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I move quickly, keeping my steps light.

The grandfather clock is down the hall near the narrow sitting room no one uses. It hasn’t chimed in years.

Hazel told me once it’s more than a decade overdue to be wound, but no one bothers because Arthur Vexley hates the sound of clocks, which of course doesn’t explain why the clock is still here.

It’s perfect. Close enough that Charlotte or Tiffany could have easily stashed it there.

My pocket feels heavy as I walk. I’m almost there when a door opens behind me.

“Ella.”

Audrey’s voice. My body goes cold.

I stop.

Audrey stands in the hallway in a charcoal uniform. Her dark hair is pulled into its usual severe knot.

“Mrs. Steppe,” I say.

No one calls her Audrey to her face. Not unless they want their next assignment to involve toilets and vomit.

She narrows her eyes. “What are you doing out of your room?”

I force my hands not to move toward my pocket. “I was just…”

“Just what?”

Coffee.

Say coffee.

“I was going to the kitchen for coffee,” I say. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“You haven’t been given your assignments for the day.”

“I know. I was going to be quick.”

“You were going to be quick,” she repeats.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“This isn’t a hotel, Ella. Staff don’t drift through the halls as they please. There are rules here.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” She looks down the hall toward the grandfather clock. Then back at me. “What were you doing in this corridor?”

“Coffee,” I say again, too fast. “I was just going to get coffee.”

I jerk.

My pocket is vibrating.

No. Fuck. It’s ringing.

4

NATHANIEL