"I see..." she said with a frown. "I wish I could help..." And she meant it. He had offered her a place to stay out of kindness and it was more than enough to win her as a friend. That and she was fascinated by the man, but she wouldn't tell someone that if they asked her.

"I... was hopin' ta see about, perhaps, werkin' here if ye don't mind me havin' Jacob with me." She nodded toward the boy. It was a long shot, but she needed to support herself and now Jacob, rather than put it on her parents' shoulders. She already felt horrible for eloping with Angus, the bastard. She remembered how when he came into the room and saw Jacob in her arms, her da didn't yell at her and she wished he had because it was easier to take the yelling than the genuine defeat she saw.

That gets a look from both Eleanor and Betsy as they consider it for a moment.

"Well," Eleanor begins after a moment's thought. "I've always said that what makes a good maid is the same skills that make a good mother. Can you cook, clean, sew, do laundry, polish silver, scrub floors, dust, and do other things?" She asks the young woman not knowing much about her back ground she would need to know just what the girl could do.

"Aye, I can do all of those things." She wasn't afraid of a little hard work. Jacob dozed off in Eleanor's arms, smacking his little lips contentedly and then sighing his baby sigh. Ruth touched the top of his head where the mop of sable curls grew, and murmured, "I enjoy it, really," she said honestly when she spoke again. It had given her something to do as a new wife anyway, keeping her house tidy and welcoming.

"Well, you'll have to interview with Master Ambrose before we can hire you on," Eleanor says folding her arms. "But if you go around with Betsy and help her with her duties for today, show that you can handle everything, then she can vouch for you and I am sure he will be alright with it." The head maid said she had no control over the purse strings when it came to new staff. Not even Mister Lane was allowed to hire new permanent staff without Ambrose's permission. The head of the Blackwood family was being very, very peculiar about who was allowed around his brother.

"And Jacob?" she asked, nodding to the boy. "Should I take him home to me ma and da and then come back?" She didn't want to impose at all, that much was made clear by the question and by her worried expression. "I don't want him ta be a bother fer anyone." Not that he was a bother, she thought, for she loved the child more than life. She didn't want to leave Jacob with her parents either, not wanting them to think they were going to raise her child when she was going to do it on her own... somehow.

"Well, are you going to be leaving the lad with your parents if you get the job? You were saying something about working here with him so handle him however you would if you got the job for today." Eleanor informs her as she hands the boy back to her.

Oh... she bit her lip as she took her hefty child back to her. He snuggled into her as soon as he was in her arms again. She thought about wrapping a cloth around the both of them to hold them up and free her arms so she could do the work. Juggling a baby around was going to be a challenge, that was for sure. But she needed the job, right? Other mothers made it work! She had this! "Alright," she said with some determination.

"Aye, Betsy will fetch you some cloth or anything you think you need to get sorted," Eleanor says before taking her leave to attend her duties.

"Shall we get you a bit of linen?" Betsy asks her with a grin. "We can get him swaddled and tied to you and then get started, sound good love?"

"Aye," she said and went off with her new friend. Once they were situated, the baby was all settled in his makeshift pouch, she started to follow Betsy around. "Just tell me what ye want me ta do and I will do it," she said. Even emptying out chamber pots, she thought. It couldn't be as bad as having to change Jacob's nappies!

What needed to be done was, it transpires, quite a lot. They were mostly cleaning, with all the construction going on there was a constant struggle to keep the parts of the house that weren't being worked on livable with the dust that was constantly being stirred up. So the next few hours were focused on that, the labour was not hard but it was constant and involved quite a lot of time on their knees. Betsy showing Ruth a clever trick where she ties some wadded-up cloth to her knees to act as pads to stop them from aching while scrubbing and dusting.