Isle of Winds (The Changeling Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

instead, she shook his hand firmly, her hand warm and dry.
    She looked him over curiously. “Hmm, blonde hair, I see. Rather unkempt as well. Blue eyes, eh? Well that’s something of a relief at least. Could be green, then you’d be a handful,” she muttered dismissively.
    She looked him up and down
    “You are very thin, Robin,” she said, rather challengingly.
    “Sorry,” said Robin. He didn’t really know what else to say.
    “Hmm,” she said again. “Well, again … it could be worse. You don’t have a tail, do you? No horns?”
    Robin knew she was being silly now. He grinned lopsidedly. “No, not that I’ve noticed.”
    She peered at him with her cool blue eyes.
    A moment of silence passed between them, while the old lady seemed to consider him on the whole. A small golden clock on the mantelpiece ticked loudly in the opulent room.
    Eventually she seemed to reach some silent decision. She nodded, ever so slightly, as though reluctantly approving of him.
    “Welcome to Erlking Hall,” she said. “This is your home, for as long as you wish it. It is old and rambling and draughty, but then so am I, and the two of us go well together. You’ll have to get used to my ways, Robin. I am too old and too stubborn to start changing now.”
    “I won’t be any trouble,” he insisted.
    She raised an eyebrow, smiling her tiny smile again. “You are a twelve year old boy,” she told him. “Trouble is your nature.”
    She waved a hand, dismissing her own comment. “And I am an old woman, and complaining is mine.” She turned again in a swish of silks. “I think the best thing for you to do now is to find your room, which I believe Mr Drover should have made ready for you. Wash, unpack, find your feet, and then … we shall have lunch I think.”
    Robin thought this was a very good idea. He hadn’t eaten all day.
    She sat down again. “You’ll find your room on the top floor, in the east wing, at the back of the house. You can’t miss it. It’s the tower room.”
    Robin’s eyes widened.
    “Don’t panic,” she said, catching his expression. “You’re not nearly pretty enough to be Rapunzel, and there are stairs in and out.”
    Robin grinned and made for the door.
    “Off with you. Be down here in an hour,” she called after him. “And be punctual this time.”
    Robin got as far as the doors to the hallway before he remembered. He turned and looked back at his Great-Aunt. “Oh, thank you for the chain. The lucky charm,” he said.
    She nodded at him from the fireplace. “You don’t have to wear it now. It’s a hideous old thing. Pop it in a drawer or something.”
    “No … I think it’s really nice,” Robin lied politely.
    Irene raised one eyebrow again. “Then you have terrible taste,” she remarked. “Do what you will with it, it’s served its purpose now. You don’t need it in here.”
    Robin was halfway up the stairs before he even wondered why she thought he needed it outside.
    * * *
    Robin had a hard time finding his room. The house seemed somehow larger on the inside. There were corridors and stairs. And then more corridors with doors leading onto seemingly countless rooms filled with old furniture and books. There were statues of continental marble people wearing next to nothing and looking very unhappy about the British weather. Robin found a room with a dusty grand piano which looked as though it had never been played. Other rooms were completely empty with nothing but bare floorboards and sunny windows, where a faint smell of turpentine hung in the air. He found another room with a large harp and a lot of ancient-looking sofas. Next, a chamber large enough to hold a ball in. And of course there were rooms with beds, quite a few of these, but none of them seemed to be in a tower.
    Robin was lost in an endless labyrinth of corridors. Some had windows, or little steps up and down. Some with rugs and runners, some without. There were busts of old emperors and statues of strange