The Piano

It's two minutes past noon when Rory Beauchene and her daughter Hazel step through the front door of the manor.

A week earlier, an aging butler had come by Rory's place of work to speak with her. His master was interested in her services as a housekeeper, he'd said, and could she come by at half past noon next Wednesday? Well, she's a bit early, but it is Wednesday and she is here and swiftly coming to regret that decision.

She's seen grand manors like this before, but from safely afar where she couldn't break anything or dirty the floors or any number of things that seem entirely possible at the moment.

"Don't touch anything, Zelly. Or really look at anything if you can help it."

She's still debating on leaving and pretending that all of this never happened (and maybe selling her Inner City passport, people will pay out the nose for those things) when the elderly butler turns the corner of the massive staircase and notices her. Ah, there they are; he was worried that they had decided to not come, he says as though any Outer City rat with a passport wouldn't use it. She knows people that died for a glimpse of the Inside.

"The Master is busy at the moment, so I hope that you'll understand my having to handle your interview, Miss."

She nods and flashes a smile at...his retreating back as he heads back up the stairs. She purses her lips and holds Hazel's shoulders as she directs her along after the butler up the stairs and to the right, down a very long, very dark hallway that, personally, Rory thinks could use a good dusting and a lamp or two. The butler fires questions in her direction over his shoulder that she tries to answer as best as she can; it's the strangest interview she's ever had, and it ends with the Beauchenes being left in one of the manor's many drawing rooms while the butler (Mr. Penney, he said his name is) handles business elsewhere.

She holds Hazel against her side as she looks around the room. It's dusty and dark too; dusting and some sunlight is what it needs, she decides. If she gets this job, that'll be the first thing she has the staff do. Dust the whole house and open the windows.

She doesn't notice the piano at first. It's pushed into the corner and covered in enough dust to choke one of those monstrous birds that's she's seen brief glimpses of before pilots shoot them out of the sky, and she probably wouldn't have ever seen it at all if she hadn't noticed an incongruity in the shadows at the room's perimeters, a hulking shape just a shade darker than what was around it.

"Stay here, Zel."

Rory leaves Hazel standing in the middle of the room when she goes to get a better look at the piano. Her attempt to wipe away some of the dust is ultimately a failure; she mentally files away this observation for later as she lifts the protective casing away from the keys to get a better look. After a quick check on the keys themselves (ivory keys! goodness!), she cautiously presses down on one.

This is, of course, the moment that Mr. Penney returns; she barely has time to move her hands before he slams down the lid.

"The piano is rather old, I'm sure you've noticed. If you like to play, I could direct you to the music room," he suggests. "There's a much grander piano there."

"Oh. No. It's fine."

He smiles and nods, and they move on without so much as another mention of the piano. A few hours later, Rory and Hazel leave the manor with the butler's promise that he'll be contacting them via phone the next day about the particulars of Rory's new job and when she starts.

She looks down at the new passport that she's been issued as the gates to the Inner City close behind them later, wondering how exactly Mr. Penney is going to call if there are no phoneboxes on the Inside.