by A. L. Tyler
Tab was cracking up. Devin laughed, but pulled himself together when he saw Pepper glaring at him in the rearview mirror. “Give me a break! I couldn’t let her eat them!”
Pepper’s frantic eyes moved to Lena. “You can’t tell anyone, or I’ll be in so much trouble! Swear on—on—“
“My grandfather’s grave?” Lena suggested hopefully.
“Sure. Please don’t tell anyone!”
Lena laughed a little. “I swear I won’t tell. What happened?”
Tab unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face her. “You are looking at the reigning King of the Potato Race!”
Tab watched her with anticipation. “That’s…great.” Lena said. “How do you race potatoes?”
A glitter came into Tab’s eyes. Now kneeling on his seat so that he could face Lena in the backseat, he started an animated explanation. “Well, the potatoes don’t actually do the racing. Let’s just say the race involves a metric butt-load of potatoes and a bunch of people wearing baggy pants.”
Lena stared at Tab, then gazed over at Devin. His eyebrows were raised, he was staring straightforward, and he appeared to try to look innocent. “The potatoes went down your pants?”
Devin licked his lips and kept staring forward. He tried to suppress a laugh. “Technically, they went down Tab’s pants. I refereed this year.”
Lena looked back at Tab. “Does produce frequently find its way into your drawers?”
Pepper rolled her eyes. “Sha! More than it should!”
Everyone laughed. The rest of the way into town, Devin regaled her with stories of the many items that Tab had put down his pants on a dare, including various fruits and vegetables, sharp kitchen utensils, a live eggbeater, and even an unlucky lobster. Pepper assured her that pants foods were usually things that had already gone bad, or boiled severely in the case of the odd Potato Race; Lena was still happy she hadn’t eaten the potatoes. As it turned out, Tab was quite the aficionado of dares; he had actually earned the nickname “Tab” after downing an entire bottle of hot sauce in under thirty seconds.
As they pulled up to an all-night diner and got out of the car, Lena was so giddy from adrenaline and laughing that she had almost forgotten about Griffin entirely. Almost.
“So anyways, next Wednesday, when the adults take the night off again, we’re having our annual Pudding Race, if you want in…” Tab was saying excitedly.
The rest of the caravan pulled up, and everyone went inside and were seated at adjacent tables. It was almost 9:45, and the restaurant was completely empty besides the twenty or so of the kitchen staff. They ordered food, chatted loudly, and Devin introduced Lena around. Everyone knew that she shouldn’t have been there, but no one seemed to care; they would keep the secret. Pepper informed her that she had become somewhat of a celebrity among the house staff.
“It’s because you’re like us.” She said with her oddly charming accent. “That’s why you’re not stuck up like the rest of them. You’re like us.”
Lena hadn’t thought to bring any cash since she hadn’t known she was leaving the house, but Devin offered pay for her so she could eat with everyone else. He was apparently trying to save up so he could leave the Colburns and get into a regular job somewhere. Eventually, he wanted to have his own house.
“You can do that?” Lena asked.
“Sure. I mean, they only pay us…not enough. But another few years and I’ll have enough to get started. I’m not working for them my whole life.” Devin said proudly.
Pepper saw the shock on Lena’s face and started to explain. “It’s the way most of them go, because the Colburns pay them a little every week. Some of them come back because it’s not easy…it’s not like you go out into the world with references or anything. But some of them make it. I think some of them even get established enough that after a few generations they can apply for their families to be represented in the Council, but that’s a rare situation. I mean, I could never do it—my family’s been with the Colburns for generations. They’re my family.”
The food came and Devin, Tab and Lena shared stories about what their lives had been like before coming into the Silenti world. Lena talked a lot about her father, and all the traveling they did, and the way she had never known about any of the rest of the mess she eventually became involved with. Tab had also done a fair bit of traveling after he had run away from home; before that he had lived with his dad, who had been an alcoholic. He’d gone to a family called Dale for a few months, then had been transferred to the Colburns. Devin had been raised by his elderly grandparents, and on their passing had gone straight to the Colburns at the age of twelve. After they had finished eating, Pepper thought it might be best to stop talking about things that depressed them and find something fun to do, so they were back in the car and driving around again.
They rode grocery carts around a twenty-four hour store for a while, played hide-and-seek in the dark in a public park, had a splash fight in the fountain, and then decided to go night swimming in the reservoir because they were already wet. The wind had died down, the stars were out in force, and with the moon playing across the water it was too much too resist. For one night the world was theirs, and between the criminal adrenaline in Lena’s system, the emotional numbness of Griffin’s rejection, the resurrected memories of her father, and the caffeine from all the soda at dinner, she didn’t even care that the water was icy cold. It wasn’t until four forty-three in the morning that Lena realized that they had been out for far too long. Still wet, they climbed into the heated sedan and drove back to Waldgrave, the four of them crammed into the front bench seat for warmth.
When they reached the covered parking at the side of the house, and Lena got safely into the living room, she thought she was safe. She would have a heck of a time explaining wet clothes to anyone who caught her now, but no one would be able to prove that she had been out. She climbed the staircase to the library and started for the hall door, then froze. Her heart almost stopped; there was someone sitting on the couch across the room.
“Who’s…there?” A raspy, slurred voice called from the shadows. The figure stood up, wobbled into a strip of moonlight cast through the window and grabbed a bookcase for support. “Don’t…come any nearer! I see you there!”
Lena backed against the wall and watched as Master Corbett walked past her and grabbed another bookcase. His face was covered in sweat and his hair looked greasy; he hadn’t shaved in a few days. He swung at thin air and collapsed onto the ground with a look of confusion. He turned over on his back, and unsuccessfully tried to get back onto his feet. He stared around the room with a paranoid expression. “Where…where’d you go? I’ll find you! You’re not going to…going to…”
He broke down in tears; it was evident that he had been drinking heavily that night. Lena made for the door again.
“Don’t…please don’t! Don’t, don’t, don’t…”
She turned and looked back at Master Corbett, still sprawled on the floor and weeping uncontrollably. Something didn’t feel right.
“I’ll do it…I’ll do…Don’t kill me!” He shrieked.
The light in Daray’s office went on and Lena shot through the door and into the hall. What she had overheard was disturbing, but she was sure it was the alcohol. He was in a bad spot lately, and adding alcohol to the situation was making him paranoid. As powerful and well-liked as the Corbett family was, she doubted anyone was actually trying to kill him, and she was too tired to worry about it if someone actually was. Whoever was in the office was bound to hear him and take care of it, and if it was Griffin or Daray, it would be better if she wasn’t there when it happened.
Lena snuck back up to her room, threw her drenched clothes into the bathtub after she changed out of them, and collapsed onto the bed.
Too early the next morning, there was a loud knock on her bedroom door. Knowing that Mrs. Ralston always let herself in, she rolled over, cracked one bloodshot eye, and saw that it was already nine in the morning. She w
as still asleep in her pajamas.
Who is it? She grumbled.
Open the damn door, Lena!
Lena sat straight up in bed. In an uncoordinated effort, she tried to make it to the door to lock it before Griffin burst in. She only made it halfway.
Spinning on her heel, she shot into the bathroom, slammed the door, and locked it just in time. She looked desperately around, willing an escape hatch to appear somewhere. She heard Griffin close the bedroom door and walk over to the bathroom; her heart shot into her throat.
“Lena, open the door.” He said in an acid tone.
“No.”
“Open the door now, damn it!” He yelled.
“No!”
She watched Griffin’s shadow pace back and forth in front of the door and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. Her clothes from the night before were still there and smelled heavily of pond scum. The jeans were probably ruined, but Mrs. Ralston was very good at getting stains and smells out.
“We need to talk.” He said, his voice sounding forcibly calm.
Lena swallowed, shaking. “Well, the only way that’s happening is through this door, or in the presence of…at least ten other people.”
The shadow paused before the door. “You are the most reckless, irresponsible, naive…disrespectful…ungrateful…”
“Is there a point coming?” Lena ventured.
Griffin smacked the door so hard that the wall shook and Lena jumped. “You can’t just go off like that!”
“Why the hell do you care! You said you’re done being my keeper, so I figured I might as well enjoy the freedom!” Lena turned around and turned the bathwater on. It was a good pair of jeans, and if she washed them by hand they might be salvageable. “Who told?” She asked.
“No one. I—today at breakfast, it was on a lot of minds. You remember the last time you went off like this? You remember the last time I had to save your damn life?” Griffin hissed. His shadow was square in front of the door; Lena imagined that he had his arms crossed.
She dumped some lavender-scented shampoo into the water. “It wasn’t like that…”
“You know, I just want you to know that it’s very disturbing to me that you actually trust those…servants.”
She stood up and walked to the door. “People? That I trust those people, Griffin? You’re the thought sponge, you tell me if any of them have designs on my life!”
Griffin was silent for a few minutes. “I spent years with them. I know how they feel about people like us.”
“People like you.” Lena accused. “You know they don’t want to hurt me. You know. You just don’t like that I went out and had fun.”
“I don’t like that you went out and broke the law, Lena. I don’t like that you put your life in jeopardy—“
Lena rolled her eyes. “My life wasn’t in jeopardy, you jerk!”
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you would be in if they knew? You sure as hell wouldn’t get on the Council—you’d be lucky if they didn’t remove Howard to instate a stricter guardian and put an ankle monitor on you!”
Griffin went silent. Lena turned the water off. “They don’t know?”
Griffin sighed, disgusted. “No one knows but me, and the servants downstairs who think you look like a drowned rat when you’re wet. Bury this one deep, and never speak of it again. I can’t believe you went swimming in a reservoir…disgusting. So, so stupid…”
Lena stood and opened the door. She half-grinned at Griffin, who was looking calmer, but still disgruntled. “I thought you were done helping me. If you don’t care, then why don’t you just turn me in?”
Griffin kept his distance. He looked at Lena, shook his head disapprovingly, then gave a small, defeated laugh. He turned and walked out the door. “Don’t let it happen again.”
Lena turned and waltzed back into the bathroom. She took her wet clothes out of the bath, wrung them out, and hung them on the towel rack. Then she climbed into the warm bath water to soak. She turned the hot water back on and started to scrub the crusted mud stains off of her feet. She knew something had been going on; it wasn’t in Griffin’s character to suddenly stop being a manipulative jerk. She wasn’t sure exactly what he had been trying to accomplish, but she was sure he would quit it now that she knew he was up to something.
Much later that day, after a long soak in the tub, a few hours of leisure reading, and a room service lunch compliments of the kitchen staff, Lena received a summons from Howard to meet him in his office down the hall. She gathered her notes and the current draft of her exposition and sauntered down the hall, expecting that Howard wanted to see her latest draft. Once she stepped into the office, she knew something was wrong. Howard was sitting behind the desk and had a very disappointed look on his face. Griffin was seated in an armchair.
When Howard looked up at Lena, Griffin smirked in a way that awoke feelings of vengeance in her so deep that she had never have thought such emotion possible. He had told, and she was going to kill him in his sleep.
Howard cleared his throat and reached up to scratch his ear. “Lena, did you leave the house last night to get drunk?”
He had it coming this time. She could play hardball, too. With Howard in the room, she felt safe enough to rip him to pieces, and she certainly had the will to do so at the moment. Lena slapped her papers onto Howard’s desk, glared at Griffin, and sat down in a chair across from the desk. She took a relaxing breath and started. “Yes, I did.”
Howard’s eyebrows raised. “You did. You know that what you did violated several laws and the rules I personally laid out for you?”
Griffin was enjoying this too much. What an ass…she was going to get him back for this. Lena kept her eyes on Howard. “Yes.”
Howard leaned forward in his chair. “Why would you do that?”
“Well,” Lena took a moment, glanced briefly over at Griffin, sighed deeply, and then looked back at Howard. She made the saddest face she could. “It was complicated…I suppose it happened because I was in a state of emotional upset at the time.”
Howard was matching her expression. “Oh?”
In the peripherals of her vision, she saw Griffin stir uncomfortably.
“It was late, I needed a friend, so I went down to what I thought was going to be a yard party. It wasn’t, but I really needed someone to talk to after everything that’s been happening.” Lena said, raising her hand to partly cover her mouth.
Howard glanced over at Griffin, and then his eyes went back to Lena. “You were upset? What happened?”
Lena leveled her gaze on Griffin, who was now glaring at her as sternly as she was at him. “Oh yes. Griffin’s been pursuing me quite aggressively these past few weeks—you know, while we were reading over the collection of family journals—and it’s been very upsetting. I’ve been afraid to say anything because he threatened my chances of getting into the Council.”
The silence was thick. Griffin had gone red in the face. Howard’s eyes had narrowed; he watched them both closely.
Griffin finally burst. “That’s a lie! Master Collins, you can’t possibly—“
Lena dropped her pretense. “And I went out to get drunk?! That is such—“
Silence!
Griffin and Lena looked back at Howard, who was remaining very calm through all of this. “I’m trusting we all have motive to keep this between the three of us. Griffin, you’re excused. I’ll handle the situation from here.”
Griffin walked over to the desk, shaking his head. “I promise you, I never—“
Howard waived him off. “Just go. I’ll handle it.”
Griffin stalked out of the room, glaring heartily at Lena on the way, and Howard sighed. “The two of you act like children. I’m waiting…”
Lena took a deep breath; she knew she only had a few seconds before Howard pounced. “I was upset. I know Griffin and I are supposed to have an entirely professional relationship or whatever, but we are friends. That’s all, it’s nothing else, I swear. We
got in a little fight yesterday right before I went down, and I swear I didn’t know they were planning to leave. I made a really stupid decision, and I’m sorry.”
Howard was quiet for a few minutes as he thought. “Does anyone else know?”
“Not unless Griffin told. The kitchen staff—“
“How many were there?” Howard pressed.
“Twenty. Ish.”
Howard sighed; he was worried. “Can they keep a secret?”
Lena rolled her eyes. “You have no idea, thank God, Howard.”
Howard went quiet again. “You’re grounded.”
He’d spoken so softly that Lena wasn’t sure if she had heard him correctly. “Excuse me?”
Howard stood up and paced to the other side of the desk. He remained standing in front of Lena’s chair. “You’re grounded.”
Lena eyed him suspiciously. She’d never seen him like this before. “How do you propose that’s going to happen? I’m an adult now, and you’re not my mother. Besides, I think I’m grounded already. What exactly are you planning to do to make my life worse than it already is.”
Howard raised his eyebrows again, clearly undecided on what ‘grounded’ really meant, but determined to make it a worthwhile punishment. “I’ll be discussing it with Mrs. Ralston and Master Daray. You’re grounded, effective as soon as the guests leave.”
There was a crazed look in his eye, and Lena decided she wasn’t going to push the issue further. “Okay.”
“You can leave now.” He said.
“Okay.” Lena stood up and went back to her room. When she went down to dinner that night, things were surprisingly normal—Bianca Channing went back to sitting at her usual table, Lena sat next to Howard with a group of Council members, and Griffin, though still very somber, knew he had managed to get her into trouble and seemed rather pleased with that fact. He was sitting without Master Daray, who had taken to eating in his room again on the pretense that he was working out his will. Everything was so surprisingly normal that Lena should have seen it coming.
In the middle of dessert, a shriek issued from the kitchen, silencing the dining room. As the screams continued and multiplied, Howard excused himself from the table and ran to the kitchen. Mrs. Ralston, white-faced, met him at the door. They disappeared into the kitchen together as Marie, crying and hysterical, issued forth into the dining room with a handful of other frightened kitchen staff. As Lena stood up to get her, she saw Devin pull her aside and out into the main hall.