AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I paused and bit my lip. My heart was racing. “Fernando asked me to.”
Maestra Cecelia shook her head and dropped the stack of papers on the desk. “Carmen, you would give a Dreg the coat off your back, and then smile while they strangle you with it.”
Her words cut straight to my chest and my mouth fell open. “I—”
The Maestra held up her hand. “But, since you found it, you have done us all a great favor. I was going to go myself, but I think this would work much better.” She glanced sideways at me just as I opened my mouth. “I always thought you might be talented as a spy.”
What the hell?I shifted my weight from one leg to the other. “So you’ll help me?” I said.
Maestra Cecelia’s head snapped toward me so fast that one of her silky black curls came out of the scarf. “I am only doing it because of the storm of trouble which would rain down on us otherwise. Now come here, we need to think of a name.” She was opening drawers and taking out pots, a calligraphy pen, and a small embossing machine.
Name.
“A name?”
Maestra Cecelia pressed her mouth in a firm line. “The easiest way for you to return this will be to dress up as an Élite, leave it in Antonio Castillas’ room, and get the hell out of there.”
My mouth hung open. “How am I going to get into Señor Castillas’ room?”
She glanced up at me and smirked while she began writing. “Would you like me to teach you how to seduce a man?”
I coughed. “I—”
“Relax. I was only joking. You will ask for an audience, and the Trabajadores will do the rest. It will be perfectly innocent.”
I did not relax. In fact, all I could do was wonder who this woman was? She had slid from her role as a dancer tothiswith ease. She finished writing Élite in gold ink and placed the paper into the machine before pressing down firmly. I stared at the counterfeit card while she picked it up.
“No, Carmen, my dear. Name?” she asked again and picked up the pen. “It has to be something that fits.”
My eyebrows raised, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“No problem.” Maestra Cecelia turned in her chair, and picked up a book. I paused when I saw that it was titled, “Governing Houses of La Quinta Isla.”
I stepped closer. “Castillas… no. Cortés? Ugh, too violent. López?… Wait.” She stopped flipping pages and looked up at me. “Did you ever hear of the Valarde family?”
I searched through everything I knew about the Élite families in Casas Grandes when a memory of an Élite family popped into my mind.
They had made quarterly donations of clothing to the Bendiciones Orphanage. Valarde… something.
“Yes.” The memories were murky, but they were the only Élite family in Puerto Dolores. “They had a daughter.” My mind raced as I grasped for the faded words in the recesses of my memory. Had… because they were all killed in the bombings.
“Renata Valarde Bordón.” Maestra Cecelia read the words carefully, then snapped the book shut and set to work by dipping the pen into the golden ink.
“Go to the costume room to get an outfit. This will be finished by the time you get back.”
“Si, maestra,” I said.
She looked up from her work, and the wrinkles just beginning to show around her eyes tightened. “Carmen, talk to no one but Magda.”
I hesitated. “Should I ask why you have all of this in your room?”
She set the card down, leaned back in her chair, and smiled. “If you really want to know, maybe I’ll tell you the story one day. After all, what makes better confidants than illegal activities?”
I huffed a laugh. “I guess I am worried about getting caught. This will be dangerous.”
“Of course it’s dangerous. But what other choice do we have?” She stood up and crossed to a different cupboard, this one actually full of clothes. “The world is unkind to women, mija. But that means they always underestimate us. No one would bat an eye at an adoring fan going to visit Antonio. He’ll be swarmed with females, and rightfully so. He needs to remarry. You’ll be lost in a crowd of pretty faces, and hopefully, we will avoid a catastrophe.”
I stared at her. She didn’t know my secret—why it was dangerous for me to be around Élites. How could she have known?
