I walked out into a dark hall and Ren pulled the door shut behind us. We were standing in front of an enormous staircase.
“Oh, no. Is this where we go to see Elena’s great-great-grandmother?”
“No, that’s in the other wing. Come on. I want to show you the garden.”
He started up the stairs, but I held back. “Um, Ren? It looks creepy up there.”
“It is. Come on.”
I looked back toward the door. Creepy staircase or overly friendly international teenagers? I guess I’d take my chances with Ren. I hurried after him, my footsteps echoing off the high ceiling. At the top of the stairs Ren pushed open a tall, skinny door and I reluctantly stepped in after him.
“This place is unbelievable,” I muttered. The room was packed full of stuff, like the contents of ten rooms had been consolidated into one, and everything was covered in thick, dusty sheets. There was even a gigantic fireplace guarded by the portrait of a stern-looking man wearing a feathered hat.
“Is that for real?” I pointed to the portrait.
“I’m sure it is.”
“It looks like something from a haunted house. Like I’m going to turn around and he’ll have changed positions.”
Ren grinned. “And that’s coming from someone who lives in a cemetery.”
“I don’t think two days counts as ‘living.’?”
“Over here.” He made his way over to a set of glass doors and unhooked a latch, then opened them to a balcony. “I wanted to show you the gardens, but mostly I wanted to give you a break from your adoring crowds.”
“Yeah, they seemed kind of hyperactive about meeting me.”
“A lot of us have been stuck together since elementary school, so we’re crazy excited to meet new people. We should probably work on the whole playing-hard-to-get thing.”
“Hey, the hedges are a maze.” I leaned over the balcony. The hedges around the front door were actually part of a carefully sculpted pattern interspersed with old-looking statues and benches.
“Cool, right? They have this ancient gardener who has spent half his life pruning those things.”
“It looks like you could actually get lost.”
“You can. Once Marco wandered out there and we couldn’t find him for like three hours. We had to come up here with a spotlight. He was sleeping on his shoes.”
“Why his shoes?”
“I have no idea. You want to hear something really creepy?”
I shook my head. “Not really.”
“Elena’s older sister, Manuela, refuses to live here because ever since she was little she’s had this ancestor appear to her. The spooky part is that whenever the ghost appears she’s the same age as Manuela.”
“No wonder she’s at boarding school.” I leaned against the railing. “This place is making me feel way better about living in a cemetery.”
“Telling ghost stories?”
I jumped, practically toppling over the edge.
“Lina! You’re like the Incredible Startled Girl,” Ren said.
“Sorry, guys. Didn’t mean to scare you.” A boy sat up on one of the couches and stretched his arms over his head.
“Hi, Thomas. Spy much?”
“I have a headache. I was just trying to get away from the noise for a while. Who are you with?” He stood up and lazily made his way over to us.
OM . . . And then I couldn’t remember how to end the acronym, because who looks like this?
Thomas was tall and thin with dark brown hair and thick eyebrows, and he had this strong-jaw thing going on that I’d heard about but never actually witnessed. And his lips. They were pretty much ruining any chance I had of forming words.
“Lina?” Ren was raising one eyebrow. Crap. Did they ask me something?
“Sorry, what’d you say?”
The boy grinned. “I just said that I’m Thomas. And I gather that you’re the mysterious Carolina?” He had a British accent.
A British. Accent.
“Yes. Nice to meet you. I go by Lina.” I shook his hand, doing my best to stay upright. Apparently “weak in the knees” was a real thing.
“American?”
“Yeah. Seattle. You?”
“All over. I’ve lived here for the past two years.”
The door swung open and Elena and Mimi walked in. “Ragazzi, dai. My mom will freak out it if she finds out you are up here. I had a forty-five-minute lecture after the last party. Some idiota left a piece of pizza on a two-hundred-year-old credenza. Come downstairs, per favore!”
“Sorry, El,” Thomas and Ren said in unison.
“I was just showing Lina the garden,” Ren said. “And Thomas was taking a nap.”
“Who takes a nap at a party? It’s lucky you look like a god, because you’re veramente strano. Really, Thomas.”
Like a god. I snuck another look at Thomas. Yep. Could totally imagine him lounging around on Mt. Olympus.
Mimi linked arms with Ren and everyone walked out except for Thomas and me. Was I making this up, or was he staring at me, too?
Thomas crossed his arms. “A bunch of us made bets on whether or not you’d ever show. Looks like I’m going to be out twenty euro.”