Chapter 5
DAISY
‘It’s time for your friend to go, sweetie.’
Nasty Nurse’s condescending tone makes my eye twitch. I want to tell her to go fuck herself and that Lu, or Marcie, will leave when she’s God damned good and ready.
But John isn’t here now. It’s been over a week since I spoke with him about our deal and, while she mostly stayed out of my way for the first couple of days or so, once John left, she went back to her old ways.
She’s been, at best, a thorn in my side.
At worst, well, there are aspects of my life now that aren’t far removed from how The Heath was, and to say it’s putting me on edge is an understatement.
She’s halved my food portions, saying that Joe has told her I need to slim down for our wedding. The meals I do get are somehow always a sensory nightmare–gloopy, lumpy, wet, cold, tasteless. I was throwing most of it away, but now she’s taken to sitting with me and watching me eat.
She also seems to have somehow convinced all of John’s staff, except for Samantha and Stephens, that I’m some kind of mental invalid.
I still have run of the estate, but most avoid my eyes or get out of a room quickly as soon as I enter it.
They don’t listen to my requests, just scamper off to speak to Nasty Nurse.
I overheard one of the younger maids say to her friend that John Novelle is generous to let me stay here because she had a cousin who had learning difficulties and he was sent to a special boarding school.
And don’t even get me started about showering.
I try to get up early and get in the bathroom before Nasty Nurse is up because, as she informed me the other day, Joe has asked that she make sure my hygiene is up to scratch and that I don’t slip in the shower.
So, she stands there and watches me, her beady eyes taking in my naked body.
I thought I had a pretty high humiliation tolerance, but she’s on another level. I fucking hate it. I fucking hate her. Even at The Heath they didn’t point blank watch me bathe.
But I try not to show that it bothers me. There were always female Blanks around at The Heath and there was never any real privacy, I rationalize.
But she also makes comments. I don’t want to listen.
I pretend to ignore her. But her barbs worm their way into my mind, insidious and confidence-destroying.
My tits are small. My ass is very round.
Why do my ears stick out so much? Could my hair be any duller and more lackluster?
My arms are weirdly long. My nails are disgusting.
That one caught me off guard and, to my everlasting shame, I did look down at them. They weren’t dirty, or anything. They just look like normal nails to me.
I’ve had to take off the necklace Blake gave me, too. I noticed her eyeing it, so I know it’s only a matter of time before there’s a ‘no jewelry’ rule and it disappears. Now, it lives in a hole I made in the seam of my pillow.
‘Did you hear me, Marguerite?’ she says even more loudly, her nasally voice making me want to cover my ears.
I say nothing, just keep pretending to work with my friend.
‘Ms. Vandersnatch? I need you to leave.’
Lu gives me a look. ‘Ve are not finished,’ she says in her fake accent.
‘Well, Marguerite is clearly getting overtired and overwrought and I’m tasked with making sure she gets her rest after her accident.’
‘Ze accident was weeks ago. My friend ees fine,’ Lu argues with a flick of her hair. ‘Who are you to tell Marcie Vandersnatch vat to do?’
‘Ma’am, I believe Jacob is downstairs. I would hate to have to call him to escort you to your car,’ Nasty Nurse threatens.
‘Jacob,’ Lu gasps. ‘My mountain, he ees here? Send him up to me. I like to look at heem.’
The nurse’s eye twitches and, for a second, it looks like she’s swallowed a piece of lemon. Her eyes dart to me and then narrow when I ignore her.
Lu ends up staying for another hour, while Nasty Nurse seethes. Finally, my friend gets up with a flourish. ‘I must go now. I see you at class, yes?’
‘Sure,’ I say. ‘Thanks for coming over to do this project with me.’
She waves a hand, gives me a hug, and flounces from the room with the nurse in tow. A few seconds later, I hear her loudly announcing that Jacob is even more of a mountain man than she remembered. A minute after that, her car peels down the driveway.
Nasty Nurse enters the room a few minutes later.
‘Lights out, Marguerite,’ she simpers.
‘It’s not even four in the afternoon,’ I say to her, not looking up from the Shakespeare paper that I’m pretending to write.
My laptop is slammed closed, narrowly missing my fingers.
‘Hey!’
‘I said it was lights out,’ Nasty Nurse snarls, snatching my laptop and heading for my door.
‘John said—’
‘Your stepfather isn’t here, and I take my orders from Joe.’
She leaves my room with a cold grin, pulling the door closed hard, and locking me in.
Fuck!
I should have expected this.
I wait for her receding footsteps and get my phone out from the toilet cistern. It’s now in a heavy duty Ziplock courtesy of Stephens, so I take it out and turn it on. There’s luckily enough battery to watch my classes from it instead of my laptop.
Three hours later, and I’m caught up, but it’s almost seven, and no one has come to either let me out or bring me dinner.
I have a bag of potato chips and a chocolate bar for my dinner, throwing the wrappers out the window and hoping that, if they start blowing around in the wind, no one thinks to search my room.
Once it gets to eleven pm, my phone is almost dead.
I turn it off after I message the guys goodnight.
I haven’t told them a lot of what’s been going on, so I don’t tell them about tonight either.
A little voice tells me I should, that I promised, but the truth is, I just don’t want them to know.
I don’t want them to see this side of my life.
It’s true that I promised Shade that I’d let them know about anything I couldn’t handle…but I’m handling, so it’s a moot point.
They’ve been quiet as well. I know there are things happening that they aren’t telling me. Maybe they think it’ll keep me safe.
They don’t know I’m already in the snake pit. Can’t get much worse.
I put my phone back in its place, and then think better of it, laying it in the bottom of the trash so that it can be taken and charged by Samantha. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to put it in the spot in the library for Stephens to pick up.
Around midnight, when I’ve just got to sleep, my door is thrown open and my lights are turned on. I sit up quickly, bleary-eyed and wondering what’s going on as three members of staff come into my room followed by the nurse.
‘What are you doing?’ I ask, jumping out of bed as my covers are ripped off me and thrown on the floor.
‘Do you have a secret phone, Marguerite?’ Nasty Nurse asks.
‘No, of course not.’ I blink at her. ‘Why would I need one? I have my laptop. Well, I did until you took it.’
Nasty Nurse comes to stand in front of me, using her slightly higher stature, due to her three-inch heels, to look down at me. I suppose she’s trying to be threatening. But Crews could be much more intimidating than she is. I stare at the middle of her forehead.
‘One of the maids saw you playing with it in the library.’
Playing with it. Like I’m a child with a toy.
I shrug at her.
‘Tear this room apart. I want any contraband brought to me.’
The three maids I don’t really know go to work. I recognize them as some of the ones who avoid me at all costs.
I consider what’s in the room right now. I doubt they’ll find my window key tucked into the curtain seam. But there are still a couple of snacks in my closet.
One of the women is in there right now.
‘Here!’ she shouts almost gleefully, coming out of the closet with my underwear in her arms, as well as my snacks.
‘Well, well, well,’ Nasty Nurse says, ‘and what do we need all this satin underwear for?’
‘Wearing,’ I say simply. ‘The ones in the drawer are uncomfortable.’
She snorts. ‘And snacks? Where did these come from?’
‘Marcie brought them,’ I say, already sure that Nasty Nurse won’t be letting her visit me again anyway.
She tuts. ‘Anything else?’
‘I found a razor in the back of the toilet, Nurse Smith.’
‘My, my, Marguerite. We have been busy. The rules you’ve been given are for your benefit. I’ll be telling Joe everything. He’s not going to be happy about your disobedience. Not at all.’
She picks up one of the bags of chips and throws it back down on the bed with a chuckle.
‘No wonder your ass is still so fat,’ she remarks and one of the maids giggles behind her hand.
Stephens walks into the room at that very moment and gapes at the sight before him.
‘What is the meaning of this?’ he thunders.
I’ve never seen Stephens even slightly ruffled, so my eyes widen as he stalks into the middle of the room.
‘Well? I’ll have an answer!’
‘Nurse Smith told us that she had dangerous stuff in here,’ the giggling maid says, not giggling anymore. ‘She said we should—’
‘Nurse Smith is not your employer. Nor is she your superior. The woman whose room you’ve just ransacked is Mr. Novelle’s stepdaughter. She is to be treated with respect in this house!’
‘She shouldn’t even be here,’ giggling maid mutters. ‘She should be in a hospital, or something.’
In front of me, Nasty Nurse’s lips twitch.
Stephens’ hard eyes find the maid. ‘Your name?’
‘Cindy.’
‘You only recently came to us, is that correct?’
She shrugs. ‘Yeah. Like two weeks ago.’
Stephens steps closer to her, eyes zeroing in on her alone. ‘And how are you finding your position here?’
‘Um,’ the maid looks around. ‘Good.’
‘Good? Well, it’s unfortunate for you, then, that you’ve just been sacked. As of this moment, in fact. Find Samantha. She’ll ensure you receive your wages.’
Cindy just stares at him and then glances around the room. No one meets her eyes. Nasty Nurse shrugs at her.
‘What?’ Cindy asks. ‘I don’t get it.’