SAFEHOUSE

I opened up my suitcase and found the comfiest pajamas I had packed, slipping them on before hopping into the bed. The mattress was perfectly soft, just enough that I sunk in a little, but still had support for my achy back. Working as a housekeeper for five years will do that to you.

Before long, I had drifted to sleep, my nightmares keeping away at least for the night.

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Chapter 7

The knock at the door startled me awake. I turned over, trying to place my surroundings before I realized where I was again. I had been moved around so much lately that this was a common occurrence.

“Yes?” I called out from the bed. If it was just someone reminding me to eat, that mess could wait. I was still exhausted as it was.

“Mademoiselle Jackson? Monsieur Malveaux said you were to work today, yes?”

I sat there in my bed for a moment before everything started coming back. Oh crap, I thought. I had totally forgot about starting the housekeeping job today. That must be Marie, the head maid.

“Oh, yes. I’m just . . . getting ready! I’ll be right out,” I answered her.

I quickly got out of bed and stretched out my back. I dumped the contents of my suitcase out on the satin covers before I realized there was a freshly-pressed maid’s uniform laid out at the end of my bed.

When did that get there?

I pulled the tight uniform on over my head, wishing I had just a little bit more room to squeeze into it. Once I buttoned the front buttons though, it wasn’t so bad. It looked like those fancy uniforms you see in old movies.

I pulled the brush through my hair, wincing because I was rushing. My mama used to hate that when I was little; she’d get so mad when I’d start complaining as she did my hair in the mornings before school. Then she would usually call me a tender-headed child, always muttering under her breath about how even my baby sister Nia didn’t cry so much. I rolled my eyes at the memory, but slowed down a bit on my own head. Maybe I was tender-headed. I’d give anything to hear her call me that now.

Marie knocked at the door again. “I will be in kitchen. You know your way?”

I thought about it for a moment, trying to picture how Julien led us there yesterday. I was drawing a blank.

“Yes!” I’ll figure it out eventually.

Her footsteps click-clacked down the hallway, announcing her departure.

The trek to the kitchen wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, thankfully. There were a few turns I had to go back and make along the way, but all in all my memory wasn’t so bad.

When I got there, there was a woman opening up the large set of curtains by the table, and busily moving around the rest of the room, wiping down surfaces and straightening things as she went.

“Mrs. Belgard?”

She did not stop, but looked up at me and gave me a quick nod. “Bonjour, Mademoiselle. You sleep well?”

I nodded, finding myself standing up straighter as I took in her appearance. She looked like she would fit in as a headmistress at a

n all-girls boarding school. Her gray and white hair was pulled back into a neat and severe bun. She had a small, upturned nose that gave her the look of always finding something unpleasant smelling. Her uniform was perfectly in place, her black shoes shiny.

She finally did pause what she was doing to come up to me, sizing me up at once. I nearly cringed, hoping she didn’t notice how scuffed up my white sneakers were.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked back up at me. Even as short as she was she made me want to look away from her cold gaze.

“I am Marie. Head maid of Monsieur Malveaux. Mon mari, ah . . . my husband, Alain, is his personal majordome. I help you get to work. We start in foyer, and work out from there. Come, come,” she explained, her accent thick.

Yep. I definitely needed to learn French.

I followed Marie down the hall, surprised that I needed to hurry up to keep up with her. She was a fast little old lady, that was for sure. In that aspect she reminded me of my granny.

When we got to the foyer, Marie opened a closet door and handed me different cleaning items.

“We start here. You clean with this, and we make sure everything shiny. Okay?”