A Bird in the House

Two weeks before her due date, Beth MacLeod is hospitalized. Overhearing her mother’s cries and her father Ewen’s phone conversation with Dr. Cates, Vanessa learns the baby is in a precarious position.

Ewen encounters his mother, Grandmother MacLeod, at the staircase. She criticizes him for not hiring additional help for Beth. Although frustrated, Ewen avoids an argument and welcomes Dr. Cates into their home. Beth reassures Vanessa that Grandmother MacLeod will manage the household despite the early arrival.

Vanessa keeps her fears about the house to herself, haunted by the presence of her deceased Uncle Roderick, the unborn sister, and her grandfather. She mistakes a portrait of the Duke of Wellington for her grandfather.

The family had moved into Grandmother MacLeod’s home during the economic downturn when she could no longer afford a maid. To Vanessa, the ornate Victorian house never feels like home; it is filled with forbidden rooms, including her grandmother’s bedroom, which is adorned with beauty products and photographs of Roderick.

In the living room, valuable items like a Chinese carpet with birds and waterlilies make Beth nervous about Vanessa being too close, which annoys Ewen.

One day, after Vanessa emerges from the attic with a dust smudge, Grandmother MacLeod scolds her for being unclean.