Hidden Messages
Stairs? Nostalgia?
“Marlowe… I don’t want to rush you, but we should probably get going,” Reid called from the kitchen.
He was right. I had spent too long staring at the phone in my hand, trying to figure out what in the world this message meant.
The first question—what game? Eleanor left me a game to play? With clues? What was it, a scavenger hunt of sorts? She had mentioned something about a quest, but I guess I hadn’t taken her literally.
Not able to spare another second, I jogged to the kitchen and out the door Reid held open for me. He blocked Noodle from following us into the garage and shut the door behind him as I slid into the passenger seat.
My mind was spinning.
Climb the stairs. What stairs? My house didn’t even have stairs. Reid’s did, but that didn’t make any sense. Why would whoever sent this be talking about Reid’s house?
But lots of places had stairs. How was I supposed to know which set of stairs? The mansion had a ton of stairs. Even a staircase that led to literally nowhere. It ended at a wall. Eleanor once said it was blocked off because it once led to part of the attic, and a few decades prior, someone had fallen through and the whole area was deemed unsafe. They never used that part of the attic anyway, so they walled it off. But the historical society, which somehow didn’t include Eleanor, but her niece, Pearl, declared the staircase an original part of the home and unable to be removed.
That obviously couldn’t be the answer, though.
“Everything okay?” Reid asked softly.
I glanced over at him, having almost forgotten he was in the car. The ride to the mansion wasn’t long, but tourist traffic had us at a crawl.
“You’re really quiet, that’s all.”
I nodded. “I’m fine. Just… never mind. It’s nothing.”
I could tell he wanted to push a little and get me to fess up, but he refrained.
Was that how it would be between us now? Awkward? Dancing around each other, tiptoeing in order not to cross any invisible boundaries?
We used to share everything, never really holding back secrets. But now… I didn’t know what to tell him. Eleanor’s original message said to tell only those that I trusted explicitly.
Had this been last summer, Reid would have known every single detail about the original video and the text message clue the second I received it.
Truthfully, I did still trust him. His breaking up with me didn’t automatically make me lose that. It just… made it harder to justify. Sure, I could tell him, and I knew he wouldn’t share it with anyone else, because he would know how important it was to me. He was that kind of guy.
I hesitated, though, unsure why. Something deep down told me to keep it to myself, no matter how it pained me.
“Hey, if this is about you staying…” Reid started, getting my attention back once more.
“No! No, it’s not that,” I blurted out. I had barely given that any more thought since he said it. Once I got the text, it flew out of my mind completely. “No, um, yeah, I guess it’ll be fine. Are you sure you’re cool lying to your parents, though?”
Reid Bennett was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a liar. Any time he tried, his ears turned a deep crimson color.
He pulled into the Covington Estates employee parking lot like he had a million times before when he dropped me off for work, and put the car in park.
“It’s not really lying, is it? Just… not telling the entire truth of where I am. Plus, they said they wouldn’t bother me this summer, so I doubt they’ll be calling much.” He frowned for a flash, but looked up at me again. “I don’t want to ruin your summer either, Marlowe, so when I say I’ll stay out of your way, I mean it. Promise.”
I couldn’t help but grin a little. I thanked him for the ride as I slid out of the car.
“Give me a call when you’re done and I’ll come pick you up, okay?” he called right before I closed the door.
“It’s alright, Grandmum will be there as always. Besides, it’ll be pretty late when we’re done breaking everything down.”
He nodded and pulled away, and I headed inside, grateful for him driving so I didn’t show up in a sweaty mess.
The employee entrance was a small side door on the south side of the mansion, leading directly into the storage rooms and the prep kitchens.
It looked like the catering staff had already arrived, the serving crew putting on their finishing touches. Unlike most events, where they would be in all black with a black half apron around their waists and a white bow tie, they were in full suits and long black gowns. They even wore masquerade masks. It was their job to blend in with the crowd, not to stand out and draw attention away from the guests.
The Mansion Masquerade was also one of the major events that extra housekeeping was called in for. Our duties included setting up the banquet hall, and cleaning all the main bathrooms and a few guest rooms in the East Wing.
I needed to put my bag down in a cubby, then find Grandmum. They always put her in charge of the housekeeping staff at events like this, since she had the most experience out of everyone. She was also the strictest one on staff. Even though I was her granddaughter, I didn’t get let off any easier than anyone else.
As I made my way into the set-up room and through the prep kitchen, I ducked and weaved around the caterers and the waitstaff. I almost collided with Chloe, a girl in my grade with shoulder length dark hair and the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. She had on an amazing dress, even if she was tripping over it a bit. That was, until she finished putting her heels on. She was normally around Emma’s height, but with the four-inch heels, she now was almost as tall as me.
I started to say hello, but got interrupted. “No facial piercings!” a tall guy in a chef’s coat yelled after Chloe, who then scurried to the cubbies.
I smiled and hurried off to find Grandmum. It wasn’t hard—I followed the stern voice and went against the rest of the crew that was scattering off to various parts of the mansion.
“Hi,” I said sweetly, giving her a big grin. She returned with her normal scowl, which made me smile bigger. It was like she didn’t miss me at all, but deep down, I knew she did. If she didn’t, she would have been chewing me out for being late.
And I wasn’t even late. I just happened to be the last person into the room for assignments, but that didn’t matter to Grandmum.
“First floor bathroom, east wing, and coat duty,” she muttered, handing me both an assignment card and a basket of supplies. The card had a checklist attached for both setup and breakdown, and the basket held cleaning supplies and items for the bathroom. It weighed close to ten pounds, so I held it with both hands.
“How are you, Grandmum?” I asked before she left to find more people to scold.
“Lovely. The house is noise free, except for that darn cat that won’t leave me alone.”
I giggled. “Mr. Munchkin just wants a few treats now and then. Throw them out the window and he’ll get out of your hair.”
Mr. Munchkin wasn’t my cat. I had no idea who he actually belonged to, but he visited daily. I made the mistake of giving him a treat once, and now I couldn’t get rid of him. He probably was driving Grandmum crazy, tapping on the kitchen window every day.
Grandmum grunted. “Darn cat,” she reiterated. “You’re doing well, all alone in that giant house?”
I almost said that I wasn’t alone, not anymore, but remembered at the last second that Reid was still a secret. Not that I expected Grandmum to go tattling to his parents. “Yeah. I’m okay. The dogs are there too, so it’s not super lonely.”
“Darn dogs.” Grandmum wasn’t really a pet kind of person. They were too messy, according to her. “Get to work now.”
I gave her a smile, then headed to the East Wing to get started on my work.
After setting up, the actual event was rather dull. I took coats for those that had them, which were few and far between due to the warm weather. Mia Covington handed me a shawl, thanking me for taking it because she thought it was ugly and didn’t match her dress, but her mother made her wear it.
Her mother was Eleanor’s great niece, Olive. Mia’s family were some of the only Covington’s that still lived on the island. There were less than ten out of the entire extended family. Mia’s house was on Covington Crescent, of course, right next to the mansion, but on the other side of the property lines.
While everyone else enjoyed the masquerade, I wandered around, thinking about the clue from earlier that evening. I still had no idea what stairs meant, even though I looked at every staircase in the mansion with a side eye.
The part about nostalgia had me hung up, too. The only nostalgia I was getting right now was for Eleanor. Her portrait hung over the fireplace in the room where I set the coats on a temporary coat rack. The painting was from her youth, where she was about twenty-one years old. She was gorgeous, with pink bow-shaped lips and bright blue eyes, just like her grandmother.
It was times like these when Eleanor would randomly find me. I had a habit of strolling around the mansion while Grandmum or Mom worked, or exploring between setups and takedowns. Eleanor would wander with me, telling me stories about the mansion, growing up on the island, and everything between.
Sometimes we roamed so long and far that people had to come find Eleanor, as they needed her for whatever she had been doing before she saw me. I always apologized, but she would pat my hand and say, “It’s been a pleasure, my little sunshine.”
Before I knew it, another housekeeper came to find me, saying the guests were ready to go home. I rolled out the coat rack to the main foyer, handing items back as the owners came for them.
After a quick tidy of the bathroom that didn’t seem to get used tonight, my job was over. I headed for my cubby to get my bag, then looked around.
The clock in the corner struck two in the morning when I passed it on my way to find Grandmum. She always waited for me to be done before heading home, standing stiff and tall next to the door to the employee parking lot.
Except… this time, she wasn’t there.
Once again, I found myself stranded and left behind.