Eldritch Manor (4 page)

Horace smiled. “Plants have all the patience in the world. The only thing they have to worry about is growing. This one, however, listens. It knows all our secrets and one day it might just tell all!”

Willa was staring at him. “But plants can't talk.”

“It called you in here, didn't it? You heard it.”

He replaced the book as Willa thought about the tapping leaves. And the other odd things in the house.

“Can you tell me about the brownie?”

“What do you want to know?”

“I still don't know why he left. And is he really a brownie?”

Horace leaned on one elbow. “He certainly is. Brownies are very hard workers. That little fellow kept this whole place together. Worked day and night. Never complained and never took a day off. But brownies are also very secretive. If you
try
to see one, they pack up and leave forever.” He snapped his fingers. “And you're left to wash your dishes yourself.”

Willa thought this over. “When Miss Trang got so angry ...”

Horace stopped her. “Willa, surely you've noticed there are some rather ... odd things about this place. Miss Trang is very worried about people out there finding out about us. She just wants to keep outsiders out. When she became so angry with you, she wanted to scare you into staying away.”

“So she wouldn't really have hurt me?”

Horace sighed. “Well, I can't say that for sure. Miss Trang is full of surprises. None of us are entirely sure what it's capable of.”

“
It?
”

Horace smiled. “I meant ‘she,' of course. Now maybe you'd better scoot out of here before she gets back, hmm?”

Willa nodded.

On her way back down the hall she paused at the bathroom door. Belle loved her two- and three-hour baths, but it sure was a pain to mop up all the water she left on the floor. Willa had no idea how Belle managed to climb from the tub into her wheelchair on her own. She tapped gently on the door.

“Belle? Are you going to be much longer? I need to clean in there.” No answer. “Do you need any help? Belle?” She put her ear to the door and to her horror heard a faint gurgling sound. Dropping the watering can she jerked the door open, but it caught on the chain. Through the crack she saw Belle sit up in the tub with a splash, hissing at her angrily: “GET OUT!!”

“Sorry!” Willa quickly retreated. She leaned against the closed door for a moment and shut her eyes. The scene flashed through her mind ... the silvery hair, the shiny white skin ... the green scales, the fins.

Belle was a mermaid.

A weekend of worries and a very, very strange dinner

W
illa
finished up her work in the kitchen, trembling and anxious. Above her she heard Belle roll out of the bathroom and down the hall into her room, slamming the door behind her. Willa left for home soon after, ducking out before Miss Trang came home. It was Friday, so she had all weekend to fret and worry. Would Belle tell on her? Willa figured the fact that Belle was a mermaid would be pretty high on the list of things Miss Trang didn't want her to know about. She shivered every time she thought about Miss Trang getting angry. And every time she shut her eyes she saw the glimmering scales. At least now she knew why Belle wanted so badly to go to the ocean.

The weekend crawled by. There was no distraction from her worries until Sunday night, when Grandpa came over for dinner.

“Willa the Whisp!” he cackled as she ran up to give him a big hug. His ratty old sweater smelled of pipe smoke and salt air. His sunbeaten face was set in a perpetual grin, and his white hair stuck out in all directions, like he'd just come in from a gale. Willa always teased him about his hair. She even put a comb in his Christmas stocking one year, but he'd just laughed and played a tune on it with tissue paper.

Over dinner Grandpa entertained them with his favourite topics: the weather, the sea, and the weather out on the sea. Willa even forgot about Belle for a few minutes, listening happily.

Grandpa was loud and full of life. She could just picture him out on the water in his little boat, waving and calling out to the other boats. She knew his bad luck had made him infamous among the other fishermen. They all had good years and bad years, but Grandpa hadn't caught a single fish for as long as Willa had been alive, and even before. Whenever his boat wasn't rented out he'd still go out on the ocean, but not to fish. He claimed his trips were “picnic pleasure cruises,” but Willa knew he still had nets and rods stowed away on the boat, all carefully maintained and at the ready. Once he'd told her some of the other fishermen wouldn't even talk to him, they thought he was bad luck. Willa had been outraged, but he'd just laughed. “Superstitious old fools!”

Now, as Grandpa paused to shovel down his vegetables, Willa stared down at her peas and carrots and thought about the ocean. In her mind she saw Belle, slipping out of her wheelchair and sinking down into the sea, her silvery hair floating on the water and her tail flicking shimmery droplets into the air.

She cornered him after supper while her parents cleared the table.

“Grandpa ... there are a lot of ... strange things living in the ocean, right?”

“You bet.”

“Things that seem ... magic, even?”

He looked at her curiously. “Spit it out. What do you want to know?”

“Have you ever seen a mermaid?” She was afraid he'd laugh at her, but instead he started, his eyes wide with surprise.

“Well, now. What an odd question.”

“I was just ... I'm reading a book about them,” she fibbed. At this he relaxed, his face falling into the smile she'd been expecting in the first place.

“You want to know if there is magic out there in the world. Well ...
that
depends on who is doing the looking.” And that's all he would say on the matter.

She was still thinking about his words when she went up to bed. She found a small white card on her pillow and smiled, thinking it was from him. It wasn't. It was not signed, but Willa knew in the pit of her stomach that the long, spidery handwriting had to be Miss Trang's. The card read:

It is not necessary for you to come in to work tomorrow morning, but you are cordially invited to join us for dinner tomorrow night. 6 p.m. Do not be late.

How did the card get there? Was Miss Trang angry? Belle must have told. What was going to happen? At best she would probably lose her job. And at worst? She had no way of knowing. Even Horace said he didn't know what Miss Trang was capable of. And yet she had to go to the dinner. If she didn't, she knew she would never be able to go back, and the thought of all her questions about the house going unanswered forever was enough to drive her up the wall.

And so the next evening she walked up to the front door of the boarding house at exactly six o'clock, knees shaking, hands trembling, and brain rattling. Baz swung the door open. She didn't say a word, simply waved Willa into the parlour.

The lights were so low she could barely see. Miss Trang stood in the centre of the room and seated around her were Belle, Horace, Baz, and another gentleman in an armchair in the darkest corner — she could barely make him out at all. Miss Trang stepped forward, her eyes glittering in the gloom.

“Willa, we have invited you here tonight for a reason. You know ... about Belle.” She raised an eyebrow and Willa nodded. “A very serious matter. We held a house meeting to discuss what was to be done about you.” A shiver ran down Willa's spine. Miss Trang looked her straight in the eye.

“Willa Fuller. Would you like to continue working here?”

Willa nodded quickly.

Miss Trang regarded her for a moment before going on. “This house is exactly what it appears to be. An ordinary retirement home for seniors. The only part that isn't so ordinary is that we have retired from, shall we say, rather
unusual
careers in ... a different world from yours. A different time.”

The others were all nodding.

Miss Trang pursed her lips thoughtfully. “You might be someone useful to us, someone from the outside we can trust. Someone of uncommon character. ”

Someone useful? What did they want her to do? Willa wondered wildly. And did she have uncommon character? She didn't think so. Miss Trang was looking her up and down as if she was thinking the same thing.

“We need to know whether you can handle the rather
odd
things in this house without losing your
nerve.
”

Willa didn't know what to say, so she just nodded.

Miss Trang continued. “Tonight's dinner will be your test. You will finally meet all the residents of this house and see them as they really are. You will have dinner with us and ask no questions. You will be on your best behaviour and not stare, understand?”

“Yes, ma'am.” How hard could that be? Just be polite, keep quiet, and eat. Still, butterflies were fluttering in her stomach and she felt short of breath.

“Fine,” said Miss Trang. “Let's begin. You already know Mirabel.” Belle rolled forward in her chair and pulled the blanket off her shiny, shimmery mermaid tail. Willa glanced at it for only a moment then locked onto Belle's cool eyes. She curtsied. Belle raised an eyebrow and nodded quickly.

“Baz.” Baz stepped forward, smiling, but looking her old self. No surprises there. “Tengu.” She hadn't even seen the little man from the willow tree where he stood beside the piano. Now he stepped up, bowing to her, then adopting a fighting posture.

“Perhaps a display of my terrifying skills of combat—” He drew an elbow back sharply, knocking the birdcage behind him. Fadi hissed and gave him the evil eye. Miss Trang just shook her head wearily.

“No, no. Nothing of that sort is required, thank you.” Tengu gave a little karate chop in the air and stepped back, grinning at Willa.

Miss Trang gestured toward Horace. “Professor Horace St. Smithenwick.”

The old gentleman stepped forward and bowed very slowly. At least it looked like he was bowing, but he just kept leaning down and down until his fingers touched the floor, and as soon as they touched, his whole body began to change. Willa stared as his tweed jacket rippled smoothly into golden fur. His fingers curled on the carpet into paws and a long tail suddenly flicked in the air. He had transformed into a lion! Not all of him, though — his head was the same as before, the wavy silver hair, the kind eyes and the wire-rimmed glasses. Trembling, Willa stood her ground as the Horace-lion padded right up to her. She looked straight into his eyes, trying to forget the terrible long claws at the ends of his paws. Horace circled her, his tail tickling her shoulders and making her shiver. She took a deep breath to calm herself as he made his way into the dining room.

“You haven't yet met Robert.” Miss Trang nodded to the corner where the man in the armchair sat. In the gloom Willa could just make out glittering black eyes, a rather large red nose, and wisps of white hair combed across a very bald head. He wore a cardigan sweater over a rumpled shirt and tie. A very ordinary-looking old man, until the armchair beneath him rose unsteadily to stand on its four long legs. It wasn't an armchair at all, it was his body, a horse's body — four legs with hooves. He was a centaur. Willa had seen pictures of them in books, but they were always young. She'd never seen a picture of an old man centaur. His head was slightly bowed as it brushed the ceiling. His hooves thudded on the thick carpet as he moved slowly and carefully past her into the dining room, but he still managed to knock over a couple of chairs as he went.

Willa's heart was thumping. It was all too terribly exciting, but she was working to remain calm and composed. Or at least to look like she was.

“And last but not least, Mab.”

Willa looked around but no one was left. Everyone had gone into the dining room. Miss Trang pulled a small key from her pocket and went over to the dollhouse. She unlocked the padlock and opened up the front of the house, revealing tiny, perfect furnished rooms inside. In one room a small doll, no bigger than her little finger, sat on the sofa in a beautiful shimmery dress.

“Come on now,” Miss Trang murmured. “It's all right.”

Willa gasped in surprise as the “doll” stood up.

“Pleased to meet you,” sounded a faint, insect-buzzy voice.

Willa was so gobsmacked she couldn't speak for a moment. “Pleased to meet you,” she finally stammered.

Mab walked to the edge of her little room and jumped into the air. Sparkly transparent wings carried her flitting out of the room and into the dining room.

A fairy! A real live fairy! Willa felt her heart would burst. When she was very little she had spent countless hours in the backyard searching under toadstools and behind leaves for fairies. The pursuit eventually felt too silly and childish and she had turned to other pastimes, like stamp collecting. And now here she was, and fairies were real after all! She was so delighted and excited she wanted to laugh out loud. She had a million questions, but of course it was all a test, and if she failed she would never, ever see darling little Mab again, or Belle, or any of them, so she kept her mouth shut.

Miss Trang ushered Willa into the dining room. Everyone took their places around the table and Willa realized suddenly that she was quite hungry. She'd been so nervous about coming that she'd barely eaten a bite all day.

“Dinner smells delicious,” she ventured, which was true. Now the smells from the kitchen — pot roast with gravy, it smelled like — were making her mouth water. Baz hurried in and out, filling the table with covered dishes. When she was done, Miss Trang stood and, with a flourish, whipped the cover from a large silver soup tureen.

“Oooh!” and “Aah!” and “Lovely!” were heard around the table but all Willa could do was stare. The tureen was totally empty. She looked around to see if it was a joke, but everyone was dead serious. They held up their bowls and Miss Trang made a great show of ladling out nothing but air.

“Willa, would you like some soup?” All faces turned toward her. She froze. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. Was it special magic invisible food that everyone could see but her? Or was it a big joke? Were they laughing at her?

Willa smiled weakly and held up her bowl. “Yes, please. I'd love some soup.”

Everyone seemed to relax at that and began chatting over their imaginary meals. To Willa's right Robert jostled her elbow as he leaned forward to slurp up his nonexistent soup. Horace too lowered his face right into his bowl, lapping noisily. The others wielded their silver spoons, clattering them in the bowls and delicately lifting them to their mouths.

Over the main course Robert began arguing loudly with Baz about the amount of garlic in the non-existent mashed potatoes. He occasionally pounded a hoof on the floor for emphasis, shaking the whole table. Horace listened to them, chewing thoughtfully. His massive paws rested on the table, the claws idly tapping holes in the tablecloth.

Willa sat primly, quietly, trying not to stare. Right beside her sparkling little Mab was skipping about her plate as if it was a fairy ring, the china sounding ting-ting-ting with every step. And Baz kept creeping up silently behind Willa, making her jump every time she placed a new empty plate in front of her.

The only thing that kept Willa from getting jittery was Fadi in her cage, just visible over Belle's shoulder. The bird watched her steadily but kindly and even winked at her once. All she could do was pretend to eat. After all, that's what everyone else was doing.