I own nothing.
The room is dark, and quiet, and even when she flips on the light, it is still a place of shadows. The sea is black-gray beneath a blue-black sky, distant through the window. The bed is expansive and wide, with a soft, cushiony mattress, smooth cotton sheets, a dark red coverlet, and plump, plush pillows. Shannon has never slept in such a bed; she has only stripped them of their sheets. But tonight, she will be. And she is sleeping in it alone.
Whatever Jessica might later believe, Shannon is in no way ignorant of what usually happens when a grown man and woman go off on a date together and spend the night in a hotel. She reads enough romance novels and hears enough gossip from the other servants to know better, and knows enough of the world to know that it was probably what George was expecting, even if he's too much of a gentleman to say so aloud. A young couple go on a date far away from home, and spend the night in a hotel. In this day and age, pre-marital sex is no longer truly scandalous, so long as it is conducted discreetly. No one would be surprised. Everyone would be expecting for it to happen.
But it will not happen tonight. When the topic of booking a hotel came up in their preparations, Shannon had, very shyly, eyes downcast, asked George if they could have separate rooms. George took her demeanor exactly as she hoped he would, as a maiden's modesty and discomfort with taking such a big step so soon; this was their first date, after all, and they certainly weren't married yet. "Sure," he'd said, looking only slightly disappointed, but that was already enough to make Shannon feel guilty.
Not guilty enough to change her mind.
She's never stayed in a hotel before, and the idea of having someone else cleaning her room instead of cleaning up everyone else's rooms for them is a decidedly exotic one. Shannon sets her overnight bag down on the bed, and goes to stand by the massive window, staring out at the sea, the shadows nipping at her heels. With its black-gray, silver-crested hue, it's hard to believe that she once looked at it and thought it blue.
Shannon will sleep alone in this hotel room, and keep her secrets. She will keep the secrets of her flesh from the man she loves, and not yet shall she expose her deception to him. There doesn't seem a day in her mind when she will ever be able to drum up the courage to expose the sham to him, but that day will certainly not be this one.
Eventually, he will find out, and be furious that he spent this sort of money on a creature such as her.
But that day is not today.
Shannon paints a smile on her face and does her best to banish all worries from her mind. This was a good day, she thinks, a day alone with the man she loves. How can she possibly let such doubts darken her doorstep on this day? Shannon goes towards the bathroom, so she can shower and go to bed. Her back and shoulders have begun to ache as they often do at the end of the day, and as wonderful as this day has been, she's tired.
She ignores the gray hue of the ocean outside.