Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

Merritt, unable to sleep, finds himself thinking of Hulda. He tries to tell himself that he is an independent bachelor but feels that it would be desirable to have company. Rising, he passes Hulda’s door and hears that she is awake. In the kitchen, he finds Baptiste tenderizing meat. They converse, but when they hear a thump and a woman’s shriek, they run to Hulda’s room. Merritt is embarrassed when Baptiste rushes in to find Hulda wearing her underthings. The next morning, Merritt apologizes to Hulda for bursting into her room and realizes that he hadn’t even seen that Beth was also there.

Hulda sits sewing her dress while Merritt edits his manuscript, and she finds that Owein is tilting the floor to move her chair closer to Merritt’s. At last, Owein tosses Hulda from her chair straight into Merritt’s lap. The contact is discomfiting to both, but especially to Hulda.

Beth delivers letters. Merritt gets news that Fletcher plans to visit again. Hulda receives word from the warden in England that Silas Hogwood died in prison of unknown causes. She tells herself that she couldn’t have seen Silas, but she remembers what powerful magic he possessed.

The warden cannot tell Hulda what Silas died of, and she becomes more convinced that he might have escaped and that she did see him after all. She is still looking for the second source of magic but is becoming friendlier with Owein.

She goes to Merritt’s office to fetch his dinner tray and finds him hard at work amid a mess. He asks Hulda for advice on the romance subplot in his book. She reminds him that a romance plot requires a happy ending. Merritt asks if she thinks his characters should kiss and, if so, at what point in the book, and Hulda is fiercely embarrassed. Merritt asks if she has ever been kissed and then asks what it is like to have magic. Hulda describes it as a kind of sixth sense. She tells him about her great-grandmother, who was a diviner. Hulda looks in Merritt’s tea leaves and sees a flash of words: “Strife. Confusion. Longing. Betrayal. Truth” (216). He asks if it bothers her to know the future, and she answers that she never really does.

Determined to make herself useful, Hulda searches every inch of the house and then outside. She asks Owein if he can tip the house up so that she can look beneath the foundation. He does, and Hulda is delighted with her discovery.

Merritt spends time outside weeding and enjoying the autumnal weather. He listens to the sounds around him and then sees Fletcher approaching. They meet Hulda in the hall. She is wearing a yellow patterned dress that makes her look radiant. She shares that she found tourmaline deposits in the foundation of the house, which can account for the warding spells. Owein plays a trick and tilts the room so that Merritt and Hulda are pressed together.

Owein plays more tricks on Fletcher, as if trying to impress him. Hulda receives a message via windsource pigeon. Merritt is concerned that it will be BIKER recalling Hulda; he asks if she can stay longer. Hulda discovers that the “thought that Merritt Fernsby might care about her stir[s] a terrifying hope inside her” (227).

Fletcher and Merritt play chess, and Fletcher reveals that he overheard Hulda talking with Mr. Clarke of the Genealogical Society. He can see how Merritt feels about Hulda and warns him that she might prefer to marry a wizard.

Silas uses his water spell to create a canal and wash out the place where he is currently hiding. He managed to bring some of his donors from Gorse End; the King’s League did not destroy them all. He decides that he will take the clairvoyant and add to his collection.

Hulda realizes that she needs to tell Myra she wants to stay at Whimbrel House. She wonders if she can still stay on at BIKER and considers her options as she takes a stroll outside at sunset. Silas surprises her. Hulda reaches into her bag for the communion stone that she carries, but he yanks her away, and she screams.

Merritt hears Hulda’s scream in his bedroom and realizes that it came through the stone. He grabs his guns and breaks through the ward to get out the door, calling for Beth and Baptiste to help him search. Outside, he hears the grasses whispering “she” and asks Owein where Hulda is. He sees an image of a coastline in his head.

Hulda wakes with her limbs magically manacled and her face in the mud of the marsh. Silas stands above her, torturing her with bursts of magic as he taunts her about how he will take away her power. She hears thunder, and Silas disappears. Hulda is free. A shadow approaches, which turns out to be Merritt with his gun. Hulda weeps to know she is safe.