Secret Books and Greedy Fingers

The dust clung to Theodore Dee's hand. He looked with confusion over the room, but it was hard to work out what was in it just yet. It had been closed up, hidden on his parent's wing of the house. He slowly stepped into the room, letting his hand run over another shelf. It came away with even more dust on it than it had before. He turned around, trying to discover the source of a faint light toward the back of the room. There was just enough from the doorway and somewhere else that he could work out the contents of the room. By the look of it, there weren't any windows in the room. It took him poking into a corner before Theodore noticed that a bookshelf was covering one of the windows he'd assumed weren't there. On the bookshelf were books, tons and tons of books. Thanks to his movement, there were now dust moats drifting through the air, causing him to sneeze briefly.

"What are you up to, Theo?" asked a voice behind him. Theo spun, finding himself looking at Rowland. His older brother carefully walked into the room, chuckling as he looked around. "Oh, wow, you found this? Was the door unlocked?"

Theo couldn't stop his lips from spreading into a grin. "Yeah, it was. Isn't it cool? It's a whole library." Perhaps a slight exaggeration.

Rowland nodded, looking around and pulling out a couple of the books as he passed. Theo followed in his footsteps, trying to look over his elbow.

"Hey, I thought we weren't supposed to touch dad's books?"

Rowland was a bit too tall for Theo to see over his arm, never mind reading the actual contents of the now visible pages.

"Hey, if he left the door of his library unlocked, this is practically an invitation," Rowland said dismissively. "I bet you that Arthur gets to see all of this. These are all the alchemy books."

"Wait," Theo squeaked, trying to jump and see, "aren't those dangerous?"

Rowland finally looked away from the book he had on the top of his pile, though he still was brushing the dust off of the pages.

"Only if you don't know what you're doing. And look, I'm not going to do anything."

He practically waved the top book while he said that, which just made Theo more nervous. He could vaguely see the corner of one of the diagrams while it moved through the air in Rowland's hand.

"If ... if you're sure," Theo said, unable to keep the interest out of his voice. He moved closer to Rowland, trying to stand on his toes to see. "Do I get to look?"

Rowland stopped trying to pace around the room and instead looked down at Theo. "What? No. You're, like, ten. I don't even think you can read most of this."

Theo pouted. "I know some Latin!" he said. "It isn't like you know enough to read most of that either."

"I know enough," Rowland replied with a huff.

"Do not!" Theo said. "Come on, let me see!"

"Why do you have to be such a pest?" Rowland growled, voice growing in volume.

"I am n-" Theo started but stopped when a shadow fell across him. Rowland froze and looked up. The light cut off, a tall figure blocking the doorway.

"...Dad," Rowland said, a deer caught in the sight of a wolf.

"How did you boys get in here?" John Dee asked his voice firm and disapproving. Was it Theo's imagination, or did he sound a bit tense and out of breath?

"Just ... just reading," Rowland said awkwardly, though he tried to look confident. But the expression didn't hold up very well under his father's gaze. John stepped toward Rowland, and Rowland leaned backward, the pile of books still clasped in his hands. They were firmly pried out of an only slightly resisting grasp. Theo was the only one who noticed the hatred and greed in Rowland's eyes as their father turned his back and returned the books to their place on the shelves. The expression was gone as soon as John turned around.

Two brown eyes stared at Rowland and Theo in turn, squinting out of the wrinkled face. Then their father carefully but tensely said, "I will not catch you in here again."

It sounded like a threat, but even Theo could see that there was nothing to back it up. Rowland's own expression was full of a good helping of defiance.

There was a tick in John's face as if he was close to shouting at Rowland, but instead, he just pointed to the door.

Rowland stalked out, Theo shuffling behind, only to glance back, hesitant, and was just in time to see their father firmly shut the door behind them.

"Row-" Theo started, turning around to try and talk to his brother. But all he saw was the back of Rowland's head as he descended the stairs.