I kept pretty busy for the next few weeks. I fed the cats in the morning, went to school, followed the fellows to the drugstore or to the park, came back home, did homework, went to bed. Somedays I didn’t even make it to the meetings; our teachers had started to really load on the homework and I was busy with a science project and a huge social studies paper. I had taken Stenway up on his offer, a few times, and sat in the kitchen with Ms. Higley while I worked on homework and she worked on dinner.

  She really was a nice old lady, telling me about her salesman son who was traveling all over the country, her daughter who had just presented her with a grandchild announcement, and her ex-husband’s health woes. Sometimes Stenway wandered in to take tea to Mr. Left, and Mr. Left himself came down one time to discuss the details of a dinner party. Apparently the dinner party was a monthly event, and so Mr. Left and Ms. Higley had to be continually creative. I watched them go back and forth, observing the interaction.

  Mr. Left was very straightforward with Ms. Higley, but also very respectful, making sure that she was comfortable with every one of the plans. She spoke to him as if he was still a little boy, sometimes, very motherly and wise. They made a pretty picture as they bent over the guest list, grey head next to black, framed in the big window. It seemed a moment that had happened before, and would be repeated many more times.

  I was underneath my bed working on my Supers blue book on Sunday night, when Sydney called up the stairs for me. “Tyler, telephone!”

  I cracked my head against the bottom of my bed and yelled rather loudly than I needed to. “Coming!” I stowed my things away and dusted off as I ran down the stairs. “Syd, who is it?” She didn’t answer, just held up the phone. “Syd, it’s a school night. I’m not supposed to take phone calls.”

  “Just answer it.” She rolled her eyes at me in disgust. I guessed from that reaction that it was one of the fellows.

  “What.”

  “Good evening, Miss Tyler.”

  “Stenway?” I pulled the phone away and looked at the receiver, then at Sydney. She was glaring at me. “Sorry, I thought you were… not you.”

  “Still, that’s about the response I’ve come to expect from you.”

  “Well, good evening. Do you need something?” I kept looking over at Sydney. She alternated between pretending not to listen to me, and gesturing threats of physical pain.

  “Yes, actually. Ms. Higley… she’s had to take a rather sudden leave of absence.”

  “Oh, did the grandbaby come?”

  “No, it’s… health related. She’s fine, don’t worry. She just needs a little recuperation time.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Now, I know it’s a huge favor to ask of you, but you’ve been so obliging. We hired a young lady to come in and help keep house, but I’d appreciate it if you could kind of show her… show her the ropes. At least, what you know of them.”

  “Why? It should be pretty straightforward.” Just when I thought my conversations with Stenway couldn’t get any stranger. “I’ll come in when I normally feed the cats… you still want me to do that, don’t you?”

  “Yes. Just… would you come a little early? And just be available if she has any questions, would you? And if you need a good quiet place to study, just keep… doing what you’re doing.”

  “What did Ms. Higley do?”

  “She had an accident. Automobile, I think.”

  “You don’t know?”

  Sydney was getting really irritated now. I think she thought that my rudeness would scare Stenway off, but clearly she didn’t really know the fellow. He got what he wanted, regardless of what he needed to put up with. I hated that, but I also kind of respected him for it. Sydney snapped at me. “Hurry up, T.J..”

  I shook my head. “How do you not know what kind of accident she had?”

  “She phoned us to let us know. Why is this a big deal?”

  “Well if she isn’t contagious then I might try to visit her. You know, like you asked.”

  There was silence at the other end for a minute. Then: “Thanks, Tyler.” Stenway sighed. “I guess we’ll be seeing each other tomorrow. May I speak to Sydney now?”

  “Be my guest.” I handed the phone over to Syd and rushed up the stairs. I had no clue what was going on in my life.

  The next day, after school, I walked up the back path to the Left mansion and knocked on the kitchen door. Almost before I was done knocking, the door swung open. “Miss Tyler. Please come in.” Stenway grinned down at me with a look of relief on his face. “Ms. Lytar, this is our friend Tyler Kelly. She takes care of the cats for our regular housekeeper. She will be over every day, sometimes early before school, and other days, like today, after.”

  I shook hands with this Ms. Lytar. She was tall, blonde, and spacey. “Nice to meet you. Sometimes I sit in here and work on homework. Don’t fuss on my account.” I walked back to feed the cats. Stenway looked like he was about to follow me, but he thought better of it and remained with Ms. Lytar. I tried to decide what to do while I fed the cats. On the one hand, trying to write my English Arts essay with a new housekeeper continually asking questions was going to be terrible for my schoolwork. But I had told Stenway I would help out.

  I had to wrestle Dopey and Grumpy away from a jacket that they had got their claws on somewhere, so it took me longer than usual to complete my task. Finally, though, I finished and walked back through the kitchen. I started to pull my coat off the chair. “Is there anything I can do for you, Stenway?” I felt like I should ask; I didn’t really want to know. “I have an essay that I need to write.”

  He looked at a loss for a minute, then shook his head. “Not at the moment. Are you sure you can’t stay?”

  “I really need to get this done. Besides, monthly dinner isn’t until tomorrow and tonight is usually a cold supper, right?” I was surprised to find myself knowing the ins and outs of the Left household schedule. “If you need anything tomorrow, I can probably help.”

  “Gee, thanks. You’re one in a million.” Ms. Lytar smiled at me, relief shining in her vacant blue eyes.

  “That will be very helpful.” Stenway looked relieved. “Give your sister my regards, Miss Tyler.” Stenway nodded at me. I let myself out.

  Whatever Stenway had said to Sydney last night after I’d given her the phone back had calmed her down for the moment, but I didn’t want to say anything about being asked to help out at the Left house. To be fair to her, she probably was more capable of helping out Ms. Lytar than I was, and I was worried she’d be angry that she wasn’t asked. I avoided her that night so I wouldn’t have to answer questions about why I was later than usual.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The next morning, I walked up the path again and pushed on the door. It didn’t open. I’d been afraid of this. I knocked, but all was quiet inside. Slowly I made my way to the front door. Time and experience had made me more comfortable at the mansion, but the big front door still intimidated me. I was just about to knock when I saw movement in the little window off to the left. I stepped off the stoop and raised my hand to tap on the window.

  Stenway stood with his back to the window, staring at a bookshelf on the wall. I ducked out of sight, peering in from the bottom corner. He ran his hands over the books, stopping every now and then at a title. My heart began to pound. Against all my reasoning about Mr. Left being a normal, private citizen, this could be the moment. Stenway put his hands on his hips and tilted his head to the side, looking deep in thought. Then his hand snapped out, grabbing a deep purple-brown book and pulling it from the shelf. He turned it towards the tall floor lamp and opened the book. He flipped aside a few pages, then abruptly turned the book upside down. A small dark chunk of what looked like wood fell out into his hand. I jerked back from the window, drawing a deep breath.

  The tall clock in the hall boomed out 8 o’ clock, startling me, and Stenway too, for I heard the sharp clatter of something falling to the ground. I tried to settle my breathing and realized that I only had half an hour to feed the cats and get to school. I climbed back up the front steps and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened. Stenway stared down at me. “Can I help you?”

  “I just ran around the whole building looking for a way in because that Ms. Lydell or whatever her name was locked me out of the kitchen.”

  “Oh, yes. She probably forgot. She’s cleaning on the second floor. This way.” Stenway vaguely pointed me down the hall. I fed the cats as quickly as I could, then raced off to school. I would end up with a tardy today, but it was absolutely worth it. I was practically shaking as I got to class. Teacher read me my rights, and I just stood there, nodding my head, not fighting back. I took my seat and mechanically opened my books, then rooted around for a sheet of paper.

  Behind me, Donny coughed. I turned back to look at him and he raised an eyebrow. Clive was smirking behind him, clearly pleased to see me get reamed out in front of the class, but I wouldn’t get upset. Couldn’t get upset. For one thing, a secret box hidden inside a book? And for another, I was going to have to go back to the mansion to assist with the party planning, today. I ripped out a tiny square of paper and wrote “I’m sitting with you at lunch” on it, then passed it back to Donny. A few moments later, something smacked the back of my head.

  Clive had scribbled out my message, in its place writing and drawing lots of rude messages. I wasn’t going to back down, though. When my lunch period came, I took my bag and my notebook and walked over to where the fellows sat.

  “Get lost, girl.” Clive glared at me.

  Donny frowned. “But she was really excited when she came in to class today. Plus, she’s almost never late.”

  “Rules are rules.” Chris frowned at me.

  “But this is important. Just hear me out.” I sat down, but didn’t unpack my lunch. I told them exactly what had happened at the mansion this morning, explaining that that was the reason for my tardiness, much to Clive’s dismay, and then explained that I wouldn’t be able to meet them that afternoon. “And since I can’t meet with you, I need to know what to do next. I’m going there directly after school. So you see,” I glared at Clive, “This is the only time that I can really talk to you.”

  Peach butted in. “Did you see any markings on the box? Any symbols, carvings, anything? What book was it hidden in? And where on the shelf was it taken from?”

  “Hold on.” Chris held up a hand. He pointed at my lunch sack. “You better start eating. You say you’re going back there this afternoon? To do what?”

  “Mr. Left hosts a dinner party once a month and the new housekeeper needs help with the planning, and since I was around for when Mr. Left planned some of the other ones, they figured I could help.”

  “What happened to the old housekeeper?” Peach didn’t even look up from his notepad.

  “Stenway wouldn’t tell me. He just said that she’d had some kind of accident and needed recovery time.” I frowned. “He made it sound like he didn’t know what was going on, but I’m not sure.”

  Chris rapped out orders, holding up a finger for each item. “Find out what happened to the housekeeper. Get inside the secretary’s room, if you can. At least find out the title of the book. Get a list of the people in attendance tonight. Take any chance you can to explore the house.”

  “Take notes, especially of that box.” Peach’s eyes were shining. “Anything you can tell me about it, anything at all.”

  “We’ve said too much already.” Clive looked around, eyeing everyone in turn and especially a table of older boys. “You know it’s not safe doing anything in here.” He turned back to glare at me. “Especially with a girl sitting at the table.”

  He had a point. Just then, the bell rang for class and I bolted the rest of my sandwich on the way out of the cafeteria. I hadn’t even gotten to my vegetables. Oh well. The rest of the afternoon seemed to drag on and on. I kept planning out magnificent schemes for getting into Stenway’s room, luring him away with an errand, getting Sydney to call him, even telling him there was property damage that he definitely needed to see.

  It turned out to be a lot easier than that. Ms. Lytar (apparently that was her name) had so much to do that to help her out, I just assigned myself some jobs. I was dusting the floor trim the front hallway on hand and knees when Stenway stormed out of his office and almost tripped over me. He stared down in confusion. I kept on. He recovered himself, shook his head, and grabbed his hat and coat off of the rack outside of his door. “I’ll be back. That idiot Winston promised to have the car tended to by three p.m. and it’s half after. If Mr. Left asks, I’m at the mechanics.” He stormed out the door, slamming it shut.

  I gave him a good five minutes. That’s something I learned from those mystery books that Sydney made me read growing up; always make sure whoever you’re spying on is actually gone. Carefully, I stood up, moving the bucket and rag out of the walkway. I stepped into Stenway’s office and immediately had a pang of regret.

  Stenway had been rather nice to me lately, and I guess we’d kind of called off hostilities after he’d asked me for so many favors. On the other hand, we could call it evens after I did this snooping around in his office. That seemed to make the most sense to me, so wiping away any little nagging doubts, I stepped in front of the bookshelf.

  Casting my mind back to earlier that day, I raised my arm to about Stenway shoulder height and pointed at the shelf. There, right there. The bland-covered book. Quickly I checked out the window; no-one was on the path. I reached up and pulled the book out, remembering at the last second to mark the gap with a little bit of paper. I read the title, quickly memorizing the words. “Theoretical Physics: An introduction to the Improbable.” Peach would get a kick out of that.

  I slipped over to the window, positioning myself so that any little movement outside would catch my attention. The front cover of the book was plain, only a wide golden diamond outline etched against the deep purple. Carefully I opened the front cover, this time sweeping the doorway with my eyes, in case Ms. Lytar had gotten any ideas about checking in on me.

  I flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for; a cutout in the center of the book, filled by the wooden box. For a box it was, tucked tightly inside the cut pages. Turning the book over, just like Stenway, I let the box slide out into my hand. I held it up at eye level, turning it round and round. Set into one long side was a little keyhole; I tried the lid anyways, but it didn’t open. The box was plain, except for a matching, tiny gold diamond outline carved into the bottom.

  The floorboards above me creaked. I jumped, almost dropping the box and the book. I glanced out the door at the tall clock: 3:55. Any minute now the clock would chime. I held the box up, this time shaking it very gently. A muffled clicking, like something wrapped in cloth, came from inside.

  There was clearly nothing else to be done. I didn’t have a key, and opening the box was impossible. I crammed the box back into the book and slid the book back into the shelf, remembering to take the slip of paper out and put it back on the desk. I left Stenway’s office and resumed my polishing, very curious.

  A car horn outside startled me, and I rushed to the door, almost spilling my bucket in the process. Stenway had the silver car parked in the front drive and was calling up to Mr. Left. None of my business. I kept wiping. After I finished in the hallway, I helped set the table in the massive dining room, and then headed home, my mind full of all the things that I had seen. Before getting started on my homework, I copied out the title and design of the book, and drew a rough sketch of the box, then I repeated the action. One for me, one for the fellows.

  I passed it on to the fellows during class the next day, but still didn’t get to meet with them in the afternoon. I had decided to go visit poor Ms. Higley and make sure that she was still doing fine. I also wanted to reassure her that she had nothing to worry about in the house; Stenway and I were on top of things.