Chapter 16
Four hours later and Jamie was dust covered and realizing the house was far larger than he had ever imagined. The notebook he had grabbed to take notes from the journals, should he manage to find them now held a scrawled map showing the vague whereabouts of rooms. He shook his head at the sketch realizing an architect would have laughed long and hard at his floor plans. For the most part they consisted of vaguely rectangular boxes containing quickly scrawled notations of what was stored in the room.
“At least I can find them again if I have to,” Jamie said as he closed yet another door behind him. At the moment he wasn’t really sure he would ever need to find that room again since it held a variety of ladies clothing that he thought might have been the height of fashion at the turn of the century. “Make that last century,” he amended. “Although I would have to wonder what Albe was doing with ladies clothing from the year 2000 if I came across it.” An amusing image skittered across his brain and he let it go with a snort giving no validity to it. “After all,” he said as he made notes. “If Albe were cross dressing I’m sure he would do so with class. No rhinestone studded princess t-shirts for him.” Jamie moved across the hallway and opened yet another door.
“Now this looks promising,” he said. The walls were lines with shelves. And the shelves were filled with books remarkably similar to Albe’s journals. The floor was piled high with wooden crates of varying sizes and Jamie wound his way around them, moving towards the shelves. “Apparently everyone took the term Keeper seriously and never threw anything away.” Jamie reached the shelves and pulled out of the volumes down. It had the year 1904 stamped on it’s spine in flaking gold numbers. Jamie flipped to the first entry. It was dated September 12th, 1904. The handwriting had faded to a sepia tone but was still quite legible.
“Someone passed penmanship class with flying colors,” The letters were uniform and all clear to read. Jamie’s penmanship had always earned him a U for unsatisfactory and disappointed looks from his teacher who always believed he was capable of more. Jamie scanned the entry and found the author had a dog named Bess who had given birth to four healthy puppies. Someone named Emma had fallen in love with the brown one with one white foot and white spots on the tips of its ears. The entry was written with such warmth and affection that Jamie had to smile. It didn’t actually help him out of his current dilemma though so instead of continuing on with the entries in order he flipped towards November. There was no mention of Lune Merdos either on November 2nd or in the days preceding it. Jamie put the volume back on the shelf and idly ran his fingers through his hair as he thought about things.
“Lot of books to go through,” he said. “Even if I’m just concentrating on November entries. Maybe looking for the book on House first would be a good idea.” Making sure he could sleep safely while looking for references to Lune Merdos seemed like a good plan. His eyes scanned the shelves, looking for a volume that didn’t resemble a journal. Nothing looked immediately apparent. He moved slowly around the room, taking more care with his steps after banging his shin on one of the crates. Again nothing. Jamie sat down on one of the crates and rubbed his sore shin as he thought about it.
“Okay,” he said to himself. Talking through a problem usually got him the best results even if it had always caused rolled eyes when living with family. Out of habit Jamie glanced around to make sure no one was with him.
“Okay,” he repeated. “If I had a book that I wanted to keep safe what would I do with it?” He thought about it. “I would put it in a place only I could get to.” He looked around the room.
“Well since no one else can find this place it is safer than a bank vault.” He drummed his fingers on the crate liking the thumping sound they made on the wood.
“Would I lock it up?” He looked at the other boxes in the room and realized he’d need a crow bar to search them.
“Maybe but what if I wanted to consult the book every now and then? I wouldn’t want to have to grab a crow bar every time I wanted to read it. I’d want to keep it simply like the journals. Those you can just pull off the shelf.” He looked at the shelf.
“Except it isn’t on the shelf. The shelves only have the journals.” A light bulb started to flicker in the back of Jamie’s brain.
“Unless it is on the shelf. If I wanted to keep something safe I would make it look just like everything else so it wouldn’t stand out.” He looked back to the shelves at the rows and rows of journals.
“Damn this is going to take a while.” The light bulb got brighter.
“House,” he asked.
“Yes Keeper?”
“Do you by any chance know what year you were built?”
“Of course Keeper, it was inscribed on the cornerstone of my foundation.” Jamie shook his head.
“Could you tell me what that year was?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?” Jamie clarified realizing he was going to have to remember to be more direct when dealing with House.
“1852. I was started as an Italianate and then modified with Queen Anne elements when I was later modernized.”
“Really?” Jamie said politely.
“Yes, The Keeper of the time married and the family needed more room. His wife preferred the new style.” Jamie wondered if the clothing in the other room belonged to the Queen Anne architecture loving wife.
“I see,” Jamie said, standing and moving back towards the shelves. Once there Jamie scanned the dates on the Journal’s spines. Apparently Albe was the only one who put start and finish dates on the covers. Everyone else simply made do with years. When Jamie reached 1852 he smiled. There were two volumes with that particular year on the spine. While there were several other duplicate years on the shelves, no doubt representing active times, Jamie had a good feeling about this one. He pulled the first volume down. It was a journal, like the others. He put it back on the shelf and took the second volume from 1852 down.
“Jackpot,” he said as he flipped through the pages. Details of floor plans and construction notes met his eyes. There were even little drawings scattered throughout the book that reminded him of the field guide Albe had provided him with. Jamie flipped to the cover and sure enough the name on the fly leaf was Alexander Fulton.
“Same as the other book,” he smiled. Tucked into the back of the book was a map. “That will be helpful.”
“Keeper,” House said, interrupting his perusal of the volume.
“Yes?”
“Your housekeeper is looking for you. He seems somewhat distressed by your absence.” Jamie shut his eyes for a moment and mentally cursed himself blue. Del wouldn’t be able to find the floor he was on and after the recent attacks had cause to worry over his absence.
“I’m on my way,” Jamie also realized House would be unable to tell Del his whereabouts. Jamie slipped the map back in the book and decided to take both with him. It wasn’t as safe as leaving it in the store room but at the moment availability was more important. Jamie left the sore room, pulling the door shut behind him with his free hand. He quickly strode through the corridors and back towards the more accessible parts of the house.
“Where is Del?” Jamie asked House as he moved.
“On the floor with the library.” Came the response. Jamie altered his path to lead himself back up to the library rather than down towards the kitchen. Del caught sight of him as he cleared the landing. The relief was written plain across his face.
“I’m sorry,” Jamie said as he approached. “I was in the store rooms and forgot you wouldn’t be able to find me since you couldn’t find them.” Del raised an eyebrow at the mention of not finding rooms but let it slide.
“Of course,” he said, relaxing more now that he could see Jamie was safe. “The High Talbot sent word of our intruder and dinner is ready if you are.” Jamie smiled.
“More than ready thanks.”
“Good then,” Del gave Jamie a bit of a once over. “You might want to take a minute or so to wash up. I’ll meet you back in the kitchen.” Jamie looked at his dust streaked hands and was forced to agree.
“Fair enough,” Jamie said with a laugh. “At least you aren’t sending me to bed without my supper.” Del laughed showing Jamie there were no hard feelings and headed back down to the kitchen as Jamie went to wash up.
