by John Harding
Then we removed the four thick planks, one by one. These were not so heavy and when Theo began coughing after the third one, I slid the fourth off on my own. When we were done Theo looked down into the well and whistled. ‘Phew! That’s some hole. Does it even have a bottom?’
I didn’t answer, for the less said about the well the better. I took his hand and carefulled him back around to the front of the house and in through the front door.
‘Say, what happened to the mirror?’ he said, seeing the empty frame.
‘I smashed it.’ I prouded. ‘I had to make sure she couldn’t see what I was up to.’
‘And what are you up to?’ He stood curiousing me one. ‘What’s all that business with the well for?’
I put a finger to his lips to quieten him. ‘No talking now,’ I whispered. ‘I have no idea where she is. She was in the stables but she may have finished there by this time. Follow me and don’t say another word.’
Checking carefully first at the corner at the end of the hall that we coast-cleared, I led him into the long corridor and down to the other end, where we outed and came to the bottom of the stairs to the tower and I started to banister up. When I was halfway I stopped and beckoned Theo, who stood looking up at me, evidently exhausted. ‘Well, don’t just stand there, come on!’
A moment later we were up in the tower. Giles still peacefulled on the floor, his breath rising and falling nice and steady, which relieved me quite. Theo looked from my brother to me. ‘Chloroform,’ I said. I showed him the bottle and the cloth. ‘Stay here and keep watch over him. If he starts to wake, give him another dose.’
Theo took the cloth and sniffed it, dropped it and immediately began to cough. He slid to the floor deathly pale and gasping. Sitting with his back to the wall, he fumbled his spray bottle from his pocket and gave himself another blast, which seemed to quiet him. He set his spray down on the floor beside him.
‘Theo, just rest for a while. I’ll be back directly!’ I said. I lifted the trapdoor and back downstairsed fast as I could. I long-corridored and outed the back door. I reached the stables just as Miss Taylor was coming out and I guessed that the trap was now all harnessed up.
‘Miss Taylor! Miss Taylor!’ I screamed. ‘Come quick! It’s Giles! He’s had an accident!’
Her face went pale as the corpse I knew she had been. ‘An accident, what do you mean?’
‘Please!’ I turned and began to run. ‘Just come!’
I pulled up my skirts and took off and fairly flew along the back of the building, giving her no time to think. I swear I felt her breath hot on my neck, so close behind me was she, but I had the speed of the devil and she could only just keep up. I stopped, panting so hard I could not speak. I held out a shaky hand, pointing at the well.
‘Giles…the well…I told him not to…’
She understood immediately, rushed to the wall around the well and bent over it. ‘Giles!’ she screamed. ‘Giles! Are you all right?’
I pushed her aside and climbed up onto the wall, resting on my knees, and held on to the pole that had once held the bucket rope so that I could swing my head right over the centre of the opening. ‘There he is!’ I shouted. ‘I can see him! I think he’s moving!’
‘Watch out, let me see!’ she said, tugging at my leg. I climbed down from the wall and in an instant she had replaced me, clambering up onto her knees and, with one hand holding on to the pole, stretched out her neck and peered down. ‘Where is he? I don’t see anything. Giles! Giles!’
I cast around and saw a hefty branch lying by the well. I picked it up and swung it hard and struck the hand that was holding the pole. I swear I hit it so hard you could hear her metacarpals snap, but she hung on for dear life, her knuckles white as bone. I swung again and caught her another one even harder than the first. There was another crack and her fingers uncurled from around the pole. I dropped the wood and flung my full weight at her and with both hands gave her such a shove that over she went, into the well. She was gone with a single scream. I had Hansel and Gretelled her with one magnificent blow.
I peered over the edge of the well. There was nothing but blackness, a deep hole that might go to the very centre of the earth, for all I knew. My whole body, my torso, down to my fingers and toes, was shaking with the triumph of it all and also with the fear. For I knew not what powers the fiend had. I knew she could not be killed, for she was already dead. But it possibled she might know how to fly. I lifted the end of one of the wooden planks and dragged it over the edge of the wall. Resting it there, I went to the other end, lifted it and slid it across the chasm, so that it ended up resting on the wall on either side, as it had been before. I did the same with the remaining planks until the opening was covered quite. In this fashion I would know if she had escaped while I was gone. Then I betook me back to the house.
I made my way straight up to the governess’s room. Her two valises were on her bed, both closed. I prayed they would not be locked and it fortuned so. I opened the one containing Giles’s clothes, removed them and took them next door into his room, where I put them away. I opened the other valise. I looked around the room and found her hat, coat and purse, but everything else was packed. I opened her purse, found some money and took it all. Then I put the purse and the coat into the valise that had contained Giles’s things. Making sure both valises were fastened tight again I took them downstairs and out the back door to the well. I relieved to see none of the planks had been moved. Unless she possessed the power to pass through solid objects, which I had seen no sign of, she must be still trapped. I took the end of one of the planks and manoeuvred it onto the one next to it, heart in mouth, for any moment I expected her to come shooting out like a genie released from a bottle, but nothing occurred. I took first one valise and then the other and dropped them through the gap I had made. Then I manipulated the plank back into position and headed back to the tower.
When I put my head through the trapdoor, Theo was where I had left him, his spray bottle by his side. He had that ready-for-the-oven-chickenskin look about him again and his breath rasped like a file. But something else stranged too, something in the way he looked at me, that somehow mixed fear with disdain.
‘Theo, I know you’re poorly,’ I said, ‘but I need your help again and I must have it now.’
‘Very well.’ He spoke like someone in a dream as if not really connecting with what I said. With a great effort, he dragged himself to his feet and followed me to the trapdoor. I quicked one at Giles, saw that he still peacefulled and then descended.
Theo stumbled twice on the stairs and had difficulty climbing over the banister rail, but I urged him on, for I could not have him quitting on me now. For the first thing anyone familiar with Blithe, such as John, would ask would be, who moved the stones?
I helped Theo around the house as if he were the one with the bad ankle now. We came at last to the well. I was relieved to see my four planks still in place, evidently undisturbed. ‘Help me lift the stones,’ I told Theo. Without a word, like a dead man with no expression or an automaton with no will of its own, he bent and took one side of the top slab of the pile we had made. I took the other and we began to lift. It was much, much harder than before, because then we had simply slid the stone from the pile and put it down. Now we were actually lifting it from the ground. I seemed to have the strength of a hundred men, which I put down to the excitement that was coursing through my veins. Theo, though, had only that of a pale and trembling boy. Nevertheless, he bent himself bravely to the task, his face a grimace of agony. In this fashion we lifted the first slab onto the planks. No sooner did we have it in place than Theo started coughing, as though he had been holding off all this time. He patted his pockets, but didn’t take out his spray. He shrugged, got the fit under control and we commenced on the second stone. By the time we had that in place, Theo was coughing all the time, but I drove him on. It seemed to take an age, but at last we had three slabs in position and were nearly finished with the fourth, but
just as we were levering it onto the one below, Theo staggered and let go where he was holding it, so that I had the whole weight on my own. I near dropped it on my foot, which surely would have broken every bone in it, so suddenly did Theo release it, but I pulled myself together just in time and, thrusting my body against the edge of the slab, with a loud cry from the very effort of it, slid it into position.
Theo was now coughing uncontrollably. ‘Theo, use your spray!’ I cried.
‘I cannot.’ He sucked in air with a terrible wheezing noise. ‘I left it – I – I – I left it – up in the – in the tower.’
I put my shoulder under his and arounded him the side of the house. We went in through the back door and made our way to the foot of the tower. I lowered him gently to the ground, leaning him against the wall. ‘Theo, wait here, I’ll go fetch the spray.’
I upbanistered and hauled my tired body over it and onto the stairs, pausing to look back at Theo, who paled and lifelessed against the wall, no longer coughing, but panting like a runner after a long race, or the way that when you caught a fish and laid it on the ground beside the lake and watched it, it would gasp as if for air until it expired. I turned and ran up the stairs. In the tower room I made straight for the spray and on the way noted that Giles still peacefulled and breathed nice and steady. I was about to go down through the trapdoor when something suddenly anxioused me, some thought I could not at first identify.
Then there it was, that look Theo had given me when I returned to the tower room, that fear of me in his eyes, followed by the resigned way he had followed me and helped me with the planks and stones. What could it mean?
I suddened an instinct and walked across the room and looked out the back window. Below me I saw the well, perfectly in view. I knew then that not so long before, Theo had stood here. And I knew that he had seen. And I knew Theo. If there were any doubt about what he thought of my action he would have remonstrated with me, he would have refused to help me. It obvioused why he had not. It was that fear I’d seen in his eyes. He had gone along with what he considered my madness because it was the safest and easiest way. It meant one thing. As soon as he awayed from Blithe, he would tell.
I outed the trapdoor and downstairsed. From the top step of the last flight I looked down and saw Theo, all white and waxy, panting out his life. ‘Florence, hurry!’ he gasped. ‘Please hurry!’
I did not move.
He repeated his plea. ‘Florence, please! Why are you just standing there, please!’
I did not move and watched in horror. Seeing me statue like that, he began to push himself up. He fell forward, flat on his face, and I all but rushed down to help him, for I thought he was near done for, but then his body twitched and he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, like a dog, head hanging loose between his arms. ‘Florence…’ His voice scratched the air and it was like someone cheesegrating my soul. ‘Florence…’
He pushed with his hands and got himself upright. He managed to get one foot on the ground, so he was now only on one knee, like a suitor popping the question, only what he said was, ‘Florence, don’t do this! I didn’t see a thing! I won’t say a word.’ The effort of talking was too much and he commenced to coughing so brutally it painfulled me quite too. Somehow, with what reserves of strength I do not know, he got himself onto his feet.
He staggered toward the stairs. I backed away and leaned against the wall behind me, watching in horror as he advanced. He reached the stairs and all but collapsed against them, sliding down, but at the last moment clutched the rail with his hands and then, after a dreadful pause, hauled himself upright again. ‘Florence!’ His voice sawed through my heart.
I made no reply and he lifted one foot and put it between two of the banisters. Pulling hard with his hands, he hauled himself up and got his other foot between another two banisters; resting the weight of his long body over them, he reached out a bony, plaintive hand. ‘Florence, please, give it to me!’
I held fast against the wall, clutching the flask behind me. I watched in dread as he lifted one leg like a drunk trying to mount a horse and, after two or three futile efforts, threw it over the banisters. He pushed up with the other foot and got his body on top of the banisters. He lay there, one leg and one arm either side, resting on the rail. He tried to say something but the word or words just gargled and died in his throat. His breath gave one tremendous last rasp and then there was nothing but silence. Poor Theo, my poor heron boy, who used to graceful on the frozen lake; poor, poor Theo would skate no more.
30
My first difficulty was to downstairs without disturbing Theo. His dying on me like this had not been part of my plan, but now that it had happened I recognised it had necessaried all along; for his straightforward nature would never have been equal to the task of maintaining my secret. I overed to him and put my ear to his side. There was no sound from those poor tired-out lungs. It mercifulled that after so much misery they were now at rest. I lifted his head a little and pressed my lips to his and gentled him the kiss he had always craved but never properly received. It took but a moment; I had no more time to lose. I slipped the spray bottle into the pocket of his jacket and went up a few steps. I overed the banisters. I could not use them to get down to the ground because Theo was in the way. I did not want to push his body off the banister because already a plan was forming in my mind which necessitated him remaining where he was. I was here some ten feet from the ground and there was nothing for it but to jump. I deep-breathed, closed my eyes and let go. I landed hard and my right ankle, the one that had been injured before, so sored I thought I had broke it, so that for a moment I anxioused putting my weight on it, in which case I would be trapped and have some mighty difficult explaining to do. I got myself up and slowly let my weight onto my right foot and was relieved that although it pained me some, it did not prevent me walking.
It was now dark, but it fortuned the sky had all but cleared, with only a few rags of cloud remaining and the full moon gave me good light. I went to the barn and found John’s wheelbarrow. I wheeled it in through the back door and along the corridor to the bottom of the tower. I set it down beside the staircase directly below Theo. Then I hauled myself up the bottom two banisters and tugged him off. He fell like a sack of potatoes straight into the barrow. I clambered back down and took the handles of the wheelbarrow, silentpraying that I would be able to lift them, for I did not know if I could manage Theo’s weight.
I deep-breathed again and lifted and surprised me; he seemed to weigh no more than a sparrow, and as I pushed him back along the corridor and out the back door I thought how weak and frail his illness had made him. He was long but he was not broad, and that was my good luck. I took him into the barn and wheeled the barrow up the loading ramp that John used for horse and chicken feed and the like. It was a hard push, light as Theo was, up the incline, but I just put my head down and ran right at it and was up it in no more than a few seconds. I left the wheelbarrow and its contents there and next-doored to the stables, where Bluebird was waiting patiently, all harnessed up to the trap. I took his bridle and, stroking him and whispering kindly to him, led him into the barn, where I positioned him so the trap was below the loading bay. Still crooning to him softly, I climbed up onto the seat of the trap and put on the brake. Then I jumped down, went up onto the loading bay, took the handles of the wheelbarrow, turned it to face the trap and with one almighty shove tipped it up so that Theo tumbled down into the back of it.
I had to rest me a moment or two after that. I was sweating and panting. I went to the apple barrel, took one out and offered it to Bluebird. After he’d finished it and having certained that he was content, I went back up the ramp, got the wheelbarrow and took it back into the barn, leaving it as I had found it.
Then I went back into the house and made my way up into the tower. Giles was still sleeping, although now he restlessed a little and murmured to himself. I took the cloth with the chloroform on it and gave him another dose, but only a
quick one this time, for I feared giving him too much. I waited a few minutes to certain he was breathing easily and normally and then slipped out of the tower and up to the governess’s room to fetch the money and the other item I had taken from her bag. I went to my own room and put on my black cloak.
I returned to the barn, took Bluebird’s bridle and led him outside. I mounted the driver’s seat and gentled the reins so that he began to trot. The wind had dropped and the night was crisp and clear and the moonlight showed me the way almost as plain as day. Bluebird of course knew the road to town, it was almost the only place he ever took the trap, so I had little need to steer until we reached the drive to the Van Hoosier place. I turned into it and made my way about halfway up it. I dared not go any further lest Theo’s tutor or the servants hear the noise of Bluebird’s hooves.
I had Bluebird turn around, so the back of the trap was facing the edge of the woods, and then I put on the brake and climbed into the back. Somehow Theo seemed to have grown heavier in the hour or so since I had wheeled him up the ramp, or perhaps it happened that I had weakened from all my exertions, but it took me some considerable time to manhandle his body over the edge of the trap. All the while I heart-in-mouthed, fearing someone might come. It was now well into the evening and I reckoned it to be long past the time Theo should have been home for supper. The servants might be searching for him already and if they found me here, all would be up with me.
But at last it was done. I was so tired I would fain have laid me down there and then and slept, but I knew I could not. I mounted the box again, took off the brake and flicked the reins to gee up Bluebird. I greatly relieved to turn again onto the main road; the greater the distance between me and Theo, the better.
