She didn’t think so. In fact, the structure had the look of an outbuilding rather than a house.
A dairy, perhaps?
Delmare’s grunts interspersed with scraping noises. She followed the sounds, hoping he hadn’t already found a way inside.
“Delmare!” Would there be rats?Please, no rats!“Come back at once!”
“Very well, ma’am.AfterI’ve had a look.”
She spotted him above them and gasped. Using a tree, he’d scrambled up the side of the building and was peering into one of the windows with a loosened covering.
“Come down! Now! It doesn’t look safe.”
“It’s not,” he replied cheerfully. “Board’s loose.”
“You don’t know how dangerous it could be.”
“I know what I’m doing,” he insisted. “We’ve been here before, haven’t we, Fee?”
Fee and Delmare exchanged glances.
“Uncle Heven was with us,” Delmare added.
She narrowed her eyes. “And did Uncle Heven not also forbid you from returning on your own?”
Delmare groaned. “Iknewyou’d babble.”
“I didn’t know about bending rules, then,” Fee explained.
“Delmare!” Hera called up warningly.
Fee wrapped her arm more closely around Hera’s neck in the manner of someone about to bestow a confidence. “We aren’t permitted on the laneby ourselves. But you’re with us, aren’t you? That changes everything.”
“I’m not sure the duke would agree,” Hera replied. “Comedown, Delmare.”
Deftly, he swung off the tree. “What couldpossiblybe so bad about a carriage house?”
“Ghosts, Dunderhead!” Fee replied.
“No such thing, Goose,” he answered.
“Is that what this is?” Hera directed the question to Felicia. “A carriage house?”
Fee nodded. “Asecondcarriage house. There’s another inside the lower bailey. But Uncle Heven’s Papa had a great many carriages, so he built this one.”
“Let me show you,” Delmare suggested.
Before she could protest, he had rounded the building and, from the metallic squeal that rent her ears, was already tugging at the door.
Just a carriage house.
What harm could there be? Then again, why did she have such an eerie feeling? And why did she suspect the children weren’t telling her the whole story?
“Wait!” She cried. “Don’t go inside.”
The squeaking ceased. And, when she rounded the corner, she found the door partway open and Delmare standing guard. At least he’d listened, for once.
And, she hadn’t seen any rats...yet.
