The Secret Diary of Belle (Grimmoire Series)

Entry Five

I spent all of last night, sipping tea and wracking my brain for the meaning of that wretched symbol embroidered on the napkin.

To no avail, of course.

I decided to surrender to sleep.

Then this morning I woke with intentions to carry on my search room-by-room.

I left the bedroom, closing the door behind me. I tip toed across the hall to the next room I wished to explore, diagonal from the bedroom. A thousand thoughts raced through my head, filled with ideas of what I may find behind that door. A clue as to the identity of my captor? More bits and pieces? Maybe an idea as to where this house is located?

But I did not find anything like that. In fact, I found nothing.

The door was locked.

In lieu of making a racket, attempting to pry the door open with my bear hands, I decided to move on to the next door and try my luck...

Except it was locked too.

And the door after that. And the door after that. I was beginning to see a pattern.

Thankfully I had waited a little longer before my I made my travels today, so enough light has filled the halls for me to see where I'm going.

No tray or food yet. Curious.

I had never seen this far down the hall before. To my surprise, I found that this hallway joins onto another two hallways that run either side of it.

So many doors to choose and they all looked the same.

All except for the room at the end of the hall. It was doubled-doored with ornate, brass handles.

This was it. This was the room for today. Officially Room Deux. The fact that doors to this room were so different to the others gave me pause.

With great trepidation, I grabbed both handles and I tried the double doors.

They opened.

Upon looking inside I had to silence my gasp before it could it escape my mouth.

This was definitely the most palatial room in the house. The opulence of this room had been something I had not experienced since before my family had been forced to move.

The first thing I noticed was how much light there was in this room. Lit candles on nearly every surface. Those lanterns that never seemed to go out hanging all around the walls.

And a fireplace - that was lit.

Magnificent upholstered furniture, lounges in the middle, chairs along the sides and facing the fireplace. Beautifully patterned carpets that were no doubt imported from some exotic land. Velvet curtains draped with the utmost care.

I have learned something new about my captor - he is married. Or, perhaps, he was married. It would be somewhat presumptuous of me to assume such a thing. Regardless, this room has a woman's touch.

On the wall to the right was another book collection, except these tomes appeared to be very well kept. A quick glance of the titles suggested that these are technical, academic texts, rather than the plentiful amount of novels found in the study next to the bedroom.

There were paintings hung all around the room. At first I thought there could be a portrait of my captor, but alas, these are not an art form I know. Despite the paintings being portraits of people, they all looked quite blurred and messy. Like someone had painted them normally and then destroyed the painting later by running their fingers through it.

Above the fireplace sat the most incredible mantle clock I have laid eyes upon. Made with a craftsmanship that has no equal, it was so incredible, for a moment I forgot where I was.

Around the room I found some more items of note; A monocle so clean its looks as though it's never been used, a snuff box, and a variety of liqueurs. I opened one to smell the contents and it brought back a rush of memories of Papa on nights I would rather forget.

And that's when I felt it. Something was off.

It was not that I realised that I was standing in my captor's sitting room.

It was not that I only just noticed the big game animal heads mounted on the walls.

It was that I was overcome with the sensation of being watched. In a flurry of great consternation, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

One painting in particular on the wall - it felt as though its eyes were following me around the room.

Sufficiently horrified, I left the room immediately, closing the doors behind me.

Ran back to the bedroom on my tip toes, closed the door quietly and pushed the chest against it.

So yes, unfortunately my investigatory efforts were cut short.

Its not all bad news though...

I finally remembered where I have seen that embroidered symbol before.

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