I clicked my boots faster, bored with the conversation above me. I looked again to the archway, hoping to catch a glimpse of the chandelier in the room beyond. But beneath the arch, stood a boy.He looked to be a little older than I was, perhaps thirteen or fourteen. His hair was as golden as the gilded walls and his eyes sparked with curiosity. “Are you speaking of me?” he asked, stepping forward with raised brows.
Mrs. Kellaway jumped, then laughed, waving him toward her. “Do you remember the Downings?”
The boy nodded, his gaze jumping to me. His nod froze. “I don’t remember her.”
I adjusted the pink ribbon in my hair and gave a little close-lipped smile. “I’m Annette.”
“This is my son, Owen,” Mrs. Kellaway said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
He smiled. I noticed a dimple in one cheek. “Pleased to meet you.” Then he turned, as if to walk away.
“Owen, where are you going?” his mother asked, her brow furrowed.
He paused, turning back around. “Outside.”
“Take Miss Annette with you. She will be far too bored in here with us.”
Owen’s gaze shifted to me, then back to his mother, a pleading look on his face that made me scowl.
“Take her with you,” she asserted.
He gave a vexed sigh and looked at me again. “Well, come along, then.”
I scowled harder. But with a nudge from Mama, I followed him reluctantly around the left of the staircase where a corridor led to a back door.
“I am only coming with you if you apologize,” I said as he stepped outside.
He turned, a surprised look on his face, half inside the door, half out. “I have no reason to apologize to a seven-year-old girl.”
I gasped and jerked my hands to my hips. “First of all, I am eleven, and second of all, yes, you do. You made no secret of your wish to be rid of me.”
His lips pressed together. They twitched. “If you don’t want to come along, then you may stay here.” He turned and walked the rest of the way through the door. It swung shut behind him.
I scowled after his retreating figure. This boy was atrocious and I did not like him one bit. But I followed him out the door anyway, curiosity winning the war as it always did. The grounds were much too inviting to ignore. I had to run to catch up to him.
When Owen looked down at me, I was surprised to see him grinning. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. But you must know, what I am about to do is not a task fit for a little girl.”
My eyes widened, but I quickly made them normal again, trying to conceal my excitement. “I am not a little girl. What are we going to do?”
“We?” Owen shook his head. “No. You are going to hide and watch.”
I scowled at him again, lifting my chin. “I did not come along just to watch.” My eye level came just below his shoulder, so I had to tip my head back to look straight in his eyes. They were very blue. Not ordinary blue, but the kind of blue that seemed to see everything from the outside straight to the inside.
He rolled those eyes. “You came along because my mother made me bring you along. So you must do as I say.”
“You are not in charge of me. I am not just going to watch.”
He stopped walking and looked down at me through narrowed eyes. I held his gaze with all the defiance and malice I could muster out of my small frame. Hisvoice dropped to a chilling whisper. “I don’t think you should have spoken so soon. You don’t even know what you just agreed to.”
A little nervous flutter settled in my stomach. “What did I agree to do?”
He turned his gaze to the woods at the edge of the wide lawn. “Just follow me.”
When we reached the border between neat grass and gnarled trees, Owen stepped forward, and I followed tentatively. It was early spring, so the air was still crisp and chilled. The sun was close to setting. The sky shone shades of pink and orange and every color in between.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I tried to keep up.
He didn’t look back, but I heard him answer, “to climb a tree.”
