Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

Merritt wakes up from a strange dream to find that his bedroom has merged with Hulda’s and that she is sleeping in her bed next to him. He is nervous but also notes her delicacy. As he scurries out of his bed, he sees the portrait from the reception hall standing upright in the center of the room, watching them. Merritt shrieks, and Hulda wakens. She is nervous and guarded with him later that morning as they discuss how to find out the identity of the resident wizard. Recruiting Beth and Baptiste, Merritt and Hulda go outside to look for a graveyard on the island.

As Merritt searches, he feels his mind tugged in a certain direction. He finds a stone in the earth and calls the others. Together, they uncover four graves and are able to decipher some names and dates. Hulda decides to do research and, on the tram, thinks of Merritt and the lemon drops. At the Genealogical Society for the Advancement of Magic, she is welcomed by Mr. Clarke, who wrote her the previous letter.

Hulda finds the records on Horace and Evelyn Mansel and their children, Crisly, Helen, and Dorcas, which detail the percentage of magic they are estimated to have possessed. Hulda also looks up Silas Hogwood and sees that he is powerful. Mr. Clarke asks her to consider his offer to arrange a marriage with a magical spouse, citing the advantages of having a population of magically gifted people. Hulda says that she will consider it. She thinks she sees Fletcher Portendorfer as she leaves.

Merritt is upset because the house has transformed his manuscript into a wheel. He frets about having to rewrite the book and goes outside to take solace from the landscape: “Endless acres of land unspoiled by humans, cradled by clean ocean air, splayed under a flawless sky” (162).

Hulda has gathered materials for the exorcism, and while Merritt feels hesitant, he lets her begin. He is gratified when the house restores his manuscript, and Hulda guesses that the spirit doesn’t want to leave. She recites the spells for the exorcism, but nothing happens, not even when she uses all five names. She is puzzled by the failure and gives Merritt the set of communion stones she received from BIKER, which will let them communicate over distance.

The thought of Beth, Baptiste, and Hulda leaving makes Merritt sad. He goes outside to walk and again feels his mind tugged in a certain direction. Parting the grass, he sees a stone that has been overturned some distance away from the other graves. He makes out a name: Owein. The death date says that he was 12. Merritt knows that this is the wizard. He is moved by how Owein’s gravestone is separated from his family—just like Merritt was from his.

He reveals to Hulda that he was disowned by his father when he was 18 after he got the girl he loved pregnant. He meant to marry her, but it turned out that she wasn’t pregnant, and she left town without telling him. Merritt decides that Owein can stay.

Hulda is happy that Merritt will not exorcise Owein but also puzzled about Merritt’s confession to her. She finds him kind and feels sympathy for the way his heart was broken. As she goes about her day, Hulda asks Owein to retrieve a pencil she dropped on the floor. He does so in dramatic fashion.

Merritt approaches, asking for help cleaning his cravat, which has ink exploded all over it. He questions whether Hulda is still looking for the man she saw. She takes him aside to speak with him and sees that he has also begun addressing Owein by name and interacting with him. Hulda identifies who Silas was and admits that she foresaw in tea leaves that he would try to kill a local woman who possessed a hysteria spell.

They are interrupted when Beth tries to enter the house and finds an invisible ward over the door. Hulda deduces that Whimbrel House must have two sources of magic. The ward gives way when Merritt knocks on it.

Merritt dwells on how Hulda so calmly received his confession. He was deeply shocked when Ebba, his girlfriend, disappeared and is still haunted by wondering why she abandoned him. Merritt feels connected to Owein and puzzled by Hulda. He recalls the women he has cared about, none of whom returned his affection, and tells himself that he can’t yearn for his housekeeper. He talks to Owein as he returns to working on his manuscript.

Hulda receives a letter by windsource pigeon. Myra, her supervisor, offers her a new assignment, but Hulda asks to stay at Whimbrel House longer. She hears Merritt shouting at Owein for his pranks and spots Beth standing outside. When she approaches, Beth says that she thought she saw a wolf. She asks permission to attend a dance, and Hulda promises to give her dancing lessons.

After dinner that night, still thinking about the second source of magic, Hulda goes in search of her pencil sharpener and finds it on Merritt’s desk. Her attention is caught by Merritt’s manuscript, and she becomes absorbed in reading the adventures of Elise. Merritt surprises her when he approaches, and Hulda blushes. He invites her to stay and read with him, and she finds the invitation “as alluring as the scent of freshly baked rolls at the end of a toilsome day” (195). She asks Merritt for the title of his first novel.