“I’m awake!”
April didn’t mean to shout. Or to knock a notebook, two pens, and a glass of water off the table. She absolutely, positively did not intend to drool. But that’s exactly what happened as Ms. Nelson stood in front of the class the next afternoon, a very confused/amused/disappointed look upon her face.
“April, perhaps you can explain why plants always lean toward the light?”
April glanced at Sadie, expecting the answer to come bursting out of her like a burp or a sneeze. But Sadie was silent. Sadie was still. And April didn’t know whether to be worried or comforted by the fact that even Sadie was still lost in a fog about all they’d seen and heard the night before.
But, mainly, April couldn’t stop looking at Ms. Nelson and wondering, What else are you keeping from us?
“What’s wrong with everybody? Do you guys have a case of the Mondays?” Ms. Nelson teased. She laughed. She hadn’t yet figured out that she was surrounded by children who didn’t quite trust her anymore.
“April?”
And then she was saved by a knock on the door.
“Excuse me, Isabella.” Smithers peeked into the schoolroom. “The real estate agent is calling for you.”
“Thank you, Smithers,” she said, then started for the hall. “Let’s get back to this tomorrow, shall we? I think we all need a night off.”
She gave a quick glance back at the group. But she didn’t say anything before leaving the kids to their secrets and their silence.
“So what happens now?” Sadie could have been talking about life without classes or the billionaire in the basement, but the answer seemed to be the same either way because they kept on sitting there, doing nothing.
Then there was singing. Or humming. Or something in between as Smithers swept into the room and started tidying up the bookshelves.
“Smithers?” Colin said. “Why’s Ms. Nelson talking to a real estate agent?”
It took Smithers a suspiciously long time to reply, “She’s looking at houses.”
“Why?” Tim asked, and Smithers considered his words carefully.
“Because this house belongs to the Winterborne family—not the foundation—so we may be moving soon.”
“Why?” This time it was Violet, and that stopped Smithers in his tracks.
“Because in a couple of weeks, a judge will mostly likely declare Gabriel Winterborne legally dead. It’s been ten years, and the courts believe . . . That is to say . . . Evert has tried . . .” Smithers started and stopped until he finally settled on, “We may be moving to a new house!” and then he went back to work and, if possible, the room got even quieter.
So Colin pushed away from the table and mouthed the words come on.
“No one’ll find us in here.”
As soon as Colin opened the big double doors, April believed him. She almost choked, the dust was so thick and the air was so stale. She wanted to throw open the windows and let in the cool ocean breeze, but she knew somehow that was a bad idea.
“Colin . . .” Sadie’s voice was a warning. “I thought this room was locked?”
“It was.” He winked. “Now it’s not.”
If April had still believed in ghosts, she might have worried because it looked like a family of them lived there. Huge sheets hung over every piece of furniture. They’d probably been white, once upon a time, but now the whole room was dingy and gray. Like a castle in a movie that had been asleep for decades.
“You sure Smithers won’t find us in here?” Tim asked.
Colin laughed. “Does it look like Smithers spends a lot of time in here?”
With that, he jumped onto the bed, a thick cloud of dust billowing out when he landed.
Tim pulled back the thick velvet drapes, revealing a whole wall full of windows overlooking the cliffs and the sea. It was the prettiest view in a house full of beautiful views, and April turned.
“Colin, what room is this?” she asked just as Violet tugged on one of the sheets, revealing a painting like the ones in the museum. But different. In this one, a ten-year-old Gabriel was sitting on the floor by his parents’ feet, surrounded by his brothers and sisters, all of them smiling and laughing and happy.
April looked around the room again. There were clothes in the closets. Two toothbrushes in the bathroom. A pair of high-heeled shoes lay discarded by the bed. It wasn’t hard to imagine a grief-stricken ten-year-old ordering that his parents’ room be boarded up like a capsule. And now, even twenty years later, it was still frozen in time, waiting for a ship that was never going to make it back to shore.
“Like I said.” Colin shrugged. “No one’s gonna come looking in this room.”
There were framed photographs on every surface. Kids playing in the water. A man and woman in love. A family gathered around a Christmas tree, all of them—even Smithers—in ugly sweaters. Well . . . everyone except Evert, who stood awkwardly behind them in his dark suit, glaring at the camera.
The dust danced in the light that streamed through the windows, and when Sadie spoke, she sounded different than April had ever heard her. “Okay, April, tell us everything.”
“Me? I don’t know anything!”
“We know why Colin’s here. And me. And Tim. And presumably Violet’s here because of Tim,” Sadie went on. “But there’s nothing in Ms. Nelson’s notebook about you, so haven’t you wondered why you’re here?”
April hadn’t wondered, actually. “I just assumed someone called her. I mean, she’s the head of the Winterborne Foundation, right? So they would have told her about the fire. And about me. I didn’t think too much about it. Ms. Nelson was just there when I woke up in the hospital, and—”
“You were in the hospital?” Sadie’s voice was too loud, and April was suddenly grateful for the sheer size of Winterborne House.
“Yeah. I sort of . . . um . . . burned down the museum.”
“You burned down the museum?” If possible, Sadie’s cry was even louder.
“It wasn’t a big deal.” (It was totally a big deal.) “I thought my key might open a box in the Winterborne collection, but it didn’t. And then I knocked over a candle, and the whole place went . . . poof. I didn’t mean to! It just happened so fast. And . . .”
For some reason, April didn’t want to tell them about being saved by a Gabriel Winterborne-shaped figure—about the way her key tumbled out of her hands and then ended up back around her neck.
“Why should I be in the book? The fire was the night before she got me. No one ever cared about me before then. And I never told anyone about my key. Not until Evert broke in here and stole it.”
“We have to get Gabriel to go public,” Sadie said.
But Colin only laughed. “Good luck with that, love. You might find out if he’s got a bite to go with that growl.”
“Wouldn’t help anyway,” Tim added.
“Why not?” Sadie asked.
“Because a Dead Gabriel isn’t our problem. A Live Evert is.”
Tim wasn’t suggesting they kill him.
Probably.
Almost definitely.
Surely Tim wasn’t suggesting they kill him? April wondered, but Sadie was looking at him like she wouldn’t rule anything out.
“So how do we stop Evert?” Sadie asked. “What are his weaknesses? What does he want? What—”
“My key.” April’s hand went to her neck again and came up empty. Again. “He broke into our room to take it. So it must be important.”
“What does it open?” Violet sounded so young when she said it. It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know that was the question that had pretty much dominated April’s entire life and she still didn’t have any answers.
“I don’t know,” April admitted.
“How’d you get it?” Tim asked.
“My mom. She left it when she . . . when she left me. And before you ask, no. I don’t know who she is. I don’t know where she is. I don’t know how she got it or why or when, but I know Evert was willing to break in here to steal it. So I know that Evert must need it.”
“No, love.” Colin shook his head. His eyes twinkled. “He needs whatever is behind the lock that that key opens.”
April thought about her first morning at Winterborne House—about how she’d been nervous and tired and covered in gravy when Evert just appeared in the corridor after everyone had thought he’d gone home.
“Sadie, remember when you told me that Evert shows up here sometimes and wanders around?” April asked, and Sadie nodded. “What if he’s been looking for something?”
“Like what?” Sadie asked.
“I don’t know. But Colin’s right. Evert needs something that’s locked up in this house. And if he needs it . . .” April trailed off, and Tim finished.
“So do we.”
April was out of breath when they finally reached the cellar, but she still managed to blurt out, “What does it open?”
“Hello to you too,” Gabriel said, looking around at the group. “I’m still alive, as you can see. A little hungry. Perhaps—”
“Evert broke into our room and stole my key. He risked us seeing him or being caught by Smithers and Ms. Nelson. Why?”
“Because it’s pretty? Because it drove him crazy to see our illustrious family crest around the neck of an orphan? Because he’s insane? Take your pick,” Gabriel said. “It’s not like it matters.”
“But what if it does?” Sadie asked. “If we could get April’s key—”
“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Gabriel challenged, and at first, Sadie recoiled a little, but then she grew braver. “We’re gonna steal it.”
“Yeah!” Colin cried out. “Now we’re talking.”
“No! I can’t keep all of you safe if you go—” But he stopped when he realized April was actually, literally, laughing at him. “Something funny?”
“We don’t need you to keep us safe. I don’t even need you to get into Evert’s house. I can climb up, shimmy through a window, and—”
“No!” Gabriel’s shout echoed around the big stone room, and when he leaned down, she could look into his eyes, past the pain and the sorrow. She saw the little boy from the paintings, and she remembered that Gabriel Winterborne had been sharpening his swords since he was ten years old.
“That man killed my entire family—his entire family. So tell me this . . . What do you think he’d do to the likes of you?” The words weren’t a threat. They were a warning.
But April had already seen Evert’s men working on the dock. April had already worn Evert’s precious key around her neck for years. April and the other kids were already in too deep, and as far as April could tell, they had two options: drown or start swimming. So she didn’t have time to be afraid.
“You don’t get it, Gabriel . . .” April said. “I never had a family. I’m not afraid of yours.”
“He’s dangerous!”
“So are you,” April told him. “And you’re not alone anymore.”