Chapter 13 - BLACKWOOD HOUSE
Lily did not want to live at Blackwood House.
I assumed she would.
My mistake.
We spent two weeks there after emergency placement.
She stopped sleeping.
Every creak made her sit up.
Every staff uniform made her stare.
The tea cart terrified her.
One morning she asked:
“Do we have to live where Nora worked?”
No.
The answer was obvious once she asked.
I moved us.
Not permanently at first.
Townhouse in the city.
Three bedrooms.
No live-in staff.
Cleaner twice a week.
I learned how incompetent I was at laundry.
Lily found this delightful.
“Daddy, pink doesn’t go with white.”
“I know now.”
“You made everything pink.”
“Yes.”
“Even your shirt.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Normal disaster.
Blackwood House remained company/family property under a separate estate trust.
It did not need to become our home.
The board proposed converting part of it into event space.
Maybe later.
For now, professional staff maintained it.
Every domestic employee received new employment agreements.
No child labor.
Obviously.
No family manager with unilateral control.
Independent grievance channel.
Access logs.
Medication handling prohibited to household staff except licensed caregivers.
Rules built from harm.
Not memorial plaques.
I removed Nora’s office.
Not because rooms are guilty.
Because the domestic operation no longer needed a throne.
Lily’s old maid uniform stayed in evidence until appeals ended.
May you like
She never asked for it again.
Good.
