The Silence Of The Library

The old man might think he could frighten her with his eldritch words, but Veronica Thane did not scare easily. Though she had known adversity in her life, with the loss of her adventurous parents in darkest Africa when she was a young child, she had all the mettle of those two departed relatives. It would take more than a weird servant and a spooky mansion to discompose Veronica.

She had intended to apprise the man of his misconception, for she was a thoroughly honest and straightforward young woman, but she scented a mystery. Veronica liked nothing better than a mystery and had had some small successes in solving a few.

The young woman who was expected was obviously a stranger, else the butler would surely have realized his mistake by now. That girl had no doubt been delayed by the same storm that brought Veronica here, and there was no way of knowing when she might arrive.

In the meantime, Veronica decided impulsively, she would pretend to be that girl in order to determine whether there was actual danger in this house.

In a tone that brooked no argument, Veronica spoke. “That will do. You will please show me to a room where I might dry myself and make myself ready to meet your mistress.”

Recognizing an authoritative voice when he heard one, the butler recoiled slightly. “Very well, miss. If you will come with me.”

Satisfied that she had won her point, Veronica followed the servant up the stairs and to a suite on the second floor. “You will find everything you need here, miss. I will advise Mrs. Eden that you have arrived.”

Veronica nodded in dismissal, thinking how unlike Fontaine, her guardian’s butler, this man was. Mrs. Buff-Orpington would never allow Fontaine to treat a guest in her house in such a manner, and the butler himself would not deign to act that way.

As she dried herself with the purple towels she found in the bathroom, Veronica reflected fondly on her estimable guardian. Mrs. Araminta Buff-Orpington, a widowed Englishwoman who had long resided in the American South, had been at school with Veronica’s late paternal grandmother. When the elder Mrs. Thane died suddenly after hearing the grim news of the deaths of her only son and his young wife, it was discovered that Mrs. Buff-Orpington had been named Veronica’s guardian until she came of age.