Evie was at his side so quickly, it made him jump. “Sebastian! You’re not suggesting—”
“What? What is it?” asked the Kid.
Sebastian shook his head. It was the only way. “We have to save everyone…by acting.”
“Wow, it’s huge,” said Evie, staring as they approached the set of Grand Estate. Or rather, the house. Mansion. Whatever. It was massive. And like something from a different country. A very large British brick manor house was sitting at the end of a very long driveway lined with trees. To one side there was a small pasture, even a barn. It all looked so surreal, especially in the setting sun. Like she was dreaming.
“Impressive,” added Catherine.
There was a narrow dirt path that veered around to the back of the building, which they turned down now, heading toward the garage, Evie supposed.
Evie moved her head to the side. The piece of wood she was holding was poking into her cheek, scratching her a little. But it was nothing compared to the simple wool dress she was wearing. Everyone was dressed in costume, but no one seemed to be as uncomfortable as she was, nor as itchy. She couldn’t wait until they could climb out of this car and she could stretch her legs. Three explorers and two kids crowded the car. (Fortunately, no dog. That would have been one too many things. Orson was being kept safe at the society.) Plus, a bunch of signs attached to long sticks took up a lot of room.
The car eventually pulled to a stop. The skinny pimpled teenager quickly ran around and opened the doors, gaping at them. The Kid shut off the car, and soon everyone was out in the dark dampness.
“Welcome to the past!” the Kid said with a laugh.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” said Sebastian.
“Hey, it was your idea,” replied Evie with a grin, passing him a pair of signs.
“Yeah. Still. I can’t believe we’re doing this.” He shook his head.
They all followed the Kid through the back door and made their way out into the small courtyard. The pimply boy followed them, just staring.
“Oy, what’s goin’ on?” he asked.
“Here,” said Evie. “Take one!” And she tossed him a sign. He looked at it, then back at her. She smiled. He still stared.
The team gathered together. “Is everyone ready?” asked Catherine, not looking particularly so herself.
“Yes,” said Evie and Benedict.
“So, wait. We’re chanting, right?” said Sebastian.
“Yes. You’ve seen this sort of thing on the news, haven’t you?” asked Evie.
Sebastian nodded.
“Let’s go!” said the Kid.
And they burst into the main servants hall.
“What do we want?” called Evie loudly, her voice echoing in the space.
“Fair wages!” shouted everyone else. Though Sebastian next to her kind of mumbled it.
“When do we want them?”
“Now!”
“Now.” Another soft Sebastian mumble.
Evie repeated herself as she walked down the hallway: “What do we want?”
“Fair wages!”
“When do we want them?”
“Now!”
Sebastian was getting a little louder. As they marched, holding up their protest signs, various maids and butlers and cooks filtered out to see what the commotion was about. They all looked completely stunned.
“What do we want?”
“Fair wages!”
“When do we want them?”
“Now!”
Sebastian was enthusiastically shouting along with them, and it made Evie feel very happy. They marched toward the staircase that led to the large room, chanting in unison. It felt so right. And historically accurate.
The butler emerged at the top of the stairs, appearing utterly baffled.
“What are you lot doing here?”
The Kid stepped forward. “It’s time for us to free ourselves,” he said. Sebastian coughed meaningfully at that. “Uh, free ourselves from bad wages. We need more money! And these lovely people I met while running an errand for his lordship have shown me a better way. A way where we do not need lords and ladies as masters!” Evie noticed then that he too had a strange accent. Wow. His attempt at a British accent was failing miserably.
The butler looked at the Kid and then at Evie. She gave him a reassuring smile. It seemed to click then, and he grinned back.
“What’s goin’ on?” asked the blond maid, stepping forward.
“I think these people have come to rescue us,” he replied. Then added, “From indentured servitude.” He glanced up at what Evie now understood to be a hidden camera.
“We have!” she said loudly.
“Come,” said the butler. “Follow me!”
He turned, leading the way, and the protesters climbed after him, continuing their chanting. Everyone, not just the team but all of the actors who had come into the hallway, had joined the chorus. They were all smiling too. Sebastian passed the cook his placard, and Evie turned back around to continue with their march up the stairs.
They burst onto the main floor of the house, flooding into the room where Evie had met the lord and lady of the house. Neither was there. The chanters made their way into a huge vaulted foyer with the biggest staircase Evie had ever seen. Gold-framed portraits of men and women ran along the walls. The group marched up the stairs over the thick flowered carpet and into the dark paneled hallway, until they came to the lord and lady’s dressing rooms. The mob rushed inside.
The lord and lady stood hurriedly, the lady scooping up the corgi as she did, and soon all of the servants had surrounded them, chanting. Evie was getting concerned. The lord and lady looked truly scared. And she didn’t want anyone scared. She wanted to free all the actors. And that included the ones playing the rich people too.
She jumped up onto a chair and held up her hand. She was surprised how quickly everyone was quiet. She felt rather powerful.
“Join us!” she said. “We know that you also do not think it is right that your servants don’t have their freedom. In a way, it must be a bit of a prison for you, too, having to look after them and this large house. Wouldn’t a smaller house, maybe…in…the city…Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to live too?” She paused to take a breath and look at the lord and lady. They glanced at each other.
“She is right!” said the butler suddenly. He stood up on a leather footstool. “All of us are in our own prisons. In this house. In our own hearts and minds.” His voice was getting richer, a little more musical. He was evidently delivering a monologue now. “Who can really say what each of our own prisons is? But how can we ever break free of ourselves if we are not free…ourselves?” He paused, bringing his hand to his heart. Perhaps expecting applause? “Join us! Be free of all restrictions! For, what do we want?” he asked, and Evie felt a little put out. That was her line.
“Freedom?” said the lord of the house uncertainly.
“Okay, that works too,” said Benedict.
“When do we want it?” asked the butler.
“Now!” everyone, including the lord and lady, chanted together.
They began their new chant standing in the circle, with the lord and lady getting rather into it themselves. They kept chanting. And chanting. Until they all stopped and stared at each other.
“Now what?” asked the lady.
Evie looked around the room and found Sebastian. Now what, indeed.
“Uh, well,” Sebastian said. “I say we do a walkout. A strike. Everybody leaves.”
Everyone gaped.
“It’s not disruptive. It’s a thing that workers do sometimes. In real life. Which this is,” he said, explaining haltingly. “And sometimes employers join them, in solidarity.” He nodded at the lord and lady.
The butler looked at Sebasti
an. Then at the crowd. “Let’s do it!”
There was a pause.
A rather long, pensive pause.
And then suddenly, entirely in unison, a great cheer went up. It made Evie want to cheer too! Then…everyone suddenly bolted. It was impressive how quickly they fled the house, but Evie supposed it made sense. They had been trapped there for a while. This was their chance, and they definitely took it.
“That was fast,” said Catherine once her group and the butler were the only ones left in the room.
“Very,” replied the Kid.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
Everyone turned. Standing in the doorway was a furious woman with a sharp black bob and bangs, wearing a crisp white jacket and short skirt.
“What are you doing here?” asked the Kid, sounding stunned.
“Hi, Charles,” replied the woman, not even glancing in his direction, glaring instead at the butler. It was almost as if she had steam coming out of her ears, she was so angry.
Evie turned to the Kid. “You know her?”
“Yeah,” he said, taken aback. “That’s my agent, Annalise.”
“I trusted you, Tom,” said Annalise, entering the room, scowling at the butler.
“And I trusted you! I hired everyone for you. I got them all to sign the contract. And then you gave me the role of the butler!” said Tom, storming toward her as she stormed toward him.
“The butler is a great role! How many films and shows are centered around the butler? There’s so much you can do with it. You could have been evil if you wanted!”
“Well, I feel pretty evil now!”
They were practically nose to nose.
“You’re fired!” she sneered at him. “You’re never working in this town again! I’ll tell everyone that you broke this contract, and I’ll sue you for every last penny you’ve got!”
“You can’t do that. Nothing that was done here disrupted the integrity of the work,” he replied with a victorious grin.
“Oh? What about your little chat with the kids?” she asked, pointing at Evie and Sebastian. Evie was suddenly very aware that this was real life and not a soap opera she was watching on TV.
“You saw that?” he asked, not sounding nearly so confident.
“I have cameras everywhere.”
“Even the closet?”
“Especially the closet!” shouted Annalise. “I let you get away with it because I thought after they left there’d be no more nonsense. I thought things would get back on track. Evidently I was wrong.”
“You used me, Annalise!” said the butler. His left eye was twitching slightly.
“I gave you work! Well-paid work!” she replied. “And I’ll take it away.”
“You’ll regret this!” he said in a high-pitched voice.
“Go! Now!” she shouted. The butler stared at her, wide-eyed. “I said now!”
And the butler dashed from the room, tripping a little on his own feet as he went.
Well, that had been a dramatic exit, thought Evie.
“Annalise, what on earth is going on here?” asked the Kid slowly.
“Yeah. We thought you were in the south of France,” added Evie. Annalise gave her a strange look.
“Isn’t it obvious, Charles?” she said with a sigh, sitting in a tall pink wingback chair.
“Not to me,” replied the Kid, leaning against a desk and folding his arms across his chest.
Annalise had an odd smile on her face. Well, if she wasn’t going to explain it, Evie was certainly willing to give it a shot. “Did you create a television show for all your own clients, and pretend to quit agenting and leave the country, but instead you’ve been in charge of this production the whole time?”
“Who are you?” Annalise asked.
“Evie,” she said. And then added, “The girl from the closet.”
Annalise stared at her for a moment. “That’s relatively accurate.”
“But I don’t understand the rest of it. The contracts, the having to disappear in the first place. All the…lying.”
“Well,” said Annalise crossing one leg over the other, “it basically comes down to a conflict of interest. I have funding for this project, and I take a salary out of that funding. But I also pay my actors.”
“And you get a percentage of what they’re paid,” said Sebastian suddenly. “That’s not allowed. That can’t be allowed.”
“It isn’t,” said Annalise, turning to him. “Hence the lying.”
“But why do any of it?” asked Evie. “Weren’t you making enough money already? Do you care that you’re breaking the law?”
“None of that matters, my dear. It’s about working to realize your dreams.”
Evie stared at her. “So…your dream was to have a nonstop reality show set in the 1920s?”
“It was, yes.”
Well, Evie didn’t exactly know what to say to that.
“Why put your own actors in such a bad position with such a terrible contract?” asked Sebastian.
Annalise looked shocked. “Bad? They were acting full-time! They were getting paid! How many actors can say that?”
“But never allowed to leave? That’s a bit extreme,” replied Sebastian.
Annalise just shrugged.
“Well, anyway, it doesn’t matter now. You don’t have a cast anymore,” said Evie.
“Yes, I know.” Annalise turned to the Kid. “You’re all in a world of trouble.”
The Kid leaned in and smiled. “Maybe I broke the contract, but the rest didn’t. Fire me if you like. I really don’t care. But what Tom said was true. They did everything by the book. By the contract.”
Annalise stared at him. They stared at each other. Evie was getting nervous. Who would break eye contact first? Oh, let the Kid win, she hoped.
“Does anyone smell smoke?” asked Catherine.
Sebastian ran to the window, followed quickly by everyone else, even Annalise. They stared down at the garage. It was in flames. Standing in the courtyard, far too close to the garage to be safe, was Tom the butler. He was waving up at them.
“Never, ever trust your secret plans to a temperamental actor!” groaned Annalise.
“He’s set the building that we are in on fire?” Sebastian gaped. It was quite simply the stupidest thing he’d ever heard of anyone doing.
“Oh yes. What a temper tantrum.” Annalise looked like she was ready to explode.
“We need to get out of here,” said Benedict.
“How emotional. Actors,” said Annalise, leaning against the window and not moving.
“I’m calling the fire department,” said Benedict, pulling out his phone and walking to the other side of the room.
“There goes our transport,” said the Kid, watching the blaze.
Annalise sighed hard. “My car is on the other side of the house. This isn’t a big deal. It’s just an expensive one.”
Sebastian was frozen in place, eyeing the flames that were swallowing the garage. It might not have been a big deal to Annalise, but it was a terrifying one to him. Even though it was dark outside, he could still see smoke filling the air. What kind of person did something as dangerous as this? How had he ended up in this situation?
“Then let’s go. I’m driving,” said the Kid, giving Annalise a look. The agent rolled her eyes but finally stood up.
“Fine,” she said.
“Wait.” It was Catherine. She was standing next to Sebastian, also staring out the window intently. But she didn’t seem to be looking outside. She seemed to be thinking hard. “How historically accurate is your production?” she asked Annalise.
Annalise rolled her eyes as if the question was offensive. “I pay very close attention to details.”
“Do you have ani
mals? Chickens, horses?” Catherine finally turned to look at Annalise.
Annalise slowly nodded. “They’re in the barn.”
“Okay, everyone to the car. I’m going to set the animals free. We’ll meet on the road,” said Catherine, and without waiting for anyone to agree or not, she made for the exit.
“I’m coming with you!” said Sebastian. He was? Once again his brain seemed to have a mind of its own. Its own mini-brain. All he knew was that the second he’d heard Catherine talking about the animals, he’d pictured Orson’s little face.
“Hurry, then,” said Catherine.
Evie stared as Sebastian rushed past her. “See you outside,” he said. She nodded numbly, and then he was through the door and chasing Catherine down the stairs.
They were in the main house again, the smell of smoke heavy in the air. But Catherine wasted no time. She raced out the front door. It was calm outside where they were. Aside from the eye-watering smell and the sound of a distant cracking and popping, it was as if nothing was happening at all.
Catherine scanned the darkness. “There!” she said, pointing. And she started to run. Sebastian once again ran quickly beside her.
“Why did you want to come?” asked Catherine as they crossed the dirt path.
“You needed help. Also, I don’t know. I was worried about the animals.”
“That woman is horrible. First she abandons her dog. Then she doesn’t even think of this.”
“Yeah,” said Sebastian. “I’m kind of glad we took Orson now.”
Catherine nodded. “Me too.”
They arrived at the smallish wooden barn. Catherine pulled the door to one side. The animals were making loud noises, all extremely stressed knowing that somewhere, not far off, there was a fire. Sebastian wasn’t surprised. If he with his human senses could smell and hear everything, they were very likely overwhelmed.
“What do we do?” he asked.
“Just let everyone out, open the cages, shoo them from the barn toward the road.”
Sebastian nodded and set to work.
The Quest for the Kid Page 13
