The maids all wanted to return to the academy. To get into Darcy’s room and be the scavengers there. They had no use for the dead, only for what was left behind.

***

That evening, they had their way with Darcy’s room and were disappointed. No morphine, tools missing, music box broken. They stripped the lace from the pillowcase edges to frame their aprons, made her dresses over into handkerchiefs, and wondered where it all had gone.

None were surprised when Mallow took her place as head housekeeper. Now they would call her Matron, and none would question where she walked and when, or why. She didn’t need to pick locks anymore. She held the keys to everywhere.

***

Joseph toyed with the empty, tattered diary cover. “You’re sure she told no one?”

“I’m sure. A secret like that wouldn’t last an hour in an attic full of maids.” Mallow pulled the scrap of leather from his fingers.

“The maids shouldn’t gossip so much. The school doesn’t pay you to gossip.”

“Or do things worth gossiping about?” Mallow smiled and perched on Joseph’s knee.

“Not paying you for that, either. That would make you a whore. Do I look like a man who needs whores?”

Mallow shook her head, heart fluttering like bird’s wings.

“You’re paid to clean. You still do that, don’t you?” His green eyes were as cold as bottle glass.

Mallow nodded.

“Then you’d best get to it. The search party tracked in an awful mess.”

Mallow stood and felt the pinch of a blister on her foot. Too much hiking, of late.

“Mallory,” Joseph called as she twisted the crystal doorknob.

“Yes, sir?”

“Are you working tonight?”

“I’m not, sir.”

“See that you do.”

She smiled as she slipped out the door. Not so cross with her, then. She walked with a spring, bursting blisters down the hall.

***

Mallow’s needle flew through the fabric. The thread hummed as it whipped around each stitch. It didn’t have to hold forever, just for tonight. Just a touch of lace for around her camisole—a bit of something pretty to brighten the drab swath of linen. Tack it down, and she could have the lace back before it was missed. She folded over the bit of lace that was stained with blood and hid it in a seam. Much more blood out of that fine young lady and she might not have to return the lace at all.

***