: The lonely house by Lowndes Marie Belloc - Young women Fiction; Love stories; Monte-Carlo (Monaco) Fiction; Heiresses Fiction; Thrillers (Fiction); British Monaco Fiction

@FreeBooksThu 08 Jun, 2023

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d hearty voice: "Good-bye, Mr. Ponting, good-bye--and good luck!"

The words echoed through the quiet house. And Lily, now suddenly feeling very, very tired, after the many adventures of the day, undressed, said her prayers, and blew out the light. She was glad to feel that her first day at La Solitude was over, and that a long, quiet night lay in front of her.

It may have been an hour later when suddenly Lily Fairfield sat up in bed. In a moment she knew where she was, and yet she did not really feel awake. She told herself with a feeling of fear that she was asleep--asleep, as she had been asleep that night ten days ago, when she had started walking in her sleep, so frightening greatly Uncle Tom.

Something now seemed to be impelling her, almost ordering her, to get up and to begin walking through the silent, sleeping house. She fought against the impulse, the almost command; but it was as if a stronger will than her own was forcing her to get out of the low, old-fashioned Empire bed.

She did so, slowly, reluctantly, and then she walked automatically across to the door of the room and opened it.

Surely she was asleep? Had she been awake she would have put on a wrapper before going into the passage. As it was, she felt impelled to open also the door opposite to that of her own room--the door which she had been told led into the room in which old Cristina, the friend-servant of the host and hostess, slept.

And then it was that all at once, standing there behind the still closed window, Lily remembered her fifty pounds--the fifty pounds she had asked Aunt Cosy to keep for her, and which she had seen Uncle Angelo put in the ebony and ivory cabinet!

What should she do? Should she fling open the window and call out? No, for that would scare the burglars away, if burglars they were.

Lily listened again, intently, and after what seemed to her a long, long time, she heard the window below closing to, very quietly. Then came the sound of footsteps--it seemed to her more than one pair of footsteps--padding softly away across the lawn into the wood. Then followed a curious, long-drawn-out sound--so faint that she had to strain her ears to hear it at all.

She gave a stifled cry--something had suddenly loomed up on the broad ledge the other side of the closed window. It was the big cat Mimi--Mimi dragging herself along by the window-pane and purring, her green eyes gleaming coldly, wickedly, in the night air.

Frightened and unnerved, Lily turned and felt her way through the dark room to the bed. She might at least wake Cristina, and tell her what she had heard. She put out her hand, and felt the smooth, low pillow--then slowly her fingers travelled down, and to her intense surprise she realised that the bed was empty, and that it had not been slept in that night.

Then she had made a mistake in thinking this room was Cristina's room? She stood and listened--there was not a sound to be heard now, an eerie silence filled the house.

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