Greenglass House

The Pines agree that Fenster should leave on the BTS as soon as possible, but when Brandon tries to repair it, he reports that the extreme cold has damaged the control system. Mr. Pine takes Milo sledding while Mrs. Pine remains inside to keep Fenster away from Mr. Vinge and help with the Christmas Eve dinner preparations. Mr. Pine and Milo search the cluttered garage for sleds and Milo finds the other half of the iron gate. Elated, he tells his father about how the image of the gate appears in all the windows: “It was a piece of the house’s history, which meant it was a piece of Milo’s history, and every bit he managed to collect was precious” (303). When he returns to the house, the bustle of Christmas excitement causes Milo to forget to tell Meddy about the gate. He meets her behind the tree and shares the discovery, but they do not fully understand its significance.

Fenster tells the group that Mrs. Pine got one part of his story wrong and promises to explain later. Mr. Vinge offers to share his story over dinner. He relates his version of Doc Holystone’s history, describing him as a weapons smuggler. Deacon and Morvengarde felt he was a danger to the city because they believed he hid a super weapon under Greenglass House. Holystone allegedly created a map of where he hid the weapon using a nautical chart with a bird of the same name as his ship, The Albatross. Deacon and Morvengarde tortured a smuggler to obtain the map and gave it to a customs agent to track down Holystone and raid his ship. Fenster tries to contain himself through the story, but he interjects angrily that Holystone was never a weapons smuggler. Dr. Gowervine also speaks up in defense of Holystone, saying that he was only helping the people of Nagspeake survive against the greedy Deacon and Morvengarde conglomerate. Meddy acts strangely during Vinge’s story and each time someone interrupts him, she tells Milo to say that he wants to hear the rest of the story.

Mr. Vinge ignores Fenster’s protestations and continues the story while Mr. Pine removes Fenster from the room to cool off. Vinge produces his customs agent badge and demands that Fenster return to the room so he can question everyone, including the Pines. Fenster returns and Vinge asks about his correction to Mrs. Pine’s story. Fenster explains that in her story, Holystone had a son, but he only had a daughter. Mrs. Pine asks Mr. Vinge to pack his things and leave the inn, but he says he intends to remain until he finds the weapon. Brandon says he will not comply with Vinge’s demands, and Vinge pulls a gun on him. Meddy tells Milo to get ready to run away, and suddenly two strange men arrive. Vinge tells them to capture Milo. Clem and Owen spring into action and hold the attackers at bay so Milo can escape. As he and Meddy run toward the Emporium, they hear a gunshot, and Milo feels guilty for leaving his parents behind. Safe inside the Emporium, Meddy says that she should have recognized Vinge as the man who killed Holystone 34 years ago. Milo cannot understand how she would know about the event, and Meddy reveals that she is not Meddy Caraway but the ghost of Addie Whitcher who died on the same night as her father Doc Holystone.

Milo has many questions for Addie (who tells him to continue calling her Meddy), but he is still concerned about his parents and the gunman and wonders if Meddy can intervene. She explains that there are limitations to her abilities. She can pass through doors and carry some items around, but she cannot fight living people and only people who have seen her once can hear or see her again. She also cannot leave the house. Her memory does not work the same way as the living and time moves differently for her. Milo listens as she relates the story of her father’s death. Addie’s mother died when she was young, and while her father was away, she lived at Greenglass House with the cook and her son, with whom Addie played Odd Trails. At that time, there was no railcar to the inn, so Holystone had to climb the cliff to reach the house. Addie saw her father approaching, but Mr. Vinge was waiting on him and chased him through the woods. Addie leaned out over the fire escape railing to try and see what was happening. Her father never reappeared from the woods, and she knew that he had fallen over the cliff to his death. As she leaned further to spot Vinge standing near the cliff’s edge, Addie fell over the railing and died. She was buried in the garden; the engraving Milo saw is her headstone.

Meddy explains that she returned to the inn when she sensed someone was searching for something. When all the guests arrived, she couldn’t understand why they were there and suggested playing the game with Milo to aid in her search. Milo realizes that if Meddy had survived, she would be an orphan like him, but Meddy quickly corrects him and reminds him that he is not an orphan and suggests that they assume their game roles again to rescue Mr. and Mrs. Pine and defeat Vinge. Meddy says that her father did not hide a weapon in Greenglass House because he never made it inside. She surmises that if they can just find some artifact to satiate Vinge’s desire for closure, then it will be over.

Meddy goes to investigate the crime scene and reports back that everyone is okay, but Vinge’s henchmen are holding the guests hostage in the laundry room while Vinge arrests his parents. They review their clues and return to the chart, particularly the albatross compass. Negret believes that it is pointing to the sails on the ship’s watermark. They search Dr. Gowervine’s satchel and find a catalog full of Skellansen’s work, discovering that he also created chandeliers. Sirin says that the chandelier in the dining room resembles a ship and wonders if the treasure is buried there. They hear one of Vinge’s sidekicks approaching the attic. Milo hides. Meddy shows herself, and the man can see her, meaning he has seen her before. While she distracts him, Milo races out the door and locks it just as Meddy walks through the door, trapping the man inside. Realizing that the only way he can safely get to the dining room is by going outside, Negret scrambles down the fire escape. When he tries to reenter the house through the kitchen, the door makes a loud sound, and Vinge’s hitman catches him.

Milo strikes a deal with Mr. Vinge: If they find the item for which he is searching, he will leave without harming anyone. Using a stool, Milo reaches up to the dining room light fixture and uses his lockpick kit to open the housing. A greedy Mr. Vinge knocks the stool aside and grabs the blue bag hidden inside before Milo can reach it. Inside the bag is an Odd Trails scholiast figurine. Disappointed to only find a toy, Mr. Vinge does not understand its significance. Breaking from his plan with Meddy, Milo refuses to let Vinge take the figurine since he does not appreciate its value. Vinge waves the gun around and refuses to hand it over. Suddenly, Meddy appears, and everyone can see her. Mr. Vinge shoots her, but the bullet passes right through and into the wall. She makes herself large and stares Vinge down, demanding that he leave the inn immediately. Taking the gun from him, Meddy makes a frightening face and screams before Vinge takes off running, the two henchmen following behind him. After Mrs. Pine locks away the gun, she releases the laundry room hostages.

Milo explains how he and Meddy teamed up to save the day. He returns the scholiast figurine to her. Dr. Gowervine is pleased to learn the chandelier is Skellansen’s work, and as they examine it further, they find a painting hidden inside. It’s an artist’s rendering of Doc Holystone heroically captaining his ship, an image of what Skellansen planned for the stained-glass window. With Meddy’s permission, Dr. Gowervine plans to make a copy of the painting in hopes of convincing Skellansen to recommission the window. He will also have the original framed to hang inside Greenglass House. Milo wonders if Meddy will leave now that she has resolved the mystery, but she is not certain how it works. They do make plans to play Odd Trails with Mr. Pine. Milo reflects on how everyone who arrived at Greenglass House found what they were looking for. Just as everyone is breathing a sigh of relief, the railcar bell sounds.

Mr. Ostling, the ferryman, arrives to collect Owen, Clem, Dr. Gowervine, and Mrs. Hereward. Clem promises to return one day to teach Milo how to use the lockpicks. Mrs. Hereward gifts Milo a pair of mittens and a scarf, which is what she had been knitting during her stay. She tells Milo, “Whoever said this house is full of treasures was right, and I think you’re the biggest treasure of all” (367). Brandon and Fenster leave via the BTS along with the Caraways and Georgie. Since he hasn’t yet finished The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book, Georgie tells Milo to keep it and pass it along to someone else once he’s done. Milo is sad that Georgie is leaving empty-handed, but she reminds him that Fenster made her a lovely cake. Meddy says she is leaving so Milo can enjoy Christmas with his parents.

The house is once again empty, and Mrs. Pine tells Milo that all the talk of Owen’s adoption and Meddy’s family might have upset him. She reassures him that it is normal for him to have questions about his family of origin and that he is welcome to share those questions with her and Mr. Pine anytime he wants to talk. Milo agrees but says for now he wants to enjoy Christmas. When he goes to bed, the familiar sounds of the house comfort him. Just before falling asleep, he notices the scholiast figurine right next to his father’s tiercer figurine and Owen’s dragon.