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faced another long corridor with two doors on the left and one on the right. The stairwell opened up like a cavern at the end, the first few steps exposed and then swallowed into the wall as they curved around.
    John went to the door on the right first. “This here is the library and my study.” He opened the door to reveal shelves of books, leather armchairs, reading tables, and a heavy wood desk with an overbearing chair like a dark throne. A narrow back rose to a point higher than any man’s head. The chair was fashioned from a strange wood that looked cold and hard like metal. It was painted a blackish brown and bore sharp, elaborate etchings.
    He closed the door and pointed across the hall at the first door on the left. “That is the parlor again, the door you asked about.”
    “We could have gone straight through?”
    “I don’t want to make a habit of taking shortcuts. These corridors are here for a reason.”
    I dropped my shoulders but tried to appear agreeable.
    He opened the second door on the left. “The dining room.” Inside was a narrow room with wood floors and wainscoting. The upper section of the walls had been covered in maroon wallpaper. High-backed chairs surrounded a long dinner table. A sideboard, a third the table’s size, sat against the right wall, along with a rolling server and a cabinet topped with green decanters. I would be especially keen on ridding the room of its unrelenting nature theme. The chairs had insects carved into them. The table swirled with vines. The silver and the servers were shaped like salamanders and leaves. The pitcher even had a leaf for a lid. The decanters were made of bright, glowing green crystal, as if each had its own little fairy imprisoned inside. John shut the door.
    Then he pointed to two doors to the right of the basement stairs. “That’s the bath chamber and the servants’ entrance, which leads to the outhouse.”
    I opened the bath-chamber door to find a claw-foot tub, but oddly the feet looked like those of a crow or a raven, not a bear or a lion. An equally dark washstand, basin and jug accompanied the tub, with black birds flying in spirals around the jug and spreading to the basin as if plunging to their deaths.
    “Shall we see the upstairs?” he asked.
    “The kitchen?”
    “It’s in the basement.” He pointed to the right of the staircase, where an even smaller set of stairs twisted down into a dark chasm.
    “Down there?”
    “Yes. You’ve seen houses like that in the city, I’m sure.”
    I had seen houses like that. Usually, the lady of the house never stepped foot in the kitchen because the family had cooks, butlers, and servants. My family hadn’t even that many servants, so a newlywed couple certainly couldn’t afford to pay poor souls to go down there.
    “It’s a marvel, really. Most homes around here don’t have them because of the high water table, especially being so close to the river. Apparently, this property is on a slant and there’s natural drainage. It is prone to leaks but stays cool for food storage. I’m told you can even keep ice down there in the summer.”
    “Wonderful.”
    “Come now, upstairs.”
    We scaled the constricted staircase. It twisted right after the first five or so steps and disappeared behind a wall. Once it turned, there were white walls on both sides and a low ceiling. It felt as if they leaned inward. After two more rights, we reached the landing and another dark hallway so narrow it couldn’t be decorated with little tables or flower pots as most hallways were.
    We passed a door on the right and one on the left. “Those rooms are furnished, but we have no use for them.” A final door faced us at the end of the hallway. The staircase had circled around, and we were facing the front of the house again.
    “And this is our chamber.” John opened the door to reveal, finally, an agreeable room. It had pale wood floors and white walls. The furniture was plain, well crafted, and made of a