Arrival of the Traveler (Waldgrave Book 1) Read Free Page B

it; momentarily she fancied herself about to fall down a rabbit hole as Alice had done, but then dismissed the thought as childish. Grabbing the handle of the far door, she took a deep breath and opened it.
    The space beyond was astounding. It appeared to be some sort of greenhouse, built off the back of the house. It was two stories tall, and made entirely of glass, and round—it only touched the main house at the door Lena entered through. There were plants of all sorts, but most of them were dead. Leaves of all shapes and sizes littered both the first and second story paths. Dead vines climbed the glass walls, as if they’d been seeking escape. A raised, wrought-iron path curved along the walls of the greenhouse, meeting at the far side of the circular space, where a spiral staircase led down to the ground level. Leaning over the rail, Lena could see statues of various forms poised throughout the dead garden; rabbits of quartz, frogs in jade, a dog in some sort of speckled black and white stone…
    And in the very middle, there was a large, round pond. Bright orange fish swam about in it, watched over by a strikingly realistic carving of a young man. He had on workman’s jeans, a tired old blue shirt, and had rather ruffled looking hair. Lena began to walk the suspended second story path toward the stairs to get a better look, wondering how a statue could be so perfectly carved to match life. She looked back and suddenly saw the statue was watching her. She inhaled sharply and stopped, wide-eyed.
    “I’m sorry,” said the stranger, smiling, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
    Lena gathered herself quickly as she felt his eyes on her. “Well, you did.”
    His demeanor seemed to change, and the amusement in his eyes went icy at her tone. “Maybe you shouldn’t go wandering where you’re not supposed to, then.” He smirked and picked up a pond net that was lying behind some bushes.
    “I live here. I can go anywhere I want to. You, on the other hand, appear to be hired help.” Challenged by his reprimand, Lena crossed her arms; still stationed on the second level, she tried to look condescending. She immediately regretted this choice.  
    He stopped and turned to face her, letting the net clatter onto the stone paving around the pond. His face contorted into rage; although she couldn’t tell when he was well collected, it was clear to Lena now that he was no more than a few years older than she was.
    “What did you say?” If his eyes had glowed red, Lena couldn’t have been more afraid.
    “I…I…” She started to back away.
    “No. Say it again,” he said, sneering. He started for the stairs.
    Lena turned and ran; back through the narrow passage, down the hall, and standing before her bedroom door, she paused and looked back.
    Everything was quiet; for a moment, she wondered if it had been her imagination. Then, to her great horror, she saw the greenhouse door creep open as a face topped with brown, ruffled hair peered out.
    Yelping, she ran into her room and locked the door behind her. She backed away, still scared witless, as she heard footsteps coming down the hall. She saw a shadow stop in front of her door, and thought she heard soft chuckling as the shadow moved away and the footsteps retreated. Lena swallowed hard.
    She looked over at the clock and decided it might be a better choice to stay in her room until it was time for lunch. She got the book out of her carryon bag and started to read it, even though she had already read it four times before and there was a perfectly charming library less than fifty feet away. Two hours rolled by before a loud knock came at her door. Still scared, Lena was afraid to answer it.
    “Who is it?” she called.
    “It’s Mrs. Ralston, dear, who did you think it would be!” Mrs. Ralston sounded very annoyed.
    Opening the door, Lena saw Mrs. Ralston’s face, puckered as though there were a sour taste in her mouth. “May I ask what you’ve been doing up here?