Fairy Metal Thunder (Songs of Magic, #1) (26 page)

I laughed. Her bubbly attitude was contagious
and I felt all of the anxiety about the house begin to fade
away.

“This is Mary Anne Marsters,” she said,
pulling me over to meet the third girl who was still standing on
the bottom step. “She doesn’t really talk much.”

Mary Anne was obviously younger than the rest
of us. I’d guess she was about thirteen or so. Her short black hair
was tucked behind her ears and her pale skin was flawless. I
reached my hand out to her, but she merely stared at it for a
second, then turned around and walked back up the stairs.

“Don’t mind her,” Agnes said. “It takes her
some time to get used to people.”

Ella Mae picked up my tattered bag and handed
it to Agnes. “Take this up to Harper’s room now, would you Agnes?
I’m going to take her in to meet Mrs. Shadowford. I’ll send her
upstairs in a few minutes and you can show her around.”

“Sure thing,” Agnes said, then bounded up the
stairs two at a time.

I wondered why Mrs. Shadowford hadn’t met us
out front, but when I entered her dark, lush office, I understood
right away. She was in a wheelchair. An older woman, she had
shockingly white hair that ran in a single braid pulled over her
shoulder. Her pale blue eyes seemed to pierce through me as she
turned and sized me up. Butterflies danced around in my belly. This
woman was unlike anyone I had ever met before. She had an energy
about her that was strong and powerful. I knew right away that she
was not the kind of person I wanted to cross.

“Harper Madison,” she said. She studied me
for a long moment, her eyes squinted and her lips pursed together
in a tight, thin line. “I hear you’ve had some trouble in the past
with both your adopted parents and several foster homes.”

“Yes, ma’am.” My voice trembled a bit,
betraying my fear. I shifted my weight from one foot to another and
studied the thick, patterned rug on the floor.

“It’s no surprise that no one else wants
you.”

Her words stung. I wondered if I’d even heard
her right.

“You’re damaged. A broken girl,” she said.
“And some of the things you’ve done to the people taking care of
you? Well, some of those things are unspeakable.”

My face grew hot. Yes, some of the things I
had done were terrible. Someone was dead because of me. I had to
carry that guilt with me everywhere, but no one had ever said it
out loud like that. The tone of her voice was bitter and cold, like
she believed I had done those things on purpose. I opened my mouth
to defend myself, but the look in her eyes stopped me.

“I don’t want to hear your excuses.”

“I never meant to hurt anyone.” I stepped
forward, putting my hand on the mahogany desk that separated
us.

“Do not touch my things,” Mrs. Shadowford
said through gritted teeth. Her eyes grew wide and intense. I
pulled my hand back quickly, but I could see that I’d made the old
woman angry. On the desk, her tea cup rattled in its saucer. She
reached out quickly to still the cup and the room grew silent. Fear
gripped my chest, making it hard to breathe.

The air in the small office grew thick and
warm. Mrs. Shadowford cleared her throat, then took her hand off
the small cup. “That’s enough for this morning. Ella Mae will take
you through the house rules.”

I stepped away from Mrs. Shadowford’s desk
slowly, then turned to leave the room. My hand closed around the
cold brass knob of the door and a small shock of electricity went
through my body. I yanked my hand back, surprised.

“Harper,” Mrs. Shadowford said from her spot
behind the desk.

My body tensed as I turned to find her blue
eyes staring straight into mine. I tried to swallow, but my mouth
had gone completely dry. “Yes ma’am?”

“I’ll be watching you.”

Trouble Always Finds
Me

“The rules are as follows. No back talk or
disrespect, especially when it comes to the staff. You will need to
keep your grades up at Peachville High. We expect to see A’s and
B’s only. If any of your test grades are lower than a B, you’ll
need to bring them home for one of us to sign.”

Ella Mae went on to list rules that were
pretty common for foster homes. Lights out at eleven. No boys
allowed upstairs. Keep your hands to yourself. Don’t take anything
that doesn’t belong to you. All standard rules. Then, as if it were
just another rule, she said, “And never, under any circumstances,
are you to go up to the third floor.”

Immediately, a strange tingle went through my
body. If she had never mentioned it, I probably wouldn’t have given
the third floor a second thought. But now it was mysterious.
Forbidden. Tempting. What could they possibly be hiding up there
that would be so important to protect?

“Let me be completely clear about this. If
you are found breaking any of the rules we’ve talked about today,
you’ll be expelled from Shadowford without a second chance. Do you
understand?”

I nodded.

“And from what your case manager said on the
phone when she called last night, you’ll go straight from here to
the detention center in Atlanta. You seem like such a sweet girl. I
would hate to see you end up at a place like that.”

I didn’t want to see myself end up there
either. Juvenile detention was like a jail sentence. Not to mention
that going there for my last few years of high school would kill my
chances at ever getting into a good college. I had to make things
work here, no matter what. That meant putting whatever was up on
the third floor out of my mind. Not to mention whatever had
happened with Mrs. Shadowford’s teacup. I told myself it was
nothing – that it couldn’t be the same thing that happened to me
when I got angry – then followed Ella Mae through the first floor
of the house.

Shadowford was even bigger than it looked
from the outside. The large staircase split the floor in half. On
one side was a formal sitting room with a big brick and tile
fireplace. Heavy gold drapes hung in the windows and the antique
furniture looked ornate and expensive. Ella Mae told me that the
sitting room was only used for formal meetings and sometimes for
special occasions.

Behind the sitting room was a formal dining
room that held a long, shiny table and ten matching chairs. Against
the wall, a china cabinet held beautiful bone china, crystal
champagne flutes and silver serving trays. A sparkling chandelier
hung above the table and a pretty stained glass window sent
colorful light dancing across the room.

“Is this where we’ll eat everyday?” I asked.
I had never even been in a room so immaculate and fancy. If I had
to eat here, I’d be scared of messing something up.

“No. Usually we all eat at the table in the
kitchen. It’s a little more casual and laid back in there. But on
nights when Mrs. Shadowford joins us, she prefers us to eat in the
dining room.”

I wondered how often that actually happened.
Hopefully not very often. The old woman had completely creeped me
out. If at all possible, I planned to avoid her.

The kitchen ran along the back of the house.
It was a huge room with lots of large windows that bathed the room
in natural light. A large oak table with a scarred top and six
mismatched chairs took up a large part of the floor on one side,
while the other side held the main area of the kitchen. The
cabinets were painted a buttery yellow that gave the whole room a
happy, cheerful feeling. So far, it was my favorite room in the
house.

“Sharon Griffith is our cook here. Sharon,
this is Harper, our newest resident.”

Sharon was a tall, pudgy woman with super
short brown hair. She was cleaning the countertops and barely
looked up to nod a curt hello to me. I had never had an actual cook
before. At several of the foster homes, I’d been expected to fix my
own meals most of the time.

The final room Ella Mae brought me into was
warm and inviting. “This is where the girls like to hang out and
study or watch TV,” she said.

The leather couch in the center of the room
looked comfortable and worn. Fuzzy blankets were piled together in
a basket in the corner. Books were arranged neatly on built-in
bookcases on either side of the flat panel TV. I glanced through
the titles and saw a few that actually looked interesting.

A couple of worn desks lined the room on the
left side, each holding a cup of pencils, a stack of blank paper,
and a laptop. “Can anyone use the computers?”

“We only have those two laptops and anyone is
free to use them as long as they stay down here in this room at all
times. There is wireless internet, but you have to get permission
to use it,” she said.

I sighed. At least there was some link to the
outside world here, but it would be a pain to get permission to use
the internet every time. I’m sure all my friends in Atlanta would
be wondering what the heck happened to me. They’d all get to school
Monday and find out that I was moved to another town. Hopefully, no
one would know exactly what happened. I’d have to think up
something good for the email I sent out, but I could worry about
that later.

The rest of rooms on the first floor made up
Mrs. Shadowford’s private suite. “Unless you’re specifically
invited to go inside, those rooms are strictly off limits.”

Finally, Ella Mae led me up the stairs, down
the hallway, and into a pretty room with light blue walls. “This
will be your room,” she said.

I stepped inside and my mouth opened in awe.
A queen sized wooden bed with a beautiful canopy was the
centerpiece of the room. On one wall there was a dressing table
with a beautiful mirror attached and a stool to sit on. The floors
were covered in the middle by a plush rug in dark blue. “Are all
the rooms like this?”

Ella Mae laughed and touched my arm gently.
“This is a gorgeous old house. I know you’re going to love it here.
Mrs. Shadowford is really a wonderful, giving woman once you get to
know her. And she’s so generous, letting you girls use this
heirloom furniture that’s been in her family for generations. I
trust that you’ll treat these things with care and respect.”

Wonderful and giving weren’t the first words
that came to mind when I thought about the woman I’d met
downstairs, but Ella Mae had a point. No one had ever trusted me
with such opulent, expensive things. It only made it all the more
important that I didn’t mess up and let my anger get the best of me
here.

“Hi neighbor,” Agnes said, knocking three
times on my door. “What do you think? These rooms are amazing
aren’t they?”

“I’ll leave you two girls to get acquainted,”
Ella Mae said. “See you downstairs in an hour for lunch, then we’ll
head into town to get supplies for school Monday.”

When we were alone, Agnes plopped onto my
bed. “Don’t you just love this canopy? I have one in my room too,
but it’s red instead of blue. And did you see your bathroom?”

I shook my head and she jumped up and went to
a closed door on the other side of the bed. When she opened it, I
could hardly believe my eyes. “Are you serious?”

In a house with three other girls, I fully
expected to share a bathroom. Instead, I had this large bathroom
with a claw-foot tub and the cutest white pedestal sink all to
myself.

“Totally. Each of us gets our own bathroom
here, which is way cool,” she said. “We’re responsible for cleaning
our own rooms and bathrooms at least once a week. And we have to do
our own laundry and stuff. I don’t care, though. This is by far the
nicest place I’ve ever lived.”

“How long have you been here?” We walked back
into my main room and I started unpacking my bag. I didn’t have
much. Just a few torn pairs of jeans, some t-shirts, and other
essentials. My sapphire necklace was pretty much the only thing of
value that I had.

“Oh gosh. Almost two years, I guess. Ever
since I was fourteen.”

I continued to unpack as Agnes talked about
the school and the town and how different things had been for her
ever since she first came to Shadowford. She talked about this
place as though it had saved her life. I couldn’t help but wonder
if it would do the same for me.

When my clothes and things were put away, I
stuffed my bag under the bed and walked over to the window to see
what kind of view I had from up here. My room faced the back of the
house. Just behind where the kitchen was, a cement patio extended
outward. Agnes said that sometimes they had barbeque’s out back
there. Beyond the patio was a garden, and although it looked
overgrown, it was still filled with a mixture of colorful flowers
and leafy plants. A stone fountain in the middle was covered with
deep green moss. Many years ago, it must have been so beautiful out
there, but now it was neglected and almost eerily dark.

“What are those buildings out back? Past the
garden?”

Agnes peered around me and squinted in the
bright sunlight. “Well, the building there off to the right of the
house is the barn. I’ve never been in there, but I guess there’s
like tools and stuff in there. And back behind the garden is the
house where Ella Mae lives.”

Movement near the barn caught my eye, and I
saw someone quickly dart out from behind the weathered brown door.
When he turned around, my heart did a little double time. It was a
guy who looked about my age, maybe a little bit older, and he was
gorgeous. He wore a plain black t-shirt and loose jeans, torn at
the knee. His hair was brown and spiked up a bit on top. He looked
like the kind of guy who didn’t follow the rules. Even from this
distance, I could tell he was tall.

“I thought there were no boys here,” I said,
nodding toward the guy. He glanced around as if to make sure no one
had seen him come out of the barn, then started walking toward the
house.

“Oh him,” Agnes said. “That’s Ella Mae’s son,
Jackson. Trust me when I say you don’t want anything to do with
him.”