Four

Grace closed the door to her room and turned around to face Keisha with her hands folded over her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, really looked at Keisha and groaned instead.

"Gah, it's hard to be serious with those eye bags under your eyes. You could carry all my belongings in there."

Keisha twisted her mouth and touched her eyes. "Don't do me dirty like that. I know it's bad."

"Oh, you do know how bad it is? And here I was thinking you probably didn't even know you looked like a zombie. Explain," Grace commanded in a hard tone.

"Explain what?" Keisha blinked, poking the eye bags like they were her new object of interest.

"What has been taking your time away from your sleep, hmm? Just what have you been doing at night, that you haven't been sleeping at all?" She asked exasperatedly, throwing her hands in the air.

Keisha stopped her fingers from prodding her eyes and leaned back to sit with both hands planted behind her on the bed. "No need to get yourself worked up. I'm no night owl but I do admit that I probably have not giving myself the right amount of sleep I need. I swear it's not as big a deal as everyone in this mansion is making it into."

Keisha rolled her eyes, recalling how Rosa, Anne and now, Grace seemed to be bothered by it. If only they knew this wasn't the first time, they would have never worried from the get go.

"You don't understand. It's because we're worried about you. More importantly, you can't go around looking like this. If Mr King were here..." Grace walked over to the bed and sat beside Keisha whilst she suddenly sat up and faced Grace, folding one leg onto the bed.

"What about Mr King? Why, would I have gotten fired? Is he that much of a tyrant?"

Keisha sounded as curious as she did in that moment because it was the first time someone willingly mentioned the owner of the mansion, whom she was most interested in, in conversation. Now, she just wished she could get to hear more.

Grace gave her a blank look until finally a frown formed on her face. "What, fired? Why would you think he would have fired you? On the contrary, I think he would have given you two weeks off but not before calling the family doctor over. Make no mistake Moesha, Mr King is no tyrant. He's an angel in human form."

Keisha blinked a couple of times, trying to take in the words that she had to admit she had not expected to hear.

"Well, you don't have to look like I just told you the world is ending tomorrow with all that confusion etched on your face." Grace twisted around and picked something from the bedside table. "Here, put these over your eyes. They should help take those bags down a notch, but we both know that what you really need is your sleep. It should do you justice. You look pale, for crying out loud."

"Joke's on you. I'm black; I hardly ever look pale," Keisha jested as she took the two slices of cucumber from Grace's hand and placed them over her eyelids. "But thank you for these, my dearest friend."

Grace slapped Keisha and hissed. "You know what I mean. You don't look as healthy as one ought to in this mansion. We eat good food, our salaries are something to look forward to, there are way too many of us to really be overworked and we live in well-furnished rooms. This is a life a lot of us wouldn't have outside of this mansion. So tell me Moesha, what's troubling you and you alone?"

Keisha pulled a cucumber off her left eye. "It's nothing, just drop it."

Grace grabbed the cucumbers away from Keisha's eyes. "If you want these that badly, then you will tell me exactly what's going on."

Keisha's lips slipped into a smile. Poor Grace, she didn't know how strong-willed she truly was. A little demanding from Grace would certainly not make her talk. She hadn't come thus far by being quick to give in.

"Trust me, Grace. I don't need them as much as you think. What I do need, you could not begin to imagine. Neither could you help me with and I mean this with the uttermost respect," she added, not wanting to offend the kind girl. "I do admit that there are a few things I'm dealing with, but they're too personal for me to divulge."

That was as far as Keisha was willing to go in terms of speaking the truth. However, she knew Grace would not be able to dissect her life simply because of the small pieces to her life's big puzzle that she had willingly divulged.

"Well, what could be more personal than someone's first time and their current crush?" Grace gave Keisha a pointed look, her innocence showing in her words. "You don't have love troubles, do you?"

Oh, there are way more personal things than that, Grace, the words hung over Keisha's mind, never to be spoken out loud.

She put her hands over both of Grace's shoulders. "I'm not trying to belittle your feelings. I'm truly grateful that you think me worthy of knowing your personal view of things and you can be assured that I'm no telltale. It's just..."

Keisha sighed and looked down. Here comes the acting.

My family is no regular family. I was hoping that I wouldn't be forced to tell someone about it, but if you insist then I have no choice. So, the thing is..."

"Stop! Don't tell me. I'm sorry if I made you feel cornered. That wasn't my intention," Grace spoke in an apologetic tone. She took Keisha's hands in hers. "Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll tell me when the time is right. You don't need to feel pressured to tell me anything you don't feel like, okay?"

Keisha kept the sad face on for a while longer. "Are you sure? I can tell you if you want to know."

"All in good time, Moesha," Grace reassured her and patted Keisha's hands. "Really, it's okay."

Keisha kept her eyes on Grace until she was out of the room. She fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes as she reflected over her life and the course of direction it was taking.

Her parents were not very different from Anne's, and possibly a lot of parents too, in the sense that they always wished a certain life path for their children. Although her brothers had no trouble fulfilling their parents' wishes, Keisha just couldn't see herself working in a publishing company.

Hence, the diversion to what she was doing now. Except she didn't know what to call it. She was good with computers, had taken some karate classes, had a licensed gun and had no trouble handling it. She most certainly was not a cop but she was good with sniffing around. Except, things had never gotten so messy during a mission.

It had already been a week and Keisha still couldn't get in touch with Rodrigo. Well, the proper way to put it would be that she needed to stop trying to get in touch with Rod because he wouldn't respond to her anyway.

On Friday, she had gotten an email from him with the words I'm sorry. No greeting, no explanation and certainly no breakdown of how she would undertake the mission once the first step was finished. The first step was the only thing that she did not have to question due to its clarity; she had to steal one of Mr King's priced possessions; a blueprint for a building whose ground he had acquired through illegal means.

The major downer was she still couldn't access Mr King's wing. Mrs Patterson was stricter than ever, especially with her. Keisha opened her eyes as a thought settled over her mind. Perhaps, Mrs Patterson was aware of what her intentions were. She always seemed to walk by whenever Keisha tried to walk up the east wing stairs. Keisha shook her head clear of the thought. Of course, the housekeeper knew nothing.

Besides, Keisha Martins was no quitter. She wouldn't give up the mission just because she didn't have an outside man. On the contrary, that meant she could handle it however way she wanted. First, she had to stop trying to reach Rodrigo until the wee hours of morning and get some sleep. Tonight, she would get some sleep.

The door suddenly opened swiftly and a breathless Grace hurried in. She paused to catch her breath.

"These stairs will be the death of me," she spoke hurriedly, her breath coming in short gasps.

"What happened?" Keisha asked sitting up on the bed.

"You need to come downstairs now. Mr King is coming tonight and Mrs Patterson has got some announcements to make."

Keisha's heart drummed against her chest with shock and finally, excitement. A smile threatened to break on her face so she pretended to busy herself with getting off the bed and putting on her flats.

"Hurry!" Grace exclaimed. Keisha gasped when Grace clasped her wrist and dragged her out of the room and down the stairs to the dining room where Mrs Patterson had already started talking to the other maids.

"I doubt I need to stress this at all. Everyone is to be on their best behaviour. We do not want to trouble him. Unless you have business pertaining to him, you're strictly supposed to stay out of his business. Remember, we're here to make things easy, not complicate them. So, chop chop!" The housekeeper bellowed and the maids scattered in all directions to their posts.

Keisha stood in place as she looked around with confusion. They couldn't have gotten to the dining room that late, could they?

"Smith!" Mrs Patterson's voice yelled her name out as if on cue and Keisha turned around with a small smile on her face.

"Mrs Patterson, I..."

"Save it," Mrs Patterson dismissed with a shake of her hand. "You two, come. I entrusted you with the west wing. Now go there and leave it sparkling. Here are the keys to the rest of the rooms. I want you two to leave them cleaner than you've ever cleaned before."

"But Mrs Patterson," Keisha objected politely. "Shouldn't we go to the east wing and help out there, since Mr King is..."

"Why ever would you need to do that, dearie?" Mrs Patterson interjected, without once slowing down. She turned a few corners until she came to a stop at the stairs' meeting point, above which a huge shiny, crystal chandelier was hanging. "The east wing maids are already doing their job. So are the rest of the maids in their respective wings."

Keisha looked up at the east wing balcony where a few maids were already running around with efficiency. A quick look at the other wings had her seeing that the other maids were just as busy in their assigned posts. So were the ones on the ground floor.

"Look around, Smith. Which wing is still not being tended to?" Keisha looked up the west wing with much dread. Sure enough, the west wing was the only part of the mansion that did not have that much bustle as she could only spot three maids cleaning.

"So, let's not waste anymore time and get to it. Remember, this is the punishment you two get for being so nosey. You're stuck with this wing until further notice, am I understood? Anymore objections or complaints, Smith?" Mrs Patterson pulled her focus to Grace who was silently standing by, making her stand at attention. "Grace?"

"We have no complaints whatsoever, ma'am," Grace said quickly and pushed an unwilling Keisha up the stairs. "We will do a great job."

::::

"I don't understand, we should be helping out in the east wing. Surely, it only makes sense that way. What's the point of cleaning this wing when his son is never coming back?" Keisha complained as the two trudged up the stairs with Keisha holding a bucket with cleaning equipment.

"Stop saying that. No one knows for sure about that. Who knows, he could show up tomorrow for all we know. Or tonight," Grace answered, throwing Keisha an amused look when she rolled her eyes to the ceiling and back.

"Either way," Grace started. "You have got to stop giving Mrs Patterson anymore attitude or else we will never get to change wings and last I checked, that's something that you're so obsessed with. I'm surprised you are the one who keeps butting heads with her."

"I wasn't butting heads with her. I was simply letting my opinion be known to her. There's a difference."

"Mm. The only difference I see here is that you think she appreciates getting to know your opinion. Trust me, she really doesn't. That is the only difference you should be worrying about. That and the fact that ours is the only wing that's got work to be done."

"You know, I'm not sure just whose side you're on," Keisha muttered under her breath as the two approached the four rooms that made up the west wing; a library and three bedrooms.

The main bedroom was one of the two rooms whose doors were on one side of the hallway, the other being the library. Opposite them were another two spare bedrooms, two of which always remained locked. The only rooms they had accessed in the entire wing were the library and one of the spare bedrooms.

"I thought these two were off limits," Keisha mumbled about the two rooms offhandedly, throwing a curious look at the east wing.

"Clearly they aren't anymore and..." Grace paused mid-sentence as she realised where Keisha's attention was. "Would you stop gazing at the east wing like it's a mine of gold?" Grace chastised and slapped Keisha's arm, making her jump in alarm.

"I would appreciate a mine of gold, but why are you so damn quick with your hands?" Keisha chuckled, shaking her head.

"Because you bring the worst out of me," Grace deadpanned and placed the vacuum cleaner against the wall as she dug the keys out of her pocket. She unlocked the door opposite the main bedroom and the two walked in.

"How long has it been since this place was cleaned again?" Keisha asked, her eyes roaming the layer of dust that covered the room. "Talk about a mine of dust."

"The day he walked out, never to return," Grace spoke sardonically, making Keisha throw her a curious look.

"I'm sorry, are we talking about the guy whom everyone loves to whisper about around here, but never mention his name? What is he, Voldemort?”

Grace avoided her eye and proceeded to walk into the room. "No one is afraid to mention him. We just have no reason to because his business isn't ours to mind. Just as Mrs Patterson has already advised."

"Whatever," Keisha said with a shake of her head. "I don't need to know about some family secrets that won't ever pay my bills. I just need to be done with this as fast as I can."

Grace eyed Keisha who was busy trying to see how best to tackle the situation before her. "Well, it is nice to see you looking so determined again, but what are you in such a hurry for?"

Keisha waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind that, which room are you taking? This one or the other one?"

"I don't know, I thought we would work on one room together and then deal with the other later on."

Grace looked around the room. It felt like forever since she had been inside the room. She had been younger but the occupant of that room had been someone she had liked greatly and vice versa. Someone she had loved.

Regardless, years of no upkeep certainly took the vibrancy out of a room. The bedroom required some serious work.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with that but that would probably take us the whole day. We can split up and do this faster. What do you think?" Keisha asked and pulled out one of the buckets Grace had brought with her.

"It is a lot of work, Moesha," Grace explained. "This is not the usual cleaning that we usually do because this place hasn't been cleaned in forever."

Keisha shook her head. "Oh, come on. We're both capable of doing our jobs well. And, I want to be done with this sooner rather than later. The only way for me to do that would be for us to split up the work."

"I don't know," Grace spoke unsurely.

Keisha sighed and walked towards the bedside table, which was covered by a sheet that was caked with a coat of dusk. When she put her hands on it to move it over to the door, Grace suddenly spoke.

"Fine, I'll take this one." She walked forward and removed Keisha's hands off the table. Grace pulled the other key out and placed it in Keisha's palm. "You can take the other one."

"Oh, okay," Keisha said with a small frown, noticing how Grace was avoiding her gaze. She stood up straight and picked up her own half of the cleaning equipment. "Well, have fun. I'll be coming back for the vacuum cleaner once I'm done."

"No!" Grace protested loudly, making Keisha twist around with a hand laid over her heart.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack? What the hell, Grace?" Keisha said with a blank look on her face.

"Sorry if I startled you. I was just trying to say that you can get the vacuum cleaner now. I'll go find another one." Grace smiled to reassure Keisha but Keisha was not having it.

"It doesn't look to me like that's all it was. You literally shouted for me not to come back here," she said calmly, placing the bucket on the floor. "Why are you trying to keep me out of this room?" She demanded with a raised brow, her eyes roaming around and not finding anything worth mulling over.

Grace shifted uncomfortably. "It's nothing, I just wanted you to do your job quicker. Isn't that what you wish? To have this done as soon as possible?"

Grace Halloway was anything but a good liar and it was clear to Keisha that she wasn't being honest with her.

"Well, I've changed my mind," Keisha spoke calmly, stepping forward slowly. "I want to clean this room."

Her eyes wandered around the room. By the looks of it, a woman had once lived in there. Anyone would be able to tell a woman's touch. Now, Keisha wished to know why she wasn't around anymore and who she was.

"What, why?" Grace asked nervously.

"Beats me," Keisha responded with a careless shrug. She suddenly turned around to look at Grace. "Perhaps, there are a few secrets I would uncover by doing so. Secrets that a certain someone doesn't wish me to."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Grace spoke boldly, but Keisha didn't miss the way she was fisting her uniform tightly.

With a shake of her head, she brought her hands in the air in surrender. "You know what? Suit yourself. Let's just do it your way. That way, I can get this job done faster."

Keisha would be lying if she said that not a small part of her wanted to find out more about Grace's questionable reaction as she went to clean the main bedroom. However, she would do well to remember that she was not here for the sole purpose of divulging the family's secrets.

Unlocking the door, she waltzed in and closed the door behind her. She walked forward without looking ahead, her full attention on trying to pocket the key inside her uniform. When she looked up, she gasped.

The first thing she noticed was the bed. Although covered by a white sheet, something she now realised had been done to every bit of furniture in the two rooms they were meant to clean, it was a huge Alaskan King sized bed that one couldn't possibly dream of ignoring.

And for someone like Keisha to be so astonished, definitely meant something. She loved splurging on her soft and luxurious lifestyle after all. Clearly, her idea of a luxurious lifestyle was being redefined.

Her eyes ran across the room, everything in the room looked huge, even whilst covered. “This must be why it’s called the master bedroom,” she muttered to herself before she set to work.

However, the weird thing was the room was already sparkling clean, unlike the one Grace had chosen to clean. It was as if someone had been secretly cleaning the room. At least that seemed to be the only plausible explanation, because she had never seen any of the maids cleaning the room before.

Her eyes roamed the room suspiciously. Nothing seemed to be out of place. With the door already closed behind her, she walked in further, looking at the pieces of paintings decorating the wall. All the sheets covering the furniture looked clean too, which confirmed her earlier suspicion.

Someone is cleaning the master bedroom.

Why that was being done in secret, she didn’t know. She waltzed to the adjoining bathroom, found it clean too. After little thinking, she thanked the mystery cleaner and set to removing all the sheets. The sooner she got the job done, the better.