Jewel of the East Read Online Free PDF

this door to get to it.”
    “But it’s a mansion, right?” she said, tilting her head back to stare at the giant chandelier.
    “Well,” Felix admitted, “yeah.”
    Lily tried to take it all in: the marble floor, the gold trim along the ceiling, the butlers and fancy people. She shook her head. “But why do you live upstairs?”
    “My great-great-grandfather built Elm Medona,” Felix said, feeling embarrassed. Maybe this was a bad idea after all.
    Lily stood beside him, speechless.
    “There’s food,” he said. “In there.” He pointed in the general direction of the dining room.
    “Okay,” Lily said.
    She had on a black dress with a big, red petticoat beneath it that made the bottom of the dress stick out and rustle noisily when she walked.
    “You look nice,” Felix told her.
    Lily only nodded and looked more perplexed than usual.
    The dining room table was heavy with food. A man in a tall, white chef’s hat carved fat slices of beef. Shrimp glistened on silver platters. Long,thin spears of asparagus nestled beside slices of bright yellow and red peppers. Cheeses and olives and rounds of baguettes sat beside oysters and clams gleaming in their shells. Felix saw that the Pickworth china, with its interlocking, ornate
P
s, was actually being used.
    “Why was your grandfather—” Lily began.
    “Great-
great
-grandfather,” Felix interrupted.
    “Why was he so rich?” she said.
    “Banking,” Felix said. Then he added, “We’re not rich. At all.”
    “Do you think
my
great-great-grandfather, I mean my Chinese one, was like an emperor or something?” Lily said.
    “Maybe,” Felix said. “Probably.”
    “Wouldn’t that be something? If I went back to China and my great-great-grandfather was in a castle or something with servants and fancy things?”
    Felix studied Lily Goldberg’s face for a moment. She didn’t look perplexed at all. Instead, her face was soft, her eyes dreamy. That was when he decided.
    He took her hand. “I want to show you something,” Felix said.

    Felix and Lily stood in front of the greenwall on the second floor, right at the spot where, behind the enormous wreath, he could press lightly to reveal the hidden staircase. It had been hard to get Lily up here because she kept stopping to stare at the tapestries, the paintings, the statues, the murals, and the furniture behind the red velvet ropes. But finally they’d climbed the Grand Staircase and arrived at this spot.
    Felix glanced around to be absolutely certain no security guards or wayward guests or the Blond Woman were anywhere nearby. Satisfied, he reached his hand through the wreath’s greenery until it hit the wall. Then he pressed lightly, and sure enough, the wall magically moved and the hidden staircase appeared.
    “That is so cool!” Lily shrieked.
    “Just wait,” Felix said, motioning for her to come along.
    “A secret wall! A hidden staircase!” she said as they climbed up the stairs. “You have the coolest house ever!”
    Felix unclasped the red velvet rope that hung in The Treasure Chest’s doorway. With a sweep of his arm, he beckoned inside, where Lily’s shrieking and gasping grew even more intense.
    “What is all this stuff?” she kept asking as she picked up and then put down one item afteranother. A feather. A round ball of alabaster. A fountain pen. A locket.
    “Phinneas Pickworth was a collector,” Felix explained.
    He watched the curiosity and excitement in her eyes, trying to decide if he dared do what he wanted to do. After all, he had the shard in his jacket pocket. If he and Maisie could time travel by picking up an object, why couldn’t he and Lily? Imagine what she would think if he could take her back to China. Felix knew that he couldn’t find her ancestors, but being there might make her feel better, might fill that hole she’d described to him.
    Felix’s eyes darted across the room, searching for something that just might be Chinese. That red lantern? The swath of