The Doll's House: Exclusive Short Story

by Niki Valentine

Genres: Action & Adventure

Synopsis

Helena is an au pair in Paris, discovering the city and looking after two privileged and beautiful little girls: Sophie and Matilde.

ut the longer Helena works for the family, the more the attraction between herself and the twins' father grows. Determined to keep her job, Helena fights her feelings, but the girls seem to know and become increasingly manipulative. Anxious and on edge, Helena is disturbed by the twins' doll's house, an exact replica of their family home - and everyone inside it. When the Dolls are put in strange places and odd things start to happen in the house, seemingly beyond anyone's control, Helena is petrified. And the twins watch and wait...

A terrifying and bewitching thriller that will haunt you well past the last page.

A short story.

Release date: September 13, 2012

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Print pages: 120

Sample

As Helena waited in the nursery for Marguerite Benoit to return, she had a sensation of déjà vu creep over her skin and crawl through her scalp. It was odd that she would feel this, as she had never been to Paris before, much less spent any time in this kind of household. The Benoits were very well off. Their town house stretched tall over the Marais, with old-fashioned chimney pots and a blue-and-white number plaque to announce where they were. The place reminded Helena of French textbooks at school. Bonjour Madame Benoit, bonjour Monsieur Benoit, bonjour Matilde et Sophie Benoit.

A reflection from across the room caught her eye, then the toy it had glanced off. Helena stood up and walked over for a closer look. It was a doll’s house. She had always wanted one; not the plastic toys that you could buy in the high-street shops but one like this, finely crafted. She examined it carefully and realised it was a replica of the Marais town house in which she stood. She stared, touching its doors and windows, looking inside. It appeared to be exact in every detail. Even the wallpaper matched that in the room around her.

There were dolls inside, small figurines placed around the rooms, some sitting at the dining table, which was set for a meal. Another was in bed upstairs and yet another watching TV in the lounge. There were five figures. Mother, father, two little girls, twins, of course, and a teenager. The older child was in the nursery and, of all things, she was playing with the doll’s house. Helena reached inside and pulled out the mother for a closer look. The doll bore more than a passing resemblance to Madame Benoit. ‘Call me Marguerite,’ Helena squeaked out in a not especially good impression of her employer’s voice. Then she turned, getting that sense you do when someone is standing behind you.

‘Lovely, isn’t it?’ Marguerite was in the doorway, the two little girls by her side. The family group was all smiling but none of them looked sincere.

Flushing, Helena walked back to her seat. She wasn’t sure if Marguerite had overheard her making fun. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said. She did think the doll’s house was beautiful, on the surface. But she wasn’t sure it was lovely. She wasn’t at all convinced she liked it. The detail was a little too accurate. Perhaps it was this, in part, which had triggered her déjà vu.. . .