Read The Door in the Moon for Free Online Page B

telephone, and dialed. While the ringtone sounded, he glanced around, dark eyes wary.
    A single black cat sat at the top of the stairs.
    He turned away from it as she answered.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œRebecca? It’s Maskelyne.”
    â€œOh . . . hi . . .” She sounded breathless, sleepy.
    â€œDid I wake you?” he said.
    â€œIt’s the middle of the night! What do you think? Even students have to sleep sometimes.”
    He imagined her hair, all tumbled on the pillow as she sat up and said, “What’s wrong? Is it the mirror?”
    She could always tell a lot from his voice, he thought. “In a way.” He stared unseeing at the open casement, where a frond of ivy was growing in. “It’s Jake. He’s been kidnapped.”
    â€œWhat!”
He felt her shock.
    â€œSomeone came through the mirror tonight and took him. Sarah’s gone too; it seems she followed them. Do you understand what I’m saying, Becky? They’ve
journeyed
and have no bracelet to come back with. They could be anywhere. It’s a disaster.”
    Her breathing. Then: “I’ll come straight back.”
    â€œNot if . . .”
    â€œI’ll come now. I’ll be there in an hour.”
    â€œDon’t wreck your degree. That’s more important.”
    She said, “Writing essays on the past is pretty dull after
journeying
into it. And I can skip one lecture. How’s George taking this?”
    â€œHard.”
    â€œWhere is he?”
    â€œIn the Wood.”
    She seemed to laugh, uneasy. “Wharton-in-the-Wood. Sounds like a lovely little village. Why on earth is he—”
    â€œHe’s gone to get Venn.” Maskelyne’s husky voice was quiet. “But, between us, I don’t know if Venn even cares anymore. About Jake, about any of it. Venn is with Summer now. She has her claws tight in him, and this is her season. He’s been changing. Becoming more Shee. He hasn’t been at the house for over a week. I fear we’ve lost him, Becky, and with him any chance of saving his wife and Jake’s father.”
    â€œI would have thought that wouldn’t worry you too much,” she said tartly. “If Venn loses interest in the mirror, you get it.”
    Silence.
    Maybe she was sorry, because she said, “I didn’t—”
    â€œI deserved that. But the mirror is already mine, and always has been. And I am beginning to think that defeating Janus and regaining Leah are two aspects of the same problem.” He smiled, weary. “Come as quick as you can. This eruption from the past has energized the Chronoptika. I hear its anger in the corners of my mind. That worries me.”
    She said, “I’ll be there.”
    He nodded, put the phone down, and stood still. Then he crossed to the open window and tried to shut it. But the casement would not close. Ivy had grown thickly inside; already a long bine of glossy leaves had attached itself to the woodwork of the sill, leaving clinging fragments as he pulled it away.
    He gazed at the leaves, then walked down and looked at the other windows. In the hot weather they were all open wide. Their hinges were clotted with greenery. In one, a tiny diamond pane had been cracked by a bramble. Moths fluttered around the hall.
    Maskelyne turned and went quickly down to the kitchen.
    Piers had the baby, Lorenzo, in one arm and was feeding him from a bottle. Horatio, Jake’s cheeky little marmoset, was hanging upside down from the chimney among bubbling saucepans, spitting nut shells into the fire.
    Gideon was eating biscuits dipped in coffee, savoring each mouthful intently, as if it would be his last.
    â€œIs she coming?” Piers asked.
    â€œStraightaway. Look at this.” Maskelyne put the ivy branch on the table. Gideon’s hand paused in midair as he saw it.
    â€œThe Wood is starting to creep inside. The windows in the hall—”
    Gideon