Jonas,â Ellis added, turning to call after Margaret as she hurried down the hall. âHeâll need a change of clothing as well before we ⦠Where is he?â
âJonas, of course,â Mrs. Crow replied cheerily. âHeâs our hallboy. New, really, and I donât know as to whether he is going to work out. He tends to come and go at his own liking.â
âBut he was just here,â Ellis insisted.
âAnd Iâve sent him to change, as your ladyship commands,â said Mrs. Crow as she bowed slightly and motioned for Ellis to follow her down the hall. âIâm sure heâll return at once. Iâll have a word with him when he does. For now, would your ladyship join me until Margaret arrives? She wonât be but a moment. I promise no one will come looking for you in my room and this old woman is in the mood to reminisce.â
Reminisce? Ellis considered a concept for a moment: how did one reminisce without memories? Yet she had remembered something.
Hold still, Ellie, and the butterflies will come to you.
Another memory and clearer this time. She had been running for days, it seemed, trying to escape a house that seemed without end. Now holding still, learning the rules of this new game and recovering her thoughts was bringing her more success. This kindly appearing servant might help her connect with more. She was the first person she had encountered since she awoke on the train so long ago who was willing to talk to her about the past. Surely only good, she decided, could come from further remembrance.
As she followed Mrs. Crow down the hall, she thought she could hear the receding sound of frantically beating moth wings against the window glass of the kitchen behind her.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Ellis frowned at the dress laid out on the narrow bed. It was the same ugly traveling suit she had worn on the train when she first came to herself in this place. It was heavy, woolen and, in her opinion, deeply unfashionable. She had worn it, too, when she fled into the rain from Summersend searching for refuge in the Norumbega. She wore that miserable, wet and stained outfit in her desperate run through the endless rooms of this maddening house until Margaret had found her. Now, here Margaret had presented her again with this same dress. At least now it was clean and pressed although how Margaret had managed it during the time she had been in her ridiculous clown costume, Ellis could not imagine.
âIs there something the matter, your ladyship?â asked Mrs. Crow, standing in the doorway behind her.
âNo, not at all,â Ellis said, swallowing hard.
âYou were always fond of the costume parties,â Mrs. Crow said with a quivering sigh. She reached up from behind Ellis, pulling out the hairpins securing the hat to Ellisâs hair and lifting it free. She set the hat carefully down on the top of a small chest of drawers to their right. âYou often told me that you created this house just so that you might hold such grand events.â
âSo, this house ⦠Echo House ⦠you say I created it?â Ellis asked, reaching up to the ruff, trying to feel how it was attached to the collar of the jacket.
âOh, dear me, yes,â Mrs. Crow replied with a happy chuckle. She moved to the rocking chair set with barely enough space in the corner of the room and settled slowly into it as she spoke. âOf course, it wasnât your first Day. There were a great many others before and, my, some of them were so very fanciful indeed! I think you made more scrapbooks than anyone and never quite seemed to be satisfied with how any of them turned out. You won the Game more often than even Merrick. He always found you a real challenge.â
Ellis was feeling a little dizzy trying to find the meaning in the housekeeperâs words, let alone follow along. âSo, this Game that everyone plays. It has rules?â
âEverything
âJonas, of course,â Mrs. Crow replied cheerily. âHeâs our hallboy. New, really, and I donât know as to whether he is going to work out. He tends to come and go at his own liking.â
âBut he was just here,â Ellis insisted.
âAnd Iâve sent him to change, as your ladyship commands,â said Mrs. Crow as she bowed slightly and motioned for Ellis to follow her down the hall. âIâm sure heâll return at once. Iâll have a word with him when he does. For now, would your ladyship join me until Margaret arrives? She wonât be but a moment. I promise no one will come looking for you in my room and this old woman is in the mood to reminisce.â
Reminisce? Ellis considered a concept for a moment: how did one reminisce without memories? Yet she had remembered something.
Hold still, Ellie, and the butterflies will come to you.
Another memory and clearer this time. She had been running for days, it seemed, trying to escape a house that seemed without end. Now holding still, learning the rules of this new game and recovering her thoughts was bringing her more success. This kindly appearing servant might help her connect with more. She was the first person she had encountered since she awoke on the train so long ago who was willing to talk to her about the past. Surely only good, she decided, could come from further remembrance.
As she followed Mrs. Crow down the hall, she thought she could hear the receding sound of frantically beating moth wings against the window glass of the kitchen behind her.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Ellis frowned at the dress laid out on the narrow bed. It was the same ugly traveling suit she had worn on the train when she first came to herself in this place. It was heavy, woolen and, in her opinion, deeply unfashionable. She had worn it, too, when she fled into the rain from Summersend searching for refuge in the Norumbega. She wore that miserable, wet and stained outfit in her desperate run through the endless rooms of this maddening house until Margaret had found her. Now, here Margaret had presented her again with this same dress. At least now it was clean and pressed although how Margaret had managed it during the time she had been in her ridiculous clown costume, Ellis could not imagine.
âIs there something the matter, your ladyship?â asked Mrs. Crow, standing in the doorway behind her.
âNo, not at all,â Ellis said, swallowing hard.
âYou were always fond of the costume parties,â Mrs. Crow said with a quivering sigh. She reached up from behind Ellis, pulling out the hairpins securing the hat to Ellisâs hair and lifting it free. She set the hat carefully down on the top of a small chest of drawers to their right. âYou often told me that you created this house just so that you might hold such grand events.â
âSo, this house ⦠Echo House ⦠you say I created it?â Ellis asked, reaching up to the ruff, trying to feel how it was attached to the collar of the jacket.
âOh, dear me, yes,â Mrs. Crow replied with a happy chuckle. She moved to the rocking chair set with barely enough space in the corner of the room and settled slowly into it as she spoke. âOf course, it wasnât your first Day. There were a great many others before and, my, some of them were so very fanciful indeed! I think you made more scrapbooks than anyone and never quite seemed to be satisfied with how any of them turned out. You won the Game more often than even Merrick. He always found you a real challenge.â
Ellis was feeling a little dizzy trying to find the meaning in the housekeeperâs words, let alone follow along. âSo, this Game that everyone plays. It has rules?â
âEverything
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