The Castle in the Mist by Amy Ephron

Author:Amy Ephron [Amy Ephron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780399546983
Publisher: Philomel Books
Published: 2017-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

~ CHAPTER SIXTEEN ~

the porcelain doll, the car collection, and table hockey

William invited them upstairs in his room to “idle” before dinner. That’s the word he used. “It’s cosier there,” he said as he led them up what Tess instantly dubbed, the extremely, incredibly, big, long staircase. The stairs themselves were carpeted with a rug that was so ornate and lush and intricately patterned that Tess thought it must be Chinese or French, definitely museum quality. Max, meanwhile, counted the stairs as they walked up them—the staircase angled twice—42 steps. He tried to calculate how high the ceiling was.

On the second floor (or was it the third floor), there was an exceptionally long hallway that went in both directions.

William made a right turn towards his room. Tess wondered if there was an attic as well as a dungeon. She imagined it might be easy to get lost in the castle and that it could be difficult to be found.

“How many bedrooms are there?” asked Tess.

William hesitated. “I’m not sure,” he said shyly. That was one of the nice things about William. He didn’t brag about what he had . . . not like some of the kids she’d met at school in Switzerland.

“I bet you wish it had room numbers sometimes,” she said.

Tess bit her lip. It had probably been a rude remark. It was an attempt at a joke but nobody laughed. Note to self: think before you speak, especially when you’re nervous.

“No,” he said quite frankly. “I wish we had more guests. When my grandfather was alive, more people came to visit us.”

His bedroom was at the very end of the hallway, with windows on three sides. It was more like a suite than a bedroom. It had a sitting room/playroom and then a very large bedroom with a fireplace and a double bed. There were French doors which opened out onto a balcony on which was an ornate metal table and four chairs. There was a view of the garden and the countryside beyond. There was a crimson comforter on the bed, an embroidered headboard, and an enormous amount of pillows. It was very grand. She noticed that he didn’t have a television. There was, however, a very beautiful bookshelf. Everything on it looked like it was a first edition. She wondered if he had a first edition of The Boy’s King Arthur. It probably had beautiful color illustrations.

There was a porcelain doll on a shelf. She was very beautiful, in a white dress, with a perfectly painted face and the most delicate hands that also seemed to have polish on the nails. “My grandfather gave her to me,” William explained. “She was my mother’s doll when she was little. She has a trick. Do you want to see it?”

William didn’t wait for them to answer. He took down a circular brown stand on the shelf next to the doll. There was a metal spike sticking up from the center and William carefully slipped her down so that the metal piece attached to the porcelain doll’s back.

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