Winterhouse

by Ben Guterson

  “Hello!” Elizabeth called out. She noticed two older women sitting on a bench behind the men.

  “Ah, you have returned!” said Mr. Wellington, the very tall one. “Our puzzle champion!” He turned to the women behind him and said, “This is the young lady we mentioned to you.”

  “Another very, very trying day for us,” said Mr. Rajput, the plump man. He put a hand to his forehead as though trying to stave off a spell of dizziness. “Very trying. Only two pieces fit in. We’re very glad you have arrived.”

  The two women, smiling anxiously, as if uncertain just how to greet Elizabeth, stood. They were dressed as elegantly as the suit-clad men, both in long dresses and pearls and with their hair neatly done. One woman was tall and very thin, and the other woman was very round with rosy cheeks. They struck Elizabeth as the sort of women who always dressed nicely no matter what the occasion or time of day.

  “Wonderful to see you again, Miss Somers,” Mr. Wellington said. He placed a hand on the arm of the short, plump woman and said, “Please meet my wife,” just as Mr. Rajput gestured to the tall woman and said, “And my dear wife.”

  Elizabeth was momentarily flustered because she had assumed that each man was married to the other woman. It made her think of the time Aunt Purdy, after watching an episode of one of her favorite soap operas, The Young, the Old, and the Others, and seeing a handsome young man marry a very plain woman thirty years older than him, declared, “Love is blind! Yes, love is blind—and deaf and dumb and … and … not able to smell, either!” She had glared at Elizabeth when she realized how loudly she’d spoken these words, but Elizabeth actually found herself thinking that the “Love is blind” part was probably true, and it prompted her to make a new entry in her notebook entitled “The One Thing Aunt Purdy Has Ever Said That Makes a Little Bit of Sense,” and put those three words underneath the heading.

  The Wellingtons and the Rajputs exchanged greetings and little pleasantries with Elizabeth—they asked her how she was enjoying Winterhouse so far, and everyone mentioned again just how amazed they’d been over Elizabeth fitting a piece into the puzzle so quickly the night before.

  “It’s all they’ve been talking about,” Mrs. Rajput said in a fluttery voice, looking to the two men. “The only thing!”

  “And now you are back to help us overcome the day’s doldrums?” Mr. Rajput said hopefully, but somewhat sadly, too.

  Elizabeth gave a small wince. “I wish I could work on the puzzle with you,” she said, “but I told my new friend, Freddy, that I’d go swimming with him.” She held up her swimsuit as evidence. “But I really do want to help, and I’ll try to come back tomorrow.”

  “Quite all right!” Mr. Wellington said. “Quite all right! We understand! Anytime!”

  Mr. Rajput looked crushed. “Ah, I see,” he said, as though Elizabeth had told him she had no interest in ever working on their puzzle. “There are other pursuits here at Winterhouse. I understand.”

  Mrs. Rajput scowled at her husband. He sighed and began examining a cluster of pieces before him on the table.

  Mrs. Wellington, who had been mostly silent till then, leaned forward. “Do you know,” she said, “that I used to come here as a girl? That’s how the four of us came to be regular visitors, as a matter of fact. I kept telling them how much they would love it, and so we’ve been coming for years. My parents used to bring me, and I remember Norbridge Falls himself when he was a boy.” She paused, tilted her head to examine Elizabeth. “You know, it’s interesting. I remember clearly just how good Norbridge’s sister, Gracella, was at puzzles. Strange girl, but my, how she could whip through a puzzle! We used to play with her and Norbridge when we visited.”

  Mr. Wellington moved closer to his wife. “Dear, you don’t want to bore the young lady,” he said.

  “Or scare her,” Mr. Rajput said, still studying a spread of pieces on the table before him. He didn’t look up.

  Mr. Wellington cleared his throat. “Well, enjoy your swim!” He began to wave, and then so did the two women.

  “I will,” Elizabeth said, thinking that the four old people were sort of eccentric but harmless. She actually was itching to try her hand at the puzzle. “And I’ll come by tomorrow to help you out.”

  They all said good-bye and, with one look behind her, Elizabeth was on her way.

  Or scare her? Elizabeth thought. I wonder what he meant by that. She thought back to the paintings she had seen in the portrait gallery, the one of Norbridge’s sister, Gracella. She thought, too, of the locked door and how the glass light shade had shattered on the floor before it. And for a moment, as she headed for the swimming pool, Elizabeth considered again the word that had come into her mind earlier in the day: Dangerous.

  Us groaned, she thought, making an anagram, but she couldn’t stop thinking about why Mr. Rajput had felt the mention of Gracella might scare her.

  * * *

  After a quick swim in the basement pool—a steamy place done in silver and violet tile—and a pleasant hour spent listening to the evening concert in the vastness of the Grace Hall auditorium, Elizabeth returned to her room for the night just before nine o’clock. She and Freddy had seen no sign of Norbridge; Elizabeth let Jackson know she was turning in for the night.

  She was exhausted from everything, but after she put on her pajamas and brushed her teeth, Elizabeth took A Guide for Children out of her bag, arranged herself on her bed, and began to read the book’s introduction:

  When I was a young boy, I was never at a loss for interesting diversions and fun games. I liked to enjoy the outdoors and make the best of the indoors on rainy days. I also thought a lot about what it would be like for me when I grew up and got older. I decided when that time came I would only do what I said and never do what I didn’t say, and that I would also never not do what I didn’t say, and so on. More than that, I decided I would write a book that would allow children to learn how to have some enjoyment in their younger years. Thus, there is a lot of fun-and-games in this book—crafts, tricks, harmless pranks, and more—so that children can understand what it means to really HAVE FUN. Not that I want you to create any mischief! Heavens, no! But just so you can have a little fun as you make your way, perhaps even as much fun as I have had over my lifetime. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  —Riley Sweth Granger, wanderer, scholar, builder, writer, painter—and seeker

  Strange way to start a book, Elizabeth thought. But I guess it fits this one.

  She began to read a chapter near the middle of the book—“How to make it look as if you’ve done a careful job of cleaning your room”—and learned all about how to take the messy junk on your floor and stuff it into pillowcases and within folded blankets before stacking these unobtrusively in the corners of your room. Within a few minutes, she nodded off.

  She woke with a start just past midnight. She felt that she’d been disturbed by some noise in the hallway, and so—almost without thinking about it—she got up, put on her robe, and left her room for the library.

  Elizabeth peered through the windows when she got there, but she saw nothing inside. The doors were closed. She tried one of the handles and found, to her surprise, that the door wasn’t locked. She slipped inside and into almost total darkness; the little lamp by the card catalog cast a dim glow. Elizabeth stepped quietly and then saw a light move near a shelf on the far wall to her left. There was someone shining a flashlight on the books there, and Elizabeth froze in place and looked closely. Norbridge and Leona were studying a bookcase and talking quietly. Leona pointed to one of the shelves and seemed to be explaining something to Norbridge. He stood stroking his beard and moving the flashlight across the row of books.

  Elizabeth tiptoed toward the bookshelf nearest her—and just as she moved behind the huge case, the floorboard beneath her foot gave out a loud creak.

  “Hello?” Norbridge called. “Is someone there?”

  Elizabeth held her breath and listened. If Aunt Purdy or Uncl
e Burlap had ever caught her traipsing around after midnight and knew she had spotted them doing something, there would be a round of yelling, berating, and withholding of food. She felt certain Norbridge wouldn’t punish her in any of those ways, but she began to feel it was probably not right to spy on him.

  “Hello?” Norbridge called again.

  “That old floor is always making noises!” Leona said, her voice barely loud enough for Elizabeth to hear. “Come on. It’s nothing.”

  Elizabeth listened. All was silent, and she pictured Norbridge waiting, shining his flashlight into the darkness of the library to see if anyone was around.

  “I guess you’re right,” he said.

  Elizabeth slid silently closer, still behind the long bookcase, so that she could better hear the conversation.

  “Anyway,” Leona said, “after they were done poking around here, they went up to the second floor. Strange, strange couple.”

  Elizabeth was on edge, straining to catch every word. She felt certain that when Leona used the word “they,” she was referring to Marcus Q. Hiems and his wife.

  “But you’re sure they didn’t leave with anything unusual?” Norbridge said.

  “I told you. The woman checked out two books on hypnosis and a dreadful old novel called The Demon in the Supermarket, but none of those are cause for alarm. The man left with nothing.”

  “If he finds it…” Norbridge said.

  “I know, I know.”

  What in the world could they be talking about? Elizabeth wondered.

  “We both know its value,” Norbridge said. “All the years I’ve been looking.”

  “I’ll keep my eye on him,” Leona said. “On both of them.”

  “It’s that young girl I want to keep my eye on, too,” Norbridge said.

  Elizabeth’s hair nearly stood on end when she heard this.

  “You’re overreacting,” Leona said. “She’ll be fine. She seems very nice. Smart, too.”

  “It’s just a feeling I have,” Norbridge said. “I can’t shake the feeling that maybe…”

  Norbridge’s voice trailed off. Elizabeth was desperate to hear more, so she peeked around the bookshelf—and as she did, she bumped her elbow on a book that was sticking out too far.

  Norbridge stopped. “Did you hear that?” he said to Leona, and he swiveled around and moved the beam of the flashlight in all directions before him.

  “You’re jumpy, Norbridge,” Leona said, but he stood peering into the darkness. Elizabeth pulled her head back slowly and held her breath.

  “You’re right,” he said. “Anyway, about the Somers girl…”

  Elizabeth watched as Norbridge and Leona moved farther away. But she couldn’t make out what they were saying. After a few more minutes, the two of them moved to the broad staircase near the card catalog, trudged up to the floor above, and disappeared.

  Elizabeth stepped carefully and slowly to the front doors, opened them in silence, and went back to her room for the night. She climbed into her bed and thought about what had just happened, what she had heard. I can’t shake the feeling that maybe … What had Norbridge meant by that? And what were he and Leona up to in the library so late at night? And, more importantly, what did Marcus Q. Hiems and his wife have to do with any of it?

  I think I’ll hold off telling Norbridge anything about Marcus Q. Hiems for now, Elizabeth thought. What if Norbridge really is a thief?

  She shut off the lamp on her nightstand. She would talk to Freddy about all of it in the morning.

  PART TWO

  CHRISTMAS APPROACHES—AND THE NIGHTS ARE DARK

  LARK

  LACK

  LOCK

  LOOK

  BOOK

  CHAPTER 16

  AN UNBREAKABLE CODE

  NODE

  NOSE

  LOSE

  LOSS

  LOGS

  Elizabeth woke early, her sleep disturbed by another nightmare, this one almost identical to the one she’d had on the bus. Once again, she’d been in an enormous library and seemed hemmed in by rows of bookcases; after she had raced a long distance to try to escape from the darkness and a strange voice that kept calling her, her path was blocked by an old woman who seemed to fix her in place with piercing eyes. Just as had happened before, Elizabeth woke right when the woman was about to put a hand on her. She sat upright and was disoriented for a moment as she tried to recall where she was. When she slowly realized she had only been dreaming and was actually safe in her bed at Winterhouse, she lay back down heavily and sighed. The dream had frightened her, and it took several minutes and a glass of warm water from the bathroom sink to settle her mind.

  After a bit of tossing and turning, she realized she wasn’t going to get back to sleep, so Elizabeth dressed, brushed her hair and teeth; and then, to fully put her thoughts at ease, she began reading A Guide for Children, including chapters on “How to Throw Your Voice” and “How to Disguise Yourself with Unique Costumes.” She thumbed through the book and found one near the end entitled “How to Write Unbreakable Codes by Using the Vigenère Cipher.” It began like this:

  Dear reader, this is the single most important chapter in the entire book, because codes and secret messages are very dear to my heart. If you have found this book, study this chapter very carefully!

  Elizabeth felt a chill go through her. She kept reading.

  The Vigenère Cipher is one of the greatest secret code methods ever invented. If you learn it, you can write codes that are next to impossible to break, and so you can write messages to your friends that no one else will be able to read. All you need is a keyword that you and your friend both know—but make sure you don’t forget the keyword! Beyond that, if you can follow the instructions in this chapter, you will be well on your way to writing coded sentences that will look like gobbledygook to other people, but will conceal your deepest secrets in safety.

  She read the chapter carefully, which even had an alphabet grid on one page and an example to work through. The grid—or Vigenère Square, as Riley S. Granger called it—looked like this:

  The example in the book was the sentence “Look at the beautiful picture,” while the keyword was “hotel”; Riley S. Granger explained that by using the keyword, a person could transform “Look at the beautiful picture” into the unbreakable code sentence of “Scho la hai mlonxtmie ttjhnvp.”

  The way it worked was by “laying” your keyword over the sentence you wanted to turn into a code, and then using the Vigenère Square to help you along. That is, you matched the “h” in “hotel” with the “l” in “look,” and where they intersected in the grid you found the letter “s.” Working through the entire sentence gave you this:

  That’s incredible, Elizabeth thought. No one could break that.

  As she sat staring at the square and the example, a thought came to her with as much shock as she’d felt when Norbridge had transformed the puppets into birds the night before: This code was connected to the painting of Nestor Falls!

  It’s too much of a coincidence! Elizabeth thought. The keyword is “hotel,” and the sentence itself is “Look at the beautiful picture”!

  Somehow, this strange book seemed to be steering her toward a solution to Nestor’s message, and she couldn’t wait to find Freddy at breakfast and tell him.

  All we need to figure out is the keyword, she thought.

  She was so excited she could hardly sit still, but because it was too early to head to Winter Hall, she created a message for Freddy that she would share with him after she explained the Vigenère Cipher at breakfast. The keyword she chose was “log,” and the coded sentence was this one: “Oc ezi clbz ec mz gctastbm?”

  As she was closing the book, something caught her eye. In the middle of the page where the author’s name and the year 1897 were written, she saw a very large and ornate letter “T” in sparkly silver print. I wonder how I missed that, Elizabeth thought. She stared at the letter, glanced at a few other pages to see if she could
find anything similar, and then—feeling slightly unsettled—set the book down, wondering what the letter might mean. Finally, she opened her notebook and began to make a new entry—“Strange Things About Winterhouse”—when the bell for breakfast tolled. Elizabeth took A Guide for Children with her and rushed downstairs.

  * * *

  As Elizabeth entered Winter Hall, she examined the family tree for a moment and studied the inscription for Norbridge’s sister, Gracella. Amazingly, her last name had become “Winters” through marriage; the note beneath her name said simply AN ENIGMA.

  Elizabeth waved to Jackson by way of checking in when she entered the enormous hall and then made a beeline for Freddy, who was sitting in the same spot where they’d shared three meals now.

  “You’ll never believe what’s happened since I saw you last night!” she said as she plopped down in the empty seat beside him and set A Guide for Children on the table.

  “You read five books?” he said.

  “Seriously!” She adjusted her glasses with both hands and tried to settle her thoughts; she hardly knew where to begin. “Okay, first off. You see this book?”

  Freddy eyed A Guide for Children warily, as though there were some trick in store. “Uh, yeah,” he said slowly. “It’s sitting right there where you put it down.”

  Elizabeth pressed on. “I found it yesterday in the reference room of the library. I wasn’t supposed to take it, but it was way up on a shelf where no one has probably seen it since … I don’t know, since Norbridge was our age, but I took it anyway because it looked so interesting and I wanted to read it. It’s a really strange book, and it has something in it that I think is connected to Nestor’s code!”

  “Slow down, slow down!” Freddy said. “You stole a book?”

  “That’s not what I’m getting at! But before I tell you more about this book, there’s something else important. I went down to the library last night again really late, and Norbridge and Leona were in there looking around.” For the first time that morning, Freddy looked serious, and he listened intently as their breakfast plates arrived and Elizabeth recounted the conversation she’d overheard the night before.