Free Among the Barons by Margaret Peterson Haddix

them?
     
    Luke swallowed a lump in his throat and closed his eyes. Sometimes it was better not to pay attention. It would be better not to think about where he was going, either, or what he might face there....
    The next thing Luke knew, the car had stopped and the chauffeur was peering in through the open door.
    “Please, sirs,” he said timidly. “Please? You are home now, no? Your parents will be wanting me to help you out. Sirs?”
    Groggily Luke forced himself to open his eyes. He had been so soundly asleep that for a long moment he had trouble remembering where he was. Why wasn’t he in his bed at Hendricks, staring up at the bottom of Trey’s bunk? Why was his face stuck to his pillow? Or no, it wasn’t his pillow. Why was he sleeping on a leather seat?
    Outdoors, behind the chauffeur, Luke could see what looked like thousands of diamonds hanging from the sky.
     
    Even when Luke peeled his face away from the seat and shook his head to clear his mind a little, the diamonds didn’t disappear. Except now he could tell that they were cascading from a roof covering the driveway.
     
    The chauffeur saw where Luke was looking.
    “You like your mother’s new chandelier, no?” he said. “That is new since you were home last, no?”
    And Luke didn’t know how to answer. Already an innocent question had stumped him.
    On the opposite seat Smits and Oscar were also waking and stretching. Smits scowled at the chauffeur.
    “It’s ugly, you idiot,” Smits said. “That’s the ugliest chandelier we’ve ever had.”
    Sure, Smits was rude. But at least he’d saved Luke from having to answer.
    Dazed, Luke stepped out of the car onto a driveway that was paved with thousands of tiny tiles, all intricately connected. Above him the chandelier swayed in the breeze. Luke stared at it in disbelief A huge gold globe hung from the portico, with bars reaching out to a dozen smaller globes, all in a circle. The diamonds dangled in ropes from each of the smaller globes, twisting together and coming to a point in a huge crystal directly beneath the largest gold globe. Each of the diamonds threw out rainbows of light all over the portico. Really, Luke decided, the chandelier couldn’t be diamonds; there couldn’t be that many huge diamonds in the whole world. The chandelier was probably just glass, and Luke couldn’t tell the difference.
     
    Either way, it was breathtaking, stunning beyond words.
     
    Everything was. The walls of the Grant mansion rose before him like a sheer cliff, he really couldn’t tell where the mansion ended and the rest of the world began. Luke wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if the mansion didn’t end. Unlike Hendricks School, the Grant mansion had windows, dozens and dozens of them, all split into intricate panes of heavy leaded glass. Each pane of each window shone as though the glass was polished on an hourly basis. For all Luke knew, maybe it was.
    On the other side of the limousine a velvet green yard stretched out to a row of perfectly trimmed trees. Luke could see no other houses in any direction. The Grants’ estate seemed every bit as secluded as Luke’s family’s farm had been.
    “You missed your home?” the chauffeur said to Luke. “You are glad to be home now, no?”
    Imitating Smits’s rudeness, Luke only shrugged this time.
    “Oh, oh, allow me to announce you,” the chauffeur said.
    He stepped up to the double front doors and threw them open.
    “Your sons are home!” he said, his voice taking on a regal rumble.
    Smits stepped over the threshold first, onto a gleaming white floor. Luke hesitantly followed him.
    “They’re probably not even home,” Smits said bitterly. “Dad’s at work And Mom’s at a party, of course.”
    But footsteps were coming down the long, curving hallway. Just from the way they sounded—authoritative, commanding—Luke could tell it wasn’t servants headed toward him. A man and a woman came into sight They were probably as old as or older