Chapter 26

T hat night Daniel waited until the house was silent and dark. Then, carrying a candle, he crept downstairs to Simon’s library, determined to learn the truth about his family’s history.

Holding the candle high, Daniel could see that all four walls were covered from floor to ceiling with books. The air smelled musty, almost thick with dust from the old volumes.

The floorboards creaked under Daniel’s shoes as he crossed the room to get a closer look at the books. To Daniel’s surprise, the first shelf he examined held books about magic, the dark arts, strange scientific journals, and volumes about astrology and foretelling the future.

How strange that Simon should possess books of this nature, Daniel thought, moving the candle along the shelves. Did he and Angelica have a scientific interest in such matters?

Daniel searched the library shelves for another twenty minutes but found nothing of interest, nothing that would reveal his family’s history to him.

Suddenly hungry and thirsty, he made his way to the kitchen with his candle. The old house creaked and groaned as he walked through the darkness. As if warning me away, he thought, feeling a chill.

A glass of water satisfied his thirst. Then, moving the candle in front of him, Daniel made his way to the pantry behind the kitchen. “Where are those ginger cookies we had at dinner?” he whispered to himself.

He heard the soft scrabble of padded feet. The kitchen cat, no doubt, chasing after a mouse.

He moved the candle over the shelves of tins and jars. No cookies.

Something beyond the pantry shelves caught his attention. A crack in the wall formed a shadow in the flickering candlelight.

Curious, Daniel pressed on the crack, and the wall slid back. A hidden doorway! Daniel realized.

His heart beating excitedly, he pushed the door open farther and slipped inside. He found himself in a low-ceilinged narrow room. Holding the candle high, he saw two pillows on the floor, stained by dark mildew, a bundled-up blanket, a girl’s doll.

How strange, Daniel thought, bending to pick up the doll. Its dress was covered with dust. Its round blue eyes stared up at him in the candlelight.

Whose doll was this? Daniel wondered, setting it down on one of the pillows. Who used this hidden room? Judging from the dust and mildew, it hasn’t been occupied in many years.

He kicked at the blanket, raising a cloud of dust. His shoe hit something solid underneath. “How strange. How strange,” he muttered to himself.

He pulled the blanket away and lowered the candle. The light fell over a large dark-covered book. Bending to examine it, Daniel saw that it was an old Bible.

The spine was cracked. The tattered pages smelled of mildew and decay.

This Bible looks as if it has been in the family for many generations, Daniel thought. Why has it been hidden under a blanket in this secret room?

Kneeling on the dusty floor, he began searching through the pages with his free hand. In the back of the Bible he found what he was searching for—a family history.

Tattered, brown-stained pages held the scrawled handwriting of his ancestors. Daniel’s eyes eagerly rolled over names and dates, births and deaths.

He saw the date 1692 and read the names Matthew and Benjamin Fier. Wickham, Massachusetts Colony.

Our name was spelled differently then, Daniel realized. I wonder when the change was made— and why.

His eyes eagerly searched the page, reading about other Fiers. So many early deaths, Daniel realized, narrowing his eyes and lowering the candle as he struggled to make out the dates. So many deaths, sometimes two or three at a time.

Bent over the old volume, he turned the page excitedly, his eyes running down the names and dates. Suddenly the candle flickered.

Strange, Daniel thought. There is no breeze in this tiny room.

The candle flickered again.

Had someone else entered the room?

Daniel started to turn as a cold hand was tightly clamped over his mouth.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20