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Jaide spun around to see Jack standing in their bedroom doorway, rubbing his eyes.
‘You gave me a fright,’ she said, putting a hand to her chest.
‘Yeah, you really jumped!’ Jack grinned. ‘What are you up to?’
‘Just looking around.’
Jaide glanced up at the next landing, the gateway to their grandmother’s domain, but instead of going that way they went down the stairs together.
‘Remember the blue door?’ Jaide asked. ‘It must lead somewhere.’
‘I bet it goes to a cellar.’ Jack shivered as he thought of what unknown terrors they could encounter down there.
‘There might be another way in, from inside the house,’ Jaide said. ‘Let’s see if we can find it.’
First they went into the lounge. It was crowded with three well-worn leather couches, two long, glass-fronted bookcases, and no fewer than four coffee tables. If there was a cellar entrance there, it was hidden by a thick rug that could not be lifted without completely removing all the furniture, which was beyond the twins’ strength and inclination.
A connecting door of etched and coloured glass led into the drawing room, which contained a locked roll-top desk, more bookcases and an antique globe of the world that sat in one corner on three scaly, reptilian bronze legs that ended in silver-washed talons. The twins pressed various countries on the globe in the hope that there might be a secret switch to a door leading to the cellar below, and Jack pulled at every talon, but they were solid metal, not hidden levers. The twins even stamped on the floor, but heard no telltale echoes or loose boards.
The study door was tightly locked. The kitchen’s floorboards stretched unbroken from wall to wall, with no faint lines to indicate a hidden trapdoor. The walls were solid, without interesting echoes when they knocked, even on the side facing the study.
There was a cupboard under the stairs, but that held only mops, brooms and buckets.
Momentarily frustrated, the twins stood in the hallway, surrounded by their grandmother’s odd collection of trinkets and portraits. Blank eyes stared at them, making Jack feel faintly queasy. That could have been hunger, though, and he pushed the thought firmly from his mind.
‘Looking for something?’
The amused voice came echoing from the very summit of the house. Grandma X was watching them, looking down the centre of the stairwell. Her grey hair hadn’t been brushed and stuck out in odd clumps and streamers.
‘We’re just exploring,’ said Jack, hoping that was okay.
‘Very good. I’ll be down in a second to make us some breakfast.’
The wild-haired head disappeared.
‘Quick,’ said Jaide, tugging at her brother’s arm, ‘while we still have the chance.’
‘What?’
‘Outside! We’ll try the door itself and see if we can get in that way.’
The door was exactly as it had been when she’d seen it the day before: bright blue and three steps down from ground level. Or perhaps not exactly as it had been, for she thought it had possessed a handle or doorknob, but now it was completely featureless, solid wood. And the sign they had seen, which had said something about antiques, was gone.
The twins went down the three stone steps side by side and pressed their hands against the door, dislodging some remnant drops of dew. They pushed as hard as they could, but the door didn’t move. Jaide ran her hands around the edges, feeling for the hinges, while Jack pressed every faint whorl or discolouration in the timber, hoping for a secret catch. Neither approach worked. The door wouldn’t give up its secrets.
‘I think it’s going to rain today,’ said Grandma X.
Jaide and Jack spun around, but their grandmother wasn’t visible. It sounded as though her voice had come from the front door, just out of sight.
Instead of replying, Jaide put a finger to her lips and pulled Jack away from the door.
‘Where —?’
‘Shhhh!’
They ran around the house a second time, this time peering at every vent and chink in the house’s brickwork. There was no other hatch or entrance to any underground spaces, but there was a shuttered window on the southern wall that certainly hadn’t been there before. Unfortunately it was too high up for even Jaide to get to without a ladder or a convenient drainpipe to climb. They stared up at it, trying to see through. The glass reflected thickening clouds and revealed nothing of what lay within.
‘There must be a way inside,’ hissed Jaide. She didn’t like mysteries she couldn’t solve.
‘In where, dear?’
This time Grandma X’s voice came from right behind them, impossibly close. Jaide jumped again, and for an instant it seemed like she was literally airborne, she felt so startled. She hadn’t heard her grandmother’s boots on the gravel. How could an old woman move so quietly?
A hand came down on both twins’ shoulders, pinning them to the earth.
‘Uh, nothing?’ said Jack, glancing in disbelief at his sister. When she had jumped it seemed she had really jumped, higher than was possible without a trampoline.
Jaide felt light-headed but recovered quickly.
‘Do you have a cellar?’ she asked, turning to face her grandmother, who had her hair back under control and looked quite severe.
‘A house this size,’ said Grandma X, ‘you’d expect so, wouldn’t you?’ She smiled, but it wasn’t a comforting smile. ‘Come on in and get dressed. I’ll make you some breakfast.’
She pushed the twins ahead of her with irresistible strength. They stamped reluctantly up the stairs to their room while she banged and crashed in the kitchen.
‘She doesn’t answer any questions,’ Jaide whispered. ‘Have you noticed?’
‘I know. Not much we can do about it now, though.’
Jaide went to the tiny bathroom, slipped out of her father’s dressing-gown, and got into some of the new clothes their mum had bought her before leaving for Portland. Meanwhile, back in their room, Jack put on the same clothes he’d worn through the long road trip. He liked them; they felt reassuringly familiar.
‘You probably want to explore Portland,’ said Grandma X when they reluctantly traipsed downstairs, ‘but I fear we’ll be stuck inside today, once it starts raining. Do you know how to play cards?’
The twins nodded slowly, even though the thought of playing cards with her didn’t fill them with overwhelming excitement.
‘What about the cellar, Grandma?’ pressed Jack.
‘What cellar is that, then?’ she said, bustling past them. ‘How about toast, or cereal? Or both?’
Jack’s stomach rumbled, making him miss Jaide’s frustrated look.
‘Toast and cereal, please,’ he said.
‘Just cereal, I guess,’ said Jaide. ‘What about the cellar, though?’
‘Let’s sit down and eat our breakfast,’ said Grandma X.
Jaide frowned in a way she normally only used with her mother.
Jack sat with his sister at the table and watched Grandma X’s back as she put the kettle on the stove and lit the gas with a very long match that he wasn’t entirely sure he saw her strike. As he stuffed cereal in his face, he could tell that Jaide wasn’t going to be distracted by anything as trivial as food.
‘Grandma,’ Jaide started to ask, her cereal sitting ignored in front of her, ‘I really need to know about the —’
‘The blue door,’ said Grandma X. She turned back from the stove and looked at Jaide. ‘You can see it, can you?’
