Chapter 17
Jamie was somewhat appalled by the amount of dust that had collected on his hands. He glanced in the mirror and to his chagrin realized he had even smudged his face with some dust.
“Must have been when that hat box fell.” Jamie cupped his hands beneath the faucet and filled them with water. He bent down and splashed water on his face then rubbed his wet hands over the skin. He could feel the stubble starting to rise, making his skin a little rough. He repeated the process a few more times and then ran his wet hands through his hair a couple of times. He looked into the mirror again. The dust was gone and his cheeks had a slightly pink tinge to them from the cold water. His hair was damp and somewhat slicked back, which he knew wouldn’t last. He looked clean enough to pass muster for an informal dinner. He reached for the towel and dried off his hands and face. As he stretched the towel over the edge of the sink to dry he heard the ringing of his cell phone. Jamie frowned and reached for the buzzing phone. It wasn’t one of the ring tones he had set so he decided to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Well it is about time you decided to be civil,” his mother’s voice came sharp and biting through the line. Belatedly he realized the tone was the one set for a blocked caller id. Jamie sighed. After all the day had brought he really had little patience for family machinations.
“I’m sorry I’ve been a little busy. Did you need something?”
“Oh suddenly me calling to find out how things are going with the family property is an imposition.” Bella shot back taking offense at his curt tone. Jamie rubbed his forehead.
“Actually it is,” he said, surprising himself a little. “I’m busy and unless this is important, I’ll have to call you back when things slow down.” Jamie paused and heard the deep intake of breath on his mother’s end of the phone. He counted to three. “Well I will talk to you later then. Have a nice night.” Jamie pressed the button to disengage the call. He stared at his phone for a second. Half of him was pleasantly surprised by his reaction while the other half suspected he would pay for his honesty.
“After all no one speaks to Bella like that.” He told himself. He shrugged off future punishment and picked up the book with its map and headed downstairs.
In the kitchen, Jamie spotted a relaxing of Del’s shoulders as he entered the room and he realized the brownie was really worried about him.
“I don’t plan on moving into Albe’s room.” Jamie said.
Del smiled. “I wouldn’t blame you,” he confirmed, shooing Jamie into a kitchen chair. “Until this mess is settled I’d stay away too. But the room has been cleaned nonetheless.” He paused as he set a plate down in front of Jamie. “I wouldn’t quite be telling the High Talbot that though.”
“Of course not,” Jamie agreed. “Especially since he went to so much trouble on my account.”
“A great deal of trouble,” Del confirmed, bringing his own plate over to the table and taking a seat. “I’ve never heard of him getting his hands personally dirty for anyone.”
“Let alone his suit,” Jamie added taking a bite of his dinner. Del chuckled.
“He was a might bit cross over that. I have the feeling he will be seeing that spot on his shirt long after it has been washed away.”
“True,” Jamie said. They both ate in silence for a little while.
“So did you find anything interesting?” Del asked.
“Interesting would be one word for it,” Jamie confirmed. “Apparently there are places in the house only the Keeper can go.”
“Makes sense,” Del said.
“An entire floor actually.”
“An entire floor?” Del repeated slowly. Jamie nodded in confirmation. “How does it get cleaned?” The brownie wondered. Jamie laughed.
“It doesn’t,” he said. “Why do you think I was so dusty?” Del snorted and took a big bite. He chewed slowly then swallowed.
“So that’s where you were when I couldn’t find you?”
“It was. And again I’m sorry, I didn’t think and I should have.” Del waved the apology away but seemed pleased that Jamie offered it. “At least I found a few things.”
“Oh?” Jamie showed Del the condensed floor plan of the house. Del whistled and pointed to a set of names scrawled in the corner.
“Would you look at that.” He said. His voice held a hit of awe.
“What?” Jamie asked craning his neck to get a better look at the scrawled handwriting. “It looks like the names of an architecture firm.”
“It is sort of.” Del told him. “But not any architects. I didn’t realize they designed anything other than for the Great Lords. That they would design a human place...” Del trailed off and looked at Jamie. “Not that there is anything wrong with humans exactly you see...”
“It’s okay I’m not offended,” Jamie assured him. They both turned back to the drawing.
“It looks like the house was built over the remains of something older.” Del squinted at the image. “I can’t read some of this.”
“Too bad we can’t just call the architecture firm and ask if they have a larger set of drawings on file somewhere.” Jamie didn’t know much about architecture but he knew there were usually giant rolls of blueprints involved somewhere.
“Well they wouldn’t have kept an official set on file,” Del said. “It would compromise security. But I bet we could ask them about it.”
“Ask?” Jamie said, blinking. “The house was built in the 1850s...” His voice trailed off as he caught Del trying to smother a grin. “Which would mean nothing to people who live a lot longer than I could possibly dream,” he concluded. Del patted him on the shoulder.
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Sure,” Jamie responded. He pulled the book he had found detailing the building of the house. “Do you know what the house was built over?”
“No,” Del said. “I wasn’t out this way then.” Del continued to look over the small drawings while Jamie processed the fact that Del was older than the house.
“I see,” he said turning back to the book. Jamie slowly flipped the pages, careful not to splash any food on them. He scanned more then read but gleaned a few interesting facts.
“Apparently it was the older house of the Keeper that was destroyed.” Jamie told Del. The brownie quirked up an eyebrow.
“Destroyed?” he asked. “How does one destroy the house of a Keeper?”
“Doesn’t say,” Jamie told him.
“What does it say then?”
“Just that the former house had been destroyed in the late fall of 1809 and that the builders built over the original foundation. They say that the joint between the two was somewhat weaker than the rest of the house’s defenses.”
“So that might be how the defenses were compromised this time?” Del asked.
“Yes,” Jamie said slowly. Mentally he calculated the years. “Fall of 1809 would be 200 years. What if the Lune Merdos only occurs in hundred or two hundred year increments? Those would be the journals I would need to read. After searching the basement of course.”
“You will do no such thing.” Del told him. Jamie blinked as if just remembering Del was there.
“Why not?”
“That thing in the bedroom was keyed to your voice and movement. I’ll not have you seek it out in the dark places where you are more vulnerable. I’ll search the basement. If I find anything, you can decide how to deal with it. The journals of course are yours to deal with as you see fit.” Jamie realized the brownie took his safety seriously and even though he wanted to go into the basement himself realized that Del was probably right. After all what defenses did he have against magic?
“All right,” Jamie said. Del pushed his plate away and stood up.
“No time like the present. You stay here and finish your meal. I will return shortly.” Del strode out of the kitchen with the air of a man on a mission. All Jamie could do was sit and stare at his half eaten dinner and hope that nothing happened to harm him.
