Page 47 of Whispers of Shadowbrook House

Shadowbrook House seemed to breathe anew as Christmas Eve dawned. Oliver woke early and leaped from his bed, eager to make final preparations to the gifts he had planned. He hadn’t felt this excited to celebrate Christmas in many years. Perhaps not ever.

He gave a gentle tap at George’s bedroom door, then at Matthew Nichols’s door.

Following now-familiar turns, the men headed up the stairs.

They emerged several hours later and found the house waking slowly around them.

Each man went to his room to clean himself up and erase the evidence of their final hours of labor.

Oliver wished nothing more than to spend days at Pearl’s side, but after she’d had a good night’s sleep, she’d been recruited by Mrs. Randle and Madame Genevieve to assist with preparations for today’s dinner, a meal on a grand scale that quiet and lonely Shadowbrook House had never seen before.

The plans were days in the making, and alone time with Pearl would need to wait.

He had many ideas for ways to make up for the lost hours.

Not a speck of dust or paint remained on him when he went to Maxwell’s temporary room and stepped inside at the boy’s invitation. Max sat on the edge of the bed, fiddling with his necktie. It was a duplicate of the one Oliver wore.

“Need a hand with that? The silk is tricky.”

“It’s slippery,” Max said. “And Pearl usually does it.”

Oliver hadn’t learned the trick of fastening a neckcloth facing someone else, so he stood behind Maxwell and, arms reaching around the boy, tied a perfect knot.

They both moved to the glass at the side of the room. Peering at their reflection, Oliver smiled.

Max echoed the expression. “We look alike, don’t you think?”

Oliver nodded seriously. “You are much handsomer than I am, but with a bit of work, I can try to match you.”

“If you and Pearl have a boy, do you think he’ll look like us?”

A dozen questions flew into Oliver’s head. Had Pearl confided in Maxwell? Did she speak to him of a future with Oliver? Had she actually mentioned children? He felt himself blush and brushed his silent questions away.

He chose to give another answer to the first of Max’s questions. “We do have a strong family resemblance. See the way our chins square off at the bottom? And my hair curls just like yours when I let it grow long.”

“And we like so many of the same things. Adventures. Puzzles. Pearl.”

Oliver didn’t even try to hide his smile at the list of commonalities. “Speaking of adventures, as soon as you’re ready, I have one for you.”

Max nodded and clapped his hands. “Now. I’m ready now.”

“We need Pearl to join us.” As soon as Oliver said the words, he heard her distinctive tap at the frame of Max’s open door.

She put her head into the room and said, “Happy Christmas.”

“Very nicely done, Oliver,” Max said with a playful grin. “All you had to do was state your wish and it came true. Let me try.” He cleared his throat and said, “We need a plate of hot scones with raspberry preserves.”

Oliver and Pearl laughed. Pearl stepped close and tugged one end of Maxwell’s tie to straighten it. “I assure you, there will be more treats than you can eat in a week at the table today.”

They moved into the hallway and found George and Matthew waiting for them. Oliver turned to Max. “Captain Ravenscroft, sir, your crew is ready to follow you on this great explora tion. We are at your service, as always.”

Oliver reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of leather. Max untied the strap around it and lifted out a hand-drawn treasure map. He studied it for a moment, then turned to look at Pearl, wonder on his face. “Did you do this?”

She shook her head. “This was all Oliver and his friends. And from the looks of that map, they’re going to put my silly games to shame.”

Maxwell executed a smart bow and snapped his heels together. “Right, men. We’re off, then.”

Oliver let his friends move in close to Max as they followed him along the map’s trail through the winding halls of Shadowbrook.

Once, there was a slight miscalculation requiring them to backtrack from a dead end, but Max managed to solve all the clues the men had set him, and before long, he was standing in front of the huge old clock in the upstairs hall.

“This map says the clock holds the key to the secret.” Maxwell walked from side to side, inspecting the clock.

“That could mean anything. Maybe there’s a secret code in the numbers.

Maybe it’s something about springs or gears.

” He turned a brass knob on the glass door covering the long pendulum, and something small and shiny dropped at his feet.

Maxwell laughed, and Oliver watched Pearl’s face break into the kind of smile reserved for the happiest of moments. She truly loved this boy, and Oliver understood why. Max was a delight.

The boy leaned down and picked up the small metal object, holding it high for his crew to witness. “Or maybe it just means there’s a key hiding in the clock’s cabinet.”

Oliver and his friends cheered their captain’s cleverness.

As Max turned the key in the lock of the old study’s huge double doors, Oliver couldn’t decide whether to watch Maxwell’s face or Pearl’s.

It had taken hours of work, but Oliver and his friends had created a wonderland in the once-forbidden room.

One wall was painted like a forest, with cushions like boulders strewn around the floor and a cunning little bookshelf painted to resemble a woodland cottage.

The opposite wall contained a mural of the river, and Oliver was pleased how the water in the painting looked like it was flowing across the room.

The third wall wasn’t merely painted—boards were nailed to the wall to call to mind the inside of a ship, and a child-sized sailor’s hammock hung from the ceiling on pulleys and ropes.

The look of absolute joy on Maxwell’s face made Oliver wish he could create a thousand rooms just like this one.

“Oliver, did you do this? For me?”

The boy rushed to him without waiting for an answer, threw his arms around Oliver’s waist, and squeezed him.

“Not only me. My mates have been working very hard to build this for you. It’s just the kind of room we would have loved to have when we were boys.”

Maxwell hugged George and Matthew, then he came back to Oliver and embraced him again. “Thank you all. I shall move in to this room tonight and stay here forever.”

Oliver watched Pearl’s expression go from wonder to gratitude to an echo of Maxwell’s joy. She was as thrilled as Oliver was by how much Maxwell loved the room.

He ran from corner to corner, pointing out the features of his fortress and asking Oliver if he knew about this cupboard or that movable wall panel.

Oliver nodded and smiled, and he’d never felt such delight in a completed project.

He hoped to be on site when Maxwell discovered the dial-lock in the floor’s trapdoor.

When Max suggested they remake the entire house just like this room, Oliver wanted nothing more than to tell him, “Your wish is our command.”

Instead, he said, “We’re all very glad you like your Christmas gift.”

At the mention of Christmas, Maxwell clapped his hands again.

“Right, men. We’ve got a party to attend.

You’re all under my orders to come to dinner in your finest clothes with clean fingernails and combed hair.

Oliver and I will accompany Pearl. Don’t make Mrs. Randle wait; she won’t like it.

If you’re very well-behaved, there will be lemon cakes and chocolate biscuits. ”

Oliver’s friends each saluted Max, and they marched toward the staircase in formation as Maxwell continued to look behind him at the magical room.

Oliver and Pearl were last to descend the stairs. She took him by the arm. “You’ve truly created a wonder. Who knew this old place had such enchantment left within its walls?”

Leaning in and placing a kiss on her cheek, Oliver said, “Maybe we shouldn’t give up on making a home out of Shadowbrook just yet.”

She stopped walking and looked into his eyes. “What do you mean?”

He glanced up toward the space at the top of the house where his uncle kept his gallery of those he’d loved and lost. “There’s no hurry to rid ourselves of this place.”

She shook her head in confusion. “But what of the Campbell Company’s deadline?”

Oliver placed his arm over Pearl’s shoulders and pulled her close. “If a sale is meant to be, it will happen in an appropriate timeline. That’s what I told Uncle Arthur. He seemed rather happy about it, and if you feel the same, I believe we’ll stay. All of us.”

Pearl flashed him a brilliant smile. “Nothing could please me more.”

“Nothing? Are you certain?”

She put a finger to her chin as if in deep consideration.

“Well, maybe one thing . . .” Standing on her toes, she took Oliver’s face in her hands and drew him close to her.

She pressed her lips to his once, then pulled back and looked into his eyes.

She kissed him again, and then—slowly—a third time.

He forgot everything else until they heard Maxwell calling from the lower landing.

“Hurry, you two. It’s time for Christmas.”

As Oliver and Pearl reached the door of her room, he took both her hands in his. “I have a gift for you, but I’d like to deliver it privately, when our commander isn’t hurrying us along.”

“Oh, Oliver. I don’t need anything more than you’ve already given me. And I hope you’re not disappointed, but I’m not so wonderful as you are at preparing gifts.”

He shook his head. “I can’t take all the credit for Max’s new room. My friends have limitless skills and energy.”

She looked up at him through lowered lashes. “My own skills are limited and fairly specific, but I believe you’ll grow fond of them.”

Oliver laughed. “Doubtless you are right. As for presents, there is only one gift I wish you to give me.”

“Name it.”

“Say you’ll marry me. Say you’ll help me make this old place a home. Say we can stay here with my uncle and Max for as long as they’ll have us. Say you’ll make my life complete by being my wife.”

Pearl’s bell-like laugh rolled out across the hallway and likely filled the whole house. “That’s a lot you’d like me to say. Will you be satisfied with a yes that stands for all of it?”

“ Yes would be perfect.”

“Then yes. Yes, my love, to all of it.”

He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her feet. “Thank you. That is the best gift of all. Now, please allow me to escort you to the largest family dinner this house has ever seen.”

“Anything you wish,” she said, and he believed all he wished was within her power to grant.