Eldritch Manor Read Online Free PDF Page A

stood in the kitchen doorway, but she was normal size again. Her hair was neatly tucked into her bun, and though stern, she looked very ordinary.
    Willa looked down at her shoes, not sure of what to say. Miss Trang continued. “But let’s not talk about that, shall we? Let’s get right to the reason you’re here. I can’t keep up with the work around here. I need help, and despite my reservations, it was suggested to me that you would be the best choice for the job.” She held up a paper — one of Willa’s posters.
    â€œWill you help us out with the cleaning until we can find another brownie?”
    Willa nodded dumbly. And that was how she came to work for Miss Trang.

    Willa was hired to come in three times a week, arriving promptly at nine a.m. and leaving at noon. She was to clean the entire main floor — entrance, hall, parlour, dining room, and kitchen — except for Miss Trang’s office, which she was not to enter. Upstairs she had to clean the hallways and the washroom, but was not under any circumstances to go into any of the bedrooms or the library. The backyard and stable ( Stable! thought Willa excitedly) were expressly out of bounds. Most importantly, she was not to tell anybody anything about the house or its inhabitants. Miss Trang was adamant about that. “And I will know it if you do,” she said ominously, and Willa believed her. On top of everything else the hourly wage was very generous. Willa began right away.
    As she loaded stained teacups into the kitchen sink, Willa took a deep breath and tried to still her trembling hands. She couldn’t believe she was actually there. For weeks she had been dying to know what was going on in this place, and now she had her own key! Willa worked very, very hard at her new job. She tidied up after the oldsters, who left things everywhere. She dusted the many, many knick-knacks — china figurines, exotic lacquer boxes, souvenir spoons from around the world, ornately carved letter-openers, framed photos with the images fading away, collections of pebbles, seashells, and pine cones. She washed legions of teacups, mopped the floors, and scrubbed the windows. And she took great care to water and care for the plants, which slowly perked up and stopped dropping their leaves.
    As glad as Willa was for the work, as time went on she was not finding much satisfaction in her job. She wasn’t getting any answers to her many questions, that’s for sure. And she felt terribly isolated. Everyone stayed in their bedrooms while she worked. Even Miss Trang spent the entire time in her office. Willa sometimes heard her muttering to herself in there. She ran into Horace in the hall one day, and he admitted, in a whisper, that they were supposed to stay away from Willa as much as possible. Since her friends were out of town, the only people she had to talk to all day were her mom and dad, and she couldn’t tell them anything at all about the house, because of her promise to Miss Trang. It was all very frustrating.
    The only soul she had for company was the bird in the parlour. A small tarnished plaque on the cage read “Fadiyah.” Willa began talking to her, calling her “Fadi.” After all, the bird seemed to be her only friend in the house. Just taking a break and gazing into the bird’s eyes for a moment or two gave Willa that warm, happy feeling she had felt the first time she’d seen her.
    Days passed without event. Once she found Baz snoozing on the sofa and had to tiptoe around, cleaning quietly. A couple of times she met Belle wheeling to or from the bathroom, where she loved to take long, long baths, but the old lady always ignored her completely. This made Willa very sad, because there was something about Belle that fascinated her. There was a deep, silent melancholy about her that just broke Willa’s heart. Sometimes Willa could hear her humming up in her room. The sound made her stop