Rosehead

Chapter 7. The Bloom Heir

The rest of the breakfast turned into a nightmare. People chatted Lilith up, offered her food, poured her juice, smiled at her, and took pictures with her, until at last she managed to excuse herself under the pretext of a bathroom visit. She marched out of the hall, careful not to break into a run, dying to tell Panther about the sigh, and dying to read Ed's note. She clutched it in her sweaty palm so tightly, she was afraid the words may have melted off.

Panther waited by the door, tail wagging.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot about your steak. That woman- thing! Did you hear it sigh again?" Lilith whispered urgently, sliding off the collar.

"Not that I recall." Panther licked his muzzle, looking suspiciously smug, like he wasn't hungry at all. "I did hear an elephant sing, however. It was rather painful."

Lilith arranged her features into a scowl, when another sigh shook the air. She flinched, Panther growled. They rushed out of the vestibule so fast that neither of them noticed two servants coming from the kitchen.

She ran into them head-on, sending trays of apple strudels to the floor with a loud twang. Ed's note flew out of her hand and landed under an overturned bowl of vanilla sauce.

"No!" Lilith cried, darting for it. Two women in black dresses and white frilly aprons blocked her, picking up their fallen load. One of them straightened and Lilith almost fell to the floor herself.

The hook-nosed head stared at her. Lilith remembered this woman now. She served dinner, took dirty plates away, and brought clean ones. Her watery eyes made Lilith's skin crawl. The second servant stood up, sporting the dark-skinned head. Her plump lips parted into a smile at the sight of Panther.

"Did little miss hurt herself?" asked the first servant in that familiar raspy voice. Gray hair pulled into a bun revealed an egg of a skull, and Lilith thought that she could be Gustav's sister.

"No. Not at all. I'm fine, thank you."

Panther inconspicuously edged toward the overturned trays, snatched an apple strudel, and swallowed it whole, hiccupping.

"I'm Agatha, ze housekeeper. And zis is Monika, ze cook." 

Monika waved and said, "Hallo!"

"It iz unfortunate zat we meet over ze spilled sauce."

Lilith thought that both the housekeeper and the butler matched the mansion's creepiness perfectly.

"I...I didn't see you. I'm sorry," said Lilith. "I apologize profusely. Can I help—"

"No need. We will take care of it." The housekeeper waved the girl aside and nudged the cook. Panther, his muzzle smudged with vanilla, jumped aside and pretended to study the ceiling. Lilith helplessly watched Monika scoop up Ed's note, together with the pieces of a broken bowl.

"Little miss didn't sleep well?" Agatha asked.

Lilith startled.

"Little miss needz to sleep, to see better where she iz going." Agatha's eyes flashed.

Dread filled Lilith's stomach. She took off at once, her soles skidding on the polished floor, until she made it out into the garden, breathless.

"That Agatha woman, if I may so observe, looked like a horse," Panther growled. "Now I will have a headache. Can't decide who is uglier, she or your mother."

"Not funny. Did you hear what she said? Did you see her eyes? She was there! How else would she know that I didn't get any sleep?" said Lilith.

Panther clamped his muzzle shut in an effort to look like a non-talking dog.