So that was it. The next step would be to get to his room, where he would wait until he was sure she’d been caught. It wouldn’t be a long wait, he was sure of that. One of the descendants—Uncle Edgar on his way to the kitchen for a snack, or Cousin Josephine running an errand for Aunt Adelaide—would be sure to catch sight of the trespasser before many minutes had passed. And then the hunt would be on, and she’d soon be captured.
Peeking out of the smoking room, Harleigh checked up and down the length of the west hall. No one in sight. He slid through the barely opened door and ran on tiptoe. He was in the entry hall and had just passed the knight in armor when a sudden sound startled him, making him break his stride, trip, and almost fall. He skidded to a stop at the foot of the wide marble stairway and turned to stare back toward the place where there’d been a sharp metallic clang. Back to where the knight stood just as he always had, with one gloved hand holding his sword and the other resting on the top of the circular shield that leaned against one of his ironclad feet. The sound had definitely come from that direction, but nothing had changed and no one was there.
He went on then, running to the top of the grand stairway, up the second flight to the third floor, and on up the circular stairway until, a little breathless, he arrived at the door that led into his own very private Aerie. He stopped for a moment to look back down the curving iron stairway, where nothing stirred and the silence was unbroken. He breathed deeply, clenched his teeth, and strengthened his resolve to let Allegra pay for her treacherous behavior all by herself. Then he went in and closed the door firmly behind him.
But it was only a few minutes later, after he had selected a book, settled himself comfortably on his bed, and was trying to concentrate on what he was reading, when he heard it. Someone, or something, was knocking softly on his door.
For a startled, almost panicky moment, Harleigh stared at the door, trying to make himself believe that he had imagined it. The knocks hadn’t been all that loud. Maybe it hadn’t been . . .
But then they came again, louder this time. Knock, knock, knock. Harleigh got to his feet and walked to the door, slowly turned the knob, and even more slowly opened the door a small crack. And there she was, smiling at him as if everything was just fine. As if she hadn’t run away when he’d warned her to stay right where she was until he came back for her.
Doing his fiercest Weatherby glare, Harleigh opened the door barely wide enough for her to squeeze through. But once inside, she forgot all about him. Ignoring his glare and evading his hand as he reached out to grab her, she ran to the closest window. After running her hand along the wide sill, she stood on tiptoe to look out and down. She stared out for a long time before she ran to the next window, and then the next.
It wasn’t until she’d completed the whole circle and looked out every window that she turned to Harleigh and began to talk—just as he was starting to tell her what a mess she’d made of everything by not staying where he told her to, and how much trouble they were both in now, and how it was all her fault. When he finished, he wasn’t sure she’d heard any of it. Hurrying, almost running, back to the nearest window, she went on with whatever it was she’d been saying until he finally was able to interrupt her by demanding, “How did you find your way up here, anyway?” And then suddenly he thought he might know. “You were following me, weren’t you?”
She nodded, looking pleased, as if he’d just paid her a compliment. “Yes. Yes I was. I think you heard me when I was hiding behind the knight.” She smiled, almost giggled. “You almost fell down?”
Harleigh frowned. He didn’t see what was so funny about it, and what he really didn’t get at all was how anybody could hide behind a skinny knight in armor. “How did you . . .,” he was starting to ask when she explained.
“I was down behind his shield, only I bumped it a little and it hit his shoe. That was what made the noise.”
Only that wasn’t a real explanation. Not one you could really believe. There was no way anyone could hide behind a shield that wasn’t much bigger than a garbage can lid. But then, remembering how Allegra curled and uncurled her skinny little body as she climbed the black walnut tree, he wasn’t so sure. She probably had been there all right, folded up like a cat, right behind the knight’s shield.
And immediately afterward, she’d somehow managed to follow him up all those flights of stairs without being seen or heard. So now, here she was and there went his plan to let her get caught by herself so he could deny knowing anything about her.
With his hands on his hips, Harleigh rearranged his glare, making it exactly like the one on Harleigh the First’s famous face in the library portrait. “So,” he said. “What do you think you’re going to do now? The front doors are locked and Aunt Adelaide has the only key. And I’ll bet you can’t find your way back to the solarium, and even if you did, the gardener’s probably there by now. But you have to leave now, right this minute, and I’m not going to . . .”
Even before Harleigh finished with what he was not going to do, Allegra turned away. Running toward the nearest window, she reached for the latch and, rising up on her tiptoes, started to lean forward.
Harleigh stuttered to a stop, fearing . . . or at least wondering . . . But then she pulled her head back in, turned toward him, and said—not what he’d been almost expecting. Nothing about flying, but only, “I think someone stood right here looking out toward the highway, for hours and hours—for years, maybe. I think she was watching for someone to come. But he didn’t. Not ever. It was very sad. Do you know who she was?”
Harleigh didn’t. And he didn’t believe there had ever been such a person—at least he certainly didn’t at that particular moment.