Rose Read Online Free PDF Page B

answer. “I—it sounds silly—but everything moves up there…I was just trying to get down the stairs while they were still there,” she added apologetically.
    Miss Bridges peered at her sharply over the rim of her teacup. “What moves, Rose?”
    â€œThe walls. And the stairs…And I’m sure one of the swords jumped at me!”
    â€œYou’re having us on!” Bill was standing by the back door with the ash bucket, looking disgusted. “Them stairs have never moved that I’ve seen.”
    â€œBut they did!” Rose pleaded. She didn’t want Bill to think she was as silly as Freddie, wittering on about floating down the stairs.
    â€œI wouldn’t be surprised in this house,” Mrs. Jones said darkly. “Not that the stairs would move with me.”
    Bill smirked, and Rose couldn’t help wanting to giggle. The stairs wouldn’t dare. She could easily imagine Mrs. Jones’s reaction to magical furniture. “Now just you put me down at once, or I’ll take a feather duster to you!” Mrs. Jones just didn’t hold with magic.
    Rose had a feeling that it was probably the safest way to be. She wished she didn’t hold with it either, but it seemed to keep sneaking up on her. She resolved to have nothing to do with it. If anything wobbled, she would just close her eyes.
    â€œYou’ve really never seen anything strange?” Rose asked Bill quietly, as he showed her where to find everything she’d need to light the bedroom fires.
    Bill shrugged. “Nope. The odd explosion here and there, mostly when Mr. Freddie’s mucked something up. He’s not very good at this magic lark, seems to me. You’re imagining it about the stairs, though. It’s just a house. Made of bricks and…and stuff. How can it move ?”
    Rose nodded sadly. She wished that was true, but she knew she’d seen it. It was going to be difficult if she had to spend all her time looking at her boots.
    â€œStart with Miss Anstruther, that’s the governess, on the second floor at the end of the corridor, opposite the picture of the fat girl with the horse. Then do Mr. Freddie and Miss Isabella, and then Mr. Fountain. Susan does the downstairs rooms. And be quick or you’ll miss breakfast.”
    Rose picked up the heavy coal bucket, and the brushes and cloths.
    â€œDon’t bang it about like that!” Bill scolded. “You’re supposed to be silent! You have to not wake them up, don’t you get it?”
    Rose looked at him worriedly. She knew how to lay a fire and light it, but how on earth was she supposed to do it without making any noise? Coal was noisy—it was made of rocks; it had to be.
    â€œOh well.” Bill shrugged. “They all sleep like the dead anyway. Just do the best you can.”
    This certainly seemed to be true of Miss Anstruther. She only turned over and grunted when Rose dropped a cascade of coal all over the hearth, and then said something that would have got her mouth washed out with soap at St. Bridget’s.
    Mr. Freddie woke up and glared at her like a ruffled white mouse when she opened his door, but Rose decided she was probably supposed to ignore him. She glanced over her shoulder at him as she scuttled out. He was still watching her, though he shut his eyes as soon as he saw her looking. What was he thinking? Rose had a strong feeling that he would quite like to turn her into a beetle.
    Rose didn’t know an awful lot about boys. She didn’t remember ever having spoken to one before Bill. The matrons at St. Bridget’s were convinced that the orphans’ morals would be forever destroyed if they so much as breathed the same air as a boy. They saw the boys from St. Bartholomew’s on Sundays at church, but that was all. And the orphan boys stayed strictly on their side of the aisle. Even so, she knew what everyone at the orphanage would have said about this