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“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it—”
Antoine’s fingers covered my lips startling me. “Enough. I simply wish to remind you to think before you speak, because the next time you tell someone to bite you...” He leaned forward until I could feel his breath on my face. “... someone just might.”
With that, Antoine was gone, and I was trying to relearn how to breathe. Glancing between Gretchen and Darren, who looked amused by the whole situation, I cried out. “What the fuck was that?”
Darren and Gretchen breathed out, visibly relaxing after Antoine left. Taking in a deep breath, Darren shook his head. “I hate to say I told you so but...”
Gretchen barked a laugh. “You big fibber, you love to say I told you so. Especially to anyone who isn’t you.” She waved her spatula in his direction with a roll of her eyes.
Straightening out, Darren tugged on the cuffs of his gloves. If it were possible his nose was stuck even further up in the air than ever before. “Regardless. I expect Piper to be more aware of her surroundings and save her outbursts for her days off,” he locked those stern brown eyes with mine, his brows furrowing, “when you are out of the house.”
I jerked my head up and down twice before shoving my donut into my mouth. With a little moan of relief, I sagged in my chair.
Darren watched me with a mixture of disgust and amusement before asking, “Are you finished? We have several items on today’s agenda, and I would like to have them finished before the first guests arrive.”
Slugging back what was left of my coffee mug, I gave him a thumbs up. “Let’s go, boss.”
Snorting, Darren adjust his suit jacket. “Hardly.” He left the kitchen through the dining room, not waiting for me to follow him.
Gretchen and I exchanged a knowing smile before I handed her my coffee mug and went after our stuck-up butler. I followed him into the dining room. The long table dining table had been scrubbed clean recently, and the cleaning fluid stung my nose and made me sneeze.
They must have really made a mess last night.
“Come now, don’t dally.” Darren poked his head back into the dining room from the foyer. “We have plenty to do and not near enough time to do it.”
Hurrying after him, I laced my finger behind my back. “So, how many people do you think will be coming? Is there a theme for this party?”
“Yes.” Darren stopped before the hallway closet where he pulled out a long hook. Apprehension filled me as he came toward me with the hook. However, he stepped around me and hooked it into the rings of the heavy curtains over the windows. Light flooded into the room, and I held my hand up to block my eyes.
Blinking rapidly to get the spots out of my eyes, I searched for Darren’s form. “Am I allowed to know the theme?” I huffed, my hands on my hips as I tapped my foot. “How can I help if I don’t know what I’m doing?”
Darren finished pulling back all the drapes and clacked the end of the hook’s pole on the ground. “You are not going to help with anything. We don’t need to lose any more of our precious antiques to your clumsiness. The masters have hired decorators, and they will take care of everything.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?” I crossed my arms over my chest, annoyance pinching my face.
Darren walked calmly to my side, the large hook looking over us. “You will stay out of sight. Take an early day off. Go get a manicure. Whatever it is you do with your free time, but don’t come back until just before sunset.” He started to walk away but then stopped. “Actually, if you could stay the night somewhere, maybe with a friend or a lover? That would be best for everyone.”
“Then why did you even wake me up?” I snapped, marching after him before he could leave me behind. I followed him into the back of the house where a large library sat. I hadn’t had a chance to go in there yet. None of my chores had asked me to, and there was never any time to explore.
Large shelves covered every wall of the library with a balcony wrapping around the second story. A rolling ladder was attached to a metal bar which moved all around the room. Desks and couches littered the room, but unlike most libraries, I’d seen no book was out of place. They were all neatly stacked on the shelves. No messy readers in this house.
Darren threw open the doors and began to pull the curtains back in there as well. “I have too much to do to wait for you to roll out of bed. Better to send you on your way now, so you are out of our hair.”
A low growl erupted from my throat. “What’s the point of being the maid if I can’t do my job? You won’t tell me anything. I’m already under contract to keep my mouth shut, but I can’t keep quiet if I don’t know what I’m being quiet about.”
Throwing an irritated scowl over his shoulder, Darren finished the drapes and then strolled toward me. I thought he might ignore more once more, but instead, he stopped before me.
“You may think your role here is important, but you aren’t. I cannot tell you anything until the masters deem you to trustworthy enough to know. As for your job, you will be given more responsibility—”
“When I’m trusted enough to handle it,” I filled in for him. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” I waved him off and sighed. “Fine but I don’t have anyone to stay with, so I’ll just call it a night early. Will that be satisfactory?” I gave him a beaming ‘fuck you’ smile.
Darren sniffed. “If you must, but it is imperative your door be locked tonight. No late night snacks. No sneaking out to spy on the party. This is a very important night for Master Wynn, and we can’t have you ruining it with your clumsy ways.”
Master Wynn? If Darren had been trying to detract me from wanting to check out the party, he shouldn’t have mentioned Wynn. Now I wanted to know what was going on even more than before.
Holding one hand up in front of me, I smiled innocently. “Promise. I’ll be out until sunset.”
“And?”
Putting my other hand behind my back, I crossed my fingers. “And I’ll go straight to my room and stay there until sun up.”
“Good. Now, get out of here.” He brushed past me and then paused at the library door. “Clean your car, Lord knows it needs to be sanitized.”
I glared at his retreating figure. Clean my car, my ass. My car was fine. Sure, it had been a pit for my many fast food wrappers, but that had changed. I now had a home to litter with those.
When I made my way out of the house and into my car, my nose wrinkled at the sour smell. Okay, so a car wash wouldn’t be so bad after all.
