy is taught outside the big cities where she's lived all her life. Well, all her life before the Fortress, which feels like ages ago. When was the last time her paws actually touched Earth, come to think of it?

Jennet shakes her head. "No point to it, my Pa said. I was just supposed to work the farm until I got married. Then I could start having children." She slumps a little in place, clearly still not interested in that prospect.

Bernadette frowns, feeling a sudden jolt at the back of her head, and a sliver of the earlier anger comes back. "... Oh. One of those types. I think I understand, then."

Jennet flinches away from Bernadette when she sees that expression cross her face, not really sure what the Lynx is thinking about her, "Ah um, sorry, ma'am."

Bernadette hmm's, her mind starting to have some wheels turning, even if she's not certain of the end result of it yet. "Unfair how us ladies often have to go and seek out the education we are otherwise denied."

Jennet blinks, unable to get a read on the Lynx... "Um... yeah. That's... I mean, sorta why I ran away from home. And I guess, that's all sort of why I ended up stuck here. I- I'm not a delinquent, ma'am, really. I'm not a bad girl..." She clenches her fists, tail twitching. She's trying to convince herself as much as she is trying to convince Bernadette.

Bernadette looks the mouse over. Dirty clothes like all stowaways are given, but there's something in the features and expression... 'this girl has seen the rough side of life', the Lynx thinks to herself.

"I do not believe you are, either." She hesitates, then lifts her hand to gently lift Jennet's chin up to look at her: "I do not think you are a bad girl. Jennet, was it?"

Jennet stares up Bernadette as the Lynx lifts her chin, "Y-yes... Jennet Plumleaf, at your service."

Bernadette nods with a small smile. "Well, Jennet, let me then officially welcome you to the Heart of the Fortress. These kitchens... my kitchens."

She blinks as she lets go of the mouse's chin. "Ah, but that presents a problem, does it not? I can not have someone who can not read, working here."

Jennet blinks in confusion once again, welcomed and then dismissed in just a few sentences. "O-oh... I... understand. I just didn't want to disappoint Princeton..."

Bernadette put a finger on Jennet's lips: "At at at. Hold on. I am, as they say, getting onto something. My previous statement still stands, unless you want to go back to mopping the floors."

Jennet stops talking, looking up at Bernadette questioningly, waiting to get a nod before she continues talking. "N-no ma'am. I don't. Kitchen duty can be rough, but... I don't mind hard work. But mopping just felt like... nothing. Just there to keep us busy."

Bernadette nods: "That it is. But, to keep you here, you need to learn." She hums, considering for a moment. "Now, I would ask Princeton, but kind as he is, he's too old be proper teaching. Edna and Miranda have their own duties, and frankly Jameson would kill me in my sleep if I made him teach a naive young one like you." She reaches a point of sorts with a smile: "So."

"If I started teaching you, would you promise me you would try your best to help me, help you, learn?"

Jennet's expression shifts from the world-weary sadness with which she's accepted every task put on her, and into a vibrant, excited young lady, eyes wide and full of hope that wasn't buried that deep, but was certainly buried.

"W-wait, Really?! You'd teach me how to read?! I- Of course! I'll work doubly hard! I... I want to learn!"

Bernadette blinks several times, surprised at the burst of excitement. "I uh... I shall take that as a 'yes'."

She offers her paw, palm upwards, to the mouse girl. "So to mildly repeat myself... Welcome, Jennet Plumleaf."

Jennet takes a moment to collect herself, trying to think about how Olyvia would conduct herself, "Ah, s-sorry, I um, yes, ma'am... Mrs... um... what title would you prefer I address you with?"

Bernadette smiles: "Most call me 'ma'am', or Ms. Bernadette. My title here is the Head Maid, but that I feel is unnecessary if you work with me." She starts getting up, brushing dust off of her dress.

"Now, I should warn you, I do not intend to make this easy on you, and you may yet wish to quit." She gives the mouse a look and winks: "Although something tells me you might be like me, and actually too stubborn to give up."

Jennet tenses up, but nods, "I... I don't know... I feel like I keep running away when things get hard. But, this time..." She straights up slightly, "I'll give everything I have, ma'am."

Bernadette considers, then nods. "I should be able to figure something out, then." She looks Jennet over again, as though trying to figure out everything about the mouse right there and then.

"Report to your duties tomorrow as normal. Once breakfast has been cleaned up, we should have some time." The lynx hums slightly, then nods, satisfied at this plan of action.

Jennet smiles, "Yes ma'am! I... oh, um, the straining spoon... they're really going to think I'm slacking during dinner service!" She glances over at the daunting drawers that started all of this. "I do need help, knowing which drawer... if it's not too much trouble, ma'am?"

Bernadette blinks, then smiles as she turns around to open the right drawer, few steps further from where Jennet was searching earlier. While she doesn't say it, she has to admit to herself there's something about the spirit of the girl that hits a note with her. "It is never wrong to ask, cheri."

Jennet takes the spoon and nods, "I admit... I was afraid to ask anyone anything... but... I won't hold back now. Thank you, Ms Bernadette!" Without really knowing any protocol she turns to just run back to the kitchen, stopping herself from her half-run to turn back and give a clumsy-looking curtsey. "Oh um, ma'am!"

And then the mouse is gone, back to work, with a much more upbeat attitude for someone who is just digging trash out of tight spaces for the evening.

Bernadette watches the mouse scamper, curtsey and go her way. She smiles... Exactly up til the moment Jennet is out of the room and behind a door.

'It is good to see a young one with so much energy. I should be able to be a good help for her...'

The Lynx turns around, her expression somewhere between frown and a mild panic. '... Until she is out of the room and I get to wonder what the bleeding madness did I just promise myself into?! I don't know anything about that stuff!'

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