Adele looked down at the cards and then up at Tess, as if she was examining her. Then Adele’s eyes fluttered. When she opened them, she seemed to be not really looking at Tess, even though she was staring straight at her.

Her voice sounded strange as if it was coming from a distant place. It occurred to Tess the whole thing might really be a performance, a very practiced act. Except Tess couldn’t quite figure out how Adele was making her voice sound as if it was coming from a hushed megaphone, whispered and amplified at the same time. It was very strange.

“You know there’s something on the other side of the wall, don’t you?” Adele said simply.

Actually, Tess didn’t know that, at all, but before Tess could reply, a voice behind them piped in softly, “Oh Adele, are you frightening the children again? I asked you not to do that.”

Adele fluttered her eyes, as if she’d been in a trance or something.

“She once told me the strangest thing,” said Colin’s mother to Tess. “It was as if she was in a trance or something. She said, ‘How do rats know when houses are empty?’ I had no idea what that meant. Adele, really,” said Colin’s mother. “I mean it, you’re not supposed to frighten the children!”

“I wasn’t meaning to Mrs. Sanborn. Not at all,” said Adele. “It’s the cards that tell me what to say. You know that.”

“You do know that, Mother,” Colin piped in. “Or at least you believe it. My mother hardly makes a move without consulting Adele,” he said to Tess and Max. “Never a big decision without her.”

His mother laughed which was sort of refreshing as Tess thought Colin might be making fun of his mother.

“It’s true. I don’t. Adele is a bit of a wonder. But I do hope she hasn’t told you anything too startling.” She tousled Colin’s head again and practically danced back into the party.

Somehow Tess couldn’t shake it. It was a warning. There was no question about that. You know, don’t you? There’s something on the other side of the wall. That’s what she’d said, really, wasn’t it? That Tess knew there was something on the other side of the wall. Was that what Adele meant when she said she was going to tell Tess something she might already know? Was that what she was referring to? Or was it something else?

Colin’s mother had interrupted her reading. Tess had tried to hang around by the table, but another woman had already sat down for a reading. And it was one a.m. and Max insisted they had to go back down to their suite.