Greenglass House

Mrs. Pine summons their chef, Mrs. Caraway, and her daughter Lizzie, who is a baker, to help with the unexpected guests. She invites Milo to stay up with her and enjoy his sundae. When he goes to retrieve a book, he remembers the novel he accidentally removed from Georgie’s room and searches for where he left it. Georgie and Clem are in the living room when Milo passes by, and he notices that Georgie is wrapping a cigar box and Clem is taping her sore ankles from her arduous climb. While Milo searches near the pavilion that houses the railcar, he notices a leather wallet on the ground. After opening it, he finds a weathered, discolored ancient-looking map. Close examination of the map reveals that it is a nautical chart for navigation. There is a bird-shaped compass rose in the corner. Milo realizes that he is not alone when he sees a shadow, though he cannot identify the person. When he returns inside with the wallet hidden in his pocket, he asks if anyone left the inn after him, but Georgie and Clem say no one exited the building.

Georgie is making a pinhole camera from the cigar box, and she explains to Milo how it works. She plans to name the camera “Lansdegown” (34) and tells Milo that he should know what the name means, but he has no idea. He returns her book, a collection of folktales entitled The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book, which begins with a story called “The Game of Maps” (35). Miles reads the first page of the story, and it immediately sucks him in. He races to find a quiet place to continue reading the story about a group of people gathered at an inn who tell stories around the fire. Mile is so engrossed by the story, whose descriptions of its inn remind him of Greenglass House, that he loses track of time. Mrs. Caraway and Lizzie arrive with Lizzie’s younger sister Meddy. Milo carries their luggage to their rooms and Meddy follows. She asks Milo if he is adopted, but he tells her he does not want to discuss it. She starts to ask him about his ethnicity, but Milo cuts her off. Later, Mrs. Pine, seeing that Milo is frustrated, asks him if he is okay, but he doesn’t tell her about Meddy’s prying. He asks her again if anyone followed him outside, but she is certain that she saw no one leave. Miles stays up into the wee hours of the morning reading, and just as he is retiring for the night, he thinks that he sees a shadow outside.

Meddy wakes him. She finds the leather wallet that had fallen out of his pocket and begins closely examining it. Meddy easily identifies it as a navigational chart and identifies the compass rose as an albatross. She cannot identify the waterway it charts. Meddy proposes that to make being stuck in the inn together more fun, they make a game out of investigating to whom the wallet belongs and the origins of the map. Milo agrees and they determine they must use coded language when discussing their plan. He begins explaining to Meddy every detail he knows about each guest and exactly how he discovered the wallet. Afterward, Milo retreats to his room, noticing the brass bell tied to his doorknob as he enters, and places the wallet and map on his desk before crashing into bed and wrapping himself in the blanket his mother made while they were waiting to adopt him.

The next morning, Milo meticulously arranges the leather wallet on his desk and checks the bell to ensure the ribbon is tied in a bow before leaving his room. All the guests are gathered in the dining room for breakfast. Anxious to begin what she calls their “campaign,” Meddy shows Milo her stash of books on adventure games. She explains that they will construct a fantasy game world within Greenglass House to solve the mystery of the chart. Meddy prompts Milo to select a character that embodies his deepest dreams and desires. Milo thinks to himself that he already engages in this behavior when people stare at him, and he wishes that he did not stand out from his adoptive family. Meddy produces a character sheet that will help them outline their fantasy personas and begins explaining the different types of characters in adventure games, such as the captain, warder, warrior, and blackjack, “which is your trickster type” (55). Blackjacks are good at skulking about unseen and gathering important information. Since Milo knows all the nuances and hidden places in Greenglass House, this makes him perfect for the job. Milo says, “I want to be able to listen to the house” (58). They decide he should be an escaladeur, which is a type of blackjack. Georgie overhears their planning and as she looks over Meddy’s materials, she exclaims that it appears that they are planning a theft. Ignoring Georgie’s remark as well as the stares of the other guests, Meddy tells Milo that one key component of his persona is that he must remain in control no matter what happens, something Milo has always struggled with. Mr. Pine recognizes that Meddy’s materials come from a fantasy role-playing game he used to play called Odd Trails. Clem comments that she could play a convincing cat burglar since she is one, but she winks at Milo to signal that she is joking.

Milo selects the name “Negret,” the name of his favorite character from The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book. Negret’s first job is to map the entirety of Greenglass House. When she learns that he left the chart unattended in his room, Meddy becomes worried. They race to his room, and everything, including the bell ribbon and the items on his desk, is just slightly altered from how he left it. The chart is missing from the wallet, replaced with a fake. The idea that someone has invaded his personal space causes Milo to have a panic attack. Meddy announces that her role-playing name is Sirin, a scholiast or flying creature that is invisible to everyone in the game except Negret. They officially embody their roles and begin by formulating a hypothesis for who stole the chart. While examining the decoy chart, Negret sees that it is made from the same paper as the authentic chart and features a wrought iron gate watermark. Feeling more comfortable in his role, Negret guesses that the chart has something to do with Greenglass House and the reason all the guests arrived at the same time. They note Clem’s odd comment about being a cat burglar and wonder if she is the thief but note that the theft work was too messy for a professional cat burglar.

Sirin and Negret explore Greenglass House hoping to find the iron gate from the decoy map but soon realize that the watermark resembles the ironwork in all the stained-glass windows. Milo tells Sirin that the house was once owned by Doc Holystone, a famous smuggler, and she wonders if there might be treasure buried under the house. Familiar with every creaking sound made by the house, Negret notes that someone else is on the staircase. He assumes it is Clem, but then he hears a wheeze. As Sirin and Negret move to hide in the attic, Negret sees Dr. Gowervine walking into Clem’s room.

Mr. Gowervine exits Clem’s room but does not appear to have taken anything. Negret and Sirin open the attic door, which has glass doorknobs that match the windows, and find that it’s full of treasures. Sirin finds many useful objects and gives them elaborate names like “Cloak of Indiscernibility” (85), which is what she calls a yellow robe that she takes as her own. Negret finds a pair of slippers that will aid in him moving about the house quietly as well as a box full of his father’s old Odd Trails gaming supplies. He also finds a detached door with a set of keys in the lock. The antique keys have Chinese characters on them, and Negret creates an elaborate backstory for his character in which the keys are an inheritance from his blackjack father. Sirin finds a box full of the same watermarked paper from a company called “Lucksmith Paper Merchants” (90). Negret adds a drawing of the attic to his house map and they create code names for each room. They decide to call the attic the “Emporium.” Negret tells Sirin he wants to create an entire origin story for Negret.

Milo reads more from the book and finds a story about a woman who kills a cat and buries its bones in a river. The story references something called “orphan magic,” or the magic of something separated and left behind, set apart for a special purpose. At dinner, Meddy tells Milo they must work to get the guests to talk so they can gather clues. They peruse his map and decide to name the third floor the “Tavern.” Milo looks through Meddy’s book, called Blackjacks of the Road, and considers how he will craft Negret’s backstory. The book describes the navigational genius of blackjacks: “the blackjack’s powers of intuition, persuasion, misdirection, and often, pure thievery are the stuff of legend” (95, original italics). Milo still does not understand all the nuances and details of the game, but he is beginning to enjoy the mental escape it affords him.

At dinner, the mood is tense. Dr. Gowervine and Mrs. Hereward still frequently argue, and Clem and Georgie have a strange interaction about the Lansdegown camera. All the guests say they would like to see the camera, but Clem seems keenly interested. Mr. Pine seems worried about Milo and apologizes to him for not being able to spend as much time with him over the break since the inn is full. Milo longs to tell him about the thief in his room but withholds. After dinner, Milo tells the guests that he is reading The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book, which Mrs. Hereward says is modeled after a Dickens book. Inspired by the book, he suggests that each guest should share a story. He and Meddy hope the stories will be revelatory about the guests’ intentions for being at the inn. Most guests seem reticent to share, and Clem and Georgie argue about the camera again. Mrs. Hereward offers to go first and begins her story, which she explains is an old family tale.

Mrs. Hereward begins her folktale, which is entitled Only a Fool Scoffs at Destiny. The lead character, Julian Roamer, is traveling by foot, but the road is crumbling, and pebbles get stuck in his shoes. He wishes on a shooting star that he could be mayor of the town and fix the roads. The shooting star materializes as a man called Baetylus who agrees to grant the wish but encourages Julian to rethink what he truly wants. Julian concedes that he wants better shoes, so Baetylus gives him shoes that protect his feet. Julian does not believe in destiny, but Baetylus tells him to never wish against fate, saying, “Only a fool scoffs at destiny” (109). Julian continues on his journey, but the poor road conditions still annoy him. He tosses the pebble from his shoe into a well and wishes that he had money to repair the roads. The well water overflows, and a woman called Wielle appears to grant Julian’s wish. However, Wielle believes that Julian does not really want money. She too reminds him that he can’t “outwit destiny.” Instead, Wielle marks Julian’s shoes so that every road he traverses will be smooth. As Julian moves on, he considers the idea of destiny and wishes that he knew his future. His walking stick comes alive as a man called Sloe. Sloe can’t answer Julian’s question about his destiny because that would alter Julian’s behavior, changing his destiny. Julian says that he just wants the road repaired, and Sloe grants his wish but takes his knife and lamp.

While Mrs. Hereward tells the story, Milo cannot help but consider the idea of destiny. He wonders what small circumstances might have changed his life’s trajectory so that he did not wind up at Greenglass House. He loves and appreciates his adoptive parents, but he longs to know about his life before they adopted him. As they slip back into their game roles, Sirin suggests to Negret that Mrs. Hereward’s story has some connection to the house. Negret asks her what happened to Julian’s items, and she acts strangely and leaves the room. Clem asks for a story about the house, so Mrs. Pine tells them about the time Fenster Plum, a smuggler, stayed with them and saw the ghosts of Doc Holystone and his son waving to one another. Fenster knew it was Holystone because he once sailed with him, and he remembered when the catalog company Dean and Morvengarde put up “wanted” posters around town to catch him. Everyone enjoys the ghost story. Georgie shows her camera to the group just as a fierce storm kicks up outside. Clem asks Milo what the word “lansdegown” means, and Milo says he does not know but he thinks she does. Clem reacts strangely and tells him to ask her about it another time. After observing their interactions, Negret postulates that Clem and Georgie knew each other before arriving at the inn. As Georgie explains her camera, Negret notices that Mrs. Hereward’s “ditty” or knitting bag has an image of a house with green windows on it. When she notices him staring at it, she turns the bag around, and on the other side is a twisted iron gate.