‘You had live-in servants?’
As someone whose chore had been cleaning the bathroom since the day she was old enough to hold a mop, it was an incomprehensible statement but Catherine didn’t seem to find it strange in the slightest.
‘My mother did but I couldn’t bear the thought of having all those extra bodies under my roof. Ashley manages the house quite well, so a full-time staff isn’t necessary. Except for Barnett, my driver? You may not remember but you met him yesterday. His father drove for my parents and my grandparents, and his father drove for us before that. He’s practically part of the family.’
‘Is he here now?’ I asked, peering through all the open doors as though he might pop out to introduce himself at any second.
‘Goodness, no,’ Catherine laughed. ‘He doesn’t come into the house. Barnett stays with the car.’
I stared at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying. ‘You mean he just sits in the car all day, in case you need to go somewhere?’
‘How else would I get around? Drive myself?’ She tutted and shook her head. ‘Emily, honey, you’re just too much.’
Another thought occurred to me as we moved back down the hallway, something I should have realized from the moment Ashley bought two first class tickets on the next available flight when we arrived at the airport without a reservation. The enormous house, the beautiful clothes, the priceless antiques. The Bells really weren’t just any old family.
‘Catherine.’ I started out carefully but there really was only one way to ask the question. ‘Are you rich?’
She turned sharply, hands pressed against her chest.
‘It’s generally considered impolite to discuss financial matters unless that is the agreed upon topic of conversation.’ She lowered her voice and checked to make sure there was no one around before adding; ‘I would say we’re comfortable.’
Which was exactly the kind of thing people said when they were insanely wealthy. I stood, dazed, taking a moment to recover. Catherine was rich. Catherine was my grandmother. Did that make me rich? I couldn’t think of a time when I’d wanted for anything but I certainly wasn’t spoiled. Dad and I had what we needed and nothing more. Better to travel light, he always said. But I was quickly learning it wasn’t what my dad had said so much as what he hadn’t that made all the difference now.
‘Second floor next?’ Catherine suggested.
I nodded and started to follow when a cool gust of wind brushed the back of my neck, making me turn around. There was another door I hadn’t noticed before, tucked away across from the powder room and smaller than the others, painted sky blue. It was completely out of step with the rest of the house and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it earlier.
‘That’s my craft room.’
Catherine put herself between me and the door as soon as she saw where I was looking.
‘Bell House is as much yours as it is mine,’ she said, calm but clear. ‘Every generation is simply a caretaker of this magical place and I want you to feel completely at home. The only thing I ask is that you don’t go in there without me. My craft room is my little sanctuary, the one place I keep for myself.’
‘Of course,’ I agreed right away and she smiled. Maybe this was the place where she changed into sweatpants, watchedReal Housewivesand ate Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. There was no way a person could be that put together all the time. But still, I couldn’t stop wondering what was behind that little blue door or how I’d missed it in the first place.
‘Obviously it would be wrong to go in Ashley’s room without her.’ Catherine glanced out the window at the top of the stairs, looking down into the garden. My aunt was still toiling away at a flowerbed in her oversized hat and gardening gloves. ‘So we can only take a quick peek, come on.’
She opened the door opposite mine carefully, quietly, to reveal a glimpse of a pretty but basic bedroom. It was much less fussy than my own, dark wood floors and dark green walls but no giant antique bed, no mountains of pillows, no sumptuous silk wallpaper and, to my surprise, I spotted one of those fancy at-home spin bikes tucked away in the corner. Huh. Ashley didn’t seem the type.
We left my aunt’s room, peeking into all the other guestrooms until we reached the end of the hallway.
‘And this is where I rest my head.’
Catherine let me into her room with a showy flourish. It was worth the dramatics. Where the rest of Bell House was dark wood; polished oak, teak and mahogany, everything in Catherine’sroom was white. White silk walls, white four-poster bed, white loveseat and dresser and plush white rugs on light oak floors. In front of huge arched windows that looked down onto the walled garden was a copper clawfoot rolltop bathtub. I’d never seen a tub outside the bathroom before but now all I wanted to do was fill it to the top and soak under the moonlight.
‘You must try it with the lavender bath salts,’ Catherine said. ‘There’s nothing quite like it. Especially under a full moon.’
‘You read my mind,’ I replied, only very slightly worried that she really had.
‘Just your pretty face.’ She closed the door and I heard the old catch click. ‘I’ve saved the best for last. Shall we adjourn to the library?’
‘I’d really like to see my mom and dad’s room,’ I said, one hand already on the banister, one foot already on the stairs. ‘You said it’s on the third floor, right?’
‘Yes, but we don’t go up there.’
I did hear her but the words didn’t register. One foot after the other, I climbed upwards until I lost myself in the darkness of the third floor, leaving my grandmother miles behind. There weren’t any windows up here and the light played strangely. I was three steps from the top when I paused and looked up at the ceiling. Leaning against the wall, I tilted my head all the way back to see better. It was painted a deep, dense midnight blue and the paint absorbed all the light like velvet. As my eyes adjusted, a web of delicate patterns came into focus, tiny dots connected by fine lines, and it took me a moment to realize what it was. Orion, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia and more I couldn’t name. All the constellations of the night sky, picked out in sparkling silver. It felt like I was floating in space and every time I blinked, I was sure I saw a shooting star fly across the sky.
‘Emily!’
