The Romeo and Juliet Code Read Online Free

especially tonight after hearing those slow footsteps shuffling down the hall.

In the morning, it was still raining. They were saying in the newspaper that this was the wettest spring they’d had in Bottlebay for many years. In the daylight, none of the Bathburns mentioned anything about anyone unlocking doors in the middle of the night. There was no mention of trays of food that went up and came down untouched. But when I looked through the stairwell from my room, I saw The Gram hugging Auntie Miami in the hallway, and Auntie seemed to be crying. “Time will come, dear,” The Gram was saying to her. “Time will come.” Then they started whispering and I thought I heard my new nickname, Flissy. They went on down to the kitchen, and soon I could hear pans crashing about and I could smell more of those muffins cooking.
    There was a wooden-paneled room at the end of the hall upstairs, a kind of little gymnasium. As I came downstairs, I could see Uncle Gideon in there. I sort of leaned out of sight and put my ear against the door that I was supposed to stay away from. I was quite sure by now that if there was a Captain Derek, this would have to be his room. I also felt quite certain that it was Uncle Gideon sneaking about last night, unless it was Captain Derek.
    “Good morning, Flissy,” said Uncle Gideon, who was now standing on his head in the gymnasium. “I’ve had breakfast and I’m already on my head. I’ve always been able to stand on my head, and my brother Danny never could get the hang of it. What do you think? Am I doing all right? Have you ever seen Danny do this? I bet not. How am I doing?”
    “Speaking of my Danny,” I said, “would you mind saying when they are coming back? How many days does ‘soon’ usually mean?” I was very sober and stared straight at him.
    “Oh, well, um, yes, we could talk about that later. But, um, could you do me a favor in the meantime and look out the window up front and see if our mailman is coming down the beach with our mail?” he said. His face had turned very red. Then he fell over, crashing down on the floor in a very awkward way. Soon he sat up looking a bit dazed. “Danny can’t do that,” he said softly. “I suppose you will be having breakfast now, but we can talk about it at lunch. Do you call it lunch in Britain or is that your tea?”
    “Tea is our supper,” I said.
    “Oh, super,” said Uncle Gideon. “I’ve got that straight, I think.”
    I looked out the window down to the beach below. “Oh, there’s the postman,” I said, hopping up and down, first on one foot and then on the other so as not to play favorites.
    “Well, then run and get the mail for us, will you, Fliss?” Uncle Gideon said, getting out of answering my question altogether, I thought. It was rather obvious.
    At the front door, I stuffed my feet into my tall, black rubber Wellington boots, which we call wellies in England, and I threw myself down the many wooden steps in the rain to the beach and the sea below. Mr. Henley was the postman, and I thought he was terrifically polite and cheerful. I was ever so pleased to be rushing back to the house with a newspaper and a postcard for The Gram from someone named Jane in Chicago. But The Gram and my uncle were standing in the shadowy hall, watching me again.
    “This was probably not a good idea,” said Uncle Gideon, frowning at me.
    “Oh, I don’t see it could do any harm. She can just leave the letters on the dining room table,” said The Gram. “You wouldn’t open a letter, Flissy, if it wasn’t addressed to you, would you?”
    I shook my head no.
    Now I was quite sure I wanted to go home. For a moment, it felt like I had a crying box stuck in my throat, like the one Wink had in his stomach. If you poked Wink there, he used to make a crying noise, but his crying box was broken now. You could poke away these days, and Wink was always silent.
    Uncle Gideon patted me on the top of my head again, but his hand was rough and