Page 36 of The House of Quiet

Chapter Twenty-Nine

A Bird Betrayed

An unfamiliar calm descends on Birdie. They actually accomplished something today.

Cook is aware of what’s going on for once, as is the House Wife, so Birdie rushed the stolen papers to Rabbit’s room upstairs without looking at them.

That way she can’t be caught with them, and tonight, when she and Arrow can be alone, they’ll look at them together.

And they’ll try to figure out what happened to Birdie in the House Wife’s room.

Birdie’s fine, though. They may not have found everything they needed, but they found something , and they got away with it.

Overall, it feels like a huge win. Especially since Lake is safe and sound.

And with Cook awake, they don’t have to worry about making all the meals today. They can just relax for once.

All her friends are safe, and she’s safe, here, with them. She hasn’t had real friends since she was a child. She forgot how nice it could be.

The afternoon claims them, sleepy and pleasant. Birdie joins the others in the study, where they’re doing practically nothing at all. Dawn reads aloud to them. Arrow’s on the sofa. River lies down with her head on Arrow’s lap, and Arrow strokes the soft curls along River’s hairline.

Birdie knows they’re suspicious of River, but it doesn’t feel urgent. Nothing does.

“I can sleep now, because no one’s sleeping,” River murmurs.

Birdie looks around the room, happy. Nimbus sits beside Dawn, who puts down her book and begins working on a portrait of the sweet boy.

Lake’s lying on her back on the floor, tracing her fingers through the air like she’s writing secret messages.

Birdie’s absentmindedly tidying because even if she’s relaxed, she’s still not lazy.

Never that. Arrow catches her and smiles, sticking out her tongue.

Birdie turns to find Forest’s eyes, wanting to see if he’s laughing at her, too, but he’s not in here.

Forest. Forest .

The calm persists. But calm has never been Birdie’s default state.

Even with it washing over her in waves— Dawn, it’s Dawn making them feel this way!

—she still has hold of her natural fear of being caught relaxing and losing her job.

She’s been shaped by that dread since she was ten.

Magpie’s future—and hers, too—depended on her working as hard as she could at all times.

That training goes deeper than any invading feelings.

Birdie gestures to Arrow. If she doesn’t leave the room right now, she’s going to forget why she’s so determined to.

Arrow looks confused, and then she frowns. If Birdie’s default is fear, Arrow’s default must be suspicion. Birdie watches as it jars her out of Dawn’s influence. Arrow stands, placing a pillow beneath River’s head, and then follows Birdie out into the hallway.

Birdie hurries them around the corner, trying to put as much distance between them and Dawn as she can. They turn just in time to see the door to the stairs close.

Birdie checks her apron pocket. Her key is still there. Arrow holds hers up, too. But they didn’t account for Rabbit’s.

Someone is going upstairs.

“The papers,” Arrow hisses. They’ve got enough of a buffer from Dawn now that the artificially mellow mood is fading.

Birdie feels like she’s about to be sick, but she keeps pace with Arrow. They enter the stairwell, going up as quietly as only a maid and a spy could. Arrow stops Birdie on the landing to their floor, then pulls her up a few more steps into the darkness.

“Better to ambush him,” she whispers.

Arrow assumes it’s Forest, too, then. It could still be someone else.

Cook, or the House Wife, or an unknown person who stayed in the house last night without them noticing.

But Birdie knows who it’s going to be. She’s never had luck, after all.

And she pushed it too far, thinking she could find love with anyone, much less someone like Forest. Thinking she could ever have something that was just for herself.

After a few minutes, her heartbreak is complete. Forest appears with their papers in hand. He doesn’t look in their direction, stepping down toward the main floor.

Arrow jumps on his back. “Get the papers!” she shouts, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, trying to pin him.

Birdie darts around Forest, grabs their precious evidence, and then leaps down the stairs three at a time.

She knows Arrow can handle herself, but neither of them is strong enough to fight Forest on their own.

She expects Arrow to be thrown down after her, the terrible sound of a body bouncing on hard steps, but there are no sounds, no bodies, by the time Birdie bursts through the door at the bottom of the stairs.

And realizes she has nowhere to go.

The front door is locked. The secret pantry exit is locked now, too, thanks to Lake. None of the windows open. Birdie could throw a chair through one or break a greenhouse window, but Arrow’s made it clear no one will survive venturing into the bog.

Birdie turns in to the greenhouse and finds her bench. Forest will come for her and the papers. She might not be able to escape, but she can know why he worked so hard to keep these from her.

Birdie reads and doesn’t understand what she’s seeing, until she does. She leans back, hollowed by devastation. All this time, all her work, all her plans.

She never stood a chance.