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they seen the mountains from Westport? Where was the mysterious Dr. Pym? And why—this troubled her most of all—were there no children anywhere?
    “Well, team”—Michael stood and brushed the snow off his coat—“we’d better be getting back.” Since becoming leader, he had taken to referring to Kate and Emma as his team. “There’re still a few rooms I want to get to before dinner. And I heard Miss Sallow mention something about beef potpie.”
    Returning to the house, they discovered a room filled only with clocks, another that had no ceiling, and another that had no floor. And then they discovered the room with the beds.
    It was on the ground floor at the southwestern end. There were at least sixty old metal bed frames, all ordered in rows. “It’s a dormitory,” Michael said. “Like in a real orphanage.” But when they opened the curtains, the children found iron bars on the windows. They didn’t stay in the room long.
    It was close to dinnertime when they descended a flight of stairs and pushed through a half-rotted door into the wine cellar. The air was cold and musty. The beams of their flashlights played across row after row of empty racks.
    Michael found a narrow corridor at the back of the cellar and followed it to where it ended in a brick wall. He’d just turned away when Emma and Kate came around the corner.
    “What’d you find?” Emma asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “Where’s that go?”
    “Where’s what go?”
    “Are you blind? That.”
    Michael turned. Where moments before had been a solid brick wall, there was now a door. He felt the breath go out of him and his heart begin to pound against his chest.
    “What’s wrong?” Kate asked.
    “Nothing, just”—he struggled to keep his voice steady—“that door wasn’t there a second ago.”
    “What?”
    “He’s kidding,” Emma said. “It’s part of his exploring, pretending-dwarves-are-real, boring-everyone-to-death game, remember?”
    “Is that true?” Kate said. “You’re just playing?”
    Michael opened his mouth to tell her no, he was telling the truth; then he saw the look in her eyes and knew if he said that, she would make them leave. And what was he saying? That the door had appeared out of nowhere? That was impossible. Obviously, he had missed it somehow.
    Only he hadn’t. He knew that.…
    “Michael?”
    “Yes. I was kidding around.” And he smiled to show that everything was okay.
    “Told you he was being weird,” Emma said. “Look how he’s smiling.”
    The door opened easily and revealed a narrow flight of stairs going down. Michael went first, counting each step aloud. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two … forty-three, forty-four, forty-five … fifty … sixty … seventy. At the eighty-second step, they came to another door.
    Michael stopped and faced his sisters.
    “I have a confession. I lied. The door wasn’t there.”
    “What—”
    “I’m sorry. Leaders should never lie to their team. I just really wanted to find out what was down here.”
    Kate shook her head angrily. “We have to go—now.”
    Emma groaned. “He’s just playing that game again. Tell her.”
    “Come on, both of you!”
    “Kate—” Michael went up a step so he was close to her. “Please.”
    Afterward, Kate would sometimes think about this moment—out of all the moments—and wonder what might have happened if she hadn’t given in, if she hadn’t looked at Michael and seen his eagerness, his excitement, the desperate plea in his eyes.…
    “Fine,” she sighed, telling herself that in the dimly lit cellar he simply hadn’t seen the door, that there was no need to over-react. “Five minutes.”
    Instantly, Michael had his hand on the knob. The door opened to darkness.
    They moved forward in two groups, Kate and Emma to one side, Michael to the other, their flashlights revealing a lab or study of some kind. The ceiling was curved, giving the space a cave-like feel, and it was either very large, very small, or