Beyond the Pain

Chapter 15

THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE  bringing boxes into the kitchen and the dining room, I could only think about the library. How big was it? How many books did it contain? An image of what it could look like based on the rest of the mansion was slowly forming in my head. But I was most excited about stepping foot inside the east wing. The library's door was right at the entrance to the wing, mirroring where the kitchen door was situated in the west wing. It was even visible from the hall, so going to the library wouldn't take me into the depths of the east wing, but it was still very exciting. I had been kept in the west half of the house since I had arrived. And, no matter the immense size of the mansion, I craved a change of scenery. Getting to discover a new room was as exciting as traveling to another country.

The time finally came. I grabbed one of the boxes that Susan had instructed us to take to the library and waited for Nicole to do the same. She looked at me and chuckled a little bit.

"Are you alright, angel? I've never seen you this excited, except for that time Chef and Ben made donuts for dessert."

"Is it that obvious?" I asked. "I thought I was hiding it well."

I had never been good at hiding my emotions. My dad used to tell me that he could read the emotions on my face like words in a book. I always thought it was funny when he said that because he wasn't a big reader either. In fact, I didn't remember him reading anything beside the newspaper and the backs of cereal boxes.

I followed Nicole towards the library. When I stepped into the east wing, a shiver creeped up my foot to my leg as if I had crossed some invisible barrier. The interdiction to go into the east wing had been so deeply hammered into my brain that I felt a pinch of guilt crossing that line, even though I had been given permission to do so.

That feeling dissipated as soon as I reached through the doors of the library. It wasn't as I had envisioned. I had imagined it to be old looking like the rest of the mansion, and I was right about that, but it was the only thing I had predicted correctly.

The height of the ceiling shocked me the most when I walked in. The library was two floors high. Every inch of wall from the floor to the ceiling of the second floor was covered by books, with the only exception being the doors and the windows. There were two spiral staircases situated on opposite sides of the room to access the mezzanine. A gigantic and beautiful chandelier that emanated a warm light hanged from the ceiling.

In the middle of the room, two reading desks faced each other. A very comfortable-looking couch sat under the window, the kind that you would want to curl up on with a blanket and a hot chocolate in front of a fireplace. There were other seating options around the room, primarily single armchairs arranged next to floor lamps.

Every antique piece of furniture, every piece of art, every detail came together in a calming network that you could step into and experience. Evergreen was beautiful, but this room was incredible. It looked like it had come straight out of the fairy tales my mother used to read to me at bedtime when I was a child.

"It's divine, isn't it?" Nicole said. "A little piece of heaven on Earth."

"I can't believe this was hidden in the east wing this whole time," I replied, picking up my jaw from the floor, though my eyes remained wide as I tried to take in every single detail in the room. "What else is different from the west wing?"

"Aside from the bathroom, which is the room right before this one, it's the same. Carbon copy!"

All I could think about were Ash's words before she had left. Evergreen is magical during this season. I couldn't think of anything more magical than this library. Even if the most magical thing about this whole holiday season would turn out to be my time spent decorating the library, Ash would be proven right.