Rodge laughs. “He’s quite intimidating, isn’t he?”
“He certainly can be.” But my mind flashes back to Tyse standing over the bed last night, looking down at me.I’ve got no chance at all, have I? He didn’t look intimidating at all in that moment. He looked almost vulnerable.
And the fact of the matter is, I’m stuck here. After walking outside yesterday and realizing that there is really no way back, I’ve come to terms with it. This is my new life and, by luck or destiny, Tyse is now the man in it.
Which means hedoeshave a chance. I mean… Finnsent me into the tower. He literally gave me away. It wasn’t to Tyse, it was to the god. But it might as well have been Tyse. Because he’s what I found on the other side of those black tower doors.
“Well.” Rodge has been considering my offer, and now he lets out a sigh. “It would be more practical to have you clean, since you live there. And I do believe you would be safe. I will walk you up and drop you off, and then I will have fulfilled my promise to Tyse.”
I beam a smile at him. “Perfect.”
Rodge hands the filled bag over to the resident, collects his coins, and then points to the next resident in line. “Be right back.”
I am loaded up with a rack across my shoulders with buckets hanging off the edges, perfectly balanced so I can carry them.Each bucket contains cleaning supplies, plus fresh linen and towels.
Then Rodge walks me back up to ten and deposits me inside Tyse’s room. “I’ll be back in three hours to walk you back down and close out the day. Good?”
I nod. “Very good. Thank you, Rodge.”
It’s not that I’m eager to clean—god, it’s been a decade since I’ve done that too—I just want to snoop. I did, after all, get permission to do that.
This permission also came with a warning:Ya better be careful, you might not like what you find. But there’s not much in this place.
Whatever personal items I find, they will be small.
So how bad could they be?
Maybe I haven’t cleanedmy own rooms since I moved into the Little Sister dorm over a decade ago, but I have been watching the maids that whole time. Which doesn’t make me an expert or anything, but I have a general idea of how to start this whole cleaning-a-room process.
I am not a snoop by trade or habit, so I don’t start there. Discovering things should happen organically. While dusting, probably, since I will have to pick up every trinket, personal item, and scrap of paper in order to clean under it.
So I begin with stripping the bed and replacing the sheets. Then I sweep the floor, wipe up the ‘kitchen’—which is really nothing but a countertop—and then wipe down the bathroom.
Once all the gross stuff is out of the way I start on the fun stuff—all the little things he’s collected over the years. Which is a considerable time if he’s lived in this same room since he stopped soldiering.
Unfortunately, there’s really not much to find. He’s not messy, per se. There are no old food bags lying around or anything like that. His personal items are mostly useful things. I find quite a few dead phones. Two lost in the cushions of the chair alone. Also, a lot of notes. Not anything fun, like a love note. Mostly they are just scraps of paper with a few words or numbers scribbled on them. Appointments, I think, because they often have times attached.
I don’t throw any of the notes away, just find an empty jar on a kitchen shelf and stuff them all inside just in case he was saving them on purpose. But I don’t think he was. I think Tyse has his room cleaned by Rodge’s daughter, Prisha, quite regularly because there’s not even a lot of dust.
At this point, the sun outside is beginning to set and I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of learning secret things about Tyse from snooping. Then a knock at the door startles me.
I just stare at it for a moment, wondering who it could be.
Maybe… his friend Anneeta?
But also, maybe that creepy guy down the hall who was caught looking at me and got a very hard shove for his troubles?
“Clara?”
I walk to the door, open it, and find Prisha staring back at me. “Father says it’s quitting time. He’s sorry he didn’t come back two hours ago, like he promised. We got swamped. Do you have dirty linens for me?”
“Oh. Yes, I do.” I put them all in a pile on the floor when I stripped the bed, so I load them back onto the bucket contraption and take it back to Prisha. She reaches for it andexpertly balances it across her shoulders like she’s been doing this sort of thing her whole life. “Did I take too long, Prisha?”
Prisha cocks a perfectly arched eyebrow at me. “Take toolong?” She’s not wearing a lot of make-up, but she is wearing some. And it is very clear that she does not live in this tower. Even if Rodge didn’t inform me of that fact, I could tell. Her dress is simple, but a very fine, high-quality linen in a pale yellow that looks very attractive against her dark skin. It’s a straight dress with long bell sleeves and ends just above the knee. Every seam is trimmed in light blue silk ribbons.
It’s not fancy, but it’s also very far from plain and it reminds me of something I might’ve worn to a luncheon with the Canal District ladies in my past life.
Prisha is also wearing a lot of jewelry. Gold bracelets, earrings, and a necklace. I would be a little hesitant to wear all that treasure on my person in a place like the tower, but I guess if you’re Rodge’s daughter, people know better than to mess with you.
