The Night Dance Read Online Free PDF Page B

sewing room for now.”
    Rowena had done that, hoping to conceal the bowl under her cape. She’d meant to keep it hidden from them at least until she could think of a way to explain where she’d found it without revealing that she’d been out in the forest.
    But now eleven curious faces surrounded her, alerted by Eleanore’s loud question. “What is it?” asked Cecily, echoing her sister’s query, unable to take her eyes off the ever-expanding ball of light in the bowl.
    Staring more closely into the spinning glow, Rowena observed an image of a figure moving insidethe ball of light. It was in miniature, like a small, moving painting.
    Straining to bring the blurry image into focus, she saw that the figure was female. If all her sisters had not been standing around her, she might have thought the figure was one of them; the family resemblance was that strong. Could it be some twelfth sister?
    The woman in the glowing ball gestured, as though she wanted to show Rowena something. Why was she so blurry, though? Was she under water? That’s how it seemed to Rowena, but how could she breathe if she were underwater?
    Rowena glanced up at her sisters. “What do you think she’s trying to tell us?” she asked.
    “Who?” Bronwyn asked.
    “Don’t you see the woman in the bowl?” Rowena asked.
    “I only see light,” Mathilde said, and the others nodded in agreement.
    Looking back to the figure in the bowl, Rowena saw that the woman had lain down as if asleep. Then she stood and pointed at the floor. What was she trying to say?
    With the bowl still in her hands, Rowena left the sewing chamber and headed down the wide, turning staircase toward the first floor bedchamber that all twelve girls shared. Her sisters trailed along behind her.
    “What is this strange bowl, Rowena?” Chloe asked. “Where are you taking it?”
    “I want to see something,” Rowena replied.
    They entered the bedchamber with its twelve beds, six on either side of the large room. It was each girl’s favorite place in the whole manor house because it was all that remained of the original cottage before the other rooms and floors had been added. It retained the original wooden walls, rustic beams, and wide, rough-hewn floorboards.
    Once they were all inside, Rowena locked the door and dropped to her knees. Flattening onto the floor, she peered under the rows of beds. Not seeing what she searched for on one side, she did the same thing on the other.
    “What are you looking for?” asked Cecily.
    Rowena picked herself off the floor and sat back on her heels. Glancing down, she saw that the woman in the glow was still pointing to the floor. “What do you see?” Eleanore asked, keenly interested.
    When Rowena told her, a look of sudden inspiration swept across Eleanor’s face. Hurrying to the last bed, the one in which she, herself, slept, she gestured for her sisters to assist her in shoving it away from the wall. As soon as the bed was moved, they saw a trapdoor with an iron handle in the floor.
    The sisters shot questioning looks at Eleanore. “What is it?” Mathilde asked.
    “I discovered it a long time ago,” she explained. “A breeze wafts up from its cracks and the cold air wakesme sometimes in the night. It cools me in summer but makes me shiver in winter.”
    “Why have you never mentioned it before?” Ione questioned.
    “It’s always been there, ever since we moved into this room,” Eleanore explained. “I never gave the door much thought. I assumed it was simply part of the house, an old root cellar or something. This room was originally the back part of the kitchen.”
    The room became alive with nervous anticipation. “You say she’s pointing to the floor?” Gwendolyn checked with Rowena.
    Rowena nodded.
    They all looked to Eleanore as they always did in times of indecision. “Perhaps we should tell father of this,” Eleanore considered.
    The girls scowled at her. “This is no time to be so sensible,” Rowena