JACK OF DIAMONDS, REDUX

Chapter 7

They ran through hallways hung with golden tapestries and midnight-hued paintings. Clichéd suits of armour greeted them around every corner with armaments, breastplates, and coats of arms hanging between the murals, paintings and tapestries. Of course everything was made easier now with the hallway lit up by the new electric fixtures; they helped reveal the dirt and grime of the last century though, the cobwebs gathered in dark corners with parliamentary numbers. The hallways were panelled in Norwegian pine, for no other reason she supposed, than her grandfather admiring the colour.

When they reached her room she ran to the French doors, looking down over the circular courtyard as the passenger—too obviously a man and obviously too drunk—stumbled out of her line of sight. She let the lace curtain drop so that only a crack was visible.The pale moon lit up the rocks of the driveway a ghostly white, sparkling on the grass wet with dew, and she watched the automobile disappearing into the distance.

When she was a child, it seemed that automobiles were a rarity, now, it seemed as if everyone owned one. She knew it wasn’t her father’s Daimler—she’d seen that much of it—and just by knowing that, she knew it wouldn’t have been her brother. She wondered who it could’ve been. She looked outside again, at the white gravel gleaming in the soft moonlight, listening to the light fall of footsteps outside and almost audible in the stillness of an echo.

“Do you see anything?” Artie asked, stepping to the doors and pushing the lace curtains aside. He watched the car cresting the hill before he turned to look at her.

“No,” she said, throwing her dressing gown on a nearby chair. “But someone’s definitely here.”

She untied the knot in her negligee, shaking it lose and letting it fall to its full length. She looked at Artie. She didn’t know if she was more afraid of whoever was approaching, or of someone finding out there'd been a thief in the house. If he should be caught in her room, she had no idea what would happen.