Maddy sits down on the bed and falls back naked onto the sheets. She still misses Abud. She'd loved him, but it's stupid to think of love as something sold in fixed amounts. It doesn't mean that she can't feel something completely new for Mycroft. This feeling is completely unexpected, like finding an iris blooming in the snow. She closes her eyes and remembers the feel of his hand on her cheek. Nothing in her life had ever felt as smooth as his hands upon her skin.
Suddenly, there's a knock on the door. Maddy reaches down and wraps the sheet around her. "Come in," she says hesitantly.
A maid in a black and white uniform, the kind that she had only seen in movies and costume shops, comes in carrying a tray. "Good morning, Miss," she says. She has a grin a mile wide plastered on her face. "I brought you some breakfast."
"What's your name?"
"Ann," she says, "and you are Miss Madeline?"
"Call me Maddy."
"Yes, Miss Maddy. When you need anything, just dial 1 and the butler will answer. We just received a call that your clothes are on their way. If you have questions about anything at all, you can call for me or Marie. She's the upstairs maid."
"I do have one question," Maddy says. "Does this happen often, that Mycroft… Mr. Holmes, brings someone to stay over, a woman I mean?"
"Oh no, Miss," Ann says shaking her head. "In fact, I've never seen him with a woman at all, other than that assistant of his, and she doesn't stay over. To tell the truth, Miss, we staff are just tickled to death to see Mr. Mycroft show interest in anyone. We were beginning to wonder if... I mean, sometimes he hardly acts like he's human at all." Ann places the tray on the bedside table and leaves. She winks as she closes the door. Breakfast consists of sausages, eggs, and fruit with a side of grape juice. She picks up a sausage and eats it with her fingers. She takes a sip of juice, then she goes to take a shower.
Maddy scrubs her body with the soap trying to remove the layers of grime that she imagines coating her skin from months of living on the street. She rubs at the scar that she got when she climbed in a skip and the lid had closed on her leg. She rubs at the mark on her arm from the tranquilizer gun. The red skin from the chain that had bound her to the bed. The mark on her foot where she had stepped on a nail and it had started to get infected before she had begged some antibiotic and bandages off of a woman with a small child.
Maddy squats down in the shower and wraps her arms around her legs as water and doubt wash over her. Why is she here? Where is she going? What should she do with her life? Who does she think she is anyway? None of these questions have answers so she turns off the water and climbs out of the shower. She wraps a towel around herself and walks back into the bedroom.
While she had been bathing, someone had changed the sheets and made the bed. She blushes imagining what they must have seen on the bed sheets. There are clothes laid out for her: A red dress with polka-dots, red flats, stockings, and underwear. They look to be in her size. She wonders for a moment who is choosing her clothes, dressing her up like a fashion doll.
She puts on the clothes, and then sits at Mycroft's dressing table. Somehow brushing her hair with his brush makes her still feel connected to him. She pulls her hair back and piles it on her head letting it fall back down when she realized that she has nothing to bind it with. She quickly discards the idea of using one of his ties to tie up her hair, then she pushes it behind her ears before rising to her feet, and going to the door. She steels herself to go out and take a look at Mycroft's museum-like home. She turns the doorknob and walks out into the hall.
Maddy walks out of the room and down the hall. A maid, it must be Marie, sees her and runs off. She walks through the white walled halls passing marble-topped tables until she nears the entryway. She stops in front of a suit of armor. Is this an actual suit of armor? Did the Holmes family descend from some ancient line of knights, or is this just the newest thing in home decoration? Maybe it has some other function. It stores umbrellas, perhaps. She's think of lifting the face mask to look inside, when a tall blond woman in a navy colored dress comes toward her and makes a small bow of her head.
"Good Morning, Miss St. Martin. My name is Mrs. Winslow and I am the head housekeeper. Mr. Holmes said that you would be staying for a few days, so I would be happy to show you around the place, if you'd like."
Maddy looks up at Mrs. Winslow realizing that Mycroft has servants in his employ. The woman said the word 'Mister' to refer to Mycroft, but she hears 'Master' in her tone of voice. Her American egalitarianism rankles at this, so she holds out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Maddy," she says, and the woman shakes her hand. " I would like a tour, because I'm afraid I'd get lost going to the bathroom in a place this big, but I'm not the Queen, and I don't expect to be treated like one. My history books said that Feudalism died a long time ago, and even if I have fallen through a hole in time to some place where they think it hasn't, I don't want to be putting on airs now so that when you see me later in some alley you'll want to kick me for being such an ass to you."
"Pardon?" Mrs Winslow says confused.
"Um...I mean, thank you, that would be nice," Maddy says. Mrs Winslow smiles and begins her tour.
Mycroft's house is insanely big with its entry way and its formal dining hall and its study, library, and family room which is much more formal than anything else that she has ever heard called by that name. Maddy and Mycroft are sleeping in the family wing, and there is an entire second floor full of guest rooms.
Despite all of this space, Mycroft lives here alone, although she's told that other family lived here at one time. His father and mother now live, "in the country house." When Maddy asks whether Sherlock ever stayed here, the woman flinches. Yes, he's stayed here in the past, but his habits were disruptive to the proper maintenance of the estate, and so when he stays over now, he is banished to the basement.
Maddy asks to see the basement, and Mrs Winslow frowns. "I'm sorry, but those rooms are not maintained in the same manner as the rest of the house due to the danger of some of the items that the young Mr. Holmes left behind." Better and better, Maddy thinks.
The basement contains the air systems and the plumbing, a room for the security staff (she waves, they wave back), some storage areas, a back door, a bomb shelter, and the shop which is where Sherlock spent his time. She looks at at the stained grey table, the sink, and the wall of chemicals and immediately likes the place. In all of the building, it's the only place that looks lived in.
Maddy asks, "Are there are any rules that I should know about?"
Mrs Winslow nods. "Remember to dial 1 to reach me or Mr. Tennison, the butler. The staff is present only in the daytime except for Tennison who lives in an adjoining flat and will come day or night, if needed. An alarm goes off when any outside door or window is opened, and you should dial 5 to tell security if you opened it. Also, Mr. Mycroft has instructed that should you need him, you should text his number, and he will call you back on the house phone in your study."
"But I can't text. I don't have a phone anymore," Maddy says before the rest of the sentence dawns on her. "Did you say my study?"
Mrs. Winslow grins and walks Maddy back to the family wing. Just before she enters, she turns and opens a plain white door. The room is small compared to the other rooms. The walls are a pale robin's egg blue. The ceiling is painted with clouds and flying birds. There is a fireplace, two recliners, a plain brown couch, and a desk with a phone. The blue and white pattern on the rug is more modern than designs found in the rest of the house, and Maddy visibly relaxes.
"This is the children's room, but Mr. Mycroft has directed that it should be set aside for your personal use."
"I suppose because he thinks I'm a child," Maddy says smiling at Mrs. Winslow who says nothing.
"I shall leave you now, if you don't mind," she says. "Ring if you need anything." Mrs Winslow leaves then closing the door quietly behind her.
Maddy sits in one of the recliners by the darkened fireplace and wonders what it would be like to grow up in such a place. She can't imagine it. Everything seems surreal. Not just this place, but her life on the street as well. It's as if the dream of her mother has reset her expectations for life.
She was born ordinary, average, normal. She had grandparents and friends, attended sporting events, had taken music lessons. Then her father had died, and they had moved to Mom's hometown where she had met and married That Man and he had abused her verbally and physically. That was when she had stopped thinking of herself as normal. That was when Maddy had first started to question her worth. All through middle school and high school, he had made her feel like she was nothing, but she had resisted him. She knew that she could do better, until she was forced to live on the streets. Then she understood that it was true what he had said about her. She was worth nothing.
But Sherlock had given her a phone and a job, and she had felt like she was someone again. What is she now, without her job or her independence, living in a mansion? She has become a kept woman. Her fate tied to Mycroft's like the worst fifties housewife. Well, at least she doesn't have to clean. But no, her mother had told her not to be quick to take names to herself. She had said, "Don't let other people define you Maddy. Don't let other people limit you. Follow your heart, and it will lead you true."
The phone rings. Maddy stares at it for a second, and then realizes that it's probably Mrs. Winslow telling her when to expect lunch. She walks over and picks it up.
"Madeline." It's Mycroft's voice on the line.
"Mycroft? Hello."
"You are there, wonderful."
"Of course I'm here, where else would I be?"
"Good. I just wasn't certain that you would still be there."
"I told you that I would be waiting."
"Yes, thank you, I should be home for tea."
"I guess I'll see you then," Maddy says.
"Fine ... goodbye, Madeline."
"Goodbye, Mycroft."
Maddy turns around and sees her reflection in a mirror. She's smiling. It surprises her. Then her stomach growls. Maddy suddenly remembers that she's forgotten to eat the breakfast that Ann had brought her. She goes back to Mycroft's room, but the plate of food was gone, so she backtracks to the door that Mrs Winslow had called the kitchens. She goes inside.