The Secrets of Winterhouse

by Ben Guterson

  “And I’ve gotta work on the camera obscura,” Freddy said. “A couple of the workers are going to help me for a few hours.” He stood and so did Elizabeth.

  “No problem,” Elizabeth said. “I’m heading to the library.” An awkward silence crept over the three of them, and Elizabeth wondered just what had come over Elana.

  “The book girl!” someone said, and before she even turned around, Elizabeth recognized Rodney Powter’s grating, ridiculing voice. She sensed him sidling up behind her, and when she glanced over her shoulder, sure enough, there he stood wearing his black hoodie and a pair of tattered jeans. He looked like he was dressed to spend a day at the mall rather than at a hotel beside an iced-over lake and snowy mountains. “Off to the library, Book Girl?” he said.

  Elizabeth wheeled on him. “That’s a really dumb thing to call me,” she said. An image of Rodney dashing down the corridor, away from the candy kitchen, arose in her mind.

  “Whoa!” Rodney said, his slack face suddenly arranged into something that looked vaguely shocked. “That’s harsh. I was just saying hello.”

  Elizabeth was so exasperated she couldn’t even find words; she just rolled her eyes and gave Freddy an I can’t believe what a jerk this guy is expression. She expected Rodney or Elana to say something to each other, given that she’d seen them talking the night before by the skating rink, but a moment passed and no one said a thing.

  “My name’s Rodney,” he said to Freddy in greeting; then he turned to Elana and did the same thing. “Rodney,” he repeated, for emphasis.

  “‘Yonder,’” Freddy said, looking to Elizabeth and hoping she would understand he had just rearranged the letters of Rodney’s name.

  “Your name is Yonder?” Rodney said.

  “Sorry, no,” Freddy said. “I’m Freddy.” Elizabeth suppressed a smile.

  Rodney extended a hand to him and Elana in turn, and they offered brief greetings, all as Elizabeth stood, allowing her exasperation with Rodney to melt into bafflement. She had seen Rodney and Elana talking to each other the night before; she was positive.

  “You two just met now?” Elizabeth said. For a split second, Rodney appeared almost as surprised as he had been two days before when Elizabeth had informed him in the library that she was Norbridge’s granddaughter.

  “Yes,” Elana said. “Why’s that?”

  “No reason,” Elizabeth said. “Just wondered.”

  “But you two already know each other?” Elana said, looking from Rodney to Elizabeth.

  “She tried to steal my seat on the bus ride up here,” Rodney said.

  “That’s not true!” Elizabeth let out an exasperated sigh; there was no point in explaining. She turned to Freddy. “I better get to the library. I have work to do.”

  Rodney lifted his hand and gave her a sarcastic thumbs-up. “Very, very cool!” he said in a lazy tone.

  This irritated Elizabeth so badly, she could hardly restrain herself. “Maybe I’ll see you and your parents wandering around there again. Or I’ll see you running down the hallway late at night, just like last night.”

  “What’s with you?” Rodney said.

  “Are you okay?” Elana said to Elizabeth in a patronizing tone. Elizabeth felt she was about to scream; her thoughts clouded with the vision of Elana and Rodney by the skating rink.

  “It’s kind of interesting, isn’t it,” she said to Elana as she considered how fascinated Elana had been by the tour of the candy kitchen, “what happened to Mrs. Trumble?”

  Elana’s eyes clouded with hurt. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  Elizabeth looked to Elana and then to Rodney and Freddy. She was waiting for Freddy to say something—anything—to stick up for her or clarify things. But he remained silent.

  “Freddy,” Elizabeth said, already turning to march out the door before them, “you want to walk with me?”

  “Sure,” he said. “See you, Elana. And Rodney.”

  “She’s wacko,” Rodney said, just as Elizabeth moved out of earshot. She was listening to hear what Elana said in return, but by then she was already too far away.

  “Well, wait up, at least!” Freddy said.

  Elizabeth spun around. “Those two are seriously bad news! We need to stay away from them.”

  Freddy’s mouth dropped open in shock. “I was trying to be nice. I just met that guy, and we already agreed Elana is weird. What’s up?”

  Elizabeth took in a deep breath to collect her thoughts. “Rodney is a bully. And something’s going on with him that I can’t figure out. The bus, the library, him and Elana talking at the rink, and then—well, what I’ve been wanting to tell you is that I saw him running away from the candy kitchen late last night. I’m sure he had something to do with what happened to Mrs. Trumble. Someone attacked her. And whoever that someone was, they were trying to break into the kitchen. I’m positive Rodney’s involved.”

  Freddy looked stunned. “Someone attacked her? Wow, that’s hard to believe. But why would he break into the candy kitchen? If it was him. Or hurt Mrs. Trumble?”

  “I don’t know, but I have an idea.” She explained how she’d found the doorway and the plaque, and Freddy listened intently. “I think someone is trying to find one of the doorways into the secret passageway,” Elizabeth said. “Someone wanted to poke around in there, and then when Mrs. Trumble heard them, the person knocked her out. That’s what I think happened.”

  “I just hope she’s okay,” Freddy said. He paused. “Wow, you must have found one of the doors.”

  “I was thinking something else, too. Leona said there really did used to be a door in the library, and both she and Norbridge said there was one in Nestor’s room—Norbridge’s now.”

  “Three doors!” Freddy said.

  “But the thing I was thinking was, if the word on top of the plaque is ‘winter,’ doesn’t it make sense that there would be four doors? One for each season?”

  “Makes sense. I just wonder where it would be.”

  “Four seasons and four doors,” Elizabeth said. “Four, four.”

  “I got it. What? Is there something else?”

  “Just like there are four sides to the Winterhouse seal,” Elizabeth said. She was thinking, again, that she wanted to take another look at the book she’d seen at the store in Havenworth.

  “You think there’s a connection?” Freddy said.

  “Let’s keep thinking about it,” Elizabeth said. “But don’t mention anything about this to Elana. I’m headed to the library, and I know you have work to do. I’ll look for you this afternoon, okay?”

  CHAPTER 16

  SOMETHING IN PLACE CLAP

  Three hours later, after Elizabeth had reshelved a small pallet of books, talked with Leona about the terrible attack on Mrs. Trumble, helped with checkouts at the front desk, and shown three guests where to find what they were looking for—all without incident—she headed to the reference room. She hadn’t been there yet during her return to the hotel. In fact, she hadn’t gone there at all after the New Year’s Eve confrontation when she’d outsmarted Gracella and rescued Winterhouse, and she’d been both dreading and longing to visit the room again. If there was one thing the events of last year had taught her, it was that she could face her fears. She’d recently told herself she wouldn’t be frightened over anything, and she’d found that the more she told herself this, the more true it became. As she headed up the library stairs, she resolved to add a new entry in her notebook—“Mottoes/Sayings to Keep in Mind”—and add last year’s reminder (“That can’t scare me!”) as well as the words about not taking offense that Leona had shared.

  When Elizabeth reached the third floor, all was quiet. She trod without a sound down the carpeted hallway, and then entered the nine-sided reference room, spacious and dim. It was hard to believe that in this very spot Gracella had threatened to kill Elizabeth and, through possession of The Book, destroy Winterhouse. The room was as peaceful as any place she could imagine, high shelves lining the
walls, and hundreds of old and interesting books sitting in silent rows.

  A rolling ladder stood against a far bookcase. The last time she’d been on it was when, right after Gracella’s death, she had dropped The Book back where she’d found it, this in the hope that it would lie undisturbed. Elizabeth thought of how much she still didn’t know about The Book—how it seemed that as long as she possessed it and was resolved not to unleash its power, all was fine, but if Gracella had uncovered its secret, she might have destroyed Winterhouse. At least, that was how Elizabeth interpreted the strange rhyme she had solved by using the Vigenère Cipher.

  A thought came to her: She was curious to see The Book. Of course, she knew it would be where she’d left it—only she and Freddy even knew what it looked like, and Elizabeth had been all alone when she’d returned it. Still, she was curious. She glanced behind her, took a deep breath, and then rolled the ladder over to the section of the bookcase where she’d rehidden The Book. She climbed, and when she reached the top rung and was even with the highest shelf, she scanned the volumes there, recognizing a few from the year before: The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt; Dreams and What They Mean; Astrology for You! She was about to peek behind them when she felt the strange and familiar tremor of certainty.

  “Elizabeth!” Elana, in a white dress and with a white ribbon in her hair, stood gaping at her from the doorway; her grandmother, in black, stood beside her. “What are you doing?”

  “You scared me!” Elizabeth called, nearly tumbling off the ladder.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Elana looked puzzled. “What are you doing up there?”

  “Just finding some books for the librarian,” Elizabeth said as she climbed down, all the while trying to stop shaking. She hopped onto the thick carpet, arranged her shirt, and tried to look as casually as possible at Elana, who stepped slowly into the room, examining the spot atop the ladder Elizabeth had just vacated. She kept her eyes there for a moment and appeared to have forgotten Elizabeth completely. Her grandmother moved behind her without a sound, and Elizabeth felt deeply uncomfortable—not only because of the presence of Mrs. Vesper but because Elana was before her now just a few hours after their awkward run-in when Rodney had introduced himself at breakfast.

  “So what are you doing here?” Elizabeth said with a nod.

  Elana slid her gaze from the high shelves to Elizabeth. She glanced warily at her grandmother; once again, Elizabeth felt Elana was afraid of the older woman. “Oh, I finished skating,” she said, “and I just wanted to poke around in the library.”

  “This is a fascinating place,” Mrs. Vesper said, though she didn’t sound fascinated at all. “I find the history of this hotel so intriguing.”

  The old woman stood beside Elana, and Elizabeth couldn’t help feeling she had something of insistence about her, that she no longer wanted her granddaughter to say a word and would now take over.

  “I’ve fallen in love with Winterhouse,” she said, and leaned forward. “Enchanted. You must know so much about this hotel. You must have learned so many things.”

  “A little bit,” Elizabeth said. Mrs. Vesper had placed a hand on Elana’s back just below her neck, and if Elizabeth hadn’t known any better, it would have appeared the old woman wanted to keep a grip on her, wanted to make sure Elana didn’t move away or say the wrong thing.

  “The proprietor’s room must be like a museum,” Mrs. Vesper said. “You’ve been inside?”

  “Sure, I’ve been in there,” Elizabeth said. “Why’s that?”

  Elana laughed nervously. “My grandmother’s so nosy sometimes! She’s always curious about everything.” Elana wriggled slightly; the old woman dropped her hand from her back and then snapped her head in the direction of the hallway as if she had heard some noise. The speed and vitality of Mrs. Vesper’s movement startled Elizabeth; it seemed the reaction of a much younger woman.

  “I’ll let you girls catch up,” Mrs. Vesper said. “Perhaps the two of you could spend more time together during this holiday. It would be so nice for all of us, in fact, to be closer.” She looked to Elana. “My dear granddaughter has been hungry for … companionship.”

  Elana fixed Elizabeth with a look that was inscrutable—embarrassed and expectant and wary—and Elizabeth could make no sense of it. She thought about Elana losing her parents, and she tried to fit that into whatever was going on at this moment; but she was left confused.

  With a nod, Mrs. Vesper moved away from the girls and departed.

  “My grandmother gets kind of like that sometimes,” Elana said. “I’m sorry.” She glanced at the doorway. “And I … well, nothing.”

  Elana seemed a notch more at ease now that her grandmother was gone, and for a moment it seemed she wanted to say something. But then she pasted a thin smile on her face and examined the bookcase nearest her before looking at Elizabeth once more. “I guess I just wanted to apologize for what happened after breakfast this morning. That was kind of uncomfortable, and I think I was accidentally not so nice. So I just wanted to say sorry.”

  Elizabeth hadn’t expected this at all. “It’s okay. I was actually a little impolite to you, too, so … I’m sorry for that. I was just surprised when Rodney showed up.”

  “Well, that guy was pretty rude to you. I was being nice because he was new and all, but I didn’t like how he treated you.”

  “You know, I thought I saw you talking to Rodney last night by the skating rink.”

  Elana startled almost imperceptibly, her lips parting. “Last night? No, I wasn’t out there last night. You must have seen someone else.” She shook her head in a way that suggested the whole thing was an impossible misunderstanding. “Hey, Elizabeth, I kind of get the feeling that you and I got started on the wrong foot. I really want to be friends, okay? If you want to.”

  Once again, Elizabeth wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to be rude, but she also didn’t trust Elana; she was certain there was something about her that didn’t add up. “Well, no hard feelings or anything on my side.”

  Elana touched a hand to her forehead. “Whew! That’s a relief. My grandmother likes you, too. Maybe you could spend some time with us. Or we could go into town, go shopping, something like that. There was that bookstore, too, you mentioned. I love books. Like you.” She glanced at the bookcase. “But I don’t want to keep you from your work. It looked like you were right in the middle of something.” She smoothed her hair behind her ears.

  “No problem,” Elizabeth said.

  Elana was mulling something over. “It would be fun to go to Havenworth. So, you know, just think about it. My grandmother and I—we do a lot of fun things together. Maybe you’d like to be a part of it.”

  Despite Elana’s assurances that there was a lot of fun to be had in spending time with her and her grandmother, she actually didn’t sound all that enthusiastic.

  “A part of it?” Elizabeth said. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Just … well, it’s hard to explain. If you come with us sometime, I can explain better.”

  Elizabeth was lost and felt certain there was something behind Elana’s words, but just what it was she couldn’t be sure.

  “I’ll see,” she said. “I better get back to work, though.”

  “Okay,” Elana said, smiling again. She glanced up at the top shelf once more. “I guess what I really wanted to say was … just, you know, watch out.” She laughed lightly and then added awkwardly, “I mean, on the ladder, and stuff like that.”

  “I’ve climbed the ladder lots of times,” Elizabeth said, though she wasn’t entirely sure she had caught Elana’s meaning.

  Elana fixed her with a deep stare. “I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

  The moment seemed to stretch out, and Elizabeth felt it was the oddest part of the morning yet. “I’ll be fine,” she said.

  Elana tossed her head gently. “Maybe I’ll see you later today.” She left the room.

  Elizabeth considered what had just happened.
Elana had made some sort of invitation to her as well as offered a warning, but why? It was bizarre, she thought, but she decided to put it out of her mind. She climbed up the ladder, peered behind the row of books on the top shelf, and spotted what she was looking for: A Guide for Children: Games, Secrets, Pastimes, and More. The thin brown volume lay at the rear of a row of books, looking drab and ordinary. The Book was still there—though, with a tremor of uncertainty, like hearing a clap of distant thunder, Elizabeth wondered if perhaps it was in a slightly different position than she’d left it.

  “Stay there,” she said, dismissing the thought and pointing to The Book. “Forever.”

  She climbed down the ladder, went downstairs, and left to find Freddy for lunch.

  CHAPTER 17

  QUESTIONS—AND A TELESCOPE ELATED

  After a long discussion with Freddy over lunch and then an early afternoon spent sledding with him, Elizabeth helped Mr. Rajput and Mr. Wellington for an hour, finding four pieces that fit in the temple puzzle. She inspected the Winterhouse seal for a bit and then read in her room before heading to dinner.

  “We should check out the ice castle tomorrow,” Freddy said as the two of them ate their grilled salmon and rice dinners. “I guess Norbridge has it all fixed up for Christmas.”

  Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment and then turned to look at Freddy. “Castle,” she said. “Cleats.”

  “You haven’t lost the touch!” He glanced around. “No sign of Elana or her grandmother.”

  Elizabeth looked, too. “Or the Powters. Doesn’t it seem odd to come to Winterhouse and stay in your room so much?”

  “Maybe they all like to watch TV or something.” Freddy leaned into Elizabeth with bug eyes and assumed a creepy voice. “Or maybe they’re all into black magic.”

  “Don’t joke,” she said. “There’s something going on. I’m sure of it. I just don’t understand why Elana seems so afraid of her grandmother. I also feel like … I don’t know. Like she wants to tell me something but she can’t bring herself to do it.”