“And it’s upstairs now?” Gideon asked, his voice stern again as he turned to Mrs. Needle. “In your room, Patience? Is that true? What’s it doing there?”
The housekeeper spoke slowly and precisely, as if she had started considering her answer long before Gideon asked the question. “I thought it seemed an unusual, interesting piece of furniture, too nice to be hidden away. I had it brought to my office because… well, because I liked it.” She nodded. “Isn’t that right, Colin?”
Colin nodded too. He felt as though everything was balanced on a knife’s edge-that things could still go back to the way they were, but could just as easily tumble over into something completely unknown and unpredictable.
“And so that’s where the locket came from, too.” Gideon had taken it from his neck and held it draped across the palm of his hand. “I remember now-Grace gave it to Dorothea when she left for Providence.” He turned toward Dorothea, who was sitting on a chair beside his bed. “When did you come back from the east coast?”
The woman shook her head. “I never left. I got to Los Angeles but I couldn’t bear to leave Grace behind. She seemed so downhearted! So I called the people I was going to stay with in Providence and told them I’d changed my mind. Then I took the train back to Standard Valley-I didn’t tell anyone I was coming until I got there because… well, because I thought you might be upset, Gideon. Uncle Octavio drove out to pick me up-I was worried because he was getting along in years, but he got us back to the farm with no problems… ” She trailed off, staring at her water glass. “But I don’t remember what happened after that.” She looked up, and now it was clear to Colin and everyone else how upset she was, her eyes red-rimmed, her expression almost haunted. “I don’t remember anything… except nightmares…!” Tears began to roll down her cheek. “Oh, what’s happened to me? Why am I so old?”
Gideon waved his hand; he looked uncomfortable. “There, there, dear. You’re safe now. We’ll explain everything soon.” He looked around a little desperately. “Dorothea’s still tired, I’m sure-she may think of more when she’s recovered. Sarah, why don’t you take her back to her room…?”
“I do it,” said Ooola, jumping to her feet. She led Dorothea out of the Snake Parlor. In the quiet that followed their departure, Gideon turned back to Tyler Jenkins.
“Why did you lie to me, boy? About my wife, of all things?” He crossed his arms over his chest and glared. “About my wife!”
As happy as Colin was to see his enemy get a tongue-lashing, he was worried about what Tyler might say; a moment later his worries were confirmed.
“Why? I had to, Uncle Gideon. Everybody lies to you.” Most of the people in the room sucked in their breath at the same time. “Last year, this year-everybody!” Tyler smacked his hands together in frustration. “People try to let you know what’s going on around here, but you never want to hear it!”
“That’s nonsense!” Gideon’s face darkened. “Are you saying you tried to tell me that the mirror from the library was some kind of miniature Fault Line-but that I wouldn’t listen?”
“No, that’s not what I’m talking about.” Tyler turned to his sister. “It’s way more than the mirror. Luce, help me out. Tell him about the witch-tell him what Mrs. Needle did to him.”
Now Lucinda Jenkins stepped out beside her brother. Colin felt dizzy and sick, but he did nothing to stop either of them, as though he was in one of those dreams where he couldn’t make words come out of his mouth. “He’s telling the truth, Uncle Gideon,” Lucinda said. “Can’t you remember anything that happened to you? Mrs. Needle nearly killed you-she’s been trying to take the farm away from you. And last summer she almost killed Tyler…!”
She hadn’t even finished before Colin’s mother stepped forward, her face white and her brows like slashes of ink. She pointed her trembling hand at Lucinda and the girl shied back as if it were a gun. “How… how dare you!” she spat at the girl, then whirled to face Gideon. “These children have treated me dreadfully since they first came-but this is utter madness! Tried to kill you, they claim! Me, who went nights on end without sleep to nurse you during your illness-as anyone else in the house will confirm!”
“But you caused his illness!” Lucinda Jenkins was clearly frightened of his mother, but Colin could see she would not give up so easily. For a moment he forgot all his own fears in a sort of fever of admiration-but only for a moment. “Everybody knows what you do, Mrs. Needle!”
“She tried to kill you with a fungus, Uncle Gideon!” shouted Tyler. “And she sent this… this devil-squirrel thing after me last year…!”
Lucinda turned to the other farm folk, but many of them actually shrank back from her as though she might actually grab them and drag them into the fight. “What’s wrong with you all? Isn’t anybody going to say speak up but Tyler and me…?”
Sarah’s plump face was red and her eyes teary, but a determined expression was hardening her features. She opened her mouth as if to speak but Mrs. Needle turned and glared at her so fiercely that the cook snapped it shut again.
“Do you really credit any of this?” Colin’s mother demanded, turning back to Gideon. “Do you hear the nonsense these children spout? Of course that boy would take his sister’s side. Of course he would swear to the truth of her demented tales. Did you hear him? Poison fungus? Devil squirrels?” She was breathing so hard in her fury (and, yes, in her fear) that Colin had a sudden picture in his head of his mother tied to a stake, surrounded by jeering peasants. “Will you sit there and let them call me a witch when you know that I have done nothing that was not by your own orders?”
Now it was Gideon who looked caught between two enemies. “Now, Patience,” he said, “I’m sure the children are exaggerating… it’s a misunderstanding, that’s all… ”
“No, Gideon.” The deep voice surprised everyone. “The children are not exaggerating.” Ragnar stepped forward. “Will you listen to me? Does my word mean something to you?”
Gideon gaped at him. “Ragnar…?”
“And I must speak, too, Gideon,” said Mr. Walkwell from his couch. “The children are right-the woman is a poison, Gideon. She means us all harm. She wants everything for herself.”
“Liars!” Colin didn’t even realize until everyone turned toward him that it was his own voice screaming. “Don’t! She’s not…!” And then he turned and stumbled from the room, uncertain at first where he was going except that he had to get away from those accusing faces, away from his mother as she was slowly surrounded like a cat treed by a pack of baying hounds.
“Colin!” His mother’s voice was piercing. “Colin, where are you going? Come back here!”
But suddenly he knew what he had to do. He hurried toward the stairs that led up to his room.
Less than a minute later, his backpack now clutched against his chest, Colin jumped down the last few stairs and shoved his way into the Snake Parlor. People were shouting, even his mother, who seldom raised her voice even in the grimmest circumstances.
“You have had too many chances already, witch!” Ragnar bellowed, his voice loud enough to drive nails.
“Close your mouth, you Norse peasant!” his mother cried.
“Peasant?” Ragnar’s voice became, if possible, even louder. “I was a king…!”
“Stop!” shouted someone else in a ringing voice.
Gideon had thrown back the covers and put his feet on the floor, and was now lifting himself up to a standing position with some help from Caesar. “Stop, all of you! I won’t have this kind of behavior in my house!” He turned and saw Colin in the doorway. There wasn’t much kindness in the old man’s face. “It’s a good thing you came back, boy, because, clearly, we all have a lot to talk about. A lot of serious, serious things to talk about…!”
Colin’s heart now felt as stone-heavy as the rest of his innards. He could tell by the look on Gideon’s face that there would be no turning back to the way things were, no sweeping this under the rug. Colin pawed at the strap on his backpack, trying to get out the Continuascope. “Hold on, Gideon, hold on. I have something to show you