The Maid's Secret

Molly recalls Gran telling her to be cautious about wishing for more in life, because “fate rarely gives without taking something away” (104). In the weeks since the egg was identified, she has become a popular subject for social media memes and late-night comedy sketches, and the catchphrase “I’m just a maid!” is everywhere (105). A Hidden Treasures film crew follows her and Juan around, shooting a short promotional documentary. She feels that her life is spinning out of control, but Juan is her steady center.

Molly is baffled by how amusing everyone seems to find her. The film crew even appears at her apartment, wanting to get footage of her, Juan, and John watching Hidden Treasures together. A wedding boutique reaches out and offers her a free wedding dress. She and Angela go to the boutique, and just when she is enjoying a little privacy and feeling exhilarated by her beautiful gown, Steve and the film crew pop out of hiding, complete with strangers they have hired to pretend to be Molly’s bridesmaids, and turn the special moment into yet another spectacle for the camera. Both Molly and Angela burst into tears.

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

In the days before the Braun meeting, Reginald huddles in his boardroom with his board of directors, talking strategy. Flora’s mother tells her that the situation is hopeless. At Reginald’s direction, Willy hires a large number of people from town to pretend to be servants. John Preston is one of them, and Flora criticizes him cruelly.

On the day of the summit, Flora is in school without John. She learns that his essay on Romeo and Juliet got the highest grade and tells him the news when she gets home. She then asks him to return Aesop’s Fables to the library so that she can use it for an upcoming assignment. John mentions that he chose to write about the story of the lion and the mouse. Flora understands his message: Powerless people can suddenly be powerful, under the right circumstances, and the powerful may need to depend on them. When he offers to help Flora with her essay, she insults him and goes off in a huff.

Flora changes into the low-cut green dress Audrey chose for her and joins everyone in the boardroom. She hears Magnus telling her father that he has already purchased the company and is just waiting to sign the final papers. Reginald desperately asks for some way out of the situation—like a merger—but Magnus is only interested in Flora, who is holding the book of fables. 

He asks what she is reading and seems amused at the idea of a female scholar. He asks her what she thinks about the business he is there to conduct, and she says that it reminds her of the fable of the lion and the mouse. He asks whether she would like to meet his son Algernon, and Audrey immediately answers yes for her and invites Magnus, his wife, and Algernon to attend the Workers’ Ball.

In the present, Molly is relieved when the day of the auction comes. She feels her life turning into a performance and her real identity slipping away. Brown and Beagle enter, and the glass case containing the egg is wheeled in and stationed between the thrones they use as seats during their show. They ask Molly whether she will miss the egg, and she replies that Gran taught her not to get attached to material things. Beagle mentions that his own grandfather died recently, and he understands how difficult it is to lose a grandparent.

When the show begins, Molly sits on the throne that Brown and Beagle have had made specially for her. They play the short documentary about Molly, and afterward, she frankly mentions how uncomfortable it makes her, adding that she does not understand what everyone sees in her. 

The auction finally begins, and the bidding escalates quickly until there are just three bidders left. Someone bidding by phone, represented at the auction by “Madam Orange,” bids $10 million. It is the final bid, and Brown concludes the auction. Suddenly, Juan shouts and points to the display case: The golden egg has vanished.

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

Flora doesn’t understand why her parents suddenly seem interested in and proud of her now. The Grays add significantly to their ball preparations, wanting to impress the Brauns. Wanting to ask Mrs. Mead what is happening, Flora follows her downstairs to the silver pantry, a part of the house she seldom visits. Mrs. Mead puts her to work polishing silver while she explains that Flora’s parents expect her to marry Algernon to save her father’s business and the family fortunes, Flora is horrified—she is too young to get married, she protests, and she wants to devote her energy to her studies.

Flora’s Aesop’s fables essay is the top essay in the class, and her fellow students start viewing her with more respect. She is surprised to see that John genuinely seems pleased for her. After class, he asks whether they could call a truce. Suddenly, she has a memory of a long-forgotten incident from their early childhoods: a group of girls destroyed one of Flora’s precious books, and John carefully repaired it for her and left it in a tree where they both played. Flora agrees to the truce and to save a dance for John at the Workers’ Ball.

In the present, chaos erupts at the auction, and Mr. Snow rushes out to call the police. Detective Stark, who Molly knows from previous cases, arrives with two other officers. Molly is nervous at the sight of Stark, who asks Molly if she would ever consider joining the police force. Molly says no. 

Stark asks a few preliminary questions and then demands that Steve turn over his footage of the show. She asks the audience for information, but everyone claims to have seen nothing unusual. When Stark examines the display case, she reveals that its bottom is slightly ajar. When she moves the case to the side, she sees that it is sitting atop a central vacuum port.

Molly takes Stark to the adjoining greenroom, where there is another port. Angela explains that someone left the onstage port open and then slipped into the greenroom, attached a hose to the greenroom port, and used it to suck the egg from its case into the greenroom. Molly leads Stark to the system’s collection canister in the utility closet, where they find a neatly typed note: “Dear Molly, Find the egg and you die” (147).

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

Gran recalls a story she once told Molly about a princess forced to choose between a frog and a prince. Molly thought she should choose the prince, not the dirty frog, but Gran told her that looking past appearances was important. She says that she will now recount the events in her own life that inspired this story.

On the night of the Workers’ ball, Flora stands with her parents as guests arrive. Mrs. Mead and Uncle Willy arrive with John, and Flora notes how handsome and self-assured he looks in his tuxedo. John tells Flora that she looks “ravishing” and kisses her hand. Audrey, angry at Flora’s obvious attraction to John, chastises Willy for not teaching his son his place. 

Later, Flora catches up with John and his family and apologizes for her mother’s behavior. Audrey finds her and tells her to dance with their guests, making it clear that she does not mean the workers. Flora approaches some boys from her class, but John follows Flora and asks her to dance. Although she knows it will upset her parents, she agrees.

Dancing with John is effortless and exciting. As they move around the floor, the pair chat about their upcoming final exams. Flora confesses that she is worried about failing and John reassures her that she is the smartest and most beautiful person he knows. She blushes, and John leans toward her, but just then the Brauns arrive. 

Magnus and Priscilla’s handsome son, Algernon, wears a flashy, modern suit very different from the formal tuxedos other men are wearing, and Flora thinks that his eyes are “icy blue, like the eyes of a wolverine” (154). Audrey beckons to Flora, and Flora obediently joins them. Algernon kisses her hand, and their parents send them off together to dance.

Flora finds Algernon dazzling, and she is flattered when he effusively praises her beauty. He suggests that she come along on his family’s upcoming vacation to Saint Tropez. Flora is charmed by the offhanded way he refers to his parents as “Mags” and “Prissy,” and her parents look proud. At the end of their first dance, Algernon kisses her in front of everyone, which would have outraged her parents had it been anyone other than Magnus Braun’s son.

Later, she runs into Mrs. Mead in the bathroom, comforting a crying young woman. Mrs. Mead asks Flora to stay close to John, but when John finds Flora and cautions her to be careful during the rest of the dance, she is flooded with resentment. She decides that John is trying to control her and accuses him of being jealous. She finds Algernon, who asks her on a date for the following Saturday and then kisses her again.

In the present, Molly is frightened by the note, but she chooses to focus on the bright side of her situation: At least for now, her life is back to normal, and Detective Stark is working hard to catch whoever stole the egg. Mr. Snow gives Angela permission to conduct a search of the hotel. 

After work, Juan stays to clean his kitchen after the search, and Molly decides to walk home by herself. As she nears her neighborhood, a black car follows her. A woman gets out. She looks familiar and tells Molly that the threat against her is real, and she needs to be careful.

She tells Molly that she was watching Hidden Treasures when Molly first appeared with the egg. She was watching the show with a man she used to work for and unwisely told him some things she should not have about Molly and about “Mom.” She asks whether Molly remembers her, and Molly suddenly remembers meeting the woman when she was 10 years old—it is her mother, Maggie Gray. Molly is suddenly afraid. She remembers that when she met her mother years ago, Maggie stole their rent money. Maggie pleads for understanding, saying that she had an addiction.

Maggie says that she remembers the Fabergé egg from when she worked at the Grimthorpe mansion. She reveals that Grimthorpe not only sexually assaulted Gran—which Molly already knew—he assaulted Maggie, too, which is why she ran away. She entered a relationship with “an even worse man” (168), and then, pregnant with Molly, she came home again briefly to try to raise her child. 

Maggie says that she is now hiding from the man who stole Molly’s egg. She claims that the Grimthorpes only had the golden egg in the first place because Gran stole it from somewhere else. Molly refuses to believe this. Maggie ends the encounter by asking Molly for money, and Molly is suddenly suspicious that her mother is making everything up in order to extort money. She tells Maggie no, and an angry Maggie gets back in her car with a mysterious warning to watch out for “men in trench coats” (170).

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

Desperate to keep her parents’ newfound approval, Flora ignores her misgivings about Algernon. The morning after the ball, Mrs. Mead tells Audrey and Reginald that the young woman she comforted at the ball once had an upsetting encounter with Algernon in college. Because Flora is in the room, Mrs. Mead does not specify what Algernon did. The Grays scoff at the story, implying that the young woman was either lying or at fault for whatever happened.

Flora loses interest in her classes and stops studying for the upcoming exams. She notices, though, that when she is with John, the prospect of Algernon is much less alluring. She fights her desire for him, knowing that her parents would be horrified by a romantic relationship between her and John. When John asks her to deny her feelings for him, she points out that he is a butler’s son, and he smiles, understanding that she does care for him but is afraid of her parents’ reactions. He warns her about the many rumors circulating about the Brauns, but she snaps that her parents knew best. She insults his family, and he angrily leaves her alone.

Audrey takes her shopping for an outfit for her date with Algernon, and for the first time, they genuinely enjoy one another’s company. Algernon arrives 15 minutes late, leaving his flashy convertible running in the driveway. At the drive-in movies, they see John, who claims he is just there to watch a movie. 

In the car, Algernon quickly turns his attention from the movie to Flora. At first, she enjoys kissing him, but when she tries to stop him from escalating the encounter, he ignores her. Whatever might have happened next is prevented by Mrs. Mead knocking on the car window. She claims that she and John have too much popcorn and offers Flora and Algernon some. She gestures to John and Willy nearby. After Mrs. Mead leaves, Flora apologizes to an angry Algernon, but what she really feels is relief.

In the present, when Molly finally returns home, Juan is overcome with relief. She realizes that he has secretly been worried about the threat against her but has been hiding it to help her feel safer. John Preston calls, also worried about Molly, and announces that he is coming over and bringing Angela. He is angry to hear that Maggie has reappeared. Detective Stark knocks at the door, and Molly tells everyone the whole story of her encounter with Maggie. Detective Stark says she will try to find Maggie.

Molly protests that she does not want to find Maggie or the egg, thinking that it might be the only way to stay safe. John points out that Maggie’s story might be a lie. Angela offers a theory that Molly is connected to the egg in some additional unknown way because the note specifically threatened her. John opens a bag and hands Molly Flora’s diary, explaining that Flora told him to give it to Molly when the time was right. Juan hands Molly the skeleton key Gran gave her, and Molly tries it in the diary’s lock. It immediately clicks open.