Read Online Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones - Free Book Online

lift. “My father had me doing it for hours before he let me go into a room where the Family were. But the main thing you’ll learn—I’m warning you—is how to be on your feet for fourteen hours at a stretch. Staff never sit down. Any more questions?”
    â€œHundreds,” Christopher said. “So many I can’t think what to ask first.” This was evidently true. He had to stop and stare at the wall, trying to decide.
    I seized the space to ask, “Should we call you Mr . Hugo?”
    â€œOnly in front of my father,” Hugo said with another grin. “He’s very strict about it.”
    â€œBecause you’re the heir to the butlership?” Christopher asked irrepressibly.
    â€œThat’s right,” said Hugo.
    â€œRather you than me!” Christopher said.
    â€œQuite,” Hugo answered, rather sadly.
    Christopher looked at him shrewdly, but he said nothing else until the lift finally made it up to the attics. Then he said, “My God! A rat maze!”
    Hugo and I both laughed, because it was like that up there. The roof was quite low, with skylights in it, so you could see narrow wooden corridors lined with doors running in all directions. It was warm and smelled of wood. I’m going to get lost up here, I thought.
    â€œYou’ll be sharing a room along here,” Hugo said, leading the way along a corridor that looked just like any of the rest. All the doors were painted the same dull red-brown. He opened a door like all the others. “You’ll have to be careful not to make too much noise up here,” he remarked. “You’ll be among quite senior Staff.”
    Beyond the door was a fresh white room with a sloping ceiling and two narrow white beds. The little low window looked out at blue mountains, and sun streamed in. It smelled of warm whitewash. There was a carpet, a chest of drawers, and a curtained corner for hanging things in. It was rather nicer than my room at home. I looked at Christopher, expecting him to be used to much fancier bedrooms. But I’d forgotten he’d just spent a month in a gypsy caravan. He looked around with pleasure.
    â€œNice,” he said. “Companionable. Twice as big as a caravan. Er—bathroom?”
    â€œThe end of the corridor,” Hugo said. “The corner room on every passage is always a bathroom. Now come and get your uniforms. This way.”
    I hurriedly dumped my plastic bag on a bed, wondering if I would ever find it again, and we followed Hugo back out into the corridor.
    Here Christopher said, “Just a second.” He took off his narrow silk tie and wrapped it around the doorknob on the outside of the door. “Now we can find ourselves again,” he said. “Or isn’t it allowed?” he asked Hugo.
    â€œI’ve no idea,” Hugo said. “I don’t think anyone’s thought of doing it before.”
    â€œThen you must all have the most wonderful sense of direction,” Christopher said. “Is this the bathroom?”
    Hugo nodded. We both stuck our heads around the door, and Christopher nodded approvingly. “All the essentials,” he said. “Far better than a tin tub or a hedge. Towels?”
    â€œIn the linen store next to the uniforms,” Hugo told him. “This way.”
    He led us in zigzags through the narrow corridors to a place with a bigger skylight than usual. Here the doors were slatted, although they were the same red-brown as all the others. He opened the first slatted door. “Better take a towel each,” he said.
    We gazed at a room twice the size of the one we had been given, filled with shelves piled with folded towels, sheets, and blankets. Enough for an army, it seemed to me.
    â€œHow many Staff are there?” Christopher asked as we each took a big red-brown towel.
    â€œWe’re down to just fifty indoors at the moment,” Hugo said. “When we start entertaining again,