Jewel of the East Read Free

leaned his shoulder into the wall beneath the wreath for extra heft, ready to lift.
    A voice cut through the air.
    “What in the world do you two think you’re doing?”
    Without letting go, Maisie and Felix both turned their heads toward the voice.
    The Blond Woman stood at the top of the stairs. She was dressed like a Christmas tree herself, in forest-green pants, a green turtleneck, and a red sweater tied loosely around her shoulders. Her hands were on her broad hips, and her beady eyes were narrowed menacingly.
    “Don’t. Move,” the Blond Woman said.
    Then she pulled a walkie-talkie from her pocket, lifted it to her mouth, and said, “Security! We have a break-in!”

“Do I even dare ask what you two were thinking when you
broke
in
to Elm Medona?” Maisie and Felix’s mother said.
    Maisie just folded her arms over her chest and stared back at her defiantly.
    But Felix said, “We just wanted to see the decorations.”
    “We’re invited to the VIP Christmas party on the ninth,” their mother said. “You could have seen them then. Now look at the mess you’ve made.”
    Maisie and Felix looked. A team of security guards crowded into what used to be Phinneas’s wife Ariane Pickworth’s room—the very room she died in shortly after giving birth to Great-Aunt Maisie and her twin brother, Thorne. The creepiest room in the house, Felix thought, despite its powder-blue walls and the ceiling painted like a sky with puffy, white clouds seemingly floating across it. It was near the scene of the crime, so the Blond Woman had hustled them inside to wait. First the security guards arrived, then four Newport policemen, then a man from the local preservation society, and finally their mother. The man was tall and balding with a big gut pressing against his purple fleece jacket. He looked annoyed; their mother looked really angry.
    “How did you even get in?” the man from the local preservation society asked them. “I mean, it’s impossible.” The tip of his bulbous nose was sunburned, which was odd for November.
    “We…,” Felix began. “Uh…”
    Maisie broke into a grin. “We used the dumbwaiter,” she said. No way was she going to reveal that they knew about the key on the first-floor landing. “First I put Felix in it and sent him down, then I followed.”
    Felix nodded enthusiastically.
    “What did I tell you about playing in elevators?” their mother screeched. “Especially ancient ones! Especially something that isn’t even meant for human transportation!”
    Her face looked weary.
And why shouldn’t it?
Felix thought. She worked a million hours a week and took care of them all by herself. Plus, she ran errands for Great-Aunt Maisie, who got more demanding the better she felt.
    “I’m sorry, Mom,” Felix said softly. He
was
sorry, too.
    Even Maisie felt bad now. Their mother had smudges of mascara under her eyes, the hem on her navy-blue wool skirt was coming down in the back, and a small run crept from her heel toward her calf as if even her clothes were weary.
    The Blond Woman hovered above Maisie and Felix now, her face all contorted and her beady eyes wild.
    “I want to press charges,” she said. She pointed at them. “I knew you two were troublemakers. I just knew it.”
    “Surely we can come to some appropriate punishment that’s less extreme,” their mother said. “They are only twelve years old, after all—”
    The Blond Woman reeled around to face their mother. “Do you know how many valuable items are in this mansion? Do you have any idea?”
    “But they haven’t taken anything,” their mother said.
    “If we let them off the hook for this, who knowswhat they’ll do next! Set the place on fire? Paint the walls? Throw a party?”
    “We didn’t touch anything,” Maisie said.
    The Blond Woman’s thin eyebrows shot upward. “You were attempting to remove a wreath,” she said.
    The man from the preservation society cleared his throat. “I think we can just deactivate