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wooden pews and single stained glass window. A solemn aura of gravitas shrouded the room, but I found it peaceful rather than sorrowful—a completely different sensibility than that dreadful tower.
    As I approached the entrance to the north tower, my logical conclusion that the
    twins played there began to crumble, and a sense of foreboding crept through me like early morning mist. My pace slowed, and I didn’t want to take another step closer. Again a weight of hopeless despair settled on me, and I hadn’t been feeling particularly melancholy until that very moment.
    I inhaled and reached out to grasp the door handle. It’s just masonry. Don’t be a nancy, Nancy. I turned the handle and pulled, but the door wouldn’t open. I turned and tugged again. The mechanism seemed to operate smoothly. I could only surmise the wooden door must be swollen into its frame. Very odd since it had been ajar less than an hour before.
    I grabbed with both hands and pulled with all my strength. It felt almost as if the door were bolted on the other side. Perhaps the children had latched it to keep adults out of their private domain. Likely they stood on the stairwell even now, holding back their giggles at my vain attempts to breach their sanctuary.
    “Whitney. Clive,” I called. “Come out now. It’s nearly time for lunch.”
    If the promise of food couldn’t lure them out, I didn’t know what might. The truth was I had no control over my charges and didn’t know how to impose order. Sooner or later, I would be sacked and probably should be.
    I gave one last try, hauling with all my strength, and in that moment, a feeling
    swept over me like an ocean wave. I wasn’t fighting against a latch or a stuck door.
    Someone or some thing lurked on the other side. Not two little boys, but a powerful force blocking me from entering the tower. I felt it in the most primitive part of my being.
    There was something malevolent residing on the other side of that door. I let go of the metal handle as if it were hot iron and stumbled back several steps.
    My mouth was so dry, I could barely gather enough moisture to speak. “Boys,
    enough of your games,” I croaked. “I expect to see you in the schoolroom within ten minutes. Do you hear me?”
    With that querulous command, I scurried away like a rat, back down the corridor,
    which was becoming quite familiar, and all the way to the schoolroom without pausing.
    I stopped short in the doorway. Whit and Clive looked up from the table at which
    they sat with plates of food before them, lumps of something floating in gravy.
    I caught my breath and clung to the doorway to keep my legs from crumpling.
    There was no way they could have reached this room ahead of me if they’d been in the tower. Not as fast as I’d run.
    Perhaps some other member of the household? I tried to explain away my
    certainty that there’d been a presence on the other side of that door. But who, and why would anyone be there?
    I couldn’t shut out the persistent voice that whispered in my head, You know it wasn’t a flesh-and-blood being. You know it was something else.

Chapter Five
    I reined in my galloping imagination and shook off my superstitious
    apprehension. Someone had locked the door. That was all. Anyway, there were more
    immediate and concrete things to deal with right in front of me.
    I managed to enter the room smiling. “Good day, boys. How’s the meal? I see you
    waited for me. Good of you.”
    I took my place at the small table and uncovered the unappetizing-looking meal.
    But the smell wafting up made my stomach growl, and when I tasted a forkful, the stew was surprisingly good.
    Whitney and Clive exchanged another of their looks, then both pairs of eyes
    settled on me, making me not the least bit self-conscious or uncomfortable.
    “Did you get sacked?” Whit asked.
    “Your father merely wanted to discuss your education.” I chewed and swallowed
    another bite. “By the way, I found both of your