Chapter 7 - What He Asked After Everyone Left
The candles had burned down to stubs by the time the last plate left the table. I could smell the wax and the lemon I used on the silver, and my hands were damp from the dishwater I'd carried back and forth to the kitchen. The dining room was warm still, but emptier in a way that made every small sound louder. The guest man had gone up to the spare room. Selene had gone upstairs twenty minutes earlier without saying goodnight to anyone.
I was folding the white runner back so it wouldn't catch a spark when I heard his chair move.
Mr. Balanki was still at the head of the table. He hadn't eaten much. His suit jacket was unbuttoned now, the white pocket square still sharp, and his left wrist caught the low light when he set his water glass down. The large gold-tone watch ticked faintly when the room went quiet.
"Maya," he said. Not loud. "Leave that for a minute."
I set the runner down. My apron was still tied, the ruffle crushed from leaning against the sink. Lily was in the hallway where I'd left her with her coloring book on the bottom stair, just inside that cooler blue light. I could see the toe of her white sock from where I stood. I didn't want her out of sight, not after what Selene had said to me in the pantry.
He nodded toward the white-upholstered chair. The one he'd pulled out for her. It was still pulled out, a little crooked.
"She fell asleep out there?" he asked.
"Almost," I said. "She wouldn't go up without me."
He breathed out through his nose and rubbed at his beard. For a man who'd commanded a whole table with one sentence — Sit down, Lily, that chair is yours tonight — he looked tired now. Human.
"Come here," he said. "I don't want to shout across the room."
I walked around the dark wood table, keeping my hands clasped in front of me the way I'd been taught when I first started. Up close I could see the ink on his neck move when he swallowed. He didn't look at me like a boss checking work. He looked at me like he was deciding how much he could ask.
"What happened by the locked room before dinner," he said. "Tell me exactly."
My throat went dry. I thought about Selene's voice low in my ear: one more embarrassment and we find someone else. I thought about Lily's hand tugging his sleeve beside that watch, her finger pointing toward the stairs.
I made myself look at the table, not at him. "I didn't see it myself, sir," I said. "I only know what Lily told me after."
He waited. He didn't fill the silence for me.
"She said she was playing upstairs," I said. "She said Miss Selene came out of your locked room and had a card in her hand. Then she put it in her clutch."
I stopped there. I didn't add what I thought it meant. I didn't say the word stole.
He leaned back a little. The candlelight moved across his face. "Which room did she point to?"
"The one at the top of the stairs," I said. "The one you keep locked."
"Did she go inside it?" His voice stayed calm, but his eyes stayed on mine.
"No, sir. She said the door was open when Miss Selene came out, then it shut."
He was quiet for a long moment. I could hear Lily's crayon stop moving in the hallway. Then start again, soft scratching.
"That room was supposed to stay locked tonight," he said. "I didn't give anyone a card for it. Not her. Not a guest."
My hands tightened. I hadn't expected him to say it that plain. Part of me had braced for him to tell me Lily was confused, the way Selene had at the table.
He saw it. "I'm not asking you to explain it," he said. "I'm asking what your daughter said."
"That's all she said," I said quickly. "She's five. She doesn't know about keys or cards. She just said — she had that card when she came out."
He nodded once, as if checking that against something in his own head. His thumb brushed the edge of his watch, then stopped.
"You understand your position here," he said. It wasn't a threat the way Selene's had been. It was heavier. "If you repeat this to the guests, it becomes a different thing."
"I haven't told anyone," I said.
"Good. Keep it that way." He glanced toward the hallway, toward Lily's sock and the blue light beyond. "Keep Lily close to you tomorrow. Don't leave her upstairs alone. And don't say anything to Miss Selene about what I just asked you."
I nodded. "Yes, sir."
He stood then. He was taller than me by a good stretch, tattoos showing at his collar. For a second I thought he was going to go check the door right then. Instead he walked to the hallway entrance and stopped.
Lily had dropped her crayon. She was rubbing her eyes with both fists, her pink lace dress wrinkled from sitting on the step, the bow at her back crooked. When she saw him, she sat up straighter.
"Hey," he said, his voice lower. "You did good tonight."
She didn't answer. She looked at me.
I went to her and picked up the crayon and smoothed her curls back. "We're going to bed now, baby," I said, keeping my voice steady.
Mr. Balanki watched us for a beat. Then he said to me, almost quiet, "We'll sort what's true. You just take care of her."
May you like
It wasn't a promise. It wasn't forgiveness. But he hadn't called Lily a liar, and he hadn't told me to pack. As I lifted Lily into my arms and felt her head drop onto my shoulder, I knew he'd started to doubt Selene's version, even if he wasn't ready to say it out loud.
Behind us, the dining room went dark as he blew out the last candle himself.
