I turned around. Sure enough, Grayson was standing in the corridor behind me. His door latched quietly behind him.
“Grayson dear,” said Mom with a touch of reproof in her voice. “This is January. We don’t want you catching a chill, going about bare-chested like that.”
Grayson was staring at me suspiciously. “Is that Mia’s door?” he asked.
I nodded. What was he doing here? Hadn’t he said he was never going into this corridor again?
“Grayson, have you—?”
He interrupted me. “I know what you’re thinking. And I’m still sure we ought to leave all this alone. But your sister very nearly jumped out of the window just now, and I wanted to…” He shook his head, and suddenly looked embarrassed.
“You wanted to do what?”
“I think I wanted to stand guard. Somehow or other.”
A warm feeling spread through me. Touched, I grinned at him.
“It’s so drafty here!” Mom clicked her tongue impatiently. “How about it, Liv? In or out? It’s Herdwicks we’re counting, very cute little sheep.…”
“Maybe later,” I said. “You can shut the door—that’s okay.”
And Mom did shut it, although not without advising Grayson once again to put on something warm, with the result that he was now wearing his quilted anorak.
“That was neat,” I said appreciatively. “Particularly as you’re right out of practice.”
However, when Grayson looked down at himself, shaking his head, I assumed that he had really been trying to imagine something different.
“Didn’t you say you’d installed a security system outside her door?” he said with a look of disapproval. “It doesn’t look very secure to me.”
Oh, the Mr. Wu system had been very secure indeed, but obviously I couldn’t rely on it indefinitely.
“This way anyone can just walk into Mia’s dreams,” Grayson went on. He peered down the corridor in the dim light, clearly feeling uncomfortable.
I sighed. Unfortunately he was right. On the other hand, while I respected his idea of standing guard outside Mia’s door, it couldn’t be done in practice. So there was only one thing for it.
“I’m afraid there’s no alternative to telling Mia about all this,” I said.
“No, Liv! You can’t drag her into it too.”
“She may know about it already by now. And she’ll have to protect her own door. That’s the only way she can prevent anyone from getting into her dreams and making her walk in her sleep and do terrible things.”
“If we only knew—” But Grayson never finished his sentence, because at that moment we heard a man’s voice.
“Stop right there, you stupid brat, or you’ll be sorry!” it thundered around the next bend in the corridor. “Stop this minute!”
That voice was not unknown to me. Unfortunately.
A figure turned the corner and came toward us at breakneck speed. A slender, graceful figure moving with great elegance in spite of her obvious haste.
It was Anabel.
I didn’t have much time to stare at her and overcome my surprise, because she was making straight for us. Senator Tod was close behind her in his flowing cloak and his slouch hat, calling her names nonstop.
By this time, Anabel had reached us, and I acted instinctively. I let her go by and then barred Senator Tod’s way, standing protectively between the two of them.
He stopped, gasping for breath.
“You again!” he growled. “I’ve had about enough of you kids!”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I assured him. Only now did I realize that I had raised my hand, like a traffic cop. No idea what I thought I was doing. Unobtrusively, I lowered it again, but without taking my eyes off Senator Tod.
Anabel was standing behind me, and when she suddenly began to laugh, I realized, all at once, how ridiculous my attempted rescue had been. Anabel was the last person to need support in a dream. At the same time, I felt a little relieved to see her here. The idea of her in that hospital, helpless in the hands of Senator Tod with his medical methods, had troubled me in spite of myself, as I’d been ready to admit.
“Laugh all you like, you … you little devil,” said Senator Tod. “I’ll soon find out which door is yours. And then…” Narrowing his eyes, he looked at Grayson. “Who’s this newcomer?”