Lily Read Online Free PDF Page A

better. I need to find some things out.’
    ‘So you couldn’t ever see anything when you were in the painting?’ Lily asked curiously. ‘You weren’t – alive?’
    Henrietta frowned. The wrinkles on her face deepened, enough for Lily to think idly that they were deep enough to hide marbles in. ‘Just occasionally. I think it was if someone with a lot of magic stood near, and actually saw us, really looked, I mean. Then I could see too.’ She nudged Lily’s cheek with her startlingly cold nose. ‘I saw you.’
    Lily blushed. ‘I liked looking at you, and Great Aunt Arabel. I always wished you’d come out of the picture. But I’m not the one with a lot of magic, that’s Georgie.’
    Henrietta shrugged. ‘You’ve got enough. Is this her room?’
    Lily nodded, and knocked on the door. There was an intent, listening silence from inside, but that was all. She tried the handle, but the door seemed to be locked – which was odd, because she knew that the key had been lost years ago. Still, she supposed Georgie didn’t need a key to lock her door any more. She stroked the door panels thoughtfully, wondering what spell her sister had used. Until an hour or so before, she would have stomped away grumpily, shut out by magic again. But now she had Henrietta. She didn’t know quite what that proved, but she was sure it was something. Could she feel a prickle in her fingertips as she swept them across the edge of the door? Perhaps.
    ‘I can’t make it open,’ she whispered to Henrietta. ‘But I’ve an idea.’
    Lily hurried along the passage to her own door, which was next to Georgie’s, and slipped inside. She had left the window open that morning, as the clear richness of the blue sky had promised another hot day.
    Henrietta looked around curiously as Lily put her down on the chair by the tall window. ‘This is a nice room. Arabel slept on the other side of the house, I think. This must look out on the rose garden – over the blue drawing room, yes? It’s rather dusty though.’ She sneezed delicately.
    Lily sighed. ‘It’s hard to get maids who want to come and live on the island. They have to sign a paper saying they’ll stay, you see. Most girls won’t. They know something strange must be happening here, something wrong, so they don’t want to work here.’
    Henrietta nodded thoughtfully. ‘Do your servants know about the magic, then?’
    Lily shrugged. ‘Everyone knows, but they never say. Not once they’ve met Mama, anyway. Who would dare? When the Queen’s Men come and question the servants to make sure that we’re all keeping to the terms of the Decree, Mama is always standing behind them, with her arms folded, and that look she has. They’d never tell.’ She smiled. ‘And they have to be very well paid, which is another reason we don’t have enough maids to clean my bedroom very often.’ She glanced around. ‘I suppose it is dirty. I do try and dust it sometimes.’
    ‘I want to see your sister again.’ The black dog jumped down from the chair and followed her to the window. ‘You said you had an idea?’
    ‘Oh, yes. Look, out here. There’s a balcony, and Georgie’s room has one too. It isn’t far from one to the other.’ Lily stepped over the low sill of the window, and leaned over to look along the wall. ‘Georgie’s window is open too!’ she hissed.
    Henrietta put her paws on the windowsill and peered out. ‘That may not be far for you, Lily, but I think I shall stay here. Pugs aren’t built for climbing. I shall watch. If you can persuade your sister to open her door, then you can come and let me in.’ Then her ears twitched, and when she spoke again it was in a lower voice, not her usual ladylike growly squeak. ‘I can hear someone. Downstairs.’
    Lily, who had been hanging over the delicate wrought-iron balcony, trying to see into Georgie’s room, gave a little gasp. ‘Mama uses the blue drawing room,’ she whispered.
    ‘Someone else too. She’s talking to