“Oh yes,” Sara said. “And I’ve put every memory in my books. Who is Billy? And ‘the man’? Not to mention all the other people. I’ve counted seven so far.” Sara opened another door to see a small bedroom with twin beds. “Kate!” she called. “Where did you and your dad stay?”
Kate came back to the hall. “That’s the one.” She meant the room Sara was looking into. “Now for my favorite room on this floor.”
As Jack and Sara followed her to the end of the hall, they paused to look into the bedrooms. It was obvious that they had once been beautifully decorated, but the furniture that was still there was scuffed and rickety and very dusty. You could write your name on the surfaces. The rooms were sad copies of what they had once been.
“The bedroom she and Randal stayed in is a servant’s room,” Sara said to Jack. “My guess is that when my brother worked for Mrs. Meyers, he and Kate came here with her for a visit.”
“Sounds like there were a lot of people here.”
“A good, old-fashioned Edwardian house party.”
The dreamy way Sara said it made Jack shake his head. “Are we living in one of your books?”
“We should be so lucky.”
“Come on!” Kate called, and they went to her. She was standing by the double doors of a beautiful room. The wallpaper was of huge jungle plants. There were shelves filled with books, DVDs in cases, and neatly labeled VHS tapes. The furniture was a desk and chair, a couch, and a big leather recliner that faced a white screen.
“It’s a movie room.” Sara was turning around to look at it.
“It’s a time capsule,” Jack muttered, and not in a good way. “It’s a bit freaky for me.”
Sara’s attention was caught by the framed paintings on the wall. They were street scenes of somewhere in South America. None of them were very big, but they were original oils. She went to one of them. “I may be wrong but I think these are Brazilian. In fact, I think most everything in this room was made in Brazil.” Sara had done a lot of traveling in her long life.
“Anything valuable?” Jack asked.
“Possibly.”
“I always thought the pictures were pretty.” Kate sounded defensive. “Who wants to see the secret rooms?”
Sara and Jack looked at her in amazement. She did sound like a child.
“You know me,” Sara said. “I love secrets.”
“As long as they’re not yours,” Jack said, then hurried after Kate as she left the pretty room.
Sara stayed behind. As a true introvert, she recognized that the room was someone’s sanctuary. It had been created as a haven, a place to get away from the outside world. She looked at the titles on the movies. Some were commercial hits, but Sara recognized a few titles for the obscure, cultlike movies that they were. She’d seen several of them.
Reluctantly, she went to the doorway. She very much wanted to stay there. “Who are you?” she whispered. “Who created this hideaway?” If land and furniture had been sold, probably for the need of money, why was this room left untouched, even to leaving valuable paintings on the walls?
As she gave one last look around, a curtain moved, yet there was no wind. Sara smiled. Ghosts? If so, they certainly didn’t scare her. One thing about aging was that it made you feel closer to the spirit world.
She went back into the hall and called out, “Where are you two?”
What looked to be a wallpapered panel swung out to show Jack standing at the bottom of a flight of narrow stairs.
“Oooooh,” she said. “Secret stairs. Secret rooms. I’m in love.”
At the top of the stairs, Jack stopped by a closed door. It was painted white and in good condition. “Another untouched room?” Sara asked.
“You’re going to like this one.” With a flourish, he opened the door.
Inside was a children’s playroom. It was big and dusty and there were some cobwebs, but they couldn’t hide the beauty of the space. The hardwood floor had a large, handloomed rug that showed a Florida swamp. Alligators, flamingos, blue herons, and fish were peeping from under dense foliage.
There were toys everywhere, mostly wooden but a few metal trucks. To one side was a two-seater glider painted blue and white. One wall was all windows with a deep seat under it. The cushions matched the colors in the big rug. Shelves were filled with books and soft toys.
Kate was in front of the books. “I know all of these. Everyone read them to me. Barbara was the best. She could make any animal sound.”
Jack picked up a metal truck and looked at Sara.
