Into the Cellar

MADAME WHISPET WAITED until business had slowed considerably, in the late-night to dawnbreak hours, before exacting her wrath.

She made it clear I was not to speak to Seralind at all that day when we returned, so I stayed by myself and watched from a distance as she laughed with patrons and took their drinks, unaware of what punishment I had caused for her.

The patron she had been entertaining finally left. Seralind was humming to herself in the vanity room with the other women, lost in a daydream of hers as the ones that stayed at the house chattered and removed their makeup for bed.

It was then that the Madame burst through the door. The smack of the wood against the wall made a booming sound that made all the women whip around towards her with fright.

“You thought you could deceive me?!” She hissed at her. She grabbed Seralind and pulled her up off the chair by the roots of her hair, and a few of them gasped at the action.

At first, Seralind seemed confused but was apologizing profusely as she painfully gripped the woman’s arm. But when Madame Whispet dragged her away from the room, down the stairs, and into the cellar, she realized she was in deep trouble.

Madame Whispet slammed the door to the cellar behind her, leaving them alone. A few of the women had gone up to discreetly follow them.

Thalina and Auna were the only ones bold enough to press their ears against the door to hear what fate had befallen Seralind. I squeezed between the women listening, but they insisted I didn’t want to hear it. The door was heavy, so it was successfully soundproofed. We had to strain to even hear an inkling of what could be transpiring downstairs.

I heard pleading apologies from Seralind. I heard Madame Whispet’s voice rise and fall, as though her emotions of rage and manipulation were fluctuating throughout the conversation. I pressed my cheek against the cold wood for agonizing seconds.

But then, we heard nothing at all, followed by quick footsteps up the stairs. Auna and Thalina scrambled away from the door, but I was too slow before Madame opened up the cellar door.

She was breathing heavily from her outburst but was eerily calm. I clasped my hands together to stop the trembling, gazing up at her with glassy blue eyes.

Madame Whispet glanced at me, clicking her fan closed, before addressing the anxious women surrounding her.

“No one is to speak to Seralind or mention her name from today forward. No one is to approach the guards in the city either or visit the palace.” She declares. Her voice was eerily calm after the dramatic scene just a few minutes ago.

“If I catch any one of you doing any of those things, you will be promptly fired. Am I clear?”

The threat of termination made some girls freeze in horror. They all nodded in understanding, or murmurs of “yes, ma’am” drifted through the group as well.

Madame Whispet then looks down at me. She bends over to get close to my face, and I feel like weights are keeping my feet in place even though my brain screamed to get away.

She shoots out her hand to grip my face. She squeezed my cheeks tightly, and my lips ached as she forced me to look up at her.

“Remember, child,” Madame Whispet had said to me. “This is all your fault.”

***

The cellar wasn’t empty, but it was hardly as comfortable as the upstairs rooms.

It was almost the size of our bedroom. The roofs and the floors were all made of stone and desperately needed to be swept. Empty barrels that used to contain some kind of product lined the walls. The fireplace was tucked away in the corner but hadn’t been used in ages, accompanied by a desk and a small barstool chair meant only for working.

Seralind spent the next week scrubbing away at dirty laundry in a freezing cold basin of water and repairing dresses by hand in the dark cellar. Madame Whispet gave her a broken clock, not to tell time, but one that would ring for when she needed to wake and begin her work every day.

It was cold, and there were hardly any blankets that didn’t have mice chewed through the holes to protect her from shivering. She only had a single window that was barely above ground for illumination, or lantern light if she wanted to get work done after-hours.

Her fingers would ache from the monotonous work, but resting risked Madame Whispet catching her. The Madame didn’t even provide her with a mattress to sleep on, so Seralind would rest her head on the dusty desk she performed her work on.

Madame Whispet would come to the basement to inspect her work. She would take the opportunity to rip the seams of handiwork she didn’t approve of or dump more laundry at her feet before returning upstairs.

Madame Whispet forbade me from seeing Seralind. So I took my chances late at night, when she had gone home to sleep, to visit her. I brought her a day’s worth of food at this time as well, which was mostly courtesies from the other ladies. Madame Whispet had no desire to take it upon herself to feed her.

Most nights, I wanted to sleep next to her. But Seralind insisted I return upstairs or else Madame Whispet would catch us together.

Tonight, I brought her the meals like any other. She ate her dinner in silence, as I was now too distraught to start a conversation.

“Are you feeling okay? You’re not hungry, are you?” She asked me, placing her hand on my forehead.

“I’m okay.” I responded quietly.

“Don’t feel sad, Esmeline. This is just…an unfortunate situation right now.” She assured me.

I knew that Seralind had taken the blame so the Madame wouldn’t punish me also, which only made the weight of guilt crush me further.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“I’ve told you to stop apologizing,” Seralind said to me lightly. “It’s not your fault. We’ll get through this. We're big girls, aren’t we?”

I didn’t want to be a big girl. It made my bones ache, and my mind never rested. But I nodded to please her.

Seralind poked at her meal, thinking before she spoke up again.

“What about my hair comb? She hasn’t found it, right?” Seralind asked me, as though mentioning it would condemn her further.

I bite my lip, feeling ashamed.

“Actually, I…” I start, trailing off.

“What is it?”

“I gave it to the Imperial Captain. So she can take it to the prince.”

Seralind’s face pales at my confession. The shock in her eyes slowly morphs into a quiet dread, her lips pressed into a frown.

“I told you it was a gift! Gifts are not given away, Esmeline!” She scolds me. Her voice rising startled me.

“I-I just-“

“Is that why Madame Whispet is so upset with us? Is that how she knows about the ball?”

“I-I didn’t mean to! I tried to be careful!”

Seralind covers her eyes and slumps to the ground with a sigh, as though her muscles had completely given out.

“I know you are trying to help, but there are some things you don’t understand.”

“But the Prince is looking for you! He can help us!” I persist.

She just needs to see my point of view!

Seralind’s eyebrows crease in frustration.

“I can’t just uproot our lives chasing after a prince who doesn’t know me!” She says to me, her eyes blazing with desperation.

“What if he changes his mind? What if he finds someone else? What do you think we’re going to do if he abandons us? Madame Whispet won’t take us back, and if she did, she’d treat us worse than before.”

Seralind clenches her jaw, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“I don’t know what’s happened to you recently, but you are only making things worse for us.”

For some reason, that hurt me more than if Seralind had just slapped me.

“You…! You would have never gone to the ball if it wasn’t for me!” I told her, my voice rising and getting defensive.

“Look at what has happened, Esmeline!” She snapped back. “Who is going to go with you to Miss Berraultier’s now? Or get you dinner before bed?”

The ladies have been doing their best to take care of me, but I’ll admit, leftover porridge and stale bread weren’t nearly as filling as they needed to be.

“I was already exhausted, and now…!”

Seralind’s voice broke at the end. I was afraid she was going to start yelling at me again. Instead, breathed sharply out through her nostrils, swallowing her anger to respond to me in a much calmer tone.

“There are things you don’t know about this place because I have done everything to protect you from it. But you must understand this: Madame Whispet is one bad day away from leaving us with nothing. Our lives are too fragile to risk it all on dreams!”

I felt the life drain from my body as I listened to her desperate tone, letting out ripples of what she’s been holding in for so long.

“You said…you said you liked Prince Cassian. You said he was gentle, and good. That he made you feel seen.” I say, feeling numb.

Seralind’s eyes go from angry to a glimmer of remorse. As though she was replaying those magical memories in flashes behind her eyes, already grieving the moments as though they had died long ago.

“I never should have told you about the ball.”

I felt the tears well up in my eyes, my lips quivering.

Seralind regretted trusting me.

My sister seemed to have calmed down, but her shoulders remained tense. She could have reached out to me, but didn’t.

“This punishment is only temporary, Esmeline. Madame Whispet just wants to remind us of our place here.”

“B-but…!”

“Just stay away from her until her anger dies down. We can’t get on her bad side any longer.” She suggests, ignoring my protests.

Seralind looks me dead in the eyes to hold my attention, and her usually vibrant irises have an extinguished flame behind them.

“And from now on, leave it to me to decide what’s best for us.”