by Althea Blue
Patience tilted her head. “What did your father intend this one for?” she asked. She could see how it could be useful in their particular situation, but wasn’t sure what other uses it could have.
Ada surprised Patience by blushing. “Well, actually, father built it as a sort of fog creating machine. For the stage, so there could be mist if the play was set in a graveyard or something. I was the one who created the liquid solution to make the stinging. I’m quite good with chemistry,” she said.
In response, Patience touched Ada’s hand. “It is brilliant,” she said. “It is ever so much more useful this way.”
Ada blushed deeper. “We’ll see if all this works,” she said, but she didn’t move her hand away and looked at Patience with an unreadable expression. Patience met her gaze and, for a moment, forgot the urgency of their situation. She smiled and Ada smiled back in response, taking a small step towards her.
A thud came from below and they both stood up straight. “Is there anything else?” Patience asked.
Biting her lip, Ada turned around, her eyes darting over everything momentarily. Then her eyes lit up. “One more.” She bent over and picked up a shiny metal cylinder that was attached to a cube about the width of a thick book. She placed the device on the counter and turned the cylinder several times. It made a clicking sound and when she let go it started to revolve very slowly. Patience tried to see what it was doing, but she couldn’t figure it out. Ada went to the curtains, closed them tightly and pointed.
Across the wall an almost human shaped light moved slowly. It was fuzzy, but didn’t flicker, it just seemed translucent. A shiver ran down Patience’s spine, even though she knew the cylinder was the source of the light. It looked just as she had always expected a ghost to look, and behaved the same way. If she hadn’t known better she would have been terrified. Ada let the cylinder run out and then opened the drape to let in a little more light.
“That should scare them some,” she said, grinning widely.
Patience nodded. “It’s very creepy. We should put it somewhere near the mist. Where are we going to place all these things?” she considered.
“Most of it had better go on the first floor. That’s where they’ll probably look for the beast.”
“Where is it?” Patience asked, curious as to where it was kept when Ada wasn’t trying to scare people off.
She shrugged. “It’s in the room that you climbed into that first night. There’s a cupboard in the corner that’s inset into the wall and papered the same as the walls around it. It wouldn’t conceal much if you had the window drapes open or electric lights on, but if it’s dim it looks just like part of the wall. And it’s locked.” She pulled a key from under her dress and showed Patience. “I don’t think they’ll find it. They said they would go upstairs and kill him when he was asleep. Surely they’ll wait until dark or even later. We need to have some idea when in order to wind up everything and get it started, otherwise things will run down before they can do their job.”
Patience hadn’t thought of that. “How will we find out?” she asked.
Ada shrugged. “Let’s get things placed first and then worry about it. We’ll think of something. We’ll need a couple of minutes at least to run around and get stuff ready.”
Nodding in agreement, Patience started lifting the sound boxes into her arms and then put them back on the counter. “Wait, take your shoes off so they do not hear us moving around. I will place the lion in the first room past the stairs up here; that should deter them from this floor. It would deter me. Hopefully that means they will concentrate on the first floor where the rest of the objects are.”
Ada removed her shoes and went to pick up the fog machine but stopped before she touched it and dug in a small drawer under the counter until she emerged with a key. “This is a skeleton key. It’ll fit any room in the house. In case you want to put anything into a room that’s locked.”
Patience juggled the boxes as she took the key and held it between her thumb and forefinger. She went out into the corridor, heard Ada following and gave her a quick smile over her shoulder before heading to the end of the hallway nearest the stairs. As she unlocked the room there, Ada slid past her silently and padded down the stairs. Patience left the lion’s box and locked the room behind her. The lion’s roar wouldn’t scare anyone if they could see that there was no lion to go with it.
She dropped off the other three boxes in likely-looking places, concealed but in places where the sounds would be audible. She didn’t think the owl would scare anyone, but the odder the house seemed, the more likely to frighten the men off. She also turned the volumes up to near maximum. The louder, the better, she decided as she walked back up to the workshop. Deciding to leave the stone dog alone for now, she picked up the birdcage and met Ada on her way back into the room.
Ada was looking at the dog. “He should go somewhere they are definitely going to pass,” she said.
“Put him right in the middle at the top of the stairs. Maybe he will make one of them fall and they will leave before anything else is needed.” Patience suggested.
Ada looked a little shocked. “But if one falls on the stairs, he could get really hurt.”
“They mean to hurt us. I would rather they were the ones to suffer than you or I. I do not think we can afford to be squeamish here.”
“I’ll take off the bulb at the top of the banister and put him there. It leaves it a little more to chance if one of them gets close enough to be bit, but it’ll look more natural than if it sits on the floor in the middle of the stairs. And we don’t want it to look as though we’ve set traps,” Ada decided.
“That is true. Everything needs to look normal, so when the abnormal starts they will be more shocked.” She hefted the birdcage and picked out a couple of the filaments from the box. She could only use one at a time but it never hurt to have extras. She listened carefully before descending the staircase to the first floor. Still nothing from below. With luck the men would wait until they were ready.
One of the parlours had a door that stood slightly open. Patience checked the fireplace to make sure that wasn’t the room where Ada had hidden the fog machine. Finding it cold she placed the birdcage on a small table and dragged it close to the door. Then she attached the filament to the cage and pulled the other end right across the doorway. There was almost no way the men could miss tripping it if they went into the room. Stepping carefully she returned to the workshop and found Ada already there, looking at the ghost-cylinder and biting her lip.
“I don’t know where to put this,” she said. “It should be somewhere dim, but a place where they’ll be for a few minutes so they have time to notice it.”
Patience smiled wickedly. “Put it in the bedroom at the end. I will muss the sheets to make a nest and get it to look like someone was asleep there. Then, if they find the room they will think that is where the beast was, but will not know where it is now. Between that and the ghost, it should finish them off. I hope.”
Ada nodded. “It could work. We still have to know when they're coming up so we can get everything started and hide. The dog is ready, but everything else needs preparation.”
“I was thinking about that,” Patience mused. “If you lower me back down to the pantry, I can listen for them and when they start talking about leaving I can yank the rope, so you know to pull me back up.”
Ada considered. “It would make more sense for me to be down there. Tugging on the rope would be a good signal, but you could start setting things while I pull myself back up. Unless you think you could get as far as the first floor yourself.”
Patience frowned. “I doubt I am strong enough,” she admitted. “I never had to do much lifting or pulling. I could wait down there and let myself out into the kitchen after they left.” She didn’t like the idea of Ada being down where the men were. She didn’t much like the idea for herself either, but it seemed the better option. After all, Ada was the one who knew better how everything worke
d.
Ada discarded the idea with a shake of her head. “I won’t have time to get everything started by myself. If we assume they’ll take a couple of minutes to look through the ground floor rooms we can do it together, but with just me it’d be too risky. I’ll go down. I’ll only have to get to the first floor, not all the way back up here. It’ll only take a minute or two. You take the cylinder and get everything set up. Then go to the serving area next to the dining room and hold the rope. I’ll tug 3 times when I want you to get started. Don’t worry about the fog machine, I’ll do that one. The rest you already know how to wind up. Make sure you turn the keys as many times as they’ll let you. We want the longest use out of everything.”
Patience picked up the cylinder. “I hope we will not scare ourselves with all the noise,” she commented.
Ada held up a handful of something that looked like bread dough. She pulled off two wedges and handed them to Patience. “Put these in your ears. They’ll block out some of the noise. That bird’ll give you a headache for a week, even from upstairs.”
Patience rolled the stuff between her fingers and mimicked Ada, placing it in both ears. “Good?” she asked, and was surprised that she could barely hear her voice.
Ada nodded. “Good luck,” she mouthed.
“You too.”
Patience spontaneously gave Ada a hug. For a moment the girl stiffened and then her arms went around Patience in return. Patience gave her a quick peck on her cheek and almost ran out the door, not wanting to see Ada’s reaction.
She slowed as she neared the staircase, and climbed down very carefully, knowing she wouldn’t be able to hear if the men were on their way up until they surprised her. The sun was just setting, and she hoped they’d stay in the kitchen for long enough. She hurried down the corridor and prepared the furthest room in the way she’d said. She pulled all the covers off the bed, and dropped them in one corner. Then she lay down in the pile and wiggled around to leave the impression of a large body. She pulled one wardrobe door slightly open and then looked around for a good place to leave the cylinder. It would be best if it was somewhere in the center of the room, but there wasn’t any furniture there that she could use to prop it up.
Finally, she put it on the dressing table and decided that was better than nothing. She dropped a lampshade half over it, not enough to disrupt the light, but enough to give it some camouflage. Then she found the dining room and the serving area next to it, opened the door to the dumbwaiter and held the rope lightly, waiting for Ada’s signal. With her ears stopped up she could hear the blood pounding through her veins as her heart rate sped up in fear. There was the thumping from her heart and an almost rushing sound, and beyond that she couldn’t hear anything. She found that almost as disconcerting as the length of the wait.
The rope jerked in her hand. She waited for the second and third yank to ensure that it was time and then ran. She started with the ghost machine and then went around turning on the various sounds, intending to end with the lion. She saw Ada go into one room, and she knew that the fog machine would be ready. Her heart still beat strongly as she ran up the stairs to the second floor and her hands were shaking badly enough that it took her a moment to get the key in the lock.
By the time she’d wound the lion up, Ada had passed the open door and was in the workshop. She locked the room behind her and followed the other girl. She could hear the lion, even through the stuff in her ears. It was much louder than the other sound boxes. Even expecting it, and with her hearing diminished, she still jumped the first time the sound played. Ada noticed and grinned. Patience watched her until she saw Ada jump too.
Something occurred to her. She looked around and located a piece of paper and a pencil. “How will we know if it works?” she wrote.
Ada took the pencil from her hand. “I didn’t think of that. Maybe we could hide near the top of the stairs. We won’t know what’s going on from here.”
Patience didn’t like not knowing. They could sit in that room for ages, and then get surprised by the men. She opened the door and fished the putty from one ear. Faintly she could hear the owl, but only the lion was very loud from her position and she could not determine where the men might be.
Suddenly there was a sharp yelp from down the stairs. A man’s voice, loud enough to hear spoke. “Tha’ statue’s alive!” He sounded scared. If there was a reply, it was too low to hear but it didn’t sound like they’d abandoned the house. Not yet.
Patience grinned widely at Ada, who raised her eyebrow. Patience mimed a bite with her teeth and Ada nodded in understanding. She pulled out the putty from one ear as well and they listened further. When nothing except their machines made any noise, Patience tiptoed to the end of the hallway, and crouched down, peering between the posts of the banisters and trying to make out what was happening. She could see the very top of the stone dog’s head, but the men weren’t there anymore. She figured they were going into the rooms on the floor where she couldn’t see them.
A piercing wail came screaming up at them. One of them must have found the bird. Quickly Patience stuck the putty back in her ear. It would prevent her from knowing what was happening downstairs, but Ada hadn’t exaggerated the volume of that creature. Even through the plugs, the wailing was loud enough to wake the dead. She couldn’t imagine what the men might be hearing. She strained her eyes, trying to see around a corner. The lion roared again, more sustained this time and one man ran down the stairs toward the front door. He was screaming something but she couldn’t hear what it was. She suspected they might be words she wasn’t supposed to know anyway.
She waited for the other two men to follow but they did not.
She squinted a little and thought she could make out some mist, just coming into view. She wondered if that was what had driven the first man out. A shriek came from below. She braved the bird sound and pulled the putty out again.
“It burns!” the man said, sounding almost panicked. It sounded like the same man who’d gotten bit by the dog. He couldn’t be having a good day.
Patience smiled evilly.
Another man’s voice joined his. “It only stings a bit, it won’t hurt you. Try to stay out of the smoke.” He was the one with the better class of voice, the one who seemed to be the leader. “Go and try the rest of the doors on that side. I’ll try these.”
“But Jake ‘ready tried ‘em. The’re locked,” the insistent voice whined. “It ent worth it. I wanna go.”
“You’ll stay here and do your job or you’ll regret it. I promise you that,” the leader sounded angry.
“Jake ent here either.”
“And Jake will regret that. Go do what I say.”
Patience looked to see if the man would defy the order, but no one else went down the stairs. She heard a thump and then another one. The man seemed to be trying to knock a locked door down. Patience knew that the doors in this house were solid and all he’d do was bruise his shoulder unless he was very strong. None of the men had seemed particularly big, and she doubted it would work.
She very much wanted to put the putty hack in her ear, the bird sound pained her, but not knowing what was happening was too frightening. Ada still had both ears blocked and was wincing every so often, but was watching Patience more than she was looking downstairs.
Patience shrugged. She didn’t know what was happening.
There came a triumphant shout, though it faded away quickly. One of the men must have found the room they’d set up as the beast’s. She rose quickly, and hurried down the hallway to the workshop, pulling Ada after her. She closed the workshop door and went to the fireplace, listening carefully. She’d noticed earlier that they shared a chimney and thought she might be able to hear what was happening. She pulled the putty from her other ear and crouched down, her head almost in the grate.
She felt something brush her hair aside, and then Ada was holding it in her hand, trying to keep it out of the ashes. She took the plait from Ada and held it herself, ignori
ng the tingling that she’d felt when Ada had brushed her ear as she gathered it. She couldn’t stop a small smile though, as she tried to focus.
Sounds did carry, though not very well. “…was here.” She heard and then, “Where…now?” The first voice, the leader sounded a little worried. The second voice sounded almost panicky. “…find it…upsters...” came up.
She frowned and waited to see if there was anything else.
“Ahhhhh.” The scream was even louder than the bird, for a moment. Patience heard boots pounding down the hallway, and presumably down the stairs, though she couldn’t quite make that out. She opened the workshop door. Just then, the lion roared again. It blended with the bird in a weird sort of harmony. That seemed to do it. A second set of boot thumps followed the first, punctuated by a yelp in the middle.
The leader must have run into the dog again on his way out. She ran to the stairs and saw him just as he jumped down the final few steps and flew towards the front.
Ada hadn’t followed her and when Patience went looking for her she found Ada looking out a front window. “They’ve all gone. It worked!” She was almost bouncing and tears were streaming down her face.
Patience didn’t know what to do. She wanted to dance in a circle and shout for joy and shut that bird up, but she didn’t know which to do first. Without thinking, she put her arms around Ada to hug her and found her mouth on the dark-haired girl’s. Her brain stopped working for a moment. Then, once it registered what she was doing, she waited to be slapped.
Part of her wanted to turn and run, embarrassed and scared and unsure, but by the time she’d sorted out the emotions it was too late. Ada had stiffened as Patience touched her, but to Patience’s shock she neither moved away nor struck.
Patience felt a tentative touch on her cheek. Ada’s hand was touching her, and she definitely wasn’t trying to push her away. Patience gave in to her body’s desire and both hands held Ada tighter, one on the back of her head, and the other on her waist. She let her eyes drift shut and for a little while, all she could feel was the girl’s lips. Softer than anything she'd ever felt. Her waist was small and warm and Patience never wanted to let go.
