Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,108
the next morning. I lay in bed, trying to place the voice, since I knew it wasn’t Trixie and there should have been no other woman in my apartment. The night before, I had stumbled into my place, where I ate and showered then settled down on the sofa with a large sketch pad. My brother sat on the other end of the couch, watching a movie while I made plans. I had an idea of how I would save Robert, but the tattoo would be complicated. Around midnight, I stumbled to my bed and was asleep before I could finish pulling up my blankets.
But now I could hear humming, close and clear. It wasn’t coming through an open window because I never slept with an open window. They were too hard to put protective spells over. I didn’t recognize the tune, but it sounded like it belonged in a Disney cartoon.
Rubbing my eyes with one hand, I lifted my head and looked around, half expecting to see that I had forgotten to shut a window before falling asleep. Instead, I found a woman dressed in what appeared to be a Victorian maid’s uniform standing at the end of my bed, folding my underwear.
I jerked upright, pulling my blanket up to my chin like some flustered virgin. “What the fuck?” I blurted in a sleep-roughened voice.
The woman’s face popped up and she smiled brightly, her lovely blue eyes twinkling in the sunlight that was pouring through my open blinds. “Good morning, Master Powell,” she greeted cheerfully as she dipped into a quick curtsy. She sounded so damn chipper that I half expected to see little blue birds fluttering about her, singing some goddamn melody to shred the bits of my brain still clinging to sleep. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am NOT a morning person.
“I am dreadfully sorry to disturb you, but we must get going soon,” she continued, resuming the task of folding the pair of boxers in her hand.
“Going? Going where? No!” I said, holding up one hand as she opened her mouth to answer. I dropped my blanket to my lap, somewhat grateful that I had chosen not to sleep in the nude. “First, who are you? What are you doing in my apartment?”
“Oh, terribly sorry,” she murmured with a blush staining her plump, round cheeks. “My name is Holly and her ladyship sent me to fetch you. You have an appointment with her this afternoon.”
“Her ladyship?” I repeated dully. I wasn’t particularly sharp upon waking either. “You mean Gaia?”
Holly nodded as she carried a stack of my underwear over and placed it in one of the bureau drawers as if she had done so a thousand times before.
“Fine. Then why are you folding my underwear?”
“Oh, that,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand and a giggle. “I arrived a while ago, but I wasn’t sure when you’d wake up, so I passed the time tidying up. You had quite a bit of dirty laundry that needed doing.”
At her words, I looked around the room. The enormous mound of dirty clothes in the corner and scattered around the room was missing. Hell, it even looked as if she had vacuumed my floor. The garbage and dirty glasses on the bedside table were missing. The door was open to my closet and I could see that not only had all my dirty clothes been cleaned and hung, but she had organized the clothes according to type and color. I flopped back on my pillows and covered my face with both hands.
“How long have you been here?”
“Mmm . . . only four hours.”
I dropped my hands and stared at her. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”
She giggled once more and shook her head as she came to stand at the foot of my bed again. “I couldn’t do that, silly. You were exhausted and you’re going to need energy for today.”
I wanted to pursue that comment, but my brain was too sluggish. I might have been awake, but it was unlikely that profound thought was going to start happening until I had my first cup of coffee.
“Fine,” I said. “When do we have to leave?”
Holly tilted the little watch pinned to her blouse toward her face, squinting slightly at the time. Dropping it back down over her heart, she smiled at me. “Five minutes.”
I bolted upright in bed. “What?”
“We must leave in five minutes,” she repeated with the same effervescent charm.