Beastly Beautiful Read online

  Teagan wondered if it was pathetic that she could be so easily awed by the mere presence of fire and moveable bits of furniture. Then again, maybe it wasn’t solely the special effects that had her under their spell. As Sir regarded her from his stance before the fireplace, she found herself shrinking a little under his dark gaze.

  Nearby, the sharp ticking of a pendulum clock over the mantel broke the silence. Sir’s eyes moved to the clock, and his fingers began tapping impatiently along the top of the mantelpiece, in time with the ticking noise. It was his only indication of irritability, yet Teagan felt something in him had changed from the time they entered this room.

  She was abruptly reminded of the uneasy, impatient sense she’d felt emanating from him in the alley. Something dark flickered in his eyes, but she felt whatever passions stirred below his surface had not been awakened by her presence. Something about that clock disturbed him, she thought, as she witnessed his eyes being drawn to it seemingly against his will.

  The sudden chime of the hour startled Teagan, and she jumped in her seat. The hands on the clock had moved to seven. Sir wasn’t affected by the noise, as she had been. He appeared prepared for it. Braced, even.

  Teagan felt a cold, ticklish sensation, akin to fear, start to creep its way up her spine. What was going on here? She suddenly had the odd sense there was something unimaginably awful hanging over both their heads. She had the abrupt urge to leave this fancy penthouse and its strange, intense inhabitant far behind her.

  With an effort, she controlled the desire to leap to her feet. You’re imagining things, she told herself. This whole unreal place and situation had stirred her naturally overactive imagination to full flame, that was all. To quash her fear, as she waited for Sir to come out of his eerily silent mood, she concentrated on the reward to come and on planning what would be the first thing she ate when she got out of here with her fists full of cash.

  “It’s time.” The low words, uttered in a tone of surrender, of inevitability, caught her attention. She had no idea what time Sir was referring to, but by now she had an idea it wasn’t anything he welcomed. “I will explain your task now,” he said.

  “Okay.” Teagan shifted nervously under his gaze.

  “It’s very important you pay attention to all of my instructions and follow them to the letter. The slightest deviation could mean—” He stumbled and seemed to catch himself abruptly. “It could affect your pay,” he finished. “You won’t receive a cent if the job isn’t done to my specifications. Do you see the small, silver box resting on that desk?” he asked.

  Teagan’s gaze followed his to a heavy oak desk resting in a shadowed corner of the room. Because of the magnificence of the rest of the space, she hadn’t, until this moment, given that area more than a passing glance. Now she rose and followed at a distance, as Sir led her to the desk.

  “Lift the box,” he ordered when Teagan stood before the desk.

  She did as she was told. The little box of decorated silver was about the size and shape of a musical jewelry box, and felt cool and heavy in her hand. As she lifted it from its resting place, she saw a small brass key lying hidden beneath.

  “You are not, under any circumstances, to open this box,” he instructed coldly, as if noticing her curiosity. “I simply want you to note the placing of the hidden key for future reference.”

  “I have noted it,” Teagan said matter-of-factly, matching his seriousness. What was all this leading up to?

  “Then come with me.” He led her out of the room and back into the larger open living area.

  He next directed her attention to a smaller, but still very expensive looking, sound system in this room. Removing a CD from a nearby rack he popped it out of its protective case and inserted it into the CD player. “I already have this set up as I want it,” he said, pushing several buttons on the player. “The track is selected, and I’ve programmed it to repeat. All you’ll need to do is push the play button at the right time.”

  This was terribly strange. He was paying her all that money to come up here and push a button on his CD player—something he could do very easily? But aloud all she said was, “And at what time would that be?”

  “We’ll get to that in a minute,” he said. “I’m not finished yet. Notice that door.” He pointed toward a door at the far corner of the room.

  It stood out because it was constructed in a different fashion than the other doors letting off from the living area. It was iron banded, like a dungeon door out of a medieval castle, and painted red.

  “That’s my study,” he said. “I keep all of my most important papers in there, and it’s vital you never enter. You mustn’t so much as peek inside or you will lose your reward. I don’t take kindly to prying.” His tone was cutting as he said this, making Teagan instantly nod agreement.

  “One last thing,” he continued, moving on to the kitchen. He opened the doors of a stainless steel fridge set into the wall. The interior shelves held enough food to feed a lone man for a month. “This—” He indicated the bottom shelf. “—is where I keep the wine. Remember it.”

  “Um, okay,” she said, thinking this was getting weirder and weirder.

  He opened the doors to his kitchen cabinets. “Here is where you’ll find a full table setting, including a wine goblet. There is silverware in the drawer and a cloth for the table. You can set up a place on the table in the corner there.”

  “I’m getting a little confused,” she said.

  “Don’t be. Now comes the part where I give you your instructions.”

  He left the kitchen and she trailed after him. Despite his words, he didn’t appear in any hurry to get to the point. Pausing before a long row of red curtains running the full length of one living room wall, he tugged on a cord Teagan hadn’t previously noticed hanging among the draperies. Instantly the curtains drew back, displaying a window that made up an entire wall of the room.

  The window looked out over the smaller buildings below, offering a breathtaking view of the city at dusk. Cars streamed by on the crowded streets. Pedestrians jostling one another on the sidewalks looked like tiny dots from here. Neon signs flashed in the distance, the sky on the horizon joining their array of color with its own fiery hue as the last sliver of sun sank down out of the sky.

  Teagan stood close to the window, gaping at the scene below. “It’s fantastic,” she murmured aloud, caught up in wonder.

  “Is it?” He leaned one forearm against the glass and gazed out over the rooftops. “I used to think so.” From out of nowhere, a glass of brown liquid appeared in his hand. He seemed unaware of it, studying the darkening horizon. There seemed an air of resignation about him, and yet Teagan also felt a deeper underlying excitement. Whatever it was he thought of, it was something he both dreaded and anticipated. “I have to go out,” he announced abruptly. “You’ll complete your tasks without me.” He downed the drink in his hand in a single gulp and slammed the glass down on the edge of a low table nearby.

  “But—but you haven’t told me anything yet,” Teagan protested as he whirled and moved away, suddenly appearing to be in a rush. She scurried after him. “I don’t even know what my task is.”

  He was already snatching his coat off the rack. “It’s pretty simple, just listen closely and do exactly as I say,” he said, agitatedly. “Go into the den and sit down to watch the clock. At about…” He hesitated, casting a measuring eye toward the darkening sky outside the long window. “At exactly seven-thirty,” he corrected himself, “you’ll get up and retrieve the brass key I showed you from beneath its hiding place under the silver box. I’ll remind you again—don’t think for a moment about opening the box. I will know if you do.”

  His words held such a threatening note that Teagan immediately dropped any notions she might have harbored of taking a secret peek inside once he was gone.

  He continued, his words picking up speed as he threw on his coat, as if he already couldn’t wait to be on his way. “You will bring that brass key
into this room and use it to lock the door to my study from the outside. Don’t interrupt me,” he added when she opened her mouth to protest.

  “No questions asked,” he reminded her shortly. “You’ll lock my study and replace the key exactly as you found it. You will then start the CD player on the track I have it set on. Leave the volume as it is. Don’t readjust anything. Next, you will remove the dishes I showed you from the kitchen cabinet and lay out a single place setting at the table. Pour a goblet of wine and leave that on the table as well. No food. Just the wine. You will then leave my apartment, having touched nothing else. Go back to your cardboard box in the alley and speak of this night to no one.”

  “And then I’ll be finished?” Teagan asked. This was the weirdest assignment she’d ever heard of in her life. She couldn’t imagine why on earth any of these strange things he had ordered should be worth five hundred dollars to anybody.

  “No, that’s not all. At precisely six o’clock in the morning, you must return to this apartment to undo all of your work. You won’t see me then, but I will know if you fail to complete the tasks. Turn off the music, unlock the study door, replace the key, and then put away the table setting. After that, your work will be over. We will not meet again.”

  “But what about the part where I get my five hundred dollars?” she asked, as he moved to the elevator and punched the down button. “If you’re not here when I leave tonight and you’re still gone in the morning, how are you going to pay me?”

  The doors opened and he stepped onto the elevator. “You’ll know when the time comes,” he said. And then he was gone, the doors shutting in front of him. The last glimpse Teagan caught of his face revealed a pained, distorted expression, as if he’d already dismissed her and turned his thoughts to whatever unpleasant occasion lay ahead of him.

  Chapter 4

  Left to herself, Teagan returned to the room he had referred to as the den and sat, much as he had instructed her to, before the pendulum clock atop the mantel, waiting for it to chime the half hour. This was the oddest night she’d ever experienced.

  When the appointed time arrived, she moved to the desk and slipped the brass key out from beneath the silver box. She hesitated over the box for the space of a breath, trying to muster the nerve to disobey his command and lift the lid. He had said he would know, but how could he? Surely it was a bluff.

  All the same, she let the box be and moved into the living room. Again, she was assailed by temptation as she slipped the key into the lock of the study door. She felt a strong desire to crack the door a little and see what was so special it needed these strange precautions. Surely he would never know if she took the briefest of glances into the room.

  Pausing, she rested an ear against the thick wood. No sound stirred from within. But then, why should it, she asked herself. It was a study. The room probably just contained a lot of shelves of books and a desk full of papers. She thought fleetingly that if there was anything of value inside she might be able to make away with it in Sir’s absence. Yet she seemed to hear his voice again, ringing in her ears. I will know. The coldness of his tone made it hard to doubt his sincerity, even as impossible as his claim seemed. Again, she resisted temptation and left the door closed.

  She next followed his instructions on starting the stereo. At once, the heavy strains of a piece of classical music blared from the twin speakers. The music was so deafening she was tempted to turn the volume down several notches but on second thought, recalling his order against readjusting anything, didn’t. Let his neighbors complain and get him evicted. It wouldn’t be her problem.

  She moved on to the kitchen. Here she found herself confronted once more by the full refrigerator and no one in sight to see what she did. Under the weakness of her aching belly, she told herself surely he would never notice the difference if one or two small things went missing from there. He had more food than he could eat before it spoiled anyway. She slipped a couple pieces of fruit and a slice of bread out of the back of the refrigerator and tucked them inside her sweater. Then she returned to her tasks.

  This was probably the weirdest—even eeriest—part of the evening. She felt very uneasy, filling a crystal goblet with the rich colored wine and arranging the glass alongside pieces of fine china across the low kitchen table. With the frantic notes of an angry sounding musical piece crashing in the background, Teagan felt like she was performing some sort of strange ritual as she laid out the single place setting on the empty table. She wondered whom it was for. Sir? Some mystery guest who had yet to arrive?

  She tried to shake both the questions and the anxious feeling from her mind as she wound up the last part of her task. Replacing the brass key where she’d found it, Teagan hesitated one last time in the center of the room. Looking around her, she felt as if the stage had been set tonight for some frightening invisible drama that had yet to play out. All of her tasks—each of the simple acts she had carried out exactly as he ordered—appeared innocent enough on their own and yet together, she couldn’t shake the feeling they spelled something very wrong. She wondered fleetingly if Sir might not be a little unbalanced in the head. The notion made her eager to leave.

  Her hands were trembling as she pressed the down button on the elevator. As she stepped between the doors, she almost wished she’d never agreed to this whole bizarre bargain. Maybe she wouldn’t come back in the morning to finish up after all. Maybe she would let him keep his money.

  * * * *

  Back in her cardboard box in the shadowy alley, she devoured her bread and fruit with a speed born of long hunger. She shivered in the cold wind. It was at times like this she almost regretted her decision to avoid the homeless shelters. Unfortunately those were just the sorts of places her family might look for her. And being found wasn’t on her agenda. Not even if hiding on the streets meant starving.

  All she needed was the chance to find her feet, she promised herself for the thousandth time. A job was sure to turn up soon, and then she’d be able to get her life in shape. And she didn’t care what the work was. She’d waitress, she’d wash dishes, anything. But until then…

  She curled up in her bed of rags, shuddering beneath the onslaught of the cutting wind, but at least knowing the comfort of a full belly for the first time in days. Trying to work a little warmth into her freezing fingers and toes, she lay awake and remembered the soothing heat of the fireplace in Sir’s den and the softness of the thick carpet beneath her feet. Then she thought of the stocked refrigerator and cursed herself for not having taken more food.

  She couldn’t sleep that night. Cold and fear for the future kept her awake. By the time the blackness of the sky was beginning to give way to a pale gray in the east, she knew her decision was made. She was going back. She had already done most of the work last night. It would be foolish not to return and claim her reward.

  It was a short walk to Sir’s apartment house. It took her so little time to reach her destination that the moon was still up and a bare scattering of stars twinkled in the lightening sky when she arrived. She had warmed herself a little with the exercise, but unfortunately had worked up a raging hunger as well. Last night’s snack was just a torturous memory now. Maybe it would have been better if she hadn’t eaten at all.

  She didn’t give any thought to how she was to get into the building until she found herself standing before the doorman. The neatness of his uniform and the skeptical expression on his face when he saw she intended to enter reminded Teagan that last night she’d had Sir here to gain her admittance. But there was one stroke of luck in her favor. This was the same man who had held the door for them last night.

  She gave a sketchy explanation of having done some work for the gentleman in the penthouse the night before, and how he had told her to come back again in the morning. To her relief, he accepted the explanation without question. Was Sir always doing things this eccentric? Then again, maybe the doorman was just used to a parade of female visitors on their way up to the penthouse. She w
ouldn’t be surprised. Sir was good looking, rich…a magnet for certain kinds of women.

  She passed quickly through the fancy lobby, feeling uncomfortably out of place as she stepped into the glass elevator. She was getting used to the view down, or at least she was no longer sickened by it, as the elevator shot upward to the top floor.

  She found the penthouse just as she’d left it. The unsettling piece of music was still crashing over the sound system. The table setting rested where she had left it, to all appearances, having remained untouched throughout the night. Even the goblet of wine was still full. Maybe Sir’s mystery visitor had never arrived. Certainly Sir, himself, didn’t seem to have returned yet.

  Glancing around at the empty apartment, Teagan felt her nerve rise enough she contemplated raiding the refrigerator again. She could remember a time when she had drawn the line at stealing. That was a long time ago however. Her brief stint on the street was already teaching her she could do a number of things for food she had never thought herself capable of before. Besides, it wasn’t as if a man like Sir would miss just one or two items from his overflowing kitchen.

  She wrestled with all of these thoughts as she cleared away the spotless dishes, replacing them in the cabinet. Casting a surreptitious glance around her, she threw her head back and emptied the wine glass. No use dumping it down the drain. She hesitated over the dirty glass, and then left it in the sink. She wasn’t being paid for housekeeping. Besides, the spotless state of the rooms evidenced a capable housekeeping staff was frequently on hand.

  It was a relief to turn off the blaring music. After so much noise, the silence descending suddenly over the room was unnerving. Teagan remembered the eerie feeling of the night before, but did her best to set it from her mind. She wouldn’t be frightened away—not before she received her money. As she entered the den, a glance at the pendulum clock told her it was still a few minutes until six—the hour she had been instructed to return and fulfill her tasks. The sky, visible through the long living room window, was still almost black.