by K C Norrie
I thought about the potion given to Rondonna and shuddered.
We walked in silence for a while. I tried to find my voice and phrase my question, but Lucas brought up the subject first.
"As long as I can remember, I was told we had big rats in the cellar and to never go down there. 'That door is kept locked for a reason!' they told me.
"I was firmly told this by both Bates and Madame Anders. I obeyed. At one time I thought my father worked for Bates and Madame Anders and didn't want to cause him trouble. As a young boy I imagined rats as nearly as big as myself and worried that Bates might one day forget to lock the door. I checked it each night before going to bed. Thankfully, Bates never forgot. As I grew older, I spent more time in Paris than at Chateau de Riene and I was also away at school much of the time. I thought of Paris as my real home. I learned to ignore the locked door at the Chateau.
One day I discovered that they had hired this very pretty maid, and I began looking forward to our visits to Chateau de Riene. In fact, I spent so much time thinking of that pretty maid that I nearly forgot all about the dungeon until that day she asked."
He stopped walking and looked at me.
"When we return to Chateau de Riene, we shall demand entrance into the dungeon and see it with our own eyes. Perhaps then, we could put our nightmares to rest."
I thought not—but then he kissed me under the stars on that cold dark night in Paris, and I thought only about how blessed I was.
Chapter 39
It was an early winter again in Saint Ange. Word traveled from the village that the Chateau was inaccessible. There were no telephones at the Chateau and no way to send a message. Lucas worried about his father.
"He has too many unhappy memories there. He grows dismal and morose without me to cheer him up."
When the thaw at the Chateau finally arrived, the weather turned bad in Paris, so our arrival at Chateau de Riene was further delayed.
Nothing could have prepared us for what we found when we arrived.
****
It took us a day to travel by train from Paris to Montory. For me it was exciting. My eyes took in all the sights with pleasure. By the time we arrived and arranged for transport to Saint Ange it was nearing dark.
"Are you sure you would not like to wait until morning?" asked the proprietor of the business we had rented an automobile from. We were settled to leave with our luggage packed away in the trunk.
"We have wonderful accommodations here in Montory. You could leave first thing in the morning. If you leave now, it will be full dark before you arrive in Saint Ange. The road will be icy and dangerous."
Gable wavered. He was looking at me and weighing the danger.
"It is just that I am worried about my father," he answered. "Though perhaps I should find accommodations for my wife."
"We go together or not at all," I told him.
"In that case we go," said Lucas.
An hour or so into our journey the sun dropped behind the mountains and Lucas switched on the headlamps. We arrived in Saint Ange in the dark beneath a shadow of trepidation. There was no moon. We could see Chateau de Riene sitting high on the mountain, only visible because it was back dropped by the white of the snow. She loomed there dark and unwelcoming.
"Something is wrong," said Lucas quietly. "The window lanterns are always lit."
We rang the bell at a horse livery. There was still a need in those days. Not everyone had automobiles. The stable boy who answered did not recognize us and appeared too sleepy to wonder why we needed a horse and sleigh at this time of night. We transferred our luggage to the sleigh and set off wrapped in coats and blankets, leaving the rented automobile with written instructions to return it to Montory. Two lanterns attached to the sleigh, lit the way
We had to travel slowly, as the uphill climb was treacherous for the horse. The closer we came, the more I felt the Chateau de Riene had died.
****
Lucas readied a gun he carried for protection and stepped down from the sleigh and looking around. The snow on the ground showed no footprints.
The horse began to stamp and whicker.
"Monsieur Lucas!" a man's voice said from the darkness.
We startled in fear. I raised a lantern and Lucas raised his gun toward the voice.
A man stepped into the lantern light.
It was only Rafe who cared for the horses and lived in the carriage house.
"I didn't mean to startle you," he said. "I've been watching for you, waiting, and I saw your lights coming up the path. I knew you would be returning soon." He seemed relieved to see us.
A second man stepped into the light. Sauli. The boy who cleaned the horse stalls. He had grown much since I had last seen him. He was now taller than Rafe. He stood quietly beside him and nodded to us.
A cold wind kicked up blowing our cloaks about and a wolf began to howl its forlorn wail from somewhere in the distance and I thought of the white wolf.
"Come," said Rafe. "We have refreshments at the carriage house, and you must be hungry after your journey. Sauli can see to your horse." He looked up at the Chateau. "Chateau de Riene is unwelcoming in the dark and we need to talk. Let's wait until morning to visit her." Then he turned and started off down the path to the carriage house, as we followed.
Maybe it was fatigue or the emotion of being back in Saint Ange or the vision of Chateau de Riene towering in the shadows, empty of light; but as we walked toward the carriage house, I experienced a peculiar sensation of bats hovering and fluttering their papery wings high above our heads. Hundreds of them. I looked up and couldn't see them, but I felt them. I shivered beneath Lucas's arm across my shoulder. He mistook it for cold, but it was fear.
At last we were warm and seated around a table in the carriage house, a veritable feast in front of us. The safety of the carriage house brought out an appetite in me. There was bread, olives and cheese. Rafe poured hot red tea. I had missed its flavor.
Lucas found some brandy and poured a little into each of our cups. Sauli joined us moments later and Rafe began to talk.
"There have been peculiar happenings since Monsieur Traver returned with Gwendolyn several months ago. Winter came early this year, and they arrived during a snowstorm.
"A few weeks after their return, my key to the Chateau disappeared. When I asked Bates for another, he told me other's keys have disappeared. He didn't understand it, but he had his suspicions. He told me he would get me another, but he never did. A few weeks after that during breakfast someone let out that the door to the cellar would not stay locked or even closed. They found it gaping open all the times of the day. Bates would close and lock it, only to find it opened again later. Everyone was nervous. They said the Chateau was being haunted by those two girls who disappeared last winter. You remember them Louise? I mean Madame Montrell." He blushed and looked down.
Lucas looked at me. "What girls?" he asked. I told Lucas only what Rafe and Sauli would have already known. That we watched both Charmaine and Rondonna being led away by Madame Anders never to be seen again. "But I found Charmaine in Paris. She is working at the Paris residence."
Rafe brightened a little. "Well that's what Madame Anders and Bates claimed. They told us the girls were in Paris. No one believed them though." He paused before asking, "What about the other girl. What about Rondonna? Is she in Paris as well?" he asked.
They all looked to me. "I do not know where she is, Charmaine would not tell me," I lied, though I told myself it was not a lie. It was not a lie because in spite of Charmaine's story; I wanted to find a rational explanation for what happened. I had hoped to find one while I was here at the Chateau. Therefore, I did not know where Rondonna was.
Rafe continued. "Another string of snowstorms with the howling wind and a big drop in temperatures kept Sauli, and me confined to the carriage house for weeks. We've been all right though. We had enough food for us and feed for the horses. We kept a lit lantern up on a post, the signal to let the Chateau to know
we were okay, but you both know that. The one they kept lit on the top floor, to let us know things were okay at the Chateau… " He paused again and looked sadly at Lucas. "It hasn't been lit for a while. When the weather cleared enough, we hiked up there, but I had no key to the front entrance, and no one answered the door. The back was inaccessible at the time, but we never came back to check. We decided to wait for you. She's been dark these past seven weeks. We don't know what has happened."
We went through the motions of going to sleep. The carriage house held accommodations for the drivers of visitors and guests of the Chateau, so cots and blankets were easily found for us. Lucas and I pushed our cots close together, and I lay with my arms around him and my eyes open all night waiting for morning light to appear in the windows. While I waited, I thought about all the grand parties that must have been held at the Chateau long ago, envisioning the unused ballroom filled with men and women in beautiful costumes and gowns and grand ballroom music escaping out into a starry night to be heard by the sleeping groomsmen at the carriage house.
When the night disappeared enough, we all got up. It was time to find out why all the lights had gone out in the Chateau de Riene.
****
Lucas unlocked the entrance door. We stepped inside, closing its massiveness behind us. In the dim entryway we saw nothing amiss. We just stood there looking and listening.
It was silent. No one came to greet us. Rafe brought out a gun and kept it drawn. So did Lucas. Sound did not travel well within the Chateau. We heard ourselves and nothing more, but our ears were amplified, so every footstep and rustle we made seemed to reverberate throughout the Chateau.
We walked up to the family quarters, looking first for Lucas's father, Monsieur Traver. We searched all the rooms. Merena's room was open and unlocked. I glanced in, noting its description as Aubrina had described to me last winter. Monsieur Traver was not found. Neither was Gwendolyn, but something had happened in the family parlor, because we found bloodstains on the rug, that someone had tried to wash away.
Next, we headed toward the staff rooms on the other side of the Chateau, our footsteps echoing through the vast emptiness. It was here that we ascertained signs of departure. Doors and cupboards were left open, their contents rifled through or taken away. Things not needed were abandoned here or there and not returned to their proper places. I picked up a hat from the floor and wondered who it belonged to.
"Has everyone left?"
"Where would have they have gone?
Lucas opened the door to Bates room, and I hurried over to catch a peek, curious; as I had never seen his room before. A small fireplace held ashes; an open journal lay at a neat desk. The bed had been hastily made. I wondered what would make Bates leave his journal. As Lucas turned to leave, I picked it up and placed it in my pocket.
Inspection of Madame Anders room suggested that she too, left without taking her possessions.
"Let's check the kitchen," said Lucas.
We turned and made our way back down the stairs to the ground floor and through the gallery that led to the kitchen, but the locked cellar door confronted us first, challenging us to enter if we dared. Lucas and I shared a look, and he pulled out the key.
When we started down the stairs, Sauli and I carried two lanterns apiece and Lucas and Rafe each held a gun.
I was afraid.
The stairs were steep and small. I wondered about Bates and how he managed to not trip and fall all these years. When we reached the bottom step, Sauli and I shone the lanterns around. I held my lantern high checking the ceiling above us, alarmed over the infinite number of cobwebs hanging over our heads. Likely they concealed infinite spiders.
There was only one direction, and that was forward. We stepped into the dark, shining our lights everywhere looking at everything. I thought about the rats. I watched for them through the dimness of the lights. My heart pounded in my ears. I thought of Charmaine's account of hearing noise from within the dark that she thought came from Aubrina and me. When I heard sounds arising from just on the other side of the darkness, I began to tremble.
Lucas turned to me and took one of my lanterns. He asked me to wait. I refused and remained by his side. He tried to convince me to walk behind him while he took the lead. Again, I refused, so we walked together toward something in the dark, Rafe and Sauli close behind us, all of us refusing to turn back, refusing to relent to fear.
We passed by many dungeon cells. The lanterns illuminated iron bars with dark dank places glimpsing out from behind. I thought I perceived movement in a cell as Sauli's lantern briefly brushed by it, but because I didn't understand what may have happened yet, we walked on by. I believed the movement came from one of the large rats and was frightened. We advanced toward the guttural sounds growing louder as we stepped closer. We shone our lights low on the floor on the path just in front of us, watching out for things that could trip us. I expected to see things that scuttled or slithered. When we got close enough, we stopped and lifted our lights.
We gasped at the gruesomeness of what appeared before us. Three separate dungeon cells were occupied by what Monsieur Traver had described as "beautiful night creatures." They were snarling at us and gnashing grotesque mouths, trying to bite.
The first was surely, Lucas's mother, Merena. She was dressed in a once beautiful silk gown, now beginning to rot and tatter. Her skin had dried into a roughened grayish rind and her blond hair was sparse with a jeweled tiara somehow still in place.
The second held Rondonna. I could tell by her red hair. She must have been wearing the same nightgown she had been wearing when Charmaine had seen her last.
The third held a young woman whom I did not know, with blood stains on her maid's uniform. Her neck had been ripped open and gaped empty as her head attempted to stretch toward us.
"Henrietta!" exclaimed Sauli.
But how could this be? These people should be dead. How was it not so? The bars were wide enough apart for the frightful things to stick their heads through as they were doing now. Their heads bobbed as they bared their fangs and tried to bite at us. Little grotesque sounds emanated from their throats and someone was screaming. I didn't realize it was me until Lucas began to drag me back towards the stairs. Three gunshots burst from behind us. I escaped from Lucas's arms with my lantern and ran back to see the three dead bodies of the night creatures on the floors of their cells. All three were still and silent.
"They will not come back," whispered Rafe into the silence. "May their mortal souls forever rest in peace."
We held our lanterns high checking each dark dungeon cell as we traced our steps back the way we had come. Each was empty until we reached the end where I thought I had seen a big rat. Lucas held a lantern high.
Bates! He reached out the bars for us, his mouth looking for something to bite. No plate of beef would ever be brought to him on a domed plate and it saddened me.
In the cell next to him, was Monsieur Traver—his chest a mass of gore. He had changed into a beautiful night creature himself somehow. His fangs gnashed toward Lucas who stood the closest. His eyeballs were nearly colorless. Lucas took a step closer.
"Father," he whispered in recognition.
An explosion silenced the creatures as Rafe lifted his pistol and shot Monsieur Traver through his head, then Bates. The bodies dropped to the floor, stilled.
"May your souls rest in peace Monsieur Bates, Monsieur Traver," said Rafe. Tears welled in his eyes.
****
Once up the stairs we went to check the kitchen only to find we could not enter.
"The doors are barricaded from the inside," Rafe said.
The four of us pounded and shouted at each of the four entrances hoping for someone to answer.
"We'll have to try from the outside," said Lucas.
We stepped out the front entrance and made our way around to the rear of the Chateau. The brightness of the sunlight reflecting on the snow and blueness of the sky was unsettling in contrast to the horro
r we had just discovered.
We found the rear door closed but unlocked. Rafe and Lucas drew their guns and beckoned Sauli to push the door open. Lucas held me firmly behind him, though I struggled to see. Sauli shoved the door open and jumped back, but nothing happened.
"Hello! Is anyone here?"
No answer came forth, so we crept in.
The kitchen told a story. There was no one here now, but there had been. Heavy furniture had been placed against the doors preventing entrance and I had to wonder from what. The pantry had been raided, and extra chairs had been brought in with pillows from the beds upstairs. Whoever had been here must have exited through the kitchen door. They knew we would come, and they'd readied the room for our arrival. A fire had been laid. I caught sight of the big teapot and decided we could all use a cup, while deciding our next move. That's when I noticed the two letters addressed to me. I placed them in my pocket along with Bates journal and began to heat the water.
When the tea was finished, we sat at the staff table and I began to read. I started with Bates Journal.
Chapter 40
Bates Journal
November 15,
The winter weather arrived more than three weeks early this year. A blizzard caught us by surprise. We've already had to make accommodations to keep the daytime help confined here in the Chateau instead of sending them home. The path leading down to Saint Ange is already too treacherous for travel and will probably remain so for many weeks to come.
~*~*~*~*~
November 16,
Monsieur Traver and Mademoiselle Gwendolyn arrived unexpectedly from Paris this morning. I don't know how they made it up the mountain path. It was from out of a white windy storm that the front door opened and there they were. Luckily Rafe and Sauli were both here to see to their frozen horses. Rafe and Sauli also raided the larder and loaded the horse cart with extra food and supplies from the stockroom before the path from the carriage house to here becomes too hazardous as it does most every winter.
