The 100-Year-Old Secret

by Tracy Barrett

  Which of your characters is most like you?

  None of them are like me—at least I don't think so—but I based Ariadne in Cold in Summer on my daughter. In my next book, King of Ithaka, the main characters, Telemachos and Brax, are exactly like my son, Patrick, and his best friend, Riley, but I didn't know I had based my characters on them until my husband pointed it out!

  When you finish a book, who reads it first?

  My daughter, and she's a good and tough critic. She finds all sorts of problems that never occurred to me.

  Are you a morning person or a night owl?

  I was a night owl for years and years, but gradually I've turned into more of a morning person. I do my most productive work in the morning and save the afternoon for things where I don't have to be creative.

  What's your idea of the best meal ever?

  Anything Italian, with something chocolate for dessert.

  Which do you like better: cats or dogs?

  Dogs, but only slightly. I love both!

  What are you most afraid of?

  Heights, which is why it's odd that I used to skydive. I met my husband when he helped me pack my parachute!

  What time of year do you like best?

  Tennessee, where I live, has a beautiful spring that lasts and lasts. When one kind of flower is starting to die out, another kind blooms. I love when the days get longer and we can sit on the porch after dinner and talk to our friends who walk by.

  If you could travel in time, where would you go?

  I would love to see a dinosaur (if I knew it couldn't get to me), but most of the times in history that I'd most like to see involve interesting people. I'm fascinated by the Middle Ages and would love to see how people lived then, if I could be sure that I could get home to modern medicine and hot water and refrigeration.

  What's the best advice you have ever received about writing?

  Enjoy the process of writing because you never know if anyone else will ever read it. If you don't enjoy it, you might as well do something else.

  What do you want readers to remember about your books?

  I hope they remember the characters the most.

  What would you do if you ever stopped writing?

  I'd keep imagining stories. I would scratch them out in the sand if I were stuck on a desert island without paper and I would tell them to passing camels if I were stuck in the middle of the Sahara. What would I do for a job? I'd keep teaching Italian!

  What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

  Raising two happy and nice kids to be happy and nice adults.

  Xena and Xander Holmes are back . . . and so is

  a mysterious beast from Sherlock's casebook!

  Owoo-oo-ooo! The sound drifted through the air to the park where Xena and Xander Holmes were lying on their stomachs in the grass.

  “What was that?” Xena sat up and pushed back her long dark hair. The eerie wailing sound had come from way off in the distance. It interrupted the Game she and Xander were playing and made her skin prickle.

  Xander stared toward the woods. “Um, a siren?” He didn't really believe it though. That had been a weird noise. It gave him goose bumps.

  “I guess.” Xena wasn't convinced either. “A wolf, maybe? Do they have wolves here in England?” She knew Xander had been reading up on natural history for school. Xander had a photographic memory. He would remember any mention of wolves—especially because he had a phobia about wild animals.

  “Nope.” Xander shook his head. “No wild ones, anyway. The English killed them all by the eighteenth century. And there can't be a wolf sanctuary or anything like that near here or Mom and Dad would have definitely mentioned it. And I would have convinced them to pick someplace else for vacation.”

  “Well, maybe a dog, then.” But Xena still felt uncomfortable. She'd never heard a dog make such a spooky sound. And now she felt that there was something creepy about the quiet town square in this little village. She shivered and decided to change the subject. If Xander thought there were wolves, or even something like them, nearby, he'd refuse to do any of the outdoor activities their parents had planned.

  Ooo-ooo-OOOOOOO! They both froze as the howl drifted down from the forest. It started long and low, rose to a higher pitch, then dropped again before dying out.

  “No way that was a siren!” Xena said. “Let's find out what it was!” She leaped up and ran in the direction of the eerie sound. When Xander didn't answer she glanced over her shoulder.

  Xander had disappeared.

  Xander!” Xena called. Where had he gone? Had something sneaked up behind them and—

  Oh, there he was, going into the bed-and-breakfast. Their father was standing at the door. “Didn't you hear me calling you?”

  “Sorry,” Xena said as she reluctantly headed into the B and B. “I was listening to something else.” The truth was, she was still thinking about it. She'd never heard anything like that howl. She wished she could investigate it right now, because she knew that whatever made it might not stick around.

  “Well, what do you think of our home away from home?” their dad asked.

  When they first arrived in town, she and Xander had dumped their bags inside the door of the B and B and then dashed out to the village square, relieved to be able to stretch their legs after the long car ride. Now Xena paused and took a good look at the place where they'd be staying for fall break.

  “It's like a little cottage in a fairy tale!” she exclaimed, admiring the cozy room with its fire-place, soft-looking furniture, and flowered curtains. Xander was busy gathering up clothes that had spilled out of his backpack. He seemed to be avoiding her eyes.

  “I'm so glad you like it, dear,” said a woman in a flower-print dress. She had short, curly gray hair, and she looked tired. “My name is Mrs. Roberts. My husband and I own this B and B.”

  Xander looked around with interest. “Is this place really ancient?” He thought it was cool that so many of the houses in England were so much older than the ones in their neighborhood back in Florida.

  “It was built in the early seventeen hundreds,” Mrs. Roberts told him. “We're so fond of the house's long history. It was used as quarters for visitors' servants when the family still lived in the Chimington Arms, before they moved to the manor.”

  “Oh, the Chimington Arms. Is that the hotel down the road?” their mother asked.

  “Yes.” Mrs. Roberts set flowered plates around the table. “And the B and B next to us used to be the stable. It took our friends the Hendersons a long time to get the horse smell out of it, but it's a lovely place now. Still, I like ours the best. It's cozy, don't you think?”

  “It certainly is,” their father said. “And it's nice of you to make us supper. B and B stands for ‘bed and breakfast,’ not ‘bed and breakfast and supper.’ We weren't expecting such a delicious meal this late in the day.”

  “Oh, it's just some sandwiches.” Mrs. Roberts carried the empty tray out of the room, and Xena noticed that she was gripping it so tightly her knuckles were white. It can't be that heavy, Xena thought. She looks worried.

  “When Mrs. Roberts comes back, let's ask her if she knows what that noise was,” Xander whispered to Xena. She nodded and gave him a thumbs-up sign.

  As they ate, the members of the Holmes family looked over the brochures that were heaped all around.

  “Tour the Picturesque Downs on Horseback,” Xena read aloud. “What are downs?”

  “They're round hills covered with grass,” Xander answered. Xena sighed. Sometimes it was hard having a younger brother who was such a know-it-all.

  Their father picked up another pamphlet. “Anyone interested in Wild Herb Walks?”

  “No,” Xena and Xander answered together.

  Xena found a pad of paper and drew lines down it in three columns, headed MUST DO, MAYBE, and NO WAY.

  “Here's information about the sale, Mom,” Xander said. He handed her a photocopied sheet of paper.


  “Thanks, hon,” she said. “I can't wait to see all those wonderful antiques in that old house! Xena, put that in the must-do column, okay?”

  “Why are they selling antiques in a house?” Xander asked. “Don't they sell them in a store?”

  “The family's moving,” his mother explained. “They're selling a lot of their old things. The house is for sale too.”

  Mrs. Roberts came back in. “Let me show you around quickly before you go to bed,” she said, smoothing her apron nervously. Xander opened his mouth as though to ask her about the howl, but Xena shot him a look that made him close it again. “Don't interrupt her,” she whispered. Xena was good at picking up on unspoken thoughts. She sensed Mrs. Roberts was upset about something, and she was hoping that if they just listened, they'd find out what it was.

  “This is the breakfast room,” Mrs. Roberts told them. It had yellow curtains and a rag rug and a round table with enough spaces for eight around it. “Please feel free to make yourselves snacks whenever you like. Just leave the dirty crockery in the sink. Over here”—she gestured to her right—“is the sitting room. I think you Americans call it the living room?” Their mom nodded as they all got up and followed Mrs. Roberts into the warm-looking room with a fire-place and a braided rug. “There's a telly,” she went on, “but we don't get many stations, I'm afraid.”

  “What about a computer?” Xena asked.

  “I'm afraid we just have an old one for keeping the accounts.”

  “No Internet?” Xena was disappointed when Mrs. Roberts shook her head. How was she supposed to keep in touch with her friends?

  “Cheer up,” her father said. “We'll keep you so busy exploring ancient ruins and taking hikes that you won't even miss them.”

  “Who's that?” Xander was looking at one of the old-fashioned photos on the mantelpiece. Mrs. Roberts didn't answer. Curious, Xena glanced at her. Was it her imagination, or had the woman turned pale?

  “It's—she was my great-great-grandmother,” Mrs. Roberts finally said.

  Xander continued examining the picture. “She looks sad.”

  There was another awkward silence, and then Mrs. Roberts rubbed her eyes. “I'm off to bed,” she said. “Sleep well, and I'll see you in the morning.”

  “Boy, she goes to bed early,” Xander said after she had left.

  “What's the name of this town again, Mom?” Xena asked, looking at a map in a guidebook.

  “Blackslope,” Mrs. Holmes replied, and added as she left the room with their father, “Don't stay up too late.”

  Xena turned back to the map but Xander nudged her. “Blackslope!” he said, his voice high with excitement. “Sherlock's been here!”