Ghost Flower by Michele Jaffe Page B

lenses at me, and said, “Are you on drugs?”
    In the surface of her glasses I saw my eyes widen in surprise. “No.”
    “Do you have any diseases?”
    “No.”
    Silence. She nodded once toward the rearview mirror, and the gates began to swing open. The big car slid between them and up the drive to the House. I had an anxious feeling that the real action was about to start.
    She raised a thin fist to her mouth and cleared her throat. “When we get to the House, you will go straight to your room and wait until you are summoned tomorrow morning. The staff needs to beinformed of your return, but they will be told my way, not by you.” Her voice was hard and cold, without a shred of kindness. “I will think nothing of throwing you out, young lady, so if you want to stay, you had better show more cooperation than… in the past.”
    I nodded.
In the past. What was the real Aurora like?
I wondered.
    The car swept around the massive stone fountain in the middle of the circular drive and stopped in front of an entrance with three flagstone steps. Small lights cast golden halos around the stone-framed windows. The front door was a massive hunk of oak, hand-carved, I knew, by Aurora’s father for her mother as a wedding present with the story of Apollo and Daphne. It was set into a façade that was supposed to look like a Tuscan Villa, but on a scale not even a Medici could have conceived. Three stories built around an open courtyard in the center, it seemed even more massive than in the photos I’d seen.
    As the car pulled up, she said, “Do you know why you lost, just now, at gin?”
    “Because you outplayed me.”
    “No. It was because you were careless.” She spoke quickly, and if I’d thought she was intense before, it was nothing compared to the way she spoke now. “I could see your entire hand reflected in the window. I knew every move you were going to make before you made it. A stupid mistake.” She looked at me over the tinted glasses. “You should take care to protect yourself.”
    I had the impression she wasn’t just talking about cards, and I wasn’t sure I was either when I told her, “Or maybe you shouldn’t palm the aces.”
    There was a startled intake of breath, and then she said, almost wonderingly, “You‘ve changed.”
    “I will take that as a compliment, Grandmother.”
    She seemed on the verge of saying something, but then Arthur was there, holding her door open for her. When she was out of the car, he came around to open mine. I stood for a moment breathing in the warm night air, sweet with the scent of honeysuckle, and looked up at Silverton House.
    Althea had said everyone was asleep, but staring at the rows of glinting windows, I had the sense that someone was watching.
The House
, I realized. It was as if the House were watching. Waiting for me.
    Something isn’t right
, a voice said in my head.
No good will come to you here. Leave now while you still can.
    Althea’s hand gripped my arm like a talon, and she led me inside.

CHAPTER 13
    A s I walked next to Althea, I reviewed the layout of the House in my mind, preparing for the next test.
    Althea cleared her throat. “Your room,” she prompted. I felt her gaze burning into me. Aurora’s room was on the third floor in the southwest corner. From the front door there were two ways to go.
    I could either turn right…
    “Where are you going?” Althea demanded. I turned to look at her. Behind her tinted sunglasses, her eyes were challenging.
    “To my room,” I said.
    “You’re not going to take the stairs?” she asked.
    “The shortest way is to cut across the courtyard and take the middle stairs.” I watched her expression change. “You said to go there directly,” I said, working not to sound smug.
    Standing, I was six inches taller than she was, which made it easier to see through her tinted lenses. I caught something between surprise and confusion flicker across her face.
    “Indeed. I just didn’t expect you to be so