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"Is Mrs Endfield all right?" I asked quickly

"Yes," she said but narrowed her eyes "Why do you ask?"

"I tried to talk to her earlier today, but she wouldn't anshen I knocked on her bedroo, but she didn't seem to hear ht she ht be sick"

"I don't know," Mary Margaret said, shaking her head "I don't know about that" She backed away faster, pivoted and walked quickly down the cobblestone drive, not once pausing to glance back at me I watched her hurry away and then I turned back to the house

My eyes were drawn instantly to an upstairsThe curtain was parted

I thought it was ain reat-uncle's bedroohter hair than Great-aunt Leonora She was back in the shadows and I just caught a glimpse of her before the curtain closed

Who was she? I wondered Sir Godfrey Rogers's ave myself a chill As soon as I entered the house, I listened for a moment and then headed down the corridor toward my room I wanted to relax and read and write letters to Grandmother Hudson and to Roy

The house was strangely quiet and the lights were low or off in every roo to look for hiht Good riddance

When I got to ered inaddicts lingered behind buildings waiting to pounce on people so they could get some money to support their addictions, where innocent pedestrians were killed or wounded in gang war cross fires, where parents treht was filled with the shrill sound of sirens, sounds that made our hearts pound our blood and filled our minds with pictures of horror I had every reason to be afraid there

What reason did I have to be afraid here, living a rich people who had servants and ate off real silver platters? I heard no sirens in the night, and yet the silence was so

I quickly shut the door behind me

The door without any lock

6

Joie de Vivre