Suddenly, Emily heard a voice over the sound of the wash bubbling gloomily on the stove.
“Ain’t much fun down on your knees,
On your knees, on your knees,
I will help you, if you please,
My fair lady!”
“Kipper!”
“None other! See here, you look ’bout done in. And I meant the words in the song. How ’bout letting me take a turn at that?” As he was talking, Kipper was already peeling off his jacket and rolling up his shirtsleeves.
“No!” Emily shook her head hard. “It wouldn’t be fair.”
“What wouldn’t be fair ’bout it?”
“You wouldn’t be paid for it as you were before.”
Kipper shrugged. “Don’t matter. Pa says you don’t need to be paid for every least thing you do, not in money, anyways. He says living’s a payment for breathing, and a smile’s a payment for a good turn. A smile’s all I need, Emily.”
Emily obliged him with one, but then looked fearfully over her shoulder. “What about Tilly?”
“Remember what I said ’bout working Tilly just right?” Kipper grinned. “Well, my performance worked! She knows she ain’t got anything to worry ’bout where you and me is concerned. When I told her I’d come to help with the laundry free, she looked pleased as pleased can be. Old Til ain’t ever minded anyone helping with the chores ’round Sugar Hill Hall what I can recollect. So move on over and let me at the washboard!”
Kipper dipped his strong, freckled arms into the tub and went after the dirty linen as if he were attacking a sea serpent. Emily couldn’t believe how quickly the stubborn spots vanished.
“Say,” he said, examining her critically over the washboard, “ain’t you got more’n that to wear? Last two times I seen you, you been in the same garment. I know it ain’t polite to say so, Emily, but that dress looks ’bout ready to be a soot rag.”
“Oh, I had another dress, but—but …” Emily’s voice faded, “I gave it to Tilly.”
“Gave it to Tilly!” Kipper exploded. “Whatever for? Tilly couldn’t get anything o’ yours over her head.”
“She thought it was pretty,” Emily said, remembering the endless hour she had spent going over the “pretty things” in her travelling bag with Tilly. “So I just gave it to her.”
“More’n likely she just took it!” said Kipper. “Poor old Til ain’t ever had anything pretty. Anyways,” he shook his head, “I expect the other dress ain’t any more useful than the one you got on.”
“It won’t be for long,” Emily said quickly. “I have two trunks coming filled with clothes.”
“Well, I hope it don’t take too long for ’em to get here, else your dress will fall right off o’ you.” Kipper appraised Emily’s appearance again and sighed. “You know something? You’re the skinniest person I ever did see. And getting skinnier all the time. Ain’t you eating any o’ that delicious soup and bread pervided by the management?” He grinned wryly.
“I try,” Emily said. “I think I’m hungry, but when I get to the table and see the food, I can’t eat it.”
“And to think o’ all them good things your aunt fixes for the snake lady!” Kipper said grimly. “Enough to feed a dozen and lots to spare too. Beats me what they do with it all.”
“Do you wonder about that too?” Emily looked over her shoulder again and dropped her voice. “Oh, Kipper, there are so many mysteries about Sugar Hill Hall. So many questions! A second one is about Mrs. Plumly. Why should anyone who appears to be so nice be friends with Mrs. Meeching?”
Kipper shook his head. “Never have figured that one out either.”
“And—and there’s the ballroom too,” Emily said.
“What ballroom?”
“There, you see!” Emily exclaimed softly. “Tilly didn’t know about it—she said I was stupid—and now you don’t know about it either. But there is a ballroom, Kipper, right across from the dining room, even though there aren’t any doors.”
“You know something, Emily,” Kipper said thoughtfully, “I ain’t of the mind that you’re stupid at all. I think maybe you’re right ’bout some kind o’ room there. You can tell it outside from the shape o’ the mansion, excepting there ain’t any windows. I used to wonder ’bout it. Say!” He looked curiously at Emily. “How come you know so much ’bout a room there?”
“Because I was here when I was a little girl.”
Kipper’s eyes widened. “Here?”
“Yes! And there was a huge ballroom with two big gold doors right where I said. I was here with Mama and Papa, and a big ball was given for them by Aunt Twice and Uncle Twice. Oh!” Emily gasped and threw a hand to her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” Kipper asked anxiously.
Emily began to tremble. “I—I promised Aunt Twice I would never say his name aloud. She told me I was to think of him as—as dead!”
“Well, I ain’t ever heard of any Uncle Twice alive or dead,” Kipper said. “But now I know ’bout him, ain’t any more cause for you not to tell me all you know, Emily.”
This couldn’t be denied, so she poured out the whole conversation she had had with her aunt on the first night at Sugar Hill Hall, including the information that Aunt Twice was being held prisoner there to protect someone’s life.
“Wheeoo!” Kipper whistled softly when she had finished. “I always suspicioned there was some kind o’ hokus-pokus ’bout this place, and your aunt acting scairt out o’ her wits and all that, but never so much as that, Emily. You know something? I wonder if it’s your uncle’s life she’s pertecting.”
“That’s what I thought,” Emily told him. “But what if it isn’t? What if it’s someone else’s life? Supposing Uncle Twice has become a—a wicked man, and supposing Aunt Twice is protecting someone from him?”
“That’s lots o’ supposing you’re doing,” Kipper
