Rat the Thief, vol 2, Book 2

t took very little time for Rat to unhook the low window panel (meant only for airing out the room), and clamber through the narrow gap. The floor, she discovered as she placed a ginger foot against it, was thickly carpeted, and she stood up with renewed confidence. Surely there was something close-by that she could pocket quickly, and return home with.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and still she could see very little. At length she determined that it was indeed a hallway. She picked a direction at random, and began to explore.

The hallway opened up at first into a larger, grander hallway, with tall imposing windows that flooded the passage with moonlight, then transformed once again into smaller hallways which seemed to lead nowhere. At first Rat tried to keep her bearings by remembering the contours of the roof, and where she was in relation to them, but very quickly she grew confused, and could only progress blindly, hoping that she'd be lead somewhere useful. She kept her eyes on the rich furnishings, and elaborate gilded end tables, thinking that one or another might offer up a little gold statuette or rich timepiece, but she saw nothing small enough to take with her. Occasionally the passages were lined with closed doors, but she didn't want to risk an encounter, so she passed by them as quietly as she could, and   offer to investigate what lay beyond.

Rat was beginning to wonder how enormous the house could possibly be, that she hadn't yet reached any kind of major juncture, when finally a particularly large passage rewarded her by opening up into a vast gallery with a grand stairway arching downwards. The floor was no longer carpeted, she realized abruptly, as her first step echoed up into the high domed ceiling. Rat clutched the balustrade, and peered down into the darkness below, hoping nobody had heard. She was growing tired. She wanted to be home, away from the vast ominous spaces, and the velvety too-quiet darkness.

Rat had no wish to descend and explore the levels below. She began to think about turning around and trying to find another window that she could escape through, when she noticed a pair of double doors invitingly half-open, at the other end of the gallery past the mouth of the stairway. Careful to keep her footfalls soft against the slick stone floor, Rat approached the doors, and peered through them, into a room furnished with an enormous wooden desk and several elaborate chairs and chaise lounges. An office, perhaps.

This was it. Rat didn't want to be here any longer. Still careful to make no sound, Rat edged through the doors, and approached the desk. Immediately visible were several likely-looking items. Straightaway, Rat pocketed a richly-inlaid letter opener. A large and beautifully cut crystal paper weight looked like it might sell well. So did an embossed pen, and a matching inkwell which she carefully emptied into the chamber pot beside the window. Afraid that the objects would start to clank in her pocket, Rat began to wrap them in papers that she found on top of the desk, or in drawers. She discovered two very fine pocket watches, which she considered a particular stroke of luck. On bookshelves deeper in the room, she found various trinkets. She couldn't tell which of them might be valuable, in the thick shadows, but she took what she could fit in her jacket, and in her belt purse - normally she carried a satchel with her to the warehouses, and she regretted not having it now.