It was almost dark. In the dim light the wood-paneled walls gave the room an enclosed cavelike feeling, and the groups of bulky leather-covered chairs resembled clusters of squatting monsters. The dead air smelled like a dirty ashtray. Allegra pulled her arm free. “Where are we?” Her voice was low and shaky.
“We’re in one of the men’s rooms,” Harleigh said, and then, realizing what she might think, he started to explain. “I mean . . .”
“A men’s restroom?”
“No. Not a restroom. They’re just called the men’s rooms because no women were allowed.”
Allegra stopped turning in a circle and came back to face Harleigh. “Why not?” She sounded indignant. “Why couldn’t women come in here?”
“I don’t know.” Harleigh tried not to sound argumentative—it wasn’t the time or place for a quarrel. “My great-grandfather, Harleigh the First, said so, I suppose. It was only these two rooms. This one used to be called the smoking room and in there, through that door,” he said, pointing, “is the poolroom. My aunt says women and girls weren’t allowed in there, either.”
“And now? Who’s allowed in them now?” Allegra was forgetting to keep her voice down.
“Shh,” Harleigh cautioned. “No one uses them much anymore. Sometimes my uncle plays pool with me.” His voice sank to a whisper. “But I don’t think anyone ever comes in here anymore.”
Allegra nodded slowly, and once again began to turn in slow circles. “I can see why. I don’t like this room. I don’t think anything interesting ever happened here.” She shuddered. “And it smells bad.”
“I know,” Harleigh said. “From all the tobacco.”
She shook her head. “That too,” she said. “But there’s a dull feeling. Dull and uninterested.”
“You mean uninteresting,” he said.
She thought for a moment before she said, “No. I think I meant uninterested. Can we go? Could I see the poolroom now?”
“See the poolroom?” Harleigh asked sternly. “Look. Forget about seeing things. What we have to do now is get you out of here before someone sees you.”
That’s what he said, but on second thought he realized she would have to see the poolroom, because going through it was the safest way to get to the solarium and from there out into the courtyard. “Well, come on,” Harleigh said. “Here it is. Here’s the poolroom.”
The light in the poolroom was a little better. Once inside, Allegra walked slowly around, reaching out to touch everything she passed: the pool table, the bar, and the surrounding clusters of chairs and stools.
She was running her fingers along the rack of pool sticks when Harleigh demanded impatiently, “Come on. You have to get out of here.”
She sighed. “I know. But there’s so much more to see. Can’t I stay a little longer?”
Watching her reactions, the way any fear or anxiety she might—and certainly should—be feeling seemed to be almost completely forgotten in her fascinated interest in everything, Harleigh found himself wishing that she could stay just a little longer. Long enough for him to find out why seeing the house mattered so much to her. Or maybe just so he could show her some really grand rooms, like the library and the drawing room. But it just wasn’t possible.
“No, you can’t.” Harleigh tried to sound very firm. “You have to go.” At the door that led to the entrance to the solarium he turned back to motion and say, “Come over here. Stand right here by this door while I go check to be sure that the gardener isn’t there. And when I come back, follow me and run as fast as you can. Okay?”
She nodded. He was sure of that, and he was pretty sure she whispered, “All right.”
After the heavy glass-and-steel door of the solarium closed behind him, Harleigh ran from one side of the greenhouse to the other, stopping only long enough to check out each of the aisles. Just to be sure, he went down one aisle far enough to check behind some big-leafed tropical plants and a dangling curtain of flowering vines. No one was there. No sign of Ralph, the gardener, who should be showing up any time now. But for the moment the coast seemed to be clear.
Relieved, Harleigh dashed back into the hall, reached the poolroom door, jerked it open, and found—no one at all. He couldn’t believe it. No one in the poolroom and not, he checked quickly, in the smoking room, either.
His first thought was that she must have been caught. She’d been spotted by one of the descendants and dragged off to Aunt Adelaide’s room, or even to the front gate to be held while someone called the police.
But as he checked both rooms a second time, he began to wonder if the crazy girl had just decided to give him the slip and try to explore Weatherby House all by herself.
The more he thought about it, the more he became certain that that must have been what happened. She’d simply decided to go off sightseeing on her own. And along with that conviction came a surge of anger—more and more of it the longer he thought about how she’d promised she’d wait right there by the door. Promised, and then broken her word.
“Stupid girl,” he muttered. “They’ll catch her for sure, and then both of us will be in a whole lot of trouble.” He had no idea what they’d do to her—jail maybe, or at least juvenile hall. But he was pretty certain it would mean the Hardacre Military Academy for Harleigh J. Weatherby the Fourth. The boarding school that, according to Aunt Adelaide, had “made a man of” other Weatherby boys who’d needed a “little extra push in the right direction.”
And from Uncle Edgar, who had been one of those boys, he’d heard what that extra push could do to you. Uncle Edgar’s stories were about canings and solitary confinement, as well as bullying older boys who liked to use smaller boys for punching bags. And since he’d previously been threatened with Hardacre Academy for much smaller sins than sneaking a stranger into Weatherby House, he felt sure that was where he’d be headed if Allegra were caught.
Or else . . . Or else, it suddenly occurred to him, maybe Allegra could be the only one in trouble. All he had to do was go back to his room in the tower and read a book and not come out until they caught her, and then he’d just pretend he knew nothing about it. And when she told them that he’d let her in, he’d simply say he hadn’t. Which wouldn’t even be a lie, because the truth was that she’d pushed her way in while he was trying to push her out. And after that maybe he’d say he’d never seen her before in his whole life. Which would have been the truth if someone had asked him just a few weeks ago. Too bad for Allegra, but that was how it was going to have to be.