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over it as if
she was waiting desperately for someone.
I wasn't watching where I was going, so I
nearly screamed when Miss Puss charged past me,
grazing my lower leg and shooting ahead into the first
open doorway.
Great-aunt Frances paused there and turned to
me.
"This is it," she said. I wondered if she had seen
the cat go in.
I stepped up beside her and looked into what
was to be my room. My heart bobbed like a vo-yo in
my chest. There was a very large bed with a heavylooking, dark oak headboard and footboard, but the
bed obviously had been made hastily. The bedsheet hung too far on one side, and the pillows were stuffed too tightly into their cases, making them look bumpy and too rounded. There was a dull, cream-colored comforter with thread hanging from its edges. It appeared to have been tossed over the bed at the last moment. Grandmother Emma would have fired Nancy if she had made a bed like this. I thought, And our minder, Miss Harper? She would have had a heart
attack and Ian wouldn't have had to poison her. Curtains dangled limply around the two large
windows, one to the right and the other to the left of
the headboard. There were no shades to stop the
morning sunlight, and the grime around the corners of
the casings, the moldings and around the shelves on
the wall to the left announced that the room was in
desperate need of housekeeping. There were cobwebs,
too, in every corner of the ceiling. Whereas Ian would
call Grandmother Emma's house a museum of
antiques, he would surely call this house a museum of
dust. No one had been sent to greet us at the door, but
didn't Great-aunt Frances at least have a housekeeper? Again. I looked at Felix. Now he looked like he
would break into tears leaving me here. He was
paused just behind me, shaking his head gently. I
looked around the room again, at least pleased to see the small desk and chair even though they were both quite scratched. The desk was a little like the one I had back at the mansion. I'd sit there and do my homework. To the right of it was a large dresser that didn't match the bed. It was a much lighter shade of
wood and a different style. It, too, had scratches, "Here's the closet," Great-aunt Frances cried
and opened the closet door to reveal clothes on
hangers tightly stuffed against each other, squeezed in
to fit. "Oh, dear." she said, realizing there was no
space for my clothes. "I forgot to take my things out.
This was once my room," she said, smiling. "But
maybe some of those things would fit you. I tell you
what. You take everything out and try anything on
and choose anything you want, okay? And what you
don't want we'll have Lester take to the Salvation
Army, unless it fits his granddaughter,"
After she said that a tiny buzzer went off, and
she raised her wrist so quickly that I thought
something living in the closet might have bitten her,
but she was looking at her large-face watch. "Oh, dear me, dear me. It's time for Hearts and
Flowers. I never miss it. Never, never. I'll leave you to
get organized." she added and hurried past us, out the
door and down the corridor, Miss Puss crawled out from under the bed and looked up at us. Then she shot
past and after Great-aunt Frances.
Felix finally lowered my bags to the floor. He
sighed deeply and shook his head again as he looked
around the room.
"Yep. Mrs. March would sure be surprised." he
muttered. He approached the dresser. There were old
photographs in frames, a dark wooden jewelry box
and two ceramic angels on it. After he ran his hand
over the dresser, we could see the top was crusted in
dust.
"That daughter of Lester Marshall is supposed
to be caring for this house. That was the agreement
she made with your grandmother when Lester asked if
his daughter and her daughter could move onto the
property. Looks like she's got some back rent due." he
added. "I'm going to go have a word with her. by don't
you look around and see what you need before I leave
for Bethlehem," he added. "I'm just afraid I'd set