They Wanted My Haunted House, I Let Everyone Leave novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Wrong Towel

Refusing an assigned room works while a guest towel moves without a hand.

Elaine thanked the hand before noticing it had no arm.

She turned toward me with an expression of injured hospitality.

"Did you arrange this?"

I hadn't arranged the suitcase I'd left on the tiles yet.

"Put the rope down," I told the empty staircase.

The hand lowered it carefully.

Then it went away.

Pippa made a frightened sound and caught my coat sleeve.

I was frightened too.

That didn't explain why the hand had obeyed me.

The warm key did, at least enough to make me hold it tighter.

My brother Rupert came from the sitting room carrying a decanter.

He wanted to know who'd turned the hall into a queue.

"You shouldn't take things yet," I said.

"It's water."

"Then you'll survive without the crystal."

He returned the decanter with a show of patience.

I watched until he actually put it down.

I'd spent my childhood receiving blame for things he meant to do properly later.

Tonight I wasn't accepting that arrangement.

Elaine pointed upstairs.

"We've put Rupert in the big room, naturally."

"I haven't offered any rooms," I said.

My aunt sighed.

"Must everything become a discussion?"

She swept past me and climbed the stairs.

Pippa and I followed because leaving her unobserved seemed worse.

Rupert stayed below, pretending he hadn't wanted the big room.

A brass handbell hung beside the sitting room door, polished beneath its wooden handle.

Elaine had already pointed it out as a convenient way to summon somebody else.

The house smelled of cold plaster and old furniture polish.

There were no electric lights in the upper hall, only wall lamps behind cloudy glass.

They brightened as we passed.

I didn't have an ordinary explanation for that either.

Elaine opened the first bedroom and held out her label.

"Your room," she told me.

The bed stood between two wardrobes, beneath a framed photograph of a very unhappy dog.

A folded towel lay on the pillow.

It was embroidered GUEST in thick red thread.

"That's generous of you," I said.

"But no."

The towel rose off the pillow.

It drifted past my aunt's shoulder and settled in her arms.

Pippa backed into me.

Elaine stared at the folded cloth.

"I don't require fresh linen until morning."

The dog in the photograph turned its head toward her.

I caught my cousin's hand.

"The card says a guest can refuse," I said.

"It doesn't say you can choose for anyone else."

Elaine put the towel back on the bed.

It returned to her arms before she reached the doorway.

She tried placing it on a chair instead.

The chair slid away from her hand.

Pippa laughed once, sharply, before clapping a hand over her mouth.

My aunt's expression made it worse.

She'd finally encountered a household unwilling to receive her towels.

"Would you like this room?" I asked her.

"Certainly not."

The towel dropped onto the carpet.

Elaine stepped back from it.

I looked from her empty arms to the room.

Refusing had worked when the offer came from me.

That was something I could use without pretending I understood everything.

I wanted everyone downstairs where I could see their hands.

The thought was ordinary enough until I remembered the one on the stairs.

I'd thought inheriting a house meant finally being allowed to invite people properly.

I could still begin there, even with a towel taking instructions more seriously than my aunt.

I held the key where Pippa could see it and waited for her answer.

She kept her hand in mine instead of accepting the label.

"Pippa, would you prefer to stay near me?" I asked.

My cousin nodded fiercely.

"Then we'll choose after we've checked downstairs."

I left the guest towel where it lay.

I wasn't taking a souvenir from this house before I knew what it wanted.

At the top of the stairs, Elaine tried to retrieve her bedroom label.

The sticky back had attached itself firmly to her own sleeve.

It read MASTER SUITE.

Rupert called up from below.

He had found a cabinet full of family jewelry.

There was a pleased note in his voice I knew too well.

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