I'll Fight For You

Chapter 14

A day after Dr. Walkers fathers visit, Anna became bored in her room. Christine was at her cabin, and she knew Dr. Walker was never home at that hour.

She decided to take a tour of the house. As she wandered around the house, she found herself in the parlor. She looked up at the lofty ceilings and crystal chandeliers. This house was grand, bigger and nicer than all the houses she had ever seen, including Bilson plantation's house. She walked around with a slight limp admiring everything from fine wood, to drapes. She entered the guest rooms traced her hands on the beds, looked out the windows at the vast land and wondered if it was possible for a free man to live and own such a beautiful house. As she walked out of the last guest room on the last floor of the house, she noticed a small door lat the far end of the hallway. It looked rather different from all the fancy doors in the house. It looked cheaply made like the ones at the slave cabins. She looked around to ensure no one was around before walking towards it.

She tried the knob, to her surprise it was unlocked. The door squeaked loudly as it moved backward and banged on the wall inside. She looked back nervously hoping the squeaking did not alert anyone. She perked inside and saw a small dark staircase leading further up. "Go back Anna," she whispered to herself, but her inquisitiveness could not let her.

She walked up the stairs slowly and carefully. Shortly she saw another door at the end of the staircase. She pushed it slowly praying that it did not squeak like the one downstairs, and it did not. Thank God! She walked in, it was dark except the light striking through two small shutters. Afraid of what could be lurking in the dark, she opened the shutters quickly.

When she turned around, she saw the most disorganized room she had come across since she started her tour of the house. Two wooden pillars supporting the roofing wood that formed an upside-down V on top of her. The walls smeared in assorted colors of paint, papers laying everywhere on the floor, a small table full of paint brushes, old and new. A fireplace that looked like it hard never been used. Next to it a shelf full of labeled dark bottles. The room was very dusty too, but when she turned to her left, she was amazed.

There was a lot of beautiful paintings hanging on the wall, others slanted. There was a chair next to the shutter with an easel in front of it. A small round table holding a palette that had different colors of dried paint. She walked towards the door to the drawer that held scattered pencil sketches which were amazing too. She picked one and looked at it for a moment. She put it back and walked back to the paintings on the wall, she traced her fingers on one that stood out to her. It was of an old woman knitting. She had blue eyes like Harry. Harry's mother, perhaps, she wondered.

She squatted and looked at the ones slanted on the wall. She wiped dust off one that looked like a flower garden and looked at it closely. She had no professional knowledge about art, but she knew what was good and bad from spending a lot of time with Mrs. Bilson who was obsessed with art.

"You like that one?" A voice came from behind. She flinched and gasped.

"Dr. Walker," she said nervously.

"I thought the people cleaning might have strayed up here and forgot to close the door." He looked up and pulled at a cobweb. " I guess not."

"I was just...."

"This used to be my favorite place when I first moved here," he interrupted, "I'd spend hours in here painting and drawing before I became busy with my work," he added picking up a sketch and looked at it thoughtfully.

Anna looked terrified, and she was. In her head, she had already started giving herself the number of lashes she was going to get for her intrusive behavior.