The House of Hidden Things

VII: DelGrave

Howards Building

The town centre was empty of anyone so early in the morning, but it must not have been that long since someone else had been awake and wandering around. Each of the lions, carved from the stone at the base of the Howards buildings wide steps, had carrots sticking out of their noses. Making them look more like snowmen then city sentinels.

Thankfully the inside of the building was much warmer. I shivered against the wall of dry heat, shaking out my fingers, rubbing them against each other until they were warm enough to stop their shaking. It was much to cold to be outside.

"Morning Poppy," I said in greeting to the student behind the desk. Two pencils have been pushed into her hair and another one is being sharpened in her hands. "Is Professor Crane here yet?"

"She's waiting for you in the private rooms upstairs. It's around the corner to the left. You'll see the floor change, that's how you know you've gone the right way." she said, her voice cheery. Poppy sets her pencil down and reaches under the desk before producing a coffee to-go cup and a brown paper bag. "Compliments of the house."

"You didn't have too– Thank you," I say, cheeks warming in the hot room.

"Ana gave me strict instructions to make sure you have everything you need." Poppy shoots me a wink. The fresh air felt good, the coffee infinitely better. The heat of it was almost distracting. "Take the stairs on your left. You'll find her."

The chill in the house had crept up my sweater and over my spine the numbness was almost constant but I hadn't been able to be on the main floor of the house long enough to heat something to drink.

Every groan of the house had been just the right amount of noise to keep me awake. Medora couldn't settle either, choosing instead to steal what little she could of the blankets and curl into my lap. Tired, cold and hungry, I had called the professor that morning, and while I had every intention of stopping for food, I hadn't.

I slowly stepped up the flight of granite steps pulling the small tab on the coffee lid, gripping the to-go cup. It was easy to forget that the University had been old, far older than the rest of Porthcrawl. Every inch of the floor was polish, buffed and waxed. A sharp contrast between the Howards building and the Acker Hall library. The former with it's steel and iron. The latter with wood-panelled walls and carpet covered floors.

Standing inside the entrance to the library now I could see even more of the stark contrast. One of which being a wide fireplace, lit and roaring. Couches opposite them. Rows of book shooting out in every direction behind them. Gold plaques were screwed into the oak-wood shelves. Commemorating poets and scholars that had spent their time here, conjuring worlds, spilling truths through ink and mediums new and old.

"Did I get the flavours right?" said a voice behind a row of biology texts. "It's a bride, thinly veiled as it may be."

"The coffee is heavenly," I confess, bringing the cup to my lips again. The brown bag crinkles under my arm. The bagel inside a reminder of my missed breakfast, dinner. "Are all of those boxes for me?"

"I'm afraid so." Ana tosses her blonde hair over her shoulder, motioning behind her to the long table littered with large architectural pages and open box filled with books, each decorated in place markers. A single green reading lamp is on and burning brightly, despite the sun coming through the large stain-glass windows.

"Does that mean you found something?"

Ana turns with a flourish before sinking into a chair already pushed out from the table – the same way she had when we'd met the first time in her office. I shrug out of my jacket, following her lead. "I didn't find anything that would account for the purpose of the room. We took the staircase apart to repair it and we didn't find any thing underneath it. Saying that, it is an old house which means the wood beams we did find, could have something underneath."