“Dust, sir.”
For the first time in months, something inside the mansion shifted without being ordered.
The next morning, Maya expected dismissal.
Instead, Mrs.
Gordon called her into the breakfast room.
Arthur was already there.
A folder lay on the table.
Maya eyed it.
“Another test?”
Arthur looked almost offended.
“No.”
He pushed the folder toward her.
“Your employment contract.
Revised.”
Maya did not touch it immediately.
Catherine’s warning returned to her.
Don’t sign anything you haven’t read.
Arthur noticed.
“Read every page.”
That surprised her enough to sit down.
The salary was unchanged, but the probationary waiting period for employee medical benefits had been removed.
A formal salary-advance provision had also been added, available under the same written terms to household employees facing documented family medical expenses.
Maya looked up.
“Why?”
“Because Mrs.
Gordon informed me that our existing policy is unnecessarily restrictive.”
Mrs.
Gordon, standing near the window, raised one eyebrow but said nothing.
Maya knew immediately whose idea it had actually been.
“I don’t want charity.”
“Good,” Arthur said.
“It isn’t charity.
If you use the advance, you repay it according to the schedule in section six.
If you don’t like the terms, don’t sign.”
Maya read section six.
Then the rest.
Only after finishing every page did she sign.
Arthur watched her close the folder.
“Your grandmother?”
“Catherine.”
“I hope the benefits help Catherine.”
Maya nodded once.
“They will.”
Neither of them made the moment larger than it needed to be.
Later that afternoon, Arthur called Mrs.
Gordon into his study.
He placed the gold watch on his wrist and locked the cash away.
Then he handed her the silver key.
“No more tests.”
Mrs.
Gordon studied him.
“At all?”
“If we hire someone, we treat them as an employee until they give us a reason not to.”
“And the room?”
Arthur looked toward the ceiling, directly beneath the second floor.
“The room is not a trap anymore.”
