Did I mention I was lucky?
Did I also mention it never lasts long?
Turns out I was right on both accounts.
fifty-three
Rory
Noonecameintomy glasshouse, and I mean no one.
My isolated mystery. A cornucopia of riddles surrounding this abandoned part of the Casper mansion. Some days it was almost like it didn’t exist, like a secret I had stumbled into.
Not today though, the world of wild blooms and colorful chaos opened its arms to another person.
The walls crumble in on me, squeezing. Condensing the farther I came into the conservatory. My secret shared.
Lorna’s back is turned away, quietly humming a song to herself. She seemed pacified, a drink resting in her hand.
The noise coming from her mouth cut off as she turns swiftly. I curse at myself accidentally kicking an old watering can. The clunking noise vibrating off the tiled floor.
“Who’s there?” she asks, sounding almost frightened. Guess she wasn’t the only one not expecting company.
It was midafternoon, school having let out less than an hour ago, but it felt later. The day overcast, shadowing the glass room in gloom. The glow of the fireplace adding a shadowed murkiness to the space.
Or maybe that was only me. Glum seeing Lorna in my hollowed haven. The one place I felt like I could breathe.
That still didn’t feel like the right answer though. Something was off, I couldn’t pinpoint an exact reason why I felt like this but dread set in.
She asks again. Raising her voice in octave this time. Her movements were mulled, slow. Not sharp.
I was still hidden behind a thicket of flowers, so I watch as she angles her head scanning the room, not finding anything.
She looks over in my direction and my breath hitches, locking. Her irises, they’re shiny. Glazed over. Was she drunk?
“Come out.” Her voice was bold. A hint of uneasiness ringing there.
The confusion on her face evident. Her eyebrows pinch together second-guessing herself. She wasn’t sure if anyone was here or not.
Still, why would she be freighted if someone was?
Her mouth flattens out, spinning back around, giving up.
I didn’t know she had returned from wherever Abram sent her off to. I hadn’t the slightest clue how long she was here to stay either.
Either way, it sucked, and I didn’t care to ask.
The smart thing to do would have been to turn around and leave and I would have had I been half a second sooner.
My chest somersaulting when she lifts an item up off the table. The tune she was singing growing louder, almost in gratefulness.
No, no.NO!
The blood in my veins thickens as my hand’s fist at my sides. Don’t ask me how I knew, I just did. My gut screaming that that was what Lorna had been looking for all along. Digging through my bedroom trying to find this.
I couldn’t leave now, knowing she had it. Intentionally leaving it here after Cole had given it back to me in the barn.
My teeth grit. Lorna couldn’t have my book.