We arrived at a room at the end of the corridor. Magdalena opened the door, and inside was one of the strangest rooms I had ever seen. Where I had been expecting a proper office, with a desk and books and papers, instead there was a nest of unusual objects. Strands of bones hung from a lamp, and from the rafters hung hooks with dangling herbs. There was a round table in the center, with four chairs around it, and a glass globe sitting in the center on a bright gold stand. There were books on the shelves, but old ones with crumbling spines. Scented smoke billowed out of a gold canister, and instead of curtains, the windows were covered with handwritten letters.
“Here’s our man with the tea,” Magdalena said, and I jumped away from the door, not having realized Booker was waiting behind me to enter.
I skirted over to the table and took a seat as Magdalena took the tea service from the butler and served us both. Booker remained, looming in the doorway, gaze sliding above our heads to cross the room. I wanted him to look at me again, and I remained staring at him until Magdalena slid a cup of steaming tea to me, leaves swirling in the water.
“Now, a few ground rules, darling,” Magdalena said. “No man or woman in this house will touch you without your permission, and you’re expected to extend the same courtesy.” Her tone was so firm, I found myself nodding along obediently at once. “Some of our gentlemen can be…territorial. We find it works best when a girl has her particular group of gentlemen she enjoys company with, rather than everyone wandering about as they please. This suits the girls and keeps them from being overworked, and keeps the gentlemen’s tempers in line. How many men you see will be up to you, but I ask that you take their own happiness and peace of mind into consideration.”
“Of course,” I said. I wondered how many Mr. Tanner would let me have. I wondered what other gentlemen I would meet.
“Your room and board are covered, they won’t be taken out of your wages,” Magdalena continued with a smile. “And while I’m sure you’ll receive a number of gifts from your gentlemen, I do have a seamstress who will fit you with a few gowns just in case. That’s also covered. More delicately, and at your choice, we can ensure that you don't become unexpectedly with child during your stay."
I gasped at that. "How?" It had always been a risk in my habits, one I did my best to avoid, but it would be a much greater risk if I was having sex regularly.
Magdalena only smiled benignly and shrugged. "Magic, darling girl. I take it you're interested?"
"Very," I said, nodding quickly.
She made a note for herself on a scrap of paper. "I'll take care of it then. There is a waitlist for membership at Rooksgrave, and I only accept the very best. I have a handful of men who have been waiting to meet a young lady like you. You are under no obligation to like them or vice versa, although…well, I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to see you, darling.”
“When will I meet them?” I asked, leaning forward in my seat.
Magdalena’s strict expression softened at the question. “Now that you’re here and I’ve met you, I have a better idea of whom to send invitations. I’m sure they’ll arrive soon. As eager as you are, they’ve been waiting a much longer time.” She set her hands atop the table and reached across to link them with mine. “Aside from the bedrooms, you may go anywhere in the manor and on the grounds you please. Our house is…often very nocturnal, so breakfast will be served to the girls at noon in the dining room. Not everyone comes, but it’s a nice time for you all to gossip about your gentlemen. There’s a village nearby you can walk into, but I do ask that you be discreet. We try not to draw attention to the house.”
“Yes, Madame,” I said.
“Good,” Magdalena said, clapping her hands together and grinning. “Booker will show you to your room. And until we find a nice fellow you like, I’m afraid I have to ask if you would keep close to your rooms in the evening when the house livens.”
“Of course, but…why?” I asked. “If the gentlemen won’t hurt me…”
“No, they won’t. But they aren’t the only ones who are territorial. Our girls might get jealous if anyone notices you too much,” Magdalena said with a wink. Then she pulled out a long sheet of paper. “First, a little paperwork. A list of promises I shall keep to you. You can sign at the bottom.”
I barely read the words, just enough to see they were much like she had told me, before I was taking the pen from her fingers. My signature was an excited blur with how fast I signed.
* * *
It washard to believe there was anyone else in the manor but Magdalena, Booker, and me. Nothing stirred in the halls as Booker led me up the stairs and off into the western wing. I thought I saw a flicker of another servant, just as broad and pale as the man I followed, but it was just a glance out of the corner of my eye.
“How many girls live here?” I asked Booker as we tread softly down an upstairs hallway.
His footsteps broke pace for a second, but he didn’t say a word, only shrugged his shoulders. “New,” he said, which had me furrowing my brow for a moment before I realized he meant he was new here.
“Oh! Well then we can learn things together,” I said.
Booker stopped in front of a door and turned to me, looking down with that expressionless stare again, but this time, it was fixed to my face. Maybe there was an expression in there, but it was so hidden, I found myself imagining what I might have seen. Gratitude or interest, or dismissal.
“Together,” he said, with a small nod. Then he opened the door to a large bedroom, and we both stared inside.
There was an exquisite four-poster bed against a wood-paneled wall, large enough not just for two people but certainly three or four. There was a pair of fine armchairs on either side of a small table by a wall of windows, curtains drawn back and glass overlooking the loch behind the manor. Through a doorway, I could see the white tile of a bathroom. A fire was already burning in the hearth at my right. Another door to my right remained open to a small room with a circular dining table and a wall of shelves, trinkets and mirrors and books waiting to be examined. I stared in awe and envy for a long stretch before it suddenly struck me.
This was my room. That was my bathroom. My own private dining space for myself and my gentlemen.
“Oh.” I took small steps into my suite, afraid to disturb anything, afraid that Booker might catch me around the elbow and pull me out again. Could it be a mistake? When I’d been told I’d be treated well, I never imagined that meant I’d be treated like…like someone important. This room was four times the size of the one I’d shared with another maid, and now it was mine alone.
I made it as far in as the rug spread over the wooden floor before I heard my case tap lightly behind me and then a door squeak and click shut. When I spun around, Booker was gone.
The light from outside was turning from a rosy sunset to a purple-blue dusk, and for a long moment, I stood in the quiet, the fire popping at my side. I was not a maid now. I hardly knew what to do with myself. I hadn’t minded the thought of being alone in my room for the evening before, but now I wished I could go downstairs, if only to see the other faces, to be surrounded by people as I usually would be this time of night.
I shook the dreary feeling off and grabbed up my case, taking it over to the gigantic dark wood armoire in the corner. My simple dresses seemed a waste of the enormous space inside. What kinds of dresses would the manor provide me? I had no notion of what might be expected, but I was certain it wasn’t my brown maid’s uniform. I wondered what Mr. Underwood would want to see me wearing.
Better yet, Mr. Tanner? Probably nothing. I grinned at that.
I finished unpacking, dropping a handful of magazines I’d collected with pocket money onto the bed, and crossed over to the window. The loch below the house was still, and there was a wide patio underneath my window and a stretch of open land scattered with trees leading up to the shore. If it was nice out in the morning, I’d have a little walk around the shore. I wondered what was living under the water and if it ever came into the house.
I started to giggle at the thought when I saw a shadow moving through the trees, crouched low and slinking along the ground. My breath caught as it stepped out from between the trees. A wolf, huge and dark. It was watching the house, padding carefully closer. My eyes were fixed to it for so long that I almost didn’t notice the woman appearing on the patio. She was just stepping down into the grass, and I scrambled to find a window to unlatch, to shout down to her, warn her about the animal. She was moving closer, and the wolf was slinking along the edges of the trees.
I had just cracked a window open when I heard her.
“There you are,” she said, the last dredges of light catching across her pale hair. The wolf answered with a growl, the pair of them only handfuls of feet apart. My mouth was hanging open and my heart was pounding in my chest as my head struggled to catch up to the scene.
The woman sank down to her knees, her dark skirt billowing around her for a moment before settling in the grass with her. She had her back to me, just turned enough to the wolf to let me see her reaching up and unbuttoning the front of her dress. Her head leaned back, baring her white neck to the animal, and his growls deepened. His. His growls.
“Werewolf.” I mouthed the word. I’d read a little story about them once in the back of a penny dreadful. Of course. That was just the kind of gentleman that came to this house, wasn’t it?
They were far enough away from the house not to hear me but I didn’t want the pair to realize I was spying on them. I also didn’t want to stop spying on them.
The wolf’s growls deepened, grew louder, as he moved closer and closer to the woman, who was pushing her dress back off her shoulders, lifting her breasts up to the wolf. I could see her sigh as he moved close enough, snarled muzzle jutting into her skin. The jagged edge of the growl faded, and I saw a red tongue appearing, swiping around the tip of one breast.
“Lord, I’ve missed you,” the woman said.