Lillian was thrilled for the maid she’d always been fond of. “I imagine he didn’t run out and buy a ring?” Then she told him no more, that they should ‘be as one’ and marry for the sake of their child.” “She let the little cruelties pass, because she believed that he loved her as she loved him. He’d have dark hair slicked back from his temples, and he’d look like a god in a tux with tails. The maid’s perfect curls beneath the peak of her cap. “Don’t they always in stories like these?” I could see it unfolding. For a while, he seemed to love her in return. “The maid loved a man, a frequent visitor of the estate. “You’re partially correct.” Pari takes off her shoes more carefully, slipping them off one by one and lining them up neatly next to the small pile I’d made of mine. She was ruined and distraught and killed herself here?” “The maid either loved or rebuffed a man who decided to use his power to hurt her. “I assume it was the usual story?” I wiggle my toes free from my heels and stand barefoot on the edge of the fountain. Even now, a forgotten violin waits on a stand for a player that will never come. Like fortunes have been found and lost here. Except it doesn’t feel as peaceful as it looked from far away. So I leave the small, heartbreakingly normal room behind and make my way to the fountain’s burbling peace. There’s a nasty, gossipy story that starts in this room and ends in the fountain upstairs.”
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