Alexander Graham Bell: Master of Sound #7 (4 page)

“You invited her to Elm Medona?” Maisie blurted out. “Great-Uncle Thorne is going to be furious!”

Felix stood on tiptoe and stared down Memorial Boulevard as if he might still catch a glimpse of Rayne Ziff.

“He already kicked us out,” Felix said dreamily. “What else can he do to us?”

“I don’t know,” Maisie said.

She tried to figure out why she felt so mad at her brother. She had wanted Hadley to come over, and now, thanks to Felix asking Rayne, Hadley would be at Elm Medona on Saturday. So she had gotten exactly what she wanted. But, Maisie reminded herself, Felix had beaten her to it. She glanced at him.
Well
, Maisie thought,
I’m not going to let him get Rayne Ziff into The Treasure Chest first. No
, she decided. On Saturday she would somehow get inside The Treasure Chest with Hadley.

Maisie broke into a grin. She did have a secret. A much better one than a father overthrowing governments. On Saturday, she would show Hadley Ziff her secret. Maisie imagined the two of them choosing an object and lifting off the ground together, tumbling through time, and landing somewhere exotic and exciting. All while Felix and Rayne wrote their reports on inventors.

“Why do you look like you’re up to something?” Felix asked Maisie, sounding very much like their mother.

“Oh,” Maisie said, “no reason.”

“It’s not going to work,” Felix said as they headed down Bellevue Avenue.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Maisie said.

“Only Pickworths can do it,” Felix reminded her.

When Maisie didn’t answer, he said, “Plus, The Treasure Chest is sealed up tight.”

“Don’t worry,” Maisie said. “I’ll figure something out.”

Felix sighed. That was exactly what he was afraid of.

Maisie woke Saturday morning to the sound of rain falling hard. Outside, the sky was gray and stormy and the rain slapped at her windows angrily. That meant Felix’s weekly Saturday baseball game would be cancelled. It meant that the four of them—Felix, Rayne, Hadley, and Maisie—would be stuck inside all day. She looked at the clock on her bedside table. She had exactly four hours to figure out how to get inside The Treasure Chest before Hadley arrived.

Someone knocked on her bedroom door.

“Come in,” Maisie said, her mind already full of ideas for breaking and entering.

Her mother appeared in the doorway. “It’s raining,” she announced.

This was not worth answering, Maisie decided, since it was so obvious.

“A good day to spend packing up, I’m afraid,” her mother said, taking in the clothes strewn around the room. She sighed. “I’ve grown kind of used to living in style like this.”

“Me too,” Maisie admitted.

“I rented another movie for us,” her mother said. “
Oliver!
”

Maisie wrinkled her nose. Not one of her favorites.

“Felix and I have those new kids coming over,” Maisie said.

“The twins? Don’t tell Great-Uncle Thorne. He’ll put everything in the safe.”

Maisie laughed.

“I guess that means we’ll watch the movie tonight?” her mother asked.

“Where’s Bruce Fishbaum?” Maisie wondered out loud.

“His kids have school vacation this week, so he took them skiing out west,” her mother said.

“Well, I’m glad we get you all to ourselves,” Maisie told her.

“Even though I’m going to make you start packing?” she asked.

“Ugh.”

“I’ll go into town and get some boxes,” her mother said.

“Don’t hurry!” Maisie called after her as she left.

Maisie waited long enough for her mother to be on her way into town, then she tiptoed to the wall that hid The Treasure Chest.

Great-Uncle Thorne had sealed it so well that she couldn’t even make out the edges of the door. Instead, the wall looked smooth and completely like…well, a wall. Maisie pushed where she thought the door was, but there was no give at all. She inched along the wall, pushing with her fingertips, hoping that she could find the spot that was actually the door that led to the staircase and The Treasure Chest. But the entire length of the wall felt solid and without any indentation.

She took a few steps back, folded her arms, and studied the wall. Maisie knew that door was there. But somehow Great-Uncle Thorne had made it seem to disappear.

“I told you,” Felix said, coming to stand beside her.

“It’s like it’s gone,” Maisie said.

They both stared at the spot where they knew the door should be. But not even the slightest crease or bump betrayed its secret location.

“Mom said I have to start packing,” Felix said finally.

“Me too.”

He hesitated. “She brought boxes,” he said finally.

“You go ahead,” Maisie said, thinking hard.

“It’s useless.”

“Uh-huh.”

She listened as his footsteps disappeared down the hall.

Somehow she was going to get inside. She didn’t know how. But Maisie was certain she would figure something out.

“You live here?” Rayne Ziff said in disbelief as she and Hadley entered the Foyer.

“Well…,” Felix began, but Maisie interrupted him.

“Our great-great-grandfather built it,” she said. She didn’t want Hadley to know yet that in one week they’d be living in the servants’ quarters.

“Wow,” Rayne managed.

“Come on,” Felix said. “We’ll show you around.”

For the next hour, Maisie and Felix explained about the twenty-four–karat gold trim over here and the mantelpiece imported from the castle in France and the Flemish tapestry and the marble shipped over from Italy and the Monet painting and all the other details of Elm Medona.

“We’re like the Lady in Pink,” Felix said to Maisie as they stood by the dumbwaiter in the basement Kitchen.

“Where does this go?” Hadley asked, peering inside.

“Up to the servants’ quarters,” Maisie said.

“Can we ride in it?” Hadley asked her.

“We’re not supposed to,” Felix said.

Rayne had wandered up to the door that led to the railroad track that ran underground to the mansion.

“You have a train?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Not anymore,” Felix explained. “There used to be one that delivered coal here.”

“So no one saw the messy stuff,” Maisie added. “They hid everything unpleasant back then.”

“Like what?”

“Like even delivery trucks,” Maisie said. She opened the main door to show them the flower-covered arbor that hung above the driveway.

The rain still fell in a chilly, steady downpour.

They all squeezed into the doorway and looked outside.

“How many acres do you have?” Rayne asked.
“The grounds seem to go on forever.”

“Can you show us around outside, too?” Hadley asked.

“Sure!” Maisie said.

“It’s pouring,” Rayne pointed out.

“We’ll just put on our rain gear,” Hadley said. “It’ll be fun.”

They tromped back upstairs, and everyone pulled on their rain boots and slickers.

“This is an adventure!” Hadley said, lifting the hood of her cherry-red raincoat.

Rayne tucked her pants into her leopard-patterned boots.

“Hadley loves adventures,” she said with a small sigh.

“I do, too,” Maisie said, sharing a smile with Hadley.

All buttoned up and booted, the four of them stepped outside into the rain.

Felix pointed out the pair of interlocking
P
sengraved on the doors and the giant peacock door knockers.

“Our great-great-grandfather built Elm Medona in 1909 as a gift to his wife, Ariane,” he said.

“I hope my husband gives me a gift like this someday,” Rayne said.

They made their way around the mansion, showing Rayne and Hadley the famous peonies that bloomed along one wall, the English garden with its rows of lavender and intricately carved benches, the gazebo, and the playhouse built as a miniature replica of Elm Medona.

“That’s my room,” Maisie said, pointing to her window. “It’s named after a princess.”

“And that one’s mine,” Felix said.

Hadley squinted. “What’s that?” she said, pointing at something else.

They made their way closer to the mansion.

“Those look like naked women,” Hadley said.

Maisie followed her finger straight to the Tiffany stained-glass window in The Treasure Chest.

Felix did, too. “They’re goddesses,” he explained. “Some famous stained-glass designer made that window for our great-great-grandfather.”

“Whose room is that?” Rayne asked.

“Um,” Felix said, trying to think of an answer.

“That room,” Maisie said evenly, “is the best room in all of Elm Medona.”

“Show us!” Hadley said with excitement.

“We can’t,” Felix said. “It’s locked.”

“Drat,” Hadley said. “I want to see the best room.”

A smile spread slowly across Maisie’s face.

“I think you can,” she said.

Felix wanted nothing to do with Maisie’s scheme. But he couldn’t get out of it now. That was how he found himself first dragging a ladder out of the carriage house, leaning it against the back wall of Elm Medona, and watching his sister climb all the way up to the Tiffany window.

“This is a terrible idea,” Felix groaned.

But Hadley and Rayne were too excited to hear him.

“We’re spies!” Rayne said. “Like Daddy!”

“
Ssshhh
,” Hadley hissed at her.

From the top of the ladder, Maisie examined the window. In the rain, the colors looked gray and muted instead of bright and rich like they did when the sunlight hit them. She ran her fingers around the edges of the oval glass. And just when she was about to give up, the window budged.

“I can open it!” she called without looking down.

Hadley and Rayne cheered, but Felix only groaned again.

Maisie slid her fingers through the opening. At first, they landed on nothing but air. Then one touched the small lever that opened the window. Slowly and carefully, she turned the lever to the left, remembering her father’s tip:
Righty tighty, lefty loosey
. Sure enough, the window creaked open.

“Got it!” she yelled.

She squeezed herself through the opening and landed with a soft thud smack into The Treasure Chest. Looking around at all the objects, Maisie’s heart swelled. Each one offered her possibility. She picked up a magnifying glass and held it up to her eye, magnifying the objects nearby. She put that down and picked up a quill pen, then a candle, then a compass.

Behind her, someone else dropped inside. Maisie turned to see Rayne smiling at her from beneath her matching leopard rain boots and slicker.

“This is cool!” Rayne gasped. “What is all this stuff?”

Before Maisie could answer, the bottom half of Hadley appeared in the window. Her cherry-red rain boots dangled.

“Just let yourself drop down,” Rayne told her.

“I’m holding the ladder while Felix climbs up,” Hadley answered in a muffled voice.

Rayne and Maisie watched as Hadley finally let herself drop, followed immediately by Felix, the two of them landing in a tangled heap.

“Ouch!” Felix said.

“Welcome to The Treasure Chest,” Maisie said, opening her arms wide.

“Is it a museum?” Hadley asked as she slowly got to her feet.

Maisie took a few steps toward her new friend.