Hilary was so caught up in admiring the sprawling porch that wrapped around nearly the entire front of the house that she didn’t see what she was knocking on. When she looked up, she realized her hand thumped on a solid chest. “Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to do…” Her eyes widened. She could hear Betty gasp behind her. “That.”
The little creature who faced her was…a rabbit. A rabbit-man. He had the long, loping ears and soft, shining light-brown fur of the carrot-snitching rodents who defaced her garden every summer, but his twitching, bewhiskered nose, large dark eyes, and rakish little mustache were far more human. He even had a tuft of light-brown hair plastered down between his ears and long, sharp buck teeth.
“Well!” She was the first one to regain her composure. “It’s about time. You could have been a bit more responsive.” She dumped a pile of her bags in the bunny’s waiting paws. The stack nearly dwarfed his head. “Please, my good…er…rabbit, take these to our rooms.”
Maple grinned. “Are you the monster? You don’t look like a monster. You’re a cute bunny!” She grabbed his paws. “You even have those little pink bean things!”
“Maple!” Betty grabbed her hand. “Leave the poor…er, rabbit…alone.”
“I just wanted to see ‘em!”
“Mr. Rabbit, if you’re not the master of this mausoleum,” Hilary demanded as he led them inside, “could you please find whomever is in charge and tell him that the Booth-Bloom sisters have arrived? We’re famished and half-frozen. We’ll need to see our rooms and for someone to send a change of liniment. Oh, and tell the cook we’ll be needing hot drinks. I’ll have coffee, two and a half lumps of sugar, cream. Maple takes her coffee black, no cream, no sugar. Betty will have chamomile tea with lemon.”
The rabbit didn’t say a word…but then, Hilary didn’t think he would. She never heard those flower-snitching rodents who invaded her gardens make much noise. He merely stumbled inside with that pile of her luggage. She took her remaining suitcases, while the girls took their things.
The inside was even more imposing than the outside. The rabbit led them through a dimly-lit foyer into a drawing room that was as cavernous as it was beautiful. The sweeping staircase, with its highly polished wood stairs and shining brass candelabras, attached to an upstairs hall that, as far as Hilary could tell, went on for miles. Every expensive antique, every brass candlestick shined within an inch of its life.
“Well,” Hilary admitted as she ran a gloved finger the marble mantelpiece on the enormous fire, with its inviting, crackling flames, “whomever your master is, at least he keeps a neat house. Not a speck of dust anywhere.”
“Hey!” Maple complained as the bunny managed to close the door with one arm, “you’re too cute to be a monster! Dad said there was a monster here. Where’s the monster?”
Hilary looked up from inspecting the beautiful old Chippenware table. “Lurking in corners, no doubt.”
That was when they all heard the loudest, most heart-pounding, ear-splitting roar that ever shook a chandelier. Every bit of glass in the entire room shook. The chairs trembled. The bunny dropped Hilary’s luggage in sheer terror. Betty leaped back and pulled her typewriter closer to her. Maple jumped a mile.
“YOU ARE LATE!”
Hilary’s eyes moved to the staircase, and that was when she saw…it. It slammed down the stairs in pure unrestrained fury, its enormous clawed feet making every stair vibrate. “You were supposed to have been here an hour ago!” Warts covering a slime-crusted face, razor-sharp claws on bony fingers, coarse mouse-brown curls flowing over a head far too large for the sharp, bony body, totally lipless and almost noseless except for two flaring warty nostrils. “You could have at least called!”
Hilary stood stock-still and wide-eyed at the…thing…stomping towards them. Betty was the first to scream, still clutching her typewriter. Maple screamed, too, but it was with delight, her wide chocolate eyes shining.
“Oh my god!” She squealed, jumping up and down in glee. “I’m seeing my first movie monster up close! This is amazing!”
“Lady,” the creature snarled as it made it downstairs, a long, cat-like tail with a curly mouse tuft trailing behind it indignantly, “I am NOT a movie monster!”
Betty gulped, her face paler than the snow outside. “I’m beginning to question that!”
Hilary did not appreciate this…thing’s…attitude. She stormed past the frozen Betty and right into its unappealing face. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk to my sister that way!”
“Your sister?” It hissed, showing long, sharp yellow fangs. “What is your sister doing here? I asked for one daughter, not an entire family!”
“I wasn’t coming here on my own, and Maple wanted to see a monster.” She was about ready to knock this…thing’s…block off. “You’re the one who threw a fit over a stupid rose! I only asked for one because it’s January, and nothing is growing in my garden!”
She paused when she finally looked into its eyes. They were beautiful. The only beautiful thing on its otherwise hideous face. They were almond-shaped, dark brown and soulful, holding volumes of pain…and very, very human. She knew those eyes…
“Your father,” the creature snarled as it narrowed those human eyes, “stole MY property from MY hot house! Those roses are mine! I gave him food, shelter, and he STOLE from me!”
“He was just looking for a place to stay after losing a job, and you threatened to have him arrested!”
“Those roses are MINE!” He turned his glare towards the terrified rabbit, whose pink nose and mustache twitched even faster. “Mr. Rabbit, pick up the lady’s things and call a cab for the other two. Her sisters are going home.”
“But we just got here!” Maple protested loudly. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere, Lon Chaney!”
“I am also not Lon Chaney,” the creature growled, rolling his eyes in annoyance.
“Then don’t act like him!” Betty managed to call out bravely from behind her.
Hilary looked up, her own brown eyes widening as the shuffle of an even larger creature carried from a room to their right. “Hey…” a deep, grizzled voice rumbled, “what going on?”
“You…” Hilary gasped as a hulking figure emerged slowly and timidly from the shadows. “You’re a bear.”
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