Rose POV
After Nina, Fabian, and Patricia had filled me in on what had happened, I knew Jerome was getting to be a major pain in the arse with this.
"So let me get this straight. All the things that have gone wrong in the past few days are-" I started counting on my fingers "—we lost the dollhouse—" Jerome's fault, but I couldn't exactly rat him out "—we need the riddle doll for a fourth reflector—" again, Jerome's fault "—and..." I trailed off.
"Eddie and Mara?" Patricia prompted.
"Right. Eddie and Mara are about to post a story on the Jackal about Senkhara, blowing our secret wide open."
"No," Patricia said. "I was talking about the fact that Mara is totally moving in on Eddie!" Patricia added in.
"Who's overreacting now?" I snapped. "Priorities! But," I added turning back to Sibuna, "what else could possibly go wrong?"
My phone beeped with a text. I opened it to see a three word text message. "You were right." It took me a minute to figure out what it meant. Where had he gone? To give Jasper something else for the Collector? Suddenly, I knew.
"No! No no no no no!" I whispered to myself as I ran out of Nina and Amber's room. I rushed downstairs to meet Jerome as he came in. I grabbed his hand and pulled him into him room.
"Someone missed me," he joked before getting serious.
"Jasper ripped off his mask. I saw him. You were right, it is—"
He cut off as he looked over my shoulder. I turned around, and Alfie and Amber were sitting on Alfie's bed, looking at Jerome and me with distain.
"Tell me," Alfie said, holding out his laptop to show a picture of Jerome stealing the dollhouse, "that this is not as bad as it looks."
"Worse," I said in a strangled voice.
Amber led us into the living room where Sibuna had gathered after I mysteriously left them, and I could tell by the look on their faces they were waiting for Jerome to leave so they could have an explaination.
"You will never believe what Jerome did!" Amber cried, and before Jerome could explain, she shouted, "He stole the dollhouse!"
"What?" Nina asked. "Why?"
"To ransom Trudy. Jasper said we needed something from the Frobisher-Smythes—"
"Wait, Jasper. What's he got to do with this?" Fabian interrupted Jerome.
"He's not the bad guy, Fabian, I promise you," I said. "He's being blackmailed, and he can't get out because the Collector threatened you."
"Who?" Nina asked.
"The Collector. He wants anything and everything that belonged to the Frobisher-Smythes," I explained quickly.
"Could this get any worse?" Nina asked.
"Yep," I replied simply. "Until today, the Collector was an unidentified face behind a mask. Jasper ripped off his mask and Jerome saw his face. Guess what? Our good friend Rufus is back."
The whole room went silent at that.
"He's dead," Nina said.
"He faked it," I replied.
We decided to tell Victor, but he denied it.
"No, it's true. And Vera is in on it, too," I said.
"Now you've gone too far!" he snapped at me, and I shrank back into jerome's arms. "Vera is the best housemother we've had! I will hear no more of these conspiracy theories tonight! Out!" he demanded, and we filed out rather quickly.
O-o-O
The next day found us in the Frobisher library.
"We need to rescue Trudy," Alfie said to Jasper. "Are you going to help us or not?"
"You two shouldn't have told them," Jasper said to me and Jerome.
"Look, we know Rufus. We go way back," Nina said.
"Nina, remind me, were we being held prisoner, or were we just going over for tea?" I asked sarcastically.
"He's pure evil!" Nina said, ignoring me, and everyone else agreed.
"Okay, fine. He wants the Mask of Anubis," Jasper said.
"Course he does," I mutter under my breath.
"If we can get him away from the barn with the promise ofthe Mask, we can sneak in and get her," Fabian suggested.
"One problem," Patricia said. "No Mask."
"Yeah, actually, we do have one," Fabian said, pointing to the replica Mask.
Brilliant, that one.
O-o-O
Jerome, Amber, Fabian, and I went to rescue Trudy after Nina and Alfie got caught. We crouched down in the bushes, watching for Rufus to leave.
"Down!" I hissed when I saw him come out. He got in his car and drove off. "Okay, there are four locks—key locks—and we have no key."
"No problem," Fabian interrupted as he pulled put one of Amber's hair clips. "Just a trick I learned from my rebel roommate."
I sighed. "Leave this to the big kids, Fabes," I said as I took the hairpin.
"For Nina, for Trudy, for the Mask," Amber said.
"Si—" I began, but cut off, glancing at Jerome. "Sorry," I said. "Habit." I jumped over the bush and ran toward the barn.
I picked the locks, which took about two minutes, then we went in.
"Trudy!" Amber squealed when she saw her. They untied her and Jerome went to look for his dad's gem. I went to the dollhouse.
"Did he seem interested in this?" I ask.
"He said it was priceless," she replied.
"Did he say why he wanted it?"
"No, but I'm guessing it wasn't to play with," Trudy said.
"Yes, we've already gotten that far ourselves, thanks," I said.
"Ah Rose, as great as you are, it can be hard to miss you," Trudy said.
I shrugged and rolled my eyes, but then stood straight. "Someone's coming," I said.
"How would you know?" Trudy asked, but even she ran towards the door as it shut, trying to open it.
But it was locked. And we were trapped, for good, we thought, until Alfie came back with a trailer, leaving the dollhouse smashed and Trudy amnesic.