there's more ‘mail' for you downstairs.” She attempted a smile. “A letter. From the lawyers handling Grandfather Borgia's estate. I guess it won't be long now, will it?'”
Titus drew a deep breath. Obviously Pandora was becoming quite obsessed about this money stuff. Himself, he couldn't care less. The prospect of his forthcoming inheritance made him feel as if he were observing his whole family down the wrong end of a telescope. Their petty quarrels and concerns all seemed so far away. He shook himself and gritted his teeth. Even his own temporary . . . upset, over something so stupid as a malfunctioning laptop, was beginning to fade and dwindle. Family squabbles? Just buy another house and leave home. Computer breakdowns? Toss it in the bin and order up a better one. He sneered at his sister and stepped aside to let her pass.
“Thanks for your support, Pandora. Really appreciated your concern for my welfare. Next time I think I've seen a ghost,
I'll go find a saber-toothed tiger for sympathy and moral support.” Feeling victorious but oddly empty, Titus spun round and sauntered slowly downstairs, this time for the comforts of the kitchen.
The Comfort of Cobwebs
T ight-lipped and willing the prickling behind her eyes
to stop, Pandora crept forlornly upstairs to the attic. Windows set into the walls of the many staircases afforded her ever-higher aerial views of the land surrounding StregaSchloss. At last she came to the top floor, a part of the house inhabited by Latch, his bachelor accommodation located at the end of a low-ceilinged corridor. Lined up outside his bedroom door were several pairs of highly polished brogues, and the distant sound of running water and someone whistling a tune indicated that the butler was indulging in his perpetual quest for cleanliness.
Pandora tiptoed across the corridor to the steep wooden staircase that climbed up to the attic. Judging by the footprints in the dust-covered uppermost treads, no one but she had ventured to the top of StregaSchloss for some time. Trying not to sneeze, Pandora crept upstairs and pushed the heavy trapdoor open above her head. She crawled in and closed it behind her, lowering it carefully back into place with hardly a sound. The attic had long been her refuge, since—despite her best efforts to deter casual visitors with notices pinned to her door—every resident of StregaSchloss ignored all warnings to keep out of her bedroom, and after a cursory knock would walk straight in. However, in this vast attic, you could have hidden a battleship under the piles of dust and clutter, and no one would have been any wiser.
Ropes of spider silk festooned the rafters, except those below a recently mended section of roof, where the ferocious blasts of a midwinter gale had scoured that area clean, blowing cobwebs away and bleaching the surrounding timbers a pale and ghostly white. Averting her gaze from the new flooring that replaced a section where two unfortunate strangers had plunged to their deaths, Pandora headed for the dustier and more congenial parts of the attic, climbing over open sea-trunks, teetering piles of old books, rolled-up carpets, one unused set of bagpipes, and finally, under one of the dusty windows, she slumped onto a faded bolster, its worn fabric warm in the morning sun.
Determined not to give Titus the satisfaction of seeing her cry, Pandora was now able to give way to her real feelings. In the solitude and quiet of the attic, she curled into a little ball and wept. She cried for herself and for her lost brother, who despite being under the same roof might as well have been on the moon as far as she was concerned. Propped up against a rusty birdcage, home of a long-deceased cockatiel, was an old picture book, one that Pandora had loved as a young child—the gilt of its title long gone, the cover somewhat chewed and worn. The irony of seeing
The Snow Queen
reappear after all these years was not lost on Pandora. A new wave of tears
Laurie Halse Anderson
Peter Hoeg
Howard Jacobson
Rex Burns
Jessica Brody
Tony Abbott
Jerel Law
Renee Kennedy
Roz Southey
S.J. West