trouble remembering where he was. Why wasn’t he in his bed at Hendricks, staring up at the bottom of Trey’s bunk? Why was his face stuck to his pillow? Or no, it wasn’t his pillow. Why was he sleeping on a leather seat?
Outdoors, behind the chauffeur, Luke could see what looked like thousands of diamonds hanging from the sky.
Even when Luke peeled his face away from the seat and shook his head to clear his mind a little, the diamonds didn’t disappear. Except now he could tell that they were cascading from a roof covering the driveway.
The chauffeur saw where Luke was looking.
“You like your mother’s new chandelier, no?” he said. “That is new since you were home last, no?”
And Luke didn’t know how to answer. Already an innocent question had stumped him.
On the opposite seat Smits and Oscar were also waking and stretching. Smits scowled at the chauffeur.
“It’s ugly, you idiot,” Smits said. “That’s the ugliest chandelier we’ve ever had.”
Sure, Smits was rude. But at least he’d saved Luke from having to answer.
Dazed, Luke stepped out of the car onto a driveway that was paved with thousands of tiny tiles, all intricately connected. Above him the chandelier swayed in the breeze. Luke stared at it in disbelief A huge gold globe hung from the portico, with bars reaching out to a dozen smaller globes, all in a circle. The diamonds dangled in ropes from each of the smaller globes, twisting together and coming to a point in a huge crystal directly beneath the largest gold globe. Each of the diamonds threw out rainbows of light all over the portico. Really, Luke decided, the chandelier couldn’t be diamonds; there couldn’t be that many huge diamonds in the whole world. The chandelier was probably just glass, and Luke couldn’t tell the difference.
Either way, it was breathtaking, stunning beyond words.
Everything was. The walls of the Grant mansion rose before him like a sheer cliff, he really couldn’t tell where the mansion ended and the rest of the world began. Luke wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if the mansion
On the other side of the limousine a velvet green yard stretched out to a row of perfectly trimmed trees. Luke could see no other houses in any direction. The Grants’ estate seemed every bit as secluded as Luke’s family’s farm had been.
“You missed your home?” the chauffeur said to Luke. “You are glad to be home now, no?”
Imitating Smits’s rudeness, Luke only shrugged this time.
“Oh, oh, allow me to announce you,” the chauffeur said.
He stepped up to the double front doors and threw them open.
“Your sons are home!” he said, his voice taking on a regal rumble.
Smits stepped over the threshold first, onto a gleaming white floor. Luke hesitantly followed him.
“They’re probably not even home,” Smits said bitterly. “Dad’s at work And Mom’s at a party, of course.”
But footsteps were coming down the long, curving hallway. Just from the way they sounded — authoritative, commanding — Luke could tell it wasn’t servants headed toward him. A man and a woman came into sight They were probably as old as or older than Luke’s parents, but their faces didn’t have lines and sags like Luke’s father’s, their eyes didn’t look frightened and defeated like Luke’s mother’s. The woman had blond hair, styled into a helmet of perfect curls. She wore a brilliant red sweater and dark pants. The man had dark hair, dark eyes, and a dark suit Luke didn’t need to see any price tags to know that everything they wore was very, very expensive. He decided the couple didn’t look the least bit like parents. Luke couldn’t imagine either one of them bandaging a scraped knee, burping a crying baby, kissing a child’s forehead. Of course, if Smits’s stories about all the servants were true, they probably never had.
“My boys!” the woman shrieked in a dignified kind of way. “We’ve been counting the minutes until you got home!”
Luke braced himself to be ignored. He’d have to act normal, somehow, for the sake of the servants — the chauffeur and what looked like three maids peeking in from a nearby room. Luke just wasn’t sure what passed for normal behavior in a house like this. He watched Smits for clues, but Smits had gone all stiff, waiting for his parents to finish rushing down the hall.
And then Mrs. Grant brushed right past Smits and grabbed up Luke in a dizzying embrace. Luke got a whiff of elegant perfume, and then she released him. She stood back, looking him up and down.
“Oh, Lee, you have grown so much while you were away,” she exclaimed. “Why, last fall you barely came up to my shoulder. And now. “ Now Luke could look her straight in the face, eyeball to eyeball, if only he had the nerve. “Oh, I’ve missed you! Why did you have to stay away for a whole year?”
She wrapped him in another hug. Over her shoulder Luke caught a glimpse of Smits’s face. His whole expression had crumpled in pain.
“Smits,” Mr. Grant said, quite formally, and offered his son a hand to shake.
Luke expected the two parents to trade off — with Mrs. Grant hugging Smits and Mr. Grant thrusting a stiff hand at Luke. But when Mrs. Grant released Luke a second time, the two grown-ups only stood there, staring awkwardly at the two boys. Smits made no move toward his mother, and he might as well have been invisible, for all the attention she paid him. At least Mr. Grant managed a curt nod toward Luke.
“Well, you’ll want to get settled in your rooms,” Mrs. Grant said at last. “You must be tired after your journey Oscar, could you…”
Mrs. Grant didn’t even have to finish her request Oscar stepped forward, practically standing on Smits’s heels.
“I’m going, I’m going,” Smits muttered.
Luke felt like saying, “Don’t you want to know what happened at school? Don’t you know that those two are dangerous together?” He was used to his own parents, who would have been curious. Who would have been concerned.
He watched Smits step past his mother. She barely flickered her eyes in his direction. Her lips flattened into a thin line of disapproval. From the side Luke could see the emotions playing over Smits’s face: first pain, then fury.
Smits had wanted his mother to hug him, too.
Luke didn’t understand what he’d witnessed, or why he’d been hugged in Smits’s stead. He still didn’t understand why the Grants wanted him there. But he could tell that he’d just been sent to his room.
And he didn’t have the slightest clue where it was.
CHAPTER 18
The chauffeur saved him. He came in just then carrying the luggage, and Luke simply followed him. Up the stairs, down a long, stately hail. Up more stairs, just a half flight, into an entirely different wing of the house. Finally, when Luke was sure he’d walked more than a mile, the chauffeur deposited Luke’s luggage and Smits’s luggage in adjoining rooms.
Luke hesitated in the doorway of what must have been Lee’s room. He looked back at Smits and Oscar, who were still lingering in the hall.
“Just leave me alone!” Smits snarled. “I’m home now! I’m safe! Okay?”
“You think there is not danger here?” Oscar replied. “You think I believe that
Luke slipped into Lee’s room, hoping the other two hadn’t noticed him listening. And then, staring, he forgot everything else.
The whole rest of the house was luxurious and elegant beyond belief But Lee’s room was the first place that looked fun. At one end of the room four couches were clustered around a large-screen TV An entire video arcade lurked in a nearby alcove. Another alcove looked like a sporting goods store: Skis, golf clubs, hockey sticks, tennis rackets, and entire barrels of footballs, baseballs, and basketballs were arranged artfully in every corner. A third alcove held a set of drums and three guitars.
