A scream echoes through the silent house. I bolt upright, slamming my head on the servant bunk barely 3 feet above mine. Stubbing my toe on the way down I hop around swearing silently. Another scream and the so far non-awakened servants are roused from their slumber. Calls echo around me as butlers, maids and other miscellaneous servants struggle to find lamps and collect themselves enough to find the reason of the screams. Everyone knows the identity. Miss Henrietta Theomen. Lady of the house now her mother is ‘sadly’ deceased. No one missed her when she died. Cutting the train of thought, I run up the servants stairs to the Misses room. On finding it empty, I race to the Mr Theomen’s followed by a butler hoarsely stage-whispering for me to slow down. I don’t. I do however reach the room in time for another ear piercing scream. The Miss sit there on the floor sobbing her heart out, Mr T lies sprawled out next to her in a rapidly increasing lake of crimson blood, a knife imbedded in his chest. Right through the wedding ring he wears round his neck. I stand frozen in the doorway, servants behind me.
Later
Everyone sits around the table, shocked into silence. We are in the pool room as it is the only place they feel safe. The butler breaks the silence “Servants,” he say in his oily baritone “somewhere in this house is a murderer!” Shouts break out around me “Silence!” again the butler controls the rabble “I recommend we search the house at-” I cut him short “No, that won’t be necessary. The Master's room was locked and the door wasn’t forced. The murderer is in our midst!”
Trust me they didn’t take that well. Instead of erupting into a chaos of noise they just sit there, staring aghast at me. Movement at last, the maids heads start to swivel to look at each other with venomous glares that betray the amount of gossip that thrives among them. Manservants begin to rise, accusations and lying ‘sightings’ of servants doing dirty acts. The butler takes charge again. “Be quiet!” he bellows “We-” whatever he was saying is lost to me. The scene in the pool room disappears and is replaced by what I dimly recognize as outside Mr Theomans room, except covered by a rosy hue. The door is open a crack and Jackson, a delivery boy is peering in. I hurry along and join him. What is inside sends a jolt through me.
Later
Everyone sits around the table, shocked into silence. We are in the pool room as it is the only place they feel safe. The butler breaks the silence “Servants,” he say in his oily baritone “somewhere in this house is a murderer!” Shouts break out around me “Silence!” again the butler controls the rabble “I recommend we search the house at-” I cut him short “No, that won’t be necessary. The Master's room was locked and the door wasn’t forced. The murderer is in our midst!”
Trust me they didn’t take that well. Instead of erupting into a chaos of noise they just sit there, staring aghast at me. Movement at last, the maids heads start to swivel to look at each other with venomous glares that betray the amount of gossip that thrives among them. Manservants begin to rise, accusations and lying ‘sightings’ of servants doing dirty acts. The butler takes charge again. “Be quiet!” he bellows “We-” whatever he was saying is lost to me. The scene in the pool room disappears and is replaced by what I dimly recognize as outside Mr Theomans room, except covered by a rosy hue. The door is open a crack and Jackson, a delivery boy is peering in. I hurry along and join him. What is inside sends a jolt through me.