Chapter 26

"A what?!" Landon asks, looking at me. His eyes full of shock.

"It's not what you think," I explain quickly. "The only thing I did there was clean. Nothing more."

"I don't get it anymore," Chris says, running a hand through his hair. "What exactly happened to you after you were taken?"

I take a deep breath and start talking. "Well, you already know that I've been staying at Madame's for about two years. Before that I was a... worker, at the workhouse-"

"More like a prisoner," Sam says.

I smile sadly. "You could call it that. But anyway, I was taken there when I was about nine or something. What happened before that is still a bit of a haze. But anyway, there I was ordered to, well, clean basically, every day, the whole day. If I didn't do what I was told I didn't get any food, but even when I did get food it was just enough to live off."

"Usually me and the other girls all gave her little bits of our own food," Sam adds. "Seeing as we got a lot more to eat."