Greenglass House (Book)

***"And when I asked why he supposed I might be able to do the impossible, he said, 'Because I believe you are special.'"*
Liao to Lucy on Blister, *Bluecrowne*, p. 133
*This article is on a subject existing outside the universe of the Greenglass House series.***

## *Greenglass House*

* Official Book Cover
* Original Cover Art

## Publication order

### Followed by

*Ghosts of Greenglass House*

*****G********reenglass** **House*** is the first book in the Greenglass House series. It was written by Kate Milford and illustrated by Jaime Zollars, and published in 2014 by Clarion Books.

## Publisher's Summary

It’s wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler’s inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers’ adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo’s home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass House—and themselves.

## Plot

Milo Pine, the adopted son of Nora and Ben Pine, sat in the living room of Greenglass House, completing his math homework on the first day of winter break. However, the railcar bell then rang, signaling that someone wanted to ascend Whilforber Hill on the *Whilforber Whirlwind*— a guest. Milo was shocked, as guests almost never arrived over winter break, but he and his mother went outside to start the railcar. Mr. Vinge arrived, and much to Milo's disappointment he looked rather normal. After Mr. Vinge had gotten himself settled, the railcar bell rang again.

Milo and his father went outside, and a young lady with blue hair ascended the hill and introduced herself as Georgie Moselle. After showing her to her room, Milo accidentally dropped her bag on the floor due to the absence of the luggage rack. The railcar bell then rang again.

Milo went outside and this time two guests arrived, whom Milo thought of as Mrs. Up and Mr. Down, and argued loudly with each other. Someone else then arrived, having climbed three hundred and ten steps, two at a time, at a jog, and while carrying a heavy backpack. She introduced herself as Clem. Once in the house, Mr. Pine managed to quiet the yelling pair and got them to introduce themselves, Mrs. Hereward and Dr. Gowervine. They each chose rooms on the third floor, and Clem chose one on the fifth so that she could get her exercise on the stairs.

Milo realized he'd dropped a book belonging to Georgie out by the *Whilforber Whirlwind*. He went back outside, and found not only the book but also a map, which he deemed to be a nautical chart, but could not figure out what it was a map of. He heard a voice and looked up to see a figure in the snow. He couldn't tell who it was, but when he returned to the house, according to Clem and Georgie, no one had left.

Georgie, at Milo's request, showed him the thing she was crafting: a cigar-box camera, which she planned to call "Lansdegown". She seemed to expect Milo to know the word but Milo did not. Georgie then invited him to keep the book, and Milo began to read.

Mrs. Caraway and Lizzie, the inn's chef and her daughter, arrived to help cook for the guests. Milo then met a young girl, who he assumed to be Mrs. Caraway's youngest daughter, Meddy. Milo read *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*, the book Georgie had lent him, and saw the shadow outside again. He then fell asleep in the chair, to be awoken sometime later by Meddy. He dropped the nautical chart by accident, and Meddy picked it up. After insisting that Milo tell her everything he knew about it, Milo did, and Meddy suggested that they search for the meaning of the chart. Milo eventually agreed, then went back to bed.

When Milo woke, Meddy introduced him to Odd Trails, and together they created his character, the escaladeur Negret. Meddy asked to see the chart again, and Milo admitted that he wasn't carrying it, to Meddy's dismay. He went to his room to retrieve it, but then found that it had been stolen. In order to divert himself from the oncoming panic attack, Milo asked about Meddy's character. Meddy decided to play Sirin, an invisible scholiast. Negret connected the gate watermark on the missing map and the decoy left in its place, to a gate he'd seen in one of Greenglass House's stained glass windows. He then recalled that the house had previously belonged to Doc Holystone. Negret later saw Dr. Gowervine sneak into Clem's room, but did not notice if he had taken anything. Negret and Sirin then went up into the attic, and found many interesting things, which Sirin gave extravagant names. Negret then set to making a backstory for his character. They created names for each floor and Milo began to make up the floor plan.

Georgie and Clem had an odd exchange concerning the name of Georgie's camera, Lansdegown. Sirin told Negret that they needed to find out more about the guests. Negret convinced the guests to tell stories, and Mrs. Hereward went first. She told *Only a Fool Scoffs At Destiny*, a story in which Julian Roamer acquires magical items through wishes. Sirin later instructed Negret to ask (as a scholiast, she was invisible) Mrs. Hereward what had happened to Julian's things. Instead of saying that they did not exist, she told Negret that she did not know, something that prompted Sirin to theorize that Mrs. Hereward thought they were real and was perhaps searching for one at Greenglass House.

At Clem's request, Mrs. Pine told a story about Greenglass House. Fenster Plum, a Greenglass House regular, had supposedly seen the ghosts of Doc Holystone and his son waving to each other. Clem then asked Negret what he knew about the word "Lansdegown", and he suggested that she tell him what she knew, which might help him remember some things about it. Clem did not, as Georgie arrived, but promised to think about it. Sirin then pointed out to Negret Mrs. Hereward's ditty bag, in which a likeness of Greenglass House was stitched. Mrs. Hereward then caught him looking and turned it around, where there was depicted the iron gate from the watermarks and windows.

In the morning, three items went missing. Milo's parents wanted to think that they had simply been misplaced, but Negret and Sirin were quite sure they had been stolen. Mrs. Hereward's ditty bag had gone missing, Mr. Vinge's pocket watch was gone, and Georgie could not find her notebook. Milo's parents searched the rooms of each burgled guest, hoping to find the items hiding in plain sight, but had no success. Mrs. Hereward was angry with Dr. Gowervine and Clem, clearly thinking it must have been one of them, since they were the only guests who had not been robbed. Negret spoke with three guests. From Georgie, Negret learned that her notebook had contained notes she'd made about Greenglass House and someone she'd thought was connected to it. From Mrs. Hereward, he learned that Greenglass House had been built for one of her ancestors, and the bag had been passed down to Mrs. Hereward from her. Mrs. Hereward had come to Greenglass House searching for one of the relics of Julian Roamer. Clem was confused about the thefts, as according to her, the only person with use for Georgie's notebook was Clem herself.

Negret searched for the missing things. He theorized that they were not in any occupied rooms, as the thief would be caught with them in their room eventually. So, he searched the empty guest rooms and the attic. In three feats of incredible observation, he discovered Mr. Vinge's watch hidden in a hollowed-out soap cake, Mrs. Hereward's bag underneath sailcloth in the Emporium, and Georgie's notebook inside a potted plant. Before finding Georgie's notebook, Negret and Sirin heard Georgie and Clem talking in the stairwell. Georgie attempted to make a deal with Clem for Clem to help her retrieve the notebook, and mentioned someone called Owen. The scent of Georgie's clothes, due to Milo having broken a perfume bottle in her bag when he dropped it, was mentioned, which led Negret to remember having smelled it somewhere else, which was how he found Georgie's notebook.

Once they had all the stolen things, Negret and Sirin reviewed the clues again. They then hid the stolen items where the thief would not find them— in wrapped boxes underneath the Christmas tree. Meddy stayed in Milo's room to think things over. During dinner, Mrs. Hereward was extremely angry about the stolen things. She accused Clem and Dr. Gowervine, suggesting that their rooms be searched, clearly believing that one of them was the thief. Clem seemed to suggest that the thief could have pretended to have been robbed to throw off suspicion, but Mrs. Hereward continued to get angrier. Milo and Meddy decided it was time to give the things back. They did so without making themselves seem involved, much to the guests' delight, but Georgie mentioned Milo's investigation, and he decided to tell them. Meddy didn't want him to, but he'd already said he would, so Milo explained to the guests how he'd found the things, but been afraid they'd think he'd taken them. Georgie and Mrs. Hereward offered assurances that they did not suspect him.

They heard a loud noise outside, and Milo and Georgie discovered another guest arriving. The railcar bell was frozen, and he'd had to hike up the three hundred and ten steps in the snow, leaving him exhausted and hypothermic. They brought him to the house, and he introduced himself as Owen. He revealed, much to Georgie's dismay, that he loved Clem. Milo then went back outside to find out what his father had gone to check on, and found him at Whilforber Hill's Belowground Transit station. Brandon Levi and Fenster Plum had arrived, and Brandon was apologizing for having to kick down the door (the source of the noise), as it had been frozen shut.

The power went out to Greenglass House, causing several guests to be in a panic. Milo managed to stop the yelling of Mrs. Hereward and Dr. Gowervine while his father and Brandon worked on the generator. Georgie then told her and Clem's story, how they'd both come to Greenglass House searching for a lost piece of Owen's past. Owen had been adopted as a child and hadn't gotten to know anything about his ancestry, and each thief wanted to give Owen a gift so that he would fall in love with them and not the other. However, Owen had already fallen in love with Clem. Fenster suggested that they make Georgie a cake to cheer her up, mentioning using blue ink to color the frosting, to Mrs. Hereward's dismay. Mrs. Hereward then explained to Milo how "Lansdegown" was the original name of Greenglass House, and having been told that it was Owen's middle name, Milo pleaded with Mrs. Hereward to tell Owen this.

Milo told Meddy about Fenster. Dr. Gowervine then told a story in the event of cheering Georgie up, about how Lowell Skellansen had created a story window about Doc Holystone's death. Negret and Sirin theorized that Dr. Gowervine was at Greenglass House to search for the cartoon or vidimus for that window. Mrs. Pine asked about Mr. Vinge's job, and he answered that he was retired. Mr. Pine, Brandon, and Fenster then returned and delivered the news that someone had sabotaged their generator.

Milo discovered that a lantern he'd found in the attic was the lantern of Julian Roamer, or at least something like it, and decided to gift it to Mrs. Hereward. Milo woke in the night and heard someone sneaking around. His stakeout did not reveal who it was, however, and he reluctantly returned to bed. When Milo woke, Mrs. Hereward and Fenster were busy making a cake, with Mrs. Hereward attempting to stop Fenster from adding generous amounts of pepper. Milo then opened his Christmas Eve present from his parents, his father's Odd Trails figurine. Fenster and Mrs. Hereward got the cake into the oven, to clapping from the others, and then began on the dishes. Once they were done, Milo gifted Mrs. Hereward the lantern, much to her delight.

Mr. Pine, Brandon, and Fenster managed to start the generator. The power came back on to Greenglass House, much to the guests' delight. Mrs. Hereward then told Owen of his ancestry, how he was almost certainly descended from Lucy or Liao Bluecrowne. Owen was amazed, and Milo relized that Owen should have Negret's keys. He gifted them to Owen, and Owen in turn gave Milo an ivory dragon that he had kept because of all the dragons in Chinese mythology.

Dr. Gowervine's satchel then went missing. Milo went to look for it, but was stopped by Georgie, who gifted him the nautical chart and the picture she'd taken with the cigar-box camera. Clem then arrived, and after answering Milo's questions about how she'd found the gate, gifted Milo lockpicks. Milo and Meddy then continued in their search. Though they figured that the thief had avoided the spare rooms, they checked them anyhow, just because. While checking an empty room on the fourth floor, they were locked in. No one heard them banging, so Milo eventually maneuvered the luggage rack out the window and clanged it on the fire escape until Mr. Pine came to investigate the commotion.

Once let out, Negret theorized that they had been close to something the thief didn't want them to find, and under the rug in Georgie's old room (Owen and Clem moving to the fourth floor had caused her to change to five) they found a paper declaring the bearer to be a customs agent. Mr. Pine was surprised that Georgie was a customs agent, though Negret didn't believe that she was. As soon as Mr. Pine left to notify Mrs. Pine that there was a customs agent among the guests, Negret realized where Dr. Gowervine's bag might be. He led Sirin down to his family's private floor, where they found that someone had indeed stolen one of the room keys, and Dr. Gowervine's bag was located, covered with snow, out on the fire escape. They peeked in the satchel, but were interrupted by the arrival of Milo's parents and Brandon and Fenster, who, judging by their actions, knew. Negret then returned the satchel, much to Dr. Gowervine's delight.

Negret then asked to view Mr. Vinge's book, a visual history of the Skidwrack and its environs, in the guise of finding facts for social studies. He compared the nautical chart to the maps in the book, hoping that perhaps it was a map of the Skidwrack from earlier that one of the maps would show. Mr. Vinge came up behind him and saw the secret chart, and asked questions about it. Negret then went out to investigate the garden, against Sirin's wishes. There, he saw the place where the gate could have previously stood, and found the words "RIP AW ADDIE WE HARDLY KNEW YE" engraved on a bench in the garden.

Upon Negret's return, he and Sirin went over the clues again, and Negret realized how the complicated answer (Clem is not the thief) worked. He saw at once who was the thief and who was the customs agent, and went to tell his parents. He managed to convince them that the customs agent was not Georgie, but Mr. Vinge, and pointed out all the clues that made it so. The Pines then tried to get Fenster out on the Belowground Transit System, as he was a smuggler and Mr. Vinge might be interested in arresting him, but the control system had been damaged by the cold. Brandon worked on it for much of the day, and though he made progress, he did not succeed.

Milo and his father went sledding. While rummaging in the storage outbuilding looking for the sleds, Milo found one half of the gate, to his delight. After a joyous time sledding in the cold, Milo and Mr. Pine returned to the house, and Milo reported his findings to Meddy.

Mr. Vinge then told his story. In it, he painted Doc Holystone as a weapons smuggler, a criminal, and a danger to society. He told of how a customs agent had been given a map by a smuggler Deacon and Morvengarde had tortured, and followed a watermark on the paper to Greenglass House. There, according to him, Doc Holystone had hidden a deadly weapon. Fenster, who had sailed with Doc Holystone, grew quite angry and argued with Mr. Vinge throughout the story. Mr. Vinge then, showing his customs ID, began to order the guests around.

When Brandon refused to comply, Mr. Vinge pulled out a gun. Two strange men then arrived, whom Mr. Vinge sicced on Milo, who had, at Meddy's instruction, ran away up the stairs. As he did, he heard a bang, a gunshot. Once he'd arrived in the safety of the Emporium, Milo collapsed and began to cry, realizing he'd left his parents with a man holding a gun. Meddy blamed herself, telling Milo that she ought to have recognized him as an agent, but Milo, sensing that she was being evasive and recalling how odd she'd been acting during Mr. Vinge's story, refused to be convinced. Meddy then told him the truth— that her real name was Addie Whitcher, and she was the ghost of Doc Holystone's daughter. She told Milo about her time alive, and how she and Doc Holystone had died.

Meddy (she encouraged Milo to continue calling her that) then brought up some things from Dr. Gowervine's satchel, convinced that Milo could find Doc Holystone's final cargo. Milo then realized that the ship chandelier in his dining room had been made by Skellansen, and deduced that there must be something hidden inside it (He also figured out that the nautical chart had been pointing him to this). Milo and Meddy heard one of Mr. Vinge's thugs seeking them on the fifth floor, and managed to trap him in the Emporium. Milo then descended the fire escape, hoping to sneak into the dining room unnoticed and check the chandelier. However, the kitchen door squeaked loudly and he was caught by the other thug.

Milo then made a deal with Mr. Vinge— Milo knew where the cargo was, and if he gave it to Mr. Vinge, Mr. Vinge would leave. So Milo got up on a stool and felt for the cargo in the chandelier. Mr. Vinge pulled the stool out from under Milo, and grabbed it himself. Milo recognized the thing as a figurine for his daughter, Addie, and Mr. Vinge grew quite angry that the thing he'd been seeking all along was a child's toy. However, he went to take it anyway, planning to destroy it so it could not be found. Milo would not give it to him, however, believing that it should be given to Meddy. Mr. Vinge threatened to use his gun, but Meddy then appeared. She grew large and got in his face. Mr. Vinge, suddenly scared, shot at her, much to her dismay and anger. Meddy then took Mr. Vinge's gun. She told him firmly to leave, and when he seemed about to argue, she grew large again and screamed at him with such rage that he ran. Meddy made sure the door slammed behind him, but it then opened again, and a gust of wind carried Mr. Vinge's coat out onto the lawn, where it chased Mr. Vinge until it tackled him. After clumsily regaining his footing and staring at his coat, Mr. Vinge put it on and continued running. The other two customs agents left as well.

The guests were then let out of the laundry room, and Meddy was introduced to everyone. Milo then went back up on the stool and reached again into the chandelier. He found a painting of Doc Holystone in his ship, a cartoon for Skellansen's story window of Doc Holystone. They arranged for Dr. Gowervine to borrow the cartoon.

The guests then began to leave. Clem, Owen, Mrs. Hereward, and Dr. Gowervine descended the hill on the *Whilforber Whirlwind* and were ferried across the Quayside Harbors by Mr. Ostling. Georgie joined Brandon, Fenster, and the Caraways on the Belowground Transit System. Clem promised to send Milo a book on his lockpicks and come visit later, and Mrs. Hereward gifted Milo a hat and mittens, which she had been knitting. Georgie let Milo keep *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* to finish. Meddy then left, promising to come back soon. Mrs. Pine told Milo that they understood that he still thought about his birth parents, and that was okay. She invited him to talk about his feelings. Milo's Christmas traditions then began to go as usual, much to his delight.

## Appearances

Characters

* Addie Whitcher
* Assisting customs agents
* Ben Pine
* Brandon Levi
* Clem Candler
* Customs agents
* De Cary Vinge
* Eglantine Hereward
* Fenster Plum
* Georgie Moselle
* Ghosts
* Lizzie Caraway
* Milo Pine
* Nora Pine
* Odette Caraway
* Ostling
* Owen
* Wilbur Gowervine

Mentioned characters

* Caroline Bluecrowne
* Doc Holystone
* Deacon and Morvengarde
* Ed Pickering
* Gallick
* Gentleman Maxwell
* Julian Roamer
* Lucy Bluecrowne
* Liao Bluecrowne
* Lowell Skellansen
* Madeleine Caraway
* Mrs. Gallick
* Paul Gallick
* Richard Bluecrowne
* Roamers
* Seiche
* The Devil
* Violet Cross
* Xiaoming

Objects

* *Albatross*
* Cigar-box camera
* Cloak of Golden Indiscernibility
* Ditty bag
* Eyes of True and Aching Clarity
* Gate
* Gems of Ultimate Puissance
* Helm of Revelations
* Julian's lantern
* Lansdegown keys
* Nautical chart
* Rucksack
* Ship chandelier
* Sirin figurine
* *The Skidwrack: A Visual History*
* *Whilforber Whirlwind*
* Wildthorn's Crackerjack Gauntlets
* *Works, Being the Fifth Catalog*

Culture

* *Aunt Lucy's Counterpane Book*
* *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*
* Odd Trails
* *Only a Fool Scoffs at Destiny*

Locations

* Nagspeake
	+ Belowground Transit System
		- Sanctuary Cliff
	+ Magothy Bay
	+ Printer's Quarter
		- Lucksmith Paper Merchants
	+ Shantytown
	+ Skidwrack River
	+ Quayside Harbors
	+ Whilforber Hill
		- Ferrous Sanctus Monastery
		- Greenglass House
			* The Emporium
		- *Whilforber Whirlwind*
* Broadyew Cottage

## Trivia

* The dedication reads: *"To my family, near and far, with thanks for all my childhood Christmases; To Reagan, Hadley, Phero, Oliver, Griffin, and the one we call Amelia, adventurers all; To Emma, who twisted my arm and made me fix the things that didn't work; And to Grandmoo, because it's her favorite."*
* Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery
* A *New York Times* Bestseller
* *Greenglass House* has fifteen chapters.
* Kate Milford wanted to write a book about an adopted character because her family has adopted child.
* Kate Milford started writing *Greenglass House* in 2011, on a prompt from her critique group, "Stained glass".
* *Greenglass House*'s pages are decorated with snowflakes.
* The book title and the chapter titles are set in the font Ulsteros.

## Gallery

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## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 *Greenglass House*
3. ↑ https://www.whatfontis.com/