The Glass Castle (4 page)

“I try to be everyone’s friend,” Kate said.

“Then shouldn’t you be wearing everyone’s ribbon?”

Kate laughed until she fell back onto her mattress. Soon—despite her fear and dread—Avery was laughing, too. It had been the second most horrible day of her life, but she was laughing with a girl she had just met in a place she had never been.

When the laughter subsided, Kate said, “Believe it or not, you’ll see that it’s not too bad here, even if we
are
here against our will and there
are
guards at all the exit doors.”

“Then why won’t you tell me where we are?”

“I will, but you need to get your strength back first.”

Avery was relieved when Kate showed her the copper tub and the soap made of olive oil. Never in her life had a bath felt so good. She soaked her weary muscles, scrubbed the mud off her legs and arms, and washed her hair before returning to the bunk room, leaving a trail of watery footprints as she went.

As she wound through the rows of beds to find her own, she noticed dozens of girls were in theirs, whispering and giggling. It didn’t seem to Avery like they were as concerned about being kidnapped as she felt. This made no sense.

She was grateful to find a clean, white nightgown—floor-length with long sleeves—laid out on her bed. She had feared she would be stuck in her dirty white dress until she returned home. She changed quickly, the fabric softer than any she had ever felt, and slipped under the blankets.

She sank into the mattress, a welcome relief to her sore body, and waited until the candles were extinguished and the room settled under a haze of smoke. In the dark, she quietly ripped the seam at one end of her pillow and slipped off the ruby flower necklace. She tucked it into the feathers of the pillow, determined to keep it safe until she was able to head back home.

Losing that necklace would be like losing her mother all over again.

She couldn’t handle losing anything else.

Avery glanced around the room to make sure no one saw.

Only Kate stared back, unblinking.

Avery lay on her back, eyes adjusting to the dark, staring at the intricate detail on a ceiling that belonged in a cathedral, not in a musty room where kids were being held against their will. Her eyes suddenly felt heavy, and sleep called to her.

“If you stay,” Kate whispered, so faintly Avery could barely hear her, “I’ll find a way to give you back your brother and your mother.”

You’re dreaming. You haven’t even told Kate about your mother.

But Kate’s wry smile was the last thing Avery saw before she surrendered to sleep.

Chapter 6

Food Fight

Starving, Avery awoke to smells she had never experienced.

She stood for a long moment staring at her clothes, laid out for her at the end of her bed. Mysteriously, her tattered white dress had been replaced by a beautiful gown unlike anything she had ever worn at home.

Home.
Already the word felt so foreign.

The dress was made of the softest green satin, the neckline trimmed with a thousand tiny stars that gleamed in the candlelight and reminded her of the ones she admired from her castle tree house rooftop in the woods.

She wriggled out of her nightgown and tugged the dress over her shoulders. Her hair needed brushing, and she found a comb and a heavy, gold-gilded hand mirror on a nearby mattress, so out of place in the plain, dark room.

When she held it before her, a fresh mark on her left wrist made her drop the mirror onto the mattress and forget about her hair.

She ran her fingers over the raised black star, the size of a copper coin. It didn’t hurt, thank goodness, but neither could she rub it off.

Who put this here and when? How did I sleep through it?

Avery found that her muddy black boots had been replaced by beautiful red slippers with tiny, shiny beads, and someone had correctly guessed her unusually large shoe size.

The only other girl who wore slippers was Kate.

Everything about this place led to more questions than answers.

After breakfast, her first order of business would be to find out exactly where she was and who was holding her against her will.

After breakfast,
she thought, as another wave of delicious smells hit her.

Avery retrieved her necklace from her pillow and slid it over her head, tucking the flower beneath the fabric of her dress, and followed the scent of the food.

Avery had never seen so many well-dressed kids in one place. Some stood in clusters talking excitedly. A dozen carried platters of fruit and meat, breads dripping with icing, and thick, silver mugs filled to the brim with milk.

This was not what Avery was accustomed to eating. At home, meals consisted of what she or her father caught while fishing, hunting, or trapping or what they had grown in their garden.

Kate appeared at her side with a chirpy, “Good morning,” and tugged her toward the table. “I saved you a seat.” She filled Avery’s plate with all kinds of wonderful things, saying, “We eat like this at every meal, so pace yourself.”

That’s when Avery saw the black star on Kate’s left wrist—matching her own.

“We all have one,” Kate mumbled.

“Why?”

“If you escape, the mark will identify you and they’ll bring you back.” Kate looked around before adding quietly, “Or they’ll send you to the Forbidden City.”

Avery had so many questions, but they would have to wait until she and Kate were alone.

Nothing is certain and no one is safe.

Meanwhile, she ate. Sweet gave way to salty, and cold gave way to warm. The grapes alone were bigger and better than any she had ever tasted. She had no idea how she would describe all this to Henry. He would ask her to retell the story a dozen times.

Her father would say she was exaggerating again, but she would deny it.

When a steaming mug of coffee was placed in front of her, Avery thought she might cry. Her father had always mixed a tiny bit with milk for her and Henry when business was good. This coffee was pure and undiluted, and she drank it like water, feeling renewed energy surge within her.

As she was finishing the last of what tasted like bread with cinnamon and a hint of orange, Avery spotted Ilsa at the center of the table and returned the unfinished bite to her plate, her appetite gone.

Ilsa stared at her smugly. “I’m watching you,” she mouthed.

Avery shrugged.

Next to Ilsa sat a boy who looked like her twin, with wheat-colored hair and a turned-up nose. Avery wondered if he was as hostile as his sister.

On Ilsa’s other side sat Tuck, his shaggy hair swept to one side this morning.

“Tuck is a good person,” Kate said quietly, and Avery realized she was staring.

“I don’t care. Any friend of Ilsa’s is no friend of mine.”

But suddenly she had a strong urge to get to know Tuck, if only to frustrate Ilsa. He looked happy and confident, talking kindly to everyone around him. Avery suspected he made everyone he spoke to feel important. She also thought he looked older than thirteen. He was tall, broad shouldered, and assertive. Suddenly, he locked eyes with her, and she found it impossible to look away. He lifted an eyebrow, and she felt her face flush.

What is wrong with me? I’ve never cared about boys, and I don’t need to start now.

From the far end of the table, shouts erupted and a pair of boys began throwing punches. Friends joined in, and handfuls of meat and fruit flew as insults were traded and chairs were knocked backward.

Tuck jumped to his feet and began peeling bodies off each other.

“What’s going on?” Avery asked Kate, who seemed unfazed.

“It happens almost every morning.” And then just as casually she said, “Would you like to look around? I could give you a tour that would answer many of your questions.”

Would I ever.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter 7

The Stairwell

Avery hugged her arms tight against her body, the thin material of her dress doing little to keep her warm as she and Kate stood at the top of a long flight of eerily dark limestone steps.

These are the steps I was carted up yesterday.

Avery could see the door at the bottom, only this morning a heavy chain hung across its center and a thick lock hung from the latch.

“Promise you’ll do what I say,” Kate said, the smile gone from her eyes. “What we’re about to do could get us in a lot of trouble if we’re caught. I need to trust you to do exactly as I tell you and not speak until I say you can.”

Avery nodded, but when a fat rat scurried over her slipper, she kicked and yelped until Kate clamped a hand over her mouth. “Rule number one: quiet in the stairwell!”

Only when Avery nodded again did Kate release her hand.

They took the stairs quickly, passing several girls moving up and down, their dresses whooshing as they went.

Kate whispered, “This one stairwell winds around the building’s four hundred forty rooms, designed so that the staff can work without being seen. There are eighty-four flights of stairs.”

Avery’s eyes widened. Was it possible the city she had seen from the raft was only one large building? But who could afford such a place?

They continued descending the stairs. At each landing they passed a thick wooden door with black metal latches. Some doors were painted with a giant red X; others were not.

“What’s inside?” Avery asked after they had passed half a dozen.

“Each door leads to another room. Rule number two: never open a door with an
X
on it.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t.”

Avery opened her mouth to ask something else, but the look on Kate’s face stopped her.

Finally, they paused on a landing where Kate pressed her ear against a door then grabbed Avery’s arm and led her inside to a pastry wonderland with shelves of tiny cakes and pots of candied peanuts. Loaves of bread baked in corner brick ovens emitting wisps of smoke in delicate curls.

A group of girls around a large table rolled dough and argued playfully about something Avery couldn’t decipher.

“Everything you will eat is made in here,” Kate said.