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The twins stared at Ari, struck by the same thought at exactly the same time. He could look for them, in all the places they couldn’t get to, while they were stuck in the library.
‘Excuse me,’ said Jaide, putting down the last skerrick of her sandwich. ‘I need to go to the bathroom.’
‘You remember where it is?’ asked Rodeo Dave. There were toilets just up the hall that must have seemed modern when the castle was renovated but now looked hulking and antiquated to the twins. Though at least they were better than the medieval garderobe.
‘Yes. I won’t get lost this time, I promise. Come on, Ari. Let’s see if we can find some mice on the way.’
‘If wishes were fishes the sea would be full,’ he said, ‘and I would be down at the beach.’ But he trotted after her anyway.
‘How many Wardens have you met, Ari?’ asked Jaide when the library door was safely shut behind them.
‘Quite a few.’
‘Do they all have collections of gold cards?’
‘You mean like Custer and your grandmother? I don’t know. All of them collect something, though. They’re like magpies.’
‘Jack and I want to collect gold cards, but we don’t know where to start looking.’
‘You’ll need somewhere the other Wardens haven’t already picked over, somewhere full of old stuff and – hey, like this castle!’
Ari scampered ahead of her and jumped onto the nearest chest. He did a quick turn, as though chasing his tail, then looked down the back.
‘Nothing behind here. Want to have a look inside?’
The twins had already checked that chest.
‘I don’t have time, Ari, or a key,’ she said. ‘I have to get back to the books. But why don’t you have a look around for us, now you’re inside the castle? You’ll probably find more mice to eat as well.’
‘If I didn’t know you better, I’d suspect you’re up to something.’ Ari looked at her suspiciously. ‘In fact, because I do know you, I’m sure of it. Do you really you think there are cards here or are you just trying to get me out of the way?’
‘Grandma thought there were,’ she said. ‘She was on her way here when the accident happened.’
‘Was she? I don’t know anything about that.’
Jaide tried her best to look innocent.
‘Well . . . I just thought . . . you know, collecting stuff, it’s a Warden thing, and I want to be a Warden, so I should start now . . .’
Her voice trailed off as Ari’s eyes got narrower and narrower.
‘All right,’ he said, ‘if it’ll stop you from going exploring again. Custer’s instructions were quite explicit.’
‘Done,’ said Jaide, kneeling down and hugging him. ‘Ari, you are a prince among cats.’
‘Of course,’ sniffed Ari, and expertly wound his way out of her embrace. ‘Don’t go home without me. It’s a long walk.’
‘We won’t,’ called Jaide, as Ari disappeared around the corner.
Returning to the library, Jaide found Rodeo Dave high up a ladder, passing books down to Jack, who put them in piles up against one wall. They were mainly histories and biographies of people she had never heard of, some of them running to many volumes. Jaide helped, and between the three of them, they emptied one of the long bookcases that lined the enormous space. There were many more to go, and the twins stared around them with heavy hearts. While their father was out in the storm fighting The Evil with the other Wardens, they were stuck with Portland’s traitor, helping him catalogue books.
Jaide consoled herself by remembering what their father had said. While they were watching him, Rodeo Dave couldn’t be getting up to any more mischief – and he wouldn’t hurt them unless they revealed what they knew about him. The key was to act normal until the card was found and Grandma X was better. Then, she supposed, the Wardens would pounce.
The woman in the painting above the fireplace played on as they worked, eternally picking up the same card, over and over again. It was the two of hearts, something Jack wondered about as he worked. Had the number been significant to someone? Had the suit? Could she have been the painter’s wife, perhaps? Or could she have been the wife of one of the Rourkes?
Sometimes she seemed to be looking at him out of the corner of her eye, not as creepily as the bust of Mister Rourke, but twice as enigmatically.
‘You two are very quiet,’ said Rodeo Dave as he moved the ladder over to the next long bookcase.
‘I was just, um, wondering about the painting,’ Jack said, saying the first thing that came to his mind. ‘Do you know who she was?’
‘The Lady in Yellow?’ Rodeo Dave’s forehead wrinkled, as if he was trying to recall some distant memory. ‘I’m afraid I have no idea. She’s been there for as long as I can remember. It’s my favourite painting in the whole place. And just look how dusty she is . . .’
Rodeo Dave tut-tutted and turned his end of the ladder, guiding Jack across the room so they stood below the painting.
‘Here, give me a hand getting her down.’
Together they awkwardly lifted the painting off the wall and put it on the floor, where it stood almost as high as the top of Rodeo Dave’s head. The rectangle of wallpaper exposed by its removal looked as good as new, not faded at all. Producing a huge spotted handkerchief from his pocket, Rodeo Dave lightly brushed dust off the paint and wiped down the gilded frame.
‘There,’ he said, standing back to get a better look. ‘Considerably improved, don’t you think?’
Jaide had been half expecting to see a secret door behind the painting. They hadn’t thought to check there before.
‘She looks a bit like Grandma,’ Jaide said.
‘Do you think?’ Rodeo Dave cupped his chin in one hand. ‘Yes, I suppose she does, as she was as a young woman. You must have seen her in photos.’
‘Er, yes, that’s right,’ said Jack. He couldn’t let on that they had seen Grandma X’s younger self when she appeared in spectral form. ‘Did you know her then?’
‘We met in our teens, when we were a few years older than you are now.’ His eyes took on a slightly glazed look. ‘She was a firecracker back then, let me tell you—’
Jack cut him off in some alarm. ‘But it couldn’t be her, could it?’
‘What? Oh, no. I’m sure your grandmother would have had nothing to do with the Rourkes back then. They were bad seeds, through and through – but not George. It always amazed me that such a rotten old branch could still grow true at the end. It’s a shame he never settled down. Besides, this painting is much older than your grandmother, or the Rourkes. It looks like early eighteenth century to me . . .’
His eyes drifted back to the painting.
‘There is something about the Lady in Yellow, though, isn’t there? Just can’t put my finger on it.’
They left the painting where it was and moved on to a series of shelves that contained hundreds of novels all bound in the same stiff leather with gold letters pressed into the spines. Some of them looked as though they had never been opened. In the middle of a shelf at eye level, not placed with any particular prominence, were three narrow, grey books whose gold letters spelled out The Whale by Herman Melville.
‘Didn’t Melville write Moby Dick?’ asked Jaide.
‘That is Moby Dick,’ said Rodeo Dave, delicately removing the three volumes and placing them in a special pile of their own. ‘The first British edition had the simpler title, and is extremely rare. Mister Rourke was an excellent colle
ctor, if not much of a reader. His son, George, was quite the opposite, and the happier for it.’
‘So why did Mister Rourke have all these books?’ asked Jack.
‘To impress people. How does that line go? “Of all tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to get out of order.” Never a truer word spoken, by Mr Melville or anyone else.’
Rodeo Dave glanced at his watch.
‘It’s getting late in the day,’ he said. ‘You’ve worked long enough, and I thank you for your help, but now I’d better be getting you home. I promised your mother I’d have you back before dark.’
‘What about you?’ asked Jaide. ‘Will you be coming back?’
‘Not today.’ He sighed and rubbed his back. ‘I’m afraid this old boy needs some rest. And a bit of a read, too. Looking at all these books has definitely put me in the mood.’
‘Good idea,’ Jack said, thinking that if Rodeo Dave really was going to stay in and read, there was nothing he could do to help The Evil. He wiped his hands on his pants but feared it would take a good wash to get the dusty smell off them. ‘We’ll come back with you tomorrow.’
‘No need, no need.’ Rodeo Dave avoided their eyes as he cleaned up the remains of their lunches. ‘You’ve been a big help, but there’s your schooling to consider. I’ve been lucky to have you this long.’
They tried to change his mind all the way back to the moat, but he was adamant. It bothered Jack to the very core: Rodeo Dave seemed perfectly normal, his usual friendly self, but it was clear he didn’t want them in the castle any longer. The only reason Jack could think of was so Rodeo Dave could keep searching for the Card of Translocation himself.
But how could Rodeo Dave possibly be a good enough liar to fool both of them and Grandma X, whom he had known most of his life?
Jaide looked around outside for any sign of either The Evil or their father and the other Wardens, but the woods were empty and the rain had blown away. There was no movement along the fringe of trees. Maybe The Evil had been driven off, for now.
As Thomas Solomon drove up in his golf buggy to see them off, Jaide remembered Ari. She called his name into the entrance of the castle, and seconds later he came loping out to join them.
