The DollHouse

Chapter Ten

Katrina is particularly bubbly today. She tells us what a great job we’re doing, and reminds me that I’ll need to be in the sidelines today. Jules waits until everyone has started up the stairs until he tells me to go on ahead, crudely miming that he needs the bathroom. I roll my eyes and start walking. But I stop when I round the corner of the staircase.

Jules starts to talk. I can just make out the words, although he is speaking very low, thankfully. No one above me could hear him, and none of the other workers have arrived yet, so he and Katrina are the only ones on the ground floor.

“They’re right, you know,” he says.

“Right about what, sweety?” Katrina gushes. Definitely over-compensating. She doesn’t like being alone with him. It makes me realise, more than the conversation with Jules, that he was right. Something is up. And for someone who has had fourteen years of hiding, it is almost a relief to finally be doing something about it.

I think a part of me always assumed I’d never be able to fake it right until the end.

“I did cheat,” he says. Even having agreed that this was the best way to get the information out of her, it shocks me to hear him say the words.

I hear Katrina gasp. I wish I could see her face.

“Some Lessers helped me,” Jules says. I can almost hear him shrug, like it’s no big deal. “Old friends of my dad’s when he was young. It’s amazing just how much confidential information a servant can be privy to, really. A little careless filing here, a screen left on there. They can see a whole test plan and grading rubric before anyone even notices the cleaner is in the room.”

I wonder what Katrina is doing. Does she believe him? Is she lapping it all up?

“Friends?” I finally hear her say, bubbly tone gone, shocked incredulity in its place. And fear. Don’t forget the fear.

“Several,” Jules says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “It’s good to keep in touch with old friends as much as possible, don’t you think?”

Katrina gasps. Just a small intake of breath, but enough to indicate that she got the message. All going well, right about now she should be getting that prickly feeling that she is being watched. That she is outnumbered.

“I’ve been listening to your messages, by the way,” Jules lies. “I know I can’t get out of this for much longer.”

He’s moving it along quickly, thank god. Someone could walk in at any second, and if we give her time to think about this then she might realise just how much we’re bluffing. How much Jules is bluffing, I should say. Our weapon is her immediate emotional response: shock and fear. If she thinks she can placate Jules with enough information that he doesn’t set his ‘Lesser friends’ on her, then she will. Unless we’ve read her wrong. Now Jules just needs to make sure she doesn’t rat him out as soon as the ‘danger’ has passed.

“Do you realise how that looks?” he goes on. “Your messages were far too easy to intercept. Hardly secure at all. Almost like you wanted me to get them.”