Jewel of the East Read Online Free PDF Page A

when she’d raced upstairs earlier to get ready. He remembered her taking off her winter layers as she’d run, her scarf and then her mittens and then her puffy purple jacket. Felix held the shard in his palm for a moment. There was no time to go back up now and put it somewhere, and Maisie had no place to keep it in that outfit. He shoved it in his jacket pocket and caught up with Maisie and their mother on the next stairway.
    “I so wish Great-Aunt Maisie could have come. Don’t you?” their mother was saying.
    Felix did not wish that at all. Every time they’d seen her since Thanksgiving, she’d pestered them to find Thorne. Or to go back into The Treasure Chest.
I’m losing my patience,
she’d told them just a few days ago.
    “But she hasn’t been doing so well lately,” their mother continued. “Poor thing.”
    Felix got a heavy feeling, like he’d swallowed rocks. It was their fault Great-Aunt Maisie wasn’t doing well.
    They arrived at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor, exited the way they would if they were getting into their car, then walked around to the front of Elm Medona to enter.
    White lights twinkled in every shrub and tree. Oversized wreaths hung on the enormous front doors where two red-uniformed butlers stood, ready to open them for guests. Shiny cars filled the circular driveway in front of the house and valets scurried to open doors and help elegant ladies and tuxedoed men step out. Standing there, Felix could almost imagine what it must have been like a hundred years ago, when Phinneas Pickworth threw lavish balls and people came from all over Newport andbeyond, dressed in fancy clothes and jewels. Great-Aunt Maisie had told them that her father kept peacocks that opened their glorious tails almost on cue for guests. Often, the parties had themes: the White Party, where everyone dressed in white and ballerinas danced excerpts from
Swan Lake
for the guests; the Masked Ball, where guests wore elaborate costumes and masks and Phinneas Pickworth had jesters perform for them; even Night on the Nile, with women dressed like Cleopatra, snake charmers, and a real sarcophagus that Phinneas had acquired on a trip to Egypt was opened, revealing a shriveled mummy inside.
Seven of the guests actually fainted,
Great-Aunt Maisie had told them, her blue eyes shining with delight at the memory.
    Maisie and Felix followed their mother inside. Immediately, butlers with heavy, silver trays filled with champagne glasses appeared. Their mother took one, her face glowing in the candlelight. The smells of a dozen different perfumes filled Felix’s nose.
    “Can we go find the buffet?” Maisie asked.
    “Don’t get into any trouble,” their mother warned them.
    “We won’t,” Felix promised.
    Their mother disappeared in a swirl of velvet.
    “Come on,” Maisie said, clutching Felix’s arm. “With so many people and so much excitement, no one will even notice if we sneak upstairs.”
    “No way,” Felix said.
    Across the Grand Ballroom, he caught sight of their nemesis, the awful Blond Woman. She had on a too-tight navy-blue gown that showed the small rolls of fat around her middle and pink lipstick on her thin, tight lips. Worst of all, her beady, blue eyes scanned the room as if they were lasers looking for Maisie and Felix.
    “Look over there,” Felix told his sister.
    Maisie followed the lift of his chin. “Oh no,” she groaned. “Not her.”
    “I have to wait for Lily,” Felix said. “We’ll meet you at the buffet.”
    Maisie’s heart sank. Just as she feared, Felix would be with stupid Lily Goldberg, and she would be off on her own.
    “Fine,” she muttered, pushing her way through the crowd toward the dining room. Maybe, Maisie thought, she would just have to go up to The Treasure Chest alone.

    “You
live
here?” Lily Goldberg said as soon as she found Felix in the Grand Ballroom.
    “Not exactly,” he said, blushing. “We live in an apartment upstairs. We don’t even use