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Our steps echo on the parquet floor. The place is so beautiful and ornate, like something out of a castle, or pictures I’ve seen of the Vatican. Marble statues and painted frescoes on the ceiling. We pass the ballroom, where the guys and I had some special time on top of the grand piano.
Kai stops short of the room I stayed in when I first got here, her old pod room. “Here it is. Her books are on the top shelves near the corner. You have to use the ladder to access them. That’s mostly one of the reasons why I liked looking at them so much. What little podlet doesn’t like using a ladder, and one on wheels?” She points high up. I’ve been in a few professors’ homes back in Boston. One of them had a fancy library with a bookshelf ladder, but it wasn’t necessary. Someone tall could have reached even the highest of shelves.
“Exactly.” I breathe in the smell of books. What is it about them? It makes me think of the first day of school, wearing my new school outfit. The smell makes me think of possibilities and endless days in faraway places. “This room has Beauty and the Beast vibes all day long.”
Kai snaps her head to me. “Beast?”
“Oh, it’s a story and a movie. This smart girl who likes to read is taken captive by a prince. A prince who has been magically changed into a beast until he learns what true love is.”
“Like you.” Kai laughs.
“No, not like me.” I’m no beauty.
Kai puts her hands on her hips and cocks her head. Even the podlet in her belly gives me a judgmental attitude with the way it points at me.
I shrug, and Kai puts her foot on the first rung of the ladder.
“No, let me climb up.” I put my hand above hers.
Kai pushes out her lips but then nods and steps down. “I suppose that makes sense. Dar would be upset if he saw me on a ladder.”
“I would be too.”
She throws her hands up in the air. “I’m pregnant, not sick. Why is everyone acting like I’m sick?”
“I know.” I test the ladder’s lock and climb up to the shelves that Kai pointed out. The system is quite ingenious. At regular intervals on the shelf, there is a little board that pulls out so you can place your books on it to look at them without climbing back down. Ten feet up doesn’t look that bad from the ground, but here, looking down at Kai, I really don’t want to fall. Book after book I pull out has a face plate with Richeal’s name. I carefully flip through each tome, but three shelves in, there hasn’t been so much as a pencil mark. I climb down and move the ladder before trudging back up.
It’s my third trip up the ladder, and when I need to move, I don’t want to waste any more time. “Kai, can you just push me to the next spot?”
“Sure.” The brakes on the ladder squeal as she releases them.
I wrap my hands around the rails while Kai moves me. I tilt my head down for my short ride. It’s kind of fun. “Whoa, back up a little.” I laugh. No, that was fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone anywhere. I’m going to have to talk to the guys. If being pushed on a ladder in a library is exciting, I need to get out more.
“Are you having fun up there?” Kai asks.
“Tremendous.” I laugh.
Kai pushes me back to where I began, with too much force. She takes a step back and looks up at me. “Should I stop here?”
She’s far from the shelf I’d been looking at. “Too far, back it up.” I laugh again. “Beep, beep, beep.”
“What are you doing?”
“That’s the?—”
“Oh, cod crap, the fun-snatchers are coming.” Kai puts the brakes on, and her head snaps to the door.
“What are you doing?” Dar glares at Kai and then me.
“Nothing.” Kai has her hand on her hip.
“Belle?” Holter’s standing next to Dar. “Come on down. I’ll bring you the books.”
I glare at him down my nose. “I’m fine, Holter. But move me a little to the left.”
“Come down, Belle.”
“It’s a ladder, Holter. Just move me.”
