Mar 5, 2019 6 min read

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¦ CHAPTER Fifteen

Emily’s discovery

The story so far: Sally has taken Emily up into the attic and shown her the trunk and the other Sally’s old-fashioned clothes and her diary. Now Emily has discovered something behind a chest of drawers.

Sally was on her feet immediately, hurrying over, hardly daring to hope, scarcely able to breathe. “Is it-Elizabeth?” she whispered.

“No,” said Emily, looking up at her from where she was kneeling on the floor behind the chest. “It’s this!” And with a triumphant flourish, she held something up in one hand.

Sally at first could not say a word. Then, “Emily,” she whispered, “it’s Elizabeth’s bonnet!”

Emily nodded her head up and down several times, her grin widening all the while, till it stretched almost to her ears.

Sally’s trembling fingers reached out to take the little yellow bonnet. “It really is!” she cried, looking up at Emily. “And you found it! But where?”

“Right here,” she said proudly, pointing to a spot on the dusty floor near her knees. Sally stared at the spot as if she expected it to tell her something.

“But I looked back here yesterday,” she said, “and I’m sure it wasn’t here then.”

Emily was not smiling now. Her eyes were very dark and round with astonishment. The two girls stared at each other. They could hear the steady ticking of the grandfather clock, like the beating of the heart of the house. And indeed, at that moment, the house did seem to Sally to be alive, and more than that, to know something, about Elizabeth and the other Sally, about herself and Aunt Sarah. Houses must get to know something, she thought, with all the things that happen in them. Was it trying to tell her something?

“But how did it get here, then?” Emily asked.

Sally shook her head. “I don’t know, but do you realize what this means?” she said. “It means that Elizabeth is here somewhere. I was right!”

Emily nodded.

Sally got down on her hands and knees and peered beneath the chest of drawers. She sat up. “She’s not there,” she said. She looked down at the faded little bonnet in the palm of her hand.

“Emily,” she said, looking up at her friend, “it almost seems as if Elizabeth is leaving clues for us, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe she really is magic,” Emily said.

“Maybe she wants us to find her,” said Sally.

“Yes,” agreed Emily. “Do you think she’s playing a game with us?”

Sally thought for a moment. “No,” she said at last, “I don’t think so. I think it’s just that she can’t do everything for us. We have to do something to find her.” It seemed to her as she spoke that she knew Elizabeth very well, knew that she would not play such a game with them, would never tease them. Or was it the other Sally she knew so well? After all, it was the other Sally who had first imagined things with Elizabeth, just as Sally herself was doing.

“But what can we do?” asked Emily.

“We can start looking all over again,” said Sally. Determination strengthened her voice. She stood up and slipped the little hat into her pocket. Once more they made a careful search of the attic.

“She isn’t here anywhere,” said Emily at last, turning her dust-streaked face to Sally.

Sally nodded wearily. “There’s just nowhere else to look,” she agreed. But Elizabeth has to be somewhere, she reminded herself, touching the little bonnet in her pocket.

They went downstairs to show their find to Aunt Sarah, who could not seem to believe that she held the little bonnet in her fingers. She was looking at it as if it were a small ghost.

“Elizabeth was wearing the bonnet when she got lost, wasn’t she?” asked Sally anxiously, for she had just realized that maybe the bonnet had never been lost at all. And that would mean that Elizabeth was as far away as ever!

But Aunt Sarah nodded. “I’m certain that she was,” she answered firmly. “You say the bonnet wasn’t there yesterday?” she asked.

Sally shook her head. “I know it wasn’t. I looked. I remember looking in that very place.”

“It’s very strange,” said Aunt Sarah, “very strange indeed.” And she gave the bonnet back to Sally, handling it very gently. “Wouldn’t it be funny,” she said, as if she were talking to herself, “if you did find Elizabeth after all these years?”

It was hard to say good-bye to Emily that day, for both of them wanted to go on and on talking about the bonnet and how it could have come to be there on the floor of the attic, and where else they could look for Elizabeth. Even Aunt Sarah was caught up in their enthusiasm.

“You’re very sure,” she said, “that you looked everywhere?” They nodded.

“Well,” said Aunt Sarah at last, “maybe after dinner and a good night’s sleep, you’ll think of something.”

“May we look again tomorrow?” Sally asked her aunt as Emily was leaving.

“Of course,” said Aunt Sarah. “And Emily’s invited to come again for lunch.”

Emily gave a little crow of delight and leapt from the top porch step down to the path, her braids flying.

“Thank you, Aunt Sarah,” said Sally when the gate had closed behind her friend.

“You’re very welcome, Sally.” And to Sally’s immense surprise, Aunt Sarah bent down and kissed her on the cheek! Sally was too dumfounded to do anything but stand there, fingering the little bonnet in her pocket and feeling, for some reason, completely happy.

She went to sleep that night, the bonnet on the night table next to her bed, feeling sure somehow that the next day she and Emily would find Elizabeth at last.

But it was not to be.

NEXT WEEK: Christmas Eve