Be a Doll(4)

Since coming to the Manor I had met many very important men and none of them ever unsettled me, maybe because most of them were old enough to be my father and the ones young enough to be considered close to my age weren’t interesting in the least.

Mr. Grimes, though, he was interesting, merely because I couldn’t read him and at Carter Manor we’ve been taught to read people to better act accordingly. I had never realized how much I had relied on the skills I acquired here before.

“It says here that you don’t have any relatives.’’

“Indeed.’’

Once again, he drew his lower lip with the tips of his fingers, his eyes trained on me as if he was contemplating something, and considering the deep frown on his face it didn’t seem very pleasant.

My mouth dried as I waited for his next question, his next move. Someone like him couldn’t have acquired so much in so little time if he wasn’t a few steps ahead of everybody else. If I didn’t want to either become his wife or go back to where I came from to be homeless, I needed to be careful. At least, it was starting to be quite obvious that he wouldn’t be picking me as his wife considering how guarded he was and how stone cold he stared at me.

“It looks like they’ve trained you well. I wonder how come you received these two marks on your file.’’

I blinked and briefly glanced at the file still poised on his powerful thigh. My eyes then wandered to his hand holding it in place. He really had strong and big hands, something I wouldn’t have expected on a businessman, more on a man who worked with his hands. The thick wrists only accentuated what was blatant about him; he was the kind of strong who was unyielding in all aspects.

“I’m afraid I wasn’t a good match to the men I met previously,’’ I retorted using the same controlled voice I had been using since stepping in the interview room.

Suddenly, he closed the file and threw it on the console table between us. It glided a few inches before it stopped, right next to the tea service. My eyes widened a fraction of a second at the sudden move, but I otherwise didn’t move. My hands briefly gripped the fabric of my dressing pants, but I quickly relaxed and hoped he hadn’t seen my reaction. I couldn’t give him any ammunition to shoot me on sight when he talked to Mrs. Stein, which would lead me exactly where I didn’t want to go. The streets.

“Not a good match, you say?’’ He crossed his arms over his chest and I found myself watching the fabric molding more to the muscles in his shoulders and arms, accentuating the obvious strict regimen he lived by, made of sports and a good diet. I bet that man exerted control in all aspects of his life and I couldn’t see myself living with such a man. Really, I couldn’t see myself living with a man, period. It was pretty ironic considering I lived in a wife making palace.

“Miss Hodge, from what I’ve seen so far, you seem very…’’ he trailed off as if searching for the right word. “Tamed.’’

Tamed? Like an animal?

I swallowed past the boulder in my throat, this time formed not from fear but from an anger I couldn’t unleash. Frustration filled me. I tensed on the couch and a distant part of me hoped it wasn’t visible, but the biggest part of me didn’t care much. I knew I was slipping, playing right into his hand. I couldn’t fathom why he was pushing me, but it was working. Maybe he was a sadist and wanted to ruin me because I disappointed him. I didn’t know and I honestly didn’t care. I wouldn’t see him after this interview anyway.

“Were you expecting some kind of animal, Mr. Grimes? Mrs. Stein makes sure all her trainees are respectable women before we meet a prospective husband.’’

He sighed and waved me off with an off-handed movement of his hand, his attention now away from me and back to the door. “Yes, of course. Listen pet, would you buzz and ask for Mrs. Stein?’’

I blinked at him, mouth slightly ajar. It probably ruined the picture perfect lady I was supposed to incarnate, but ‘pet’!

“What?’’ I asked brusquely.

He pointed at the button next to the door that would call one of the maids in the Manor. “That button, press it for me, pet.’’ Then, when I still didn’t move, he locked eyes with me and gave me what I could only describe as a smirk. One side of his mouth turned higher up than the other, carving a wicked dimple on his perfectly shaved cheek. “Be a doll.’’

Be a doll.

Be a doll?

A doll. Yes, that’s exactly what I was. A doll, someone who didn’t think with her head, but followed someone else’s whims and orders. I was supposed to sit there and look pretty. That was all my life was reduced to.

Carter Manor was a damn doll factory.

And that man was an asshole. If I had to go back to the streets and be forever homeless, I’d rather go with a bang by lashing out at that insufferable man.

My mind made up, I sprung to my feet without a care if I moved with grace or if I teetered on my high heels and pointed at him with my perfectly manicured hand from my side of the console table. “You have no right to treat me as if I was nothing. You may be here to shop for a wife, but you should remember that we’ve all been trained to be able to think by ourselves and I’m smart enough to recognize a despicable man when I see one. I’m not going to be standing in this room while you degrade me with such a condescending behavior.’’