Page 5

What makes Audrey treat them like they’re family and me like I’m one broken glass away from being thrown out?

I’m not supposed to be in the lower corridor. None of the maids are unless Audrey sends us, and Audrey almost never does. She says the lower rooms are private. My first day I learned the ropes. In Vexley House, some doors are always locked. Some are locked only when Arthur Vexley is in residence.

And if we come upon a door that’s locked, we turn around.

I take a step back. The phone feels heavier by the second.

Delaney Cross didn’t listen. Finish it tonight.

My stomach turns.

I don’t know Delaney Cross. Not really. I know her name because everyone knows names in this house. They float through the kitchen, drift down staircases, get whispered over linen carts. Delaney Cross is someone important. Someone connected to the Vexleys.

And someone wants her taken care of.

No.

Not taken care of.

Finished.

I squeeze my eyes shut. What am I supposed to do now? Tell someone? That’s what a good person would do, but who?

Audrey?

Audrey Steppe would take one look at the phone, one look at me, and decide I was either lying, stealing, or trying to cause trouble. Charlotte and Tiffany would find a way to convince Audrey it was all my fault. Hazel might believe me, but Hazel has survived this house longer than anyone by knowing when not to say things.

One of the Vexleys?

I almost laugh.

The Vexleys don’t concern themselves with the help.

I hurry back toward the servants’ wing with the phone clutched in my hand and my head down. I slip inside and lock the door. The envelope is still on my bed. The money sits beside it.

Five hundred dollars for my mother’s first appointment.

Five hundred dollars I need so badly I can barely breathe when I look at it.

I grab the envelope and shove the money back inside with shaking hands. Then I stare at the phone.

I need it out of my room. Out of my hand. Out of my life.

Quickly.

Before whoever meant to leave it for Charlotte or Tiffany realizes it landed with me instead.

Before Audrey finds it.

Before the wrong door opens.

2

NATHANIEL

If one more gray-haired man clears his throat in the middle of pontificating on something that could have been summarized in three sentences, I may commit a felony before lunch.

Possibly two.