“Yes, of course.”

            She took Anastasia by the hand and explained to Miss Pigeon they were going to the water closet. She quickly led her Russian friend through a labyrinth of vestibules and foyers, glancing over her shoulder on occasion lest they be followed.

             “What is it?” Anastasia asked. Her face flushed with trepidation, she spoke softly. “We should join all others. I’m to get very nervous.”

            “Don’t be nervous,” Rosa said. “This is an adventure.”

            After much walking, they stopped in the middle of an immense and dark hallway, an ornate door looming in front of them.

            “This is it.”

            “What?” Anastasia asked.

            “The door.”

            “We really will go back now,” Anastasia said, concern dripping off each word, melting into puddles of fear.

            As if she hadn’t heard, Rosa continued. “We’re not allowed to open it. Actually,” she glanced about, “we aren’t even allowed in this wing of the house.” Trancelike, she moved closer to the door and ready to reach out and touch it, Anastasia yanked her back.

            “Come, let us to go. I do not like this…it feels to be wrong.”
            Rosa continued to stare at the door. “Papa said if we open it, there is death on the other side.” She licked her lips, still staring at the entry to the unknown. “Death…can you imagine?”

            Anastasia turned Rosa towards her. “You must to stop this silliness.”

            Rosa floated back to reality and met her friend’s fierce gaze. “I have to tell someone or I’ll lose my mind,” she said. Not quite on solid ground…just yet, she fixed her eyes back on the door. “I have a secret.”

            “If you promise me we head back after telling to me, I’ll listen patiently,” Anastasia said.

            Rosa spoke softly. “I used to have another sister.”

            “What!”

            “Yes, she was a year older than Flora. She was beautiful. The most beautiful of us all. She had red hair just like me and I hear a very fiery temper.”

            Anastasia looked right and then left. “It is done, you told me, now let us to go back to the others.”

            “Please, pay attention,” Rosa begged. “No one else will. I saw her. She opened the door and went through and…she never came out again. I ran away as fast as I could, down the hall, back to my room. After that, we were forbidden to even mention her name. It’s as if she never existed. My sisters are terrified to talk of her, and Miss Pigeon has punished me if I even look like I’m thinking of her.”

            Anastasia grabbed her by the arm. “I no longer will suffer listening to such nonsense as this. If you do not stop such talk, I shall leave to my Russia tomorrow. You are frightening me.”

            Pulled to the reality of losing her friend, Rosa drew in a long breath. “Oh, no! Don’t go. I’m so sorry, Anastasia. I needed someone to hear me. I didn’t mean to upset you so.”