the right, my hand searching for the heavy wood banister and the wall with the light plates. I heard a noise behind me, a sound as light as padded feet. Something rushed against my legs.
I stifled a scream. The cat, I thought, teetering on the step. Just the cat. Relax, Kate.
The next moment something hard and flat, the size of a hand, slammed between my shoulder blades. I cried out and pitched forward. I reached out desperately for the banister-the wall-anything that could stop my fall. My bare feet slid, my arches rolling over the hard edge of the step. I began to tumbleheadfirst into the darkness-and yanked myself backward. For a moment I touched nothing, then suddenly I made contact, my right shoulder and hip banging down against the steps. I could count the steps I was sliding down, each one a blow against my upper arm.
At the landing, I stopped. I couldn't move. My ski jacket had padded the fall, but the right side of my body ached, and the feeling of tumbling helplessly had taken my breath away. So simple, I thought, so simple and effective-it didn't take much effort to hurt a person.
I sat up slowly, hearing movement in the hall above me. It was Patrick's light footsteps running across it. 'Stop, Patrick! Don't run. You'll fall down the steps.'
Lights came on, all of the ceiling flights, flooding the hall with whiteness. The door to Adrian and Emily's room opened.
'Kate!' Adrian exclaimed as he reached the top of the stairs. 'Are you all right?'
Emily grabbed Patrick's hand, and Adrian started down the steps.
'What happened? Emily, you had better call 911.'
'No,' I said quickly. 'I'm fine-a little shaken up, that's all.'
'I'd rather be on the safe side,' Adrian replied, arriving on the landing, bending over me.
'No, really, please don't. I didn't hit my head. I didn't break anything,' I said, flexing my arms and legs, hoping to convince him. 'I'm bruised, nothing more.'
A door on the second-floor hall banged open.
'Why are the lights on, the emergency lights in my hall?' Trent asked, coming from the wing behind the stairs. He cleared the corner, looked down, and saw Adrian standing over me. 'Good God! What has happened?'
'Kate fell,' Patrick said.
'When we heard the noise out here, Adrian pushed the master switch,' Emily explained.
A door at the opposite end of the hall opened, and quick footsteps crossed it. Robyn and Brook joined the others at the top of the steps.
'Hey, a family reunion at three a.m. What a great idea!' Brook said. 'Let's open a keg.'
'You're ridiculous in the middle of the day,' Trent told Brook. 'Don't push your luck in the middle of the night.'
'No more ridiculous than you in your red silk designer robe,' Robyn responded in defense of her son. I wonder who gave you that?' She gazed down the steps at Adrian and me. 'What happened, Daddy?'
Adrian sat down two steps above me. 'Apparently, Kate tripped and fell down the stairs.'
'What was Kate doing?' It was the steely voice of Mrs. Hopewell, who had silently joined the others.
Adrian gave me a sly wink. 'Meeting her sweetheart for a romp in the snow. Or perhaps, Louise, sneaking a piece of that delicious pie you made.'
'Was November with you?' Patrick asked. 'He left my room.'
'Who's November?' Brook asked.
'The cat,' I replied. 'The orange tabby. Patrick said he found him outside his window, the one by the roof, and let him in. I was going downstairs to get some bait to coax him out of the room.'
'Oh, wonderful,' Trent observed, 'we have a rabid cat in the house.'
'Just lock your bedroom door, Trent,' Robyn responded sarcastically, 'and you'll be safe from all ten pounds of him.'
'Darling,' Emily said to Patrick, 'that cat is dirty. It has diseases.'
'Where is it now?' Mrs. Hopewell asked.
'I don't know. It brushed past me at the top of the steps.'
'And tripped you,' Adrian said.
'No. It wasn't the cat.' I looked him in the eye and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. 'Someone pushed me from behind.'
Adrian's blue eyes narrowed. I gazed up at the group standing at the top of the steps, but with the ceiling lights shining brightly behind their heads, I couldn't see their faces.
'Someone pushed me. I felt a hand against my back.'
Adrian's face became grim. Whether it was because he thought that a member of his household was capable of the act or that I was getting paranoid, I didn't know.
'Certainly you would have seen someone,' Robyn said, breaking the silence.
'The night lamp is off,' Brook observed.
'Louise?'
I turned it on before retiring,' the housekeeper assured Adrian, 'just as I always do.'
I heard the light click of a switch, someone testing the rose lamp. 'Well, the bulb isn't burned out,' Trent said.
'Perhaps you were dreaming, Kate,' Emily suggested. 'Perhaps-' 'Ashley pushed you,' Patrick interjected.
His words chilled us to silence. The house itself was quiet, as if the walls and floors were waiting to hear more from him.
'Ashley didn't want you to put November outside,' Patrick went on. 'She was afraid he'd freeze. So she pushed you.'
The flesh along my arms rose in tiny bumps. Standing in the schoolroom I had felt as if something were watching me, something that didn't like me. For a moment I actually believed Ashley was responsible.
You're losing it, Kate, I told myself; it was the cat watching you.
'Father, Patrick has got to stop this crazy talk,' Trent said.
'He's your brother,' Adrian replied quietly. 'If it bothers you, you may ask him yourself.'
'Daddy doesn't do what Daddy doesn't want to do,' Robyn said, her hips switching. She sounded like a little girl enjoying her brother's discomfort.
Trent turned abruptly and returned to his wing.
'This isn't as good a party as I thought,' Brook observed. 'I'm going to bed.'
Robyn gazed down at Adrian and me, then shook her head, more like an adult now. 'Things are getting out of hand, Daddy.' She followed her son.
'If you don't need me, sir…'
'No, Louise, good night,' Adrian replied.
Mrs. Hopewell started off, then turned back. 'About the cat.'
'If all of us keep our doors closed, the cat will find a cozy spot by itself,' Adrian told her. 'We'll put it out tomorrow.'
'I shall put Patrick to bed,' Emily said.
'No, I want Kate,' Patrick protested.
'Darling,' Emily replied, 'I'm your mommy.'
'But Kate puts me to bed.'
'Go with your mother,' Adrian said sternly.
When the two of them had disappeared, Adrian turned to me. In the harsh lighting he looked years older; for once, he looked like a man who was seriously ill.
'Be straight with me, Kate, and I will keep what you say to myself. Is there any chance you were partially asleep? Is there a chance that you were sleepwalking-dreaming?' No.
