Emily and June followed them outside as they unpacked the car. Jim had apparently brought his entire wardrobe with him, as suitcase after suitcase was retrieved from the trunk. All of them, including Mark, were forced to grab a bag or two to help.
Once they were back inside, Jim said, “Ha, ha, very funny.”
“What’s funny?” June asked.
“You closed the doors,” he said, gesturing with a suitcase.
He was right. All four of the doors had closed again.
“But I didn’t do that!” June said. “And neither did Emily. I was with her the whole time.”
“Sure you didn’t,” Jim said, rolling his eyes. He headed toward the stairs. “Any idea what side our rooms are on, Emily? You’ve been here the longest.”
“You should be on the left. Men on the left, women on the right.”
Jim laughed and took the second set of stairs to the left off the main landing. Emily started up, and June touched her shoulder.
“I know you didn’t close the doors, Emily.”
A rush of gratitude swept through her so deep, she felt like crying.
“I didn’t even hear them,” June said, her face troubled. “And we were right there. The front door was open the whole time. We should have heard them.”
The two of them looked at Mark, who had heard this exchange, and he raised his eyebrows. He set the three suitcases he was holding down on the ground and walked over to the dining-room doors. He opened one of them as wide as it would go and then pushed it gently closed from the inside. The sound of the door latching was loud and distinct. They couldn’t have missed the sound from just outside the front door. Mark came out of the dining room a moment later and shut the door gently behind him, but again, that latching sound was harsh and echoed in the empty, marble foyer.
“I don’t understand,” June said.
Mark frowned. “I don’t understand it myself. Those doors aren’t even easy to move. I’ll have to examine them closer once we’ve settled in a little. Maybe some kind of cross wind pulls them closed when they’re both open.” He met their eyes. “For now, however, let’s keep this to ourselves, if you don’t mind. Jim doesn’t seem to want to hear about any of this.”
Emily and June reluctantly agreed and then followed him up the stairs with the various suitcases to the men’s rooms. Emily couldn’t help but glance behind them a few times. If she didn’t watch the doors, she might miss whatever or whoever was closing them. She managed to wrench her eyes away only when she was safely at the top of the stairs.
Chapter Six
Before the others arrived, Emily had taken to eating in the sitting room. The first day, she sat down with her dinner in the dining room and felt ridiculous and dwarfed by the huge table. She’d picked up her plate and moved it into the sitting room and had eaten every meal in there since. The morning after the others arrived, however, Emily came downstairs and heard the three of them chatting and eating in the dining room without her. She opened the door, and all of them stopped talking and turned her way. There was a long beat of silence.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning!” June said. “Had a bit of a lie-in?”
Emily glanced at the grandfather clock. It was just after eight—hardly what she’d call sleeping in. “I guess so.”
“Mark and I were up with the birds. You were right about the canopy—I should have closed it before I went to sleep. We’ve already taken a walk. Jim cooked breakfast while we were out.”
“Quiche Lorraine,” Jim said, gesturing at the side table. “Help yourself. You’ll find some toast, fruit, juice, and coffee there, too.”
Emily was more of an oatmeal or cereal person in the morning, but it would be rude to turn down the food. The others continued their earlier conversation, and a strange sense of loneliness settled over her as she served herself. She’d always had difficulty making friends, but she’d somehow believed this summer might be different. Everyone here was an expert of some kind, and all of them were academics, if from different fields. She’d felt a real connection with June, too, and that was unusual, especially with women. But, as usual, she was an outsider.
When she turned around, June was watching her, and Emily thought she saw pity in her expression, similar to when she was telling them about the strange goings-on at the house. The pity disappeared a moment later when their eyes met, and June smiled at her and patted the seat next to hers.
“Sit here, Emily. Like the bedrooms—boys on one side, girls on the other.”
“You have to wonder what that’s all about,” Jim said, buttering a piece of toast. “It’s like someone’s worried we’ll fraternize out here on our own without chaperones.”
“Won’t we?” June said, one eyebrow raised.
Emily went cold and peered down at her breakfast to avoid watching this exchange. She could hardly stand to watch them flirt. The food, already unappealing, was now completely unappetizing, but she made herself pick up a piece of plain toast and eat it.
“Oh, say, Emily,” June said, laying a hand on hers. Emily jumped, and June removed it, looking startled.
“Sorry,” Emily mumbled.
“That’s all right. I was going to ask if you’d like to go exploring. Mark and I walked around the gardens a little, but I still haven’t seen the pool or the greenhouse.”
Emily opened her mouth to decline, the Margot Lewis work already commanding her attention, but when she met June’s smile, her refusal died away. After all, she had the whole summer to work.
“I’d love to.”
June’s face lit up with her dazzling smile, and Emily warmed from within. “Great! I’ll go grab my sweater. It’s a little chilly out there today. You should be okay, though, in those heavy clothes.”
Emily glanced down at herself, having forgotten her outfit, and then watched June, clad in only shorts and a T-shirt, leave the room. She hadn’t realized she was staring until she looked back at the men. Mark was absorbed in his breakfast, but Jim was watching her, a smile twisting his lips.
She broke eye contact and tried to go back to her food, her stomach now a knot.
“Have you seen the Lewis papers already?” Jim asked.
She managed to smile. “They’re incredible. You’re not going to believe how much material I found.” She paused. “I forgot to mention that I took the papers up to my room.”
His face darkened and he leaned forward. “You did what? Why?”
Startled, she stammered, “It’s hard to see in the library.”
“Why didn’t you take them into the sitting room?”
Emily hesitated. She didn’t have a good explanation. “Didn’t think of it, I guess.”
“Well, I want to see all of them.” His voice had risen now, and Emily was surprised to see his fists clenched around his fork and knife. “It’s our project, Emily, not just yours. I have a right to see all of it. More, even, considering.”
“What’s going on?” June said behind them. She held a cardigan in one hand and her keys in the other.
“Emily has commandeered Margot Lewis’s papers in her room.” His face was cold, and he was glaring at her.
“I did no such thing!” Emily couldn’t keep a note of petulance from her voice. “Really, Jim, I meant nothing by it. I’ll bring all of them back downstairs, if that’s what you want.”
“There, Jim,” June said, her voice soothing. “Problem solved. She’ll do it when we get back.”
“I want to see them now.” He still sounded upset.
“Jesus, Jim, are you serious?” June asked. She gave Emily an incredulous look. “Do you have your keys, Emily?”
She dug them out of a pocket. June took them from her and handed them to Jim. “There. Satisfied now?”
Jim seemed a little shamefaced, but he didn’t apologize. Instead, he asked Emily, “You don’t mind if I go in your room without you?”
Emily did, but she wasn’t about to say so. “Help yourself. Everything’s on the tab
le in my room.”
He grunted without saying another word, and she shared another look with June and Mark. They both had their eyebrows raised, clearly wondering, like she was, what the hell that was all about.
June rolled her eyes and grinned. “You ready, lady? Let’s get going before it starts raining. Want to come along, Mark?”
Emily noted that she’d pointedly not invited Jim, but she was disappointed that Mark was included. She’d hoped they would be on their own.
Mark shook his head. “No. I want to start on my sketches today, but I have a couple of phone calls to make first. I need to figure out where the architectural plans for the house were filed.”
“Your loss! Shall we?”
Triumphant, Emily rose and followed June outside through the front door. The day was, in fact, much colder than she’d anticipated, and she almost asked June if she could run inside for her own sweater, but she didn’t. She wouldn’t want to inconvenience her. June was still holding her sweater, clearly not cold enough for it, so Emily simply hurried along after her as they walked around the edge of the house. She realized, as they rounded the corner, that she hadn’t been outside since she put her car in the garage. She hadn’t, in fact, explored at all, and she might never have thought of it if not for June.
They both stopped at the sight of an older man digging in the dirt in one of the formal gardens. He spotted them and got slowly to his feet before walking over, removing a dirty leather glove and holding out his hand. His face was kindly, warm, and open.
“Hello there. Sorry if I startled you. I’m Mr. Wright, the groundskeeper.”
“I’m June and this is Emily.” They all shook hands.
“Glad to meet you. The wife’s running behind today, but she’ll be here soon to tidy up inside.”
June glanced around. “I didn’t hear you arrive, Mr. Wright. Where did you park?”
“I always ride a bicycle. Nice to get a bit of exercise.” He glanced down at her cardigan. “The two of you off on a walk, then?”
“We’re going to check out the greenhouse and the pool. Just exploring.”
He pointed off into the woods. “You’ll find both of them out that way. Can’t miss the trail.”
“Strange that they’re so far from the house,” Emily said.
He shrugged. “I don’t know why myself. The pool was a later addition, but the greenhouse, or a version of it anyway, has been here from the beginning. Might have something to do with ruining the view from the house, but I’m not certain.”
Emily and June excused themselves and headed off around the edge of one of the formal gardens and toward the woods. As they approached, a sickly sense of dread suddenly clenched Emily’s stomach. From afar, the woods simply offered a green background to the yard and the house. Close up, when she could see individual trees, all of them appeared to be bunched together and broke the line of sight. They resembled menacing sentinels, a wall to ward off trespassers.
Emily paused, and June turned around, one eyebrow raised. “What’s up?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. I had a strange feeling. The woods are different here.”
June looked back at them. “They are. Wilder. Older, somehow. We are pretty far north. I don’t think this area has ever been cultivated or trimmed back. Some of these trees are probably older than the state of New York.”
They stood there a moment longer and then started walking again. The path to the greenhouse and pool was almost impossible to see until you were on it. A few steps farther and the house and gardens completely disappeared behind a curve. The sunlight, which was already pale today because of the clouds, nearly winked out, and Emily and June shared a wide-eyed glance in the near-darkness.
“Jeez,” June said, slipping on her sweater and shivering. “It’s like a cave back here.”
“At least the trail is maintained,” Emily said, and it was. Like the road leading to the main gate and beyond, the trail was nicely groomed with clean gravel, the trees cut back well away from the path. The path itself was about five feet across, white stones on black earth, the woods trimmed back about that distance on either side and above.
“That old guy has his work cut out for him,” June said, shaking her head. “He must have help. I can’t imagine how he could do all this on his own.”
After less than a minute’s walk, they reached a wide clearing. Two large, glass-ceilinged structures had been erected here about fifty yards apart, but it was clear which was which. The greenhouse had been constructed of large, frosted-glass panels on the sides and top, each piece of glass divided by heavy black lead. The pool house had wooden walls with frosted-glass panels for a roof.
“Wow!” June said. “Imagine these glass buildings surviving out here in the woods like this. Too weird!”
Emily was too surprised to respond. With the summer storms and snow this area must get, it was hard to believe these structures had lasted so long.
“Want to look at the pool first?” June asked.
Emily nodded, happy to go along with whatever June wanted.
“I didn’t bring my suit, but I’m excited to get in later when it warms up again. I love swimming.”
“Me too,” Emily said, lying. She hadn’t been swimming in over a decade.
“When I heard there was a pool, I wasn’t expecting anything like this big place. I thought maybe we’d find a little ten-footer somewhere out here.”
“It’s unexpected, that’s for sure.”
June used her key to unlock the door to the pool house, and they entered a large, light-filled, atrium-like room. The ceiling, almost entirely glass, let in a dazzling amount of sunshine despite the clouds. The pool was in the center of the room, the bottom tiled in a beautifully colored mosaic of blue and yellow floral patterns. A wide area around all sides of the pool contained Adirondack and lounge chairs. On the far side of the room was a door in the center of the wall, but that was the only other door besides the one they’d walked in.
“Holy shit,” June breathed.
Emily was too awestruck to speak. The place was dreamlike and gorgeous, almost difficult to absorb.
June walked over to the pool, slipped off a sandal, and dipped a toe into the water. She smiled at Emily, her face lighting up. “It’s heated!” She took off her other sandal and sat down at the edge of the pool, dangling her lower legs in the water. “Come on, Emily, join me! The water’s amazing.”
Emily looked down at her shoes and pants, not sure how this would work, but she automatically started untying her laces. She slipped off her socks and shoes, embarrassed a little to show her pale feet, then rolled up the bottom of her pants. She could hardly get them up to mid-calf, but she went directly to the water and sat down, dipping her feet in as far as she could without soaking her pants.
June shrugged off her cardigan, flinging it onto a nearby chair, and then leaned back onto her hands and closed her eyes. She tilted her face at the ceiling as if to soak in the light, and her lips curled into a happy, lazy smile. Emily followed the edge of her exposed neck with her eyes all the way to the top of her T-shirt. With June’s head and shoulders thrown back and her chest thrust out, Emily couldn’t resist gazing there for a second before looking away, her face hot. She’d relaxed her legs too much, and now, as expected, the rolls of material were wet.
Suddenly one of June’s hands found hers, and Emily jumped, startled. June was grinning at her, her eyes twinkling merrily. “I regret not bringing my suit now.” She gestured around them. “But then again, it is just the two of us. We could get in anyway.”
“In our clothes?”
June laughed, her head thrown back. “No, silly. I mean, we could get in anyway. Without our clothes.”
Emily went cold and then hot, a sweat breaking out from every pore. She opened her mouth and then closed it, her throat too dry to speak. Some of her shock must have shown on her face, as June laughed again and squeezed her hand. “It’s okay, Emily. I was only joking.”
; Emily felt the chance slipping away, and again, she opened her mouth to reply, desperate now to salvage the situation. She was always like this—she always let what she wanted elude her.
A crash from somewhere to their right made them jump and look in that direction.
“What the hell was that?” June asked, now clutching Emily’s hand.
Emily shook her head, her heart racing. “I don’t know. I think it came from behind that little door over there.”
“Is it a bathroom, do you think?”
“Maybe.”
“Should we go check it out?”
Emily made herself nod. June seemed as scared as she was, but Emily could be brave, when needed. “We should. If something’s broken, Mr. Wright will want to know.”
June’s eyes were wild and frightened, so when Emily stood, she helped her up. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
June frowned. “If you say so.”
Emily led the way, still holding June’s hand. She would continue to hold it as long as June let her. As they approached the door she slowed, suddenly afraid of what they might see in there. The sound had been loud, like something big falling over. Maybe a bear or another animal had gotten inside. It would be stupid to open the door.
She was about to suggest this precaution and then hardened her resolve. June was counting on her. Using her free hand, she tried the door handle. It was similar to the ones found on industrial refrigerators. She had to pull on it to release it from the latch, but it opened easily. She paused again and then yanked the door open with all her might. Rather than slamming back against the wall, however, the door opened only a couple of feet. It was heavy and thick.
It was a relatively large, tiled room, and it took her a moment to understand she was seeing a steam room. Opening the door had triggered a light inside the room, and it flickered a few times before shining brightly from above. A drain lay in the center of the floor, and the far side of the room had two tiers of built-in seats. A large metal object, a little like a large cooking pot, was lying on its side next to the floor drain. One look at it explained the noise they’d heard.
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