Wheels of Whispers - Chapter 4.

“Louis. Wake up! Louis!”

“Ouch! Why’d you do that? Mate, I think you fractured my ribcage!”

“Please! Do not exaggerate, all I did was politely nudge you as you were not responding to my verbal wakeup attempt.”

“That’s the point of sleeping, you daft! Besides, aren’t you supposed to be the one that always needs ‘verbal wakeup attempts’ from Mr. Phelps? What’s gotten into you?”

“I have the feeling that what we are doing is iniquity. We have lied about what we truly witnessed and vilely accepted the proposed detective job to find Lord Ellsworth, while we are aware that he was clearly not kidnapped and especially not by a creature of Hell!”

“Can’t we enjoy a little well-earned, paid vacation?! We work so much! Yes, we tricked them into a lie, but if you really think about it, we were simply having a conversation. It’s not our fault that Florence and Edith overheard us and spread the news!”

“I cannot conceive your principles and therefore I must object. One cannot explain everything and pretend to be innocent, the victim of unfortunate events, such as gossipy housemaids.”

“My dear Elias, may I use a fancy word to describe you?”

“Go ahead.”

“Obscurantist!”

“Excuse me?!”

“Can’t you see? It’s the future! Talking will do! Actual work? I don’t think so.”

“You are not a futurist, but a desperate boy in need of a zipper on his mouth!”

“Come on, mate, stop fussing! Yes, maybe I lied a bit to earn a small amount of free time.”“Free from what?”

“From cooking. Besides, I think in the future it should be compulsory for employers to give their employees at least one or two weeks off. Free time should not depend on you social status.”“As should not numerous other preferences.”

“See?!”

“I am still concerned about what we will tell Mr. Palmer.”

“Let me do the talking. It’s going to be faster, as I avoid this fancy talking you two seem to compete with.”

“For the sake of our friendship, I will ignore your presumption of me competing with an obvious loser and instead ask you about the tale you are going to invent.”

“That’s my business, don’t worry about it.”

Elias looked suspiciously at his friend, but decided to just for once trust his ability to persuade the butler to believe that they were focusing on the investigation.

***

“Look, Florence! Footprints! These could lead us to Lord Ellsworth!”

“Ugh, don’t be so stupid! Those are our footprints!”

“No, they’re not! They’re small, maybe a woman’s…? Oh. Right.”

“Besides, we’re searching for diabolical hoof prints.”

“What do they look like?”

“How sould I know? I’ve never met such a creature!”

The two housemaids, or shall they be called ‘crime-news-taught-detectives’ walked around the mansion in silence. The adrenaline of being part of a dangerous adventure rushed through their veins, the blood pumped the feeling into their heads, and finally their vision was not blurred by dust as per hitherto, but by excitement. However, it seemed like the number of articles read wouldn’t be enough to help them. In fact, these hindered them; they moved among the barriers set up by the imagination of reporters and Scotland Yard officers instead of acknowledging that their case varied from any murder, break-in and even kidnapping. Their case was gossip.

 Balázs-Blénessi-Pataki Kincső   X. R