No trace: Part Two of The Accidental Trilogy

Chapter Two

That night, I flew through each and every room. I wanted to know where the master slept in relation to the room I needed.

I then returned to the library.

I knew I only needed one book. But I couldn't take my eyes off them all. So many, I was sorely tempted to borrow two, but that would have been foolish. I took one from the corner shelf, from behind a pile of dust, which I was so very careful not to disturb.

I went back to human form, put the book under my nightgown, back to speck form and then flew back to my room.

Back in human form, I looked at the cover. It was a leather cover, all soft and worn.

I would know this book, off by heart.

I would understand each and every letter.

I sounded out the letters on the cover, first.

A 'K', which meant a 'ker' sound. An 'I', which meant an 'ee' sound.

An 'N' which meant a 'nen' sound.

There was one more letter but I wanted to see what I had so far.

'Ker' 'ee' 'nen'. Keenen. Kin.

The last letter was 'G'. And that was a 'ger' sound. Kinger? King!

I had read my first word, which I repeated, in a whisper like I had the rest. King. I knew what that meant. England had a King, George the third. He had been crowned eleven years ago.

Now back to the matter of hand. There were two more words on the front cover. A 'J' then an 'A'. Ja.

I said that a few times, merely because it sounded so funny. The next letter was a 'M'. Jam. I knew that word already. The next was an 'E'. Jam-e. The last letter was an 'S'. Jam-e-s. James. That was the name of one of the footmen. James.

I now knew how to spell it.

Third and last word on the front cover and then I was going to bed. 'B'. Ber sound. Another 'I'. The beginning part was 'Bi'.

Now on to the second part. Another 'B'. The second letter was an 'L'. And the last was an 'E'. Bi – bler? Bi-blee? Maybe the E did not count in this case and it was just there for show. Then I understood and felt very foolish. L made a 'lel' sound. Bi-blel. Bible? Yes. King James Bible.

I was so impressed with myself. I had read the front cover.

Now, to make sense of it all, as it seemed that a King had written a bible. It was not today's King I knew that at least.

It was now the year 1776; I had been keeping count since I had discovered it. So, it was a King from the past but that didn't help, I knew that there were a lot of Kings from the past.

When had James been King? I wondered to myself. The bible. I had seen them in the church, all stacked all neat and tidy. This bible was different. It was older, which meant it might have been printed in the same time of the past that this James had been in.

I blew out the candle after hiding the bible in its usual spot.

I thought about it some more before I went to sleep.