Fire-Raiser by Gee Maurice

Author:Gee, Maurice
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742539539
Publisher: Penguin New Zealand
Published: 2013-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Kitty Plays the Piano

She heard a faint click as the door closed, and looked around to see where she was. It took a moment for her eyes to get used to the gloom, then she saw that she was in a hallway. Chandeliers of brass and glass hung from a ceiling so high she had a sudden fearful sense this house was made for giants. Big heavy chests and cupboards lined the walls. Pictures in carved frames hung from a rail – cattle with lowered heads, grey lakes, mountains that seemed horned. The trees and flowers had all their colour faded out. A strip of floral carpet, dark red, dark blue, ran down the hall, and Kitty followed it, sliding her feet to make no sound. She tried a door handle, but it was locked and her hand came away coated with dust.

Suddenly the door she had come through opened. Light flooded the hall. Mrs Marwick stood there, half in, half out, looking away through the veranda glass at Edgar Marwick chasing Noel and Phil. Kitty had no time. She was beside a second door and she took the handle, turned it, found the door unlocked. She pushed softly. It opened with no sound. She slipped in and closed the door behind her.

Now she was in a dark room. She stood with her back to the door, waiting for her eyes to adjust. There were shapes all about, like boulders, like cattle, but in a moment she saw sofas, chairs, sideboards, a black piano. The shimmering in the gloom was a brass fire-guard. She smelled dust and mould, and also caught a whiff of rot, perhaps a mouse or rat dead in a wall. Across the room was something she took for a huge door but when she saw it better it turned into red and gold drapes running almost from ceiling to floor. A door stood beyond the fireplace, on another wall. Kitty threaded her way to it, through the crowded furniture. It was locked, with no key in the keyhole. She turned to the drapes, pulled them open two or three inches. Dust rained down, silver in the sudden light. Kitty tried the window but the catch was rusted solid and would not move. The panes were frosted with dust and when she rubbed a circle, showed only dirt on the other side. She gave a little breath of fear. The only way out was through the door she had come in by.

Kitty stood in the corner and listened. She thought she heard steps padding in the hall, but was not sure. And the soft creaking – was that feet or noises of the house?

After a while she moved out of the corner. She saw better and her fear began to slip away as she looked at the room. Gloomy pictures, cousins of the ones in the hall, hung from a rail. Pockets of dust lay in their carved frames. Half a wall was taken up with

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