The Magic Cottage Read Online Free Page B

handle and used shoulder pressure. The wood creaked, but didn’t move a fraction.
    ‘Let me,’ said Midge, pushing between me and the door.
    ‘It’s no good. The lock’s either rusted solid, or Bickleshift made a mistake with the keys.’ I examined the label and GRAMARYE was clearly typed.
    She took them from me without a word and held one of the ‘twins’ up to her face for a second before decisively pushing it home into the lock. Her wrist twisted and I thought I saw her give a little gasp, almost as if the key had turned of its own accord. I may have been mistaken.
    The door opened easily and smoothly, without even the hint of a horror-movie creak; the air that rushed out was musty and damp, and seemed glad to be free.



The Round Room

    I was ready to go straight on in, puzzled though I was that Midge had succeeded where I had failed; Midge, however, hesitated. Again I’m not sure – quite a few things are still not entirely sharp in my memory – but there seemed to be some kind of trepidation in her manner now. Enough, at least, to dismiss any mock-gloating on her part. Perhaps I’m not sure because the sudden change in mood was just as quickly gone; I know she had disappeared inside before I could voice my concern.
    Shrugging to myself, I ventured in after her and the instant coolness was an unwelcome contrast to the warmth outside. We found ourselves in a smallish room, no more than ten by twelve I guessed (the house particulars had been left back in the car), with an open door ahead and stairs beyond leading up to the next level. We could see the kitchen area through an opening to our right. The floor here and in the room next-door was quarry-tiled and I noticed an unnatural darkness to the surface. Crouching, I touched the stone.
    ‘Feels damp,’ I said and searched the skirting. Sure enough, a dark waterline stained the opposite wall just a couple of inches above the floor. ‘The far wall there must cut into the embankment and when it rains water seeps down through the soil and into the brickwork.’
    Midge didn’t even appear that interested, which irritated me a little; I knew that kind of dampness could be serious and I was thinking in money terms. She’d already gone through into the kitchen. With an exasperated shake of my head, I rose and went after her. ‘Midge, you’ve gotta take note of these things,’ I whined. ‘They’re gonna decide whether or not we buy this place.’
    ‘Sorry, Mike.’ Pretending contriteness, she slid up to me and momentarily rested her head against my chest. Then she was over by the huge black cooking range we had seen through the window and stooping to open oven doors, squawking with delight when she peered into them, then rising to exclaim more loudly when she laid eyes on the skillet hooks on the side of the recess above the range, filled with long-handled saucepans and a rather large frying pan. On the floor just in front of the range stood an iron kettle on a trivet, adding an extra charm.
    ‘It’s like something out of an old fairy-tale,’ Midge called back to me.
    ‘You mean where the witch boils frogs and babies’ legs on her stove to make her spells?’ I asked as I joined her. I saw there were pots, also of black metal, inside the largest of the ovens.
    ‘Nothing so nasty,’ Midge admonished. She leaned into the recess and squinted up into the chimney. I hastily pulled her back when I noticed the dangerous flaw in the massive stone lintel above the range. She looked at me in surprise until I pointed out the crack.
    ‘That looks ready to collapse,’ I warned and she had sense enough to back away.
    ‘I doubt it runs all the way through.’
    ‘Maybe not, but why take the chance? That’s another item that would have to be taken care of.’
    Midge frowned, not liking the list I was already compiling.
    ‘Ten-to-one the chimney’s blocked by now, and nobody’s going to clear it until that stone’s been made safe.’ There was no fun in