The House of Hopes and Dreams

by Trisha Ashley

  ‘I think you’re right,’ I said. ‘But will he make her do it?’

  Until that moment, I don’t think I’d entirely believed in my own theories so I sat there quite stunned for a moment until the guttering and sudden extinguishing of the candle in the lantern recalled me to my senses.

  It was almost time for luncheon and soon Honoria would be in search of me. I could do nothing without a fresh candle, so I managed to close up the panel after a small struggle, then went through the turret to the house, intending to return as soon as I could.

  I could hardly contain myself during lunch, and when I was supposed to be lying down on my bed for an hour to rest (at Honoria’s insistence – she took great care of me and, I believe, looked forward to the arrival of the baby more than I did!), I instead sneaked off back into the old wing with a fresh candle in my lantern.

  38

  Black Holes

  Carey went to find Clem right after breakfast next day, wanting to get the unpleasant interview over, but when he reported back later, it hadn’t gone down that well.

  ‘He’s still insisting there’s no problem and Ella just has a bit of a bee in her bonnet about the old wing. He said the thought of what damage the electrician was going to cause when he started work in there soon was preying on her mind, too.’

  ‘Did you tell him how she behaved towards me yesterday, suddenly sneaking up and then being so rude?’

  ‘Yes, but he thinks you misunderstood her.’

  ‘Yeah, right!’

  ‘I explained that we both thought she was becoming increasingly disturbed and her visits to the old wing at odd hours weren’t something I was prepared to allow any more – it is part of my home, after all – and I wanted her key back.’

  ‘What did he say to that?’

  ‘He started to get angry and insisted I was being unreasonable, because she wasn’t doing any harm. It was all very difficult,’ he said heavily, running a hand through his red-gold hair. ‘In the end I said if she handed back her key, then I was prepared to allow her to go in on Fridays when the cleaners were there.’

  ‘That seems reasonable to me, though I doubt if she’ll see it like that.’

  ‘Until we do get her key back, I’d feel happier if you did any treasure hunting in daylight, Angel. I’m not saying she’s dangerous, but she does seem unbalanced and might make herself unpleasant again.’

  ‘OK. I’ve come to the conclusion it needs a methodical search in daylight anyway,’ I agreed. ‘And I’m pretty sure now that the clues refer to Lady Anne’s bedchamber, because the carved bosses look more like the Tudor roses in the window than the ones in the muniment room.’

  ‘Perhaps we should both take a few hours off later in the week and I’ll help you to look?’ he suggested. ‘Then we can decide if you’re on a wild-goose chase or not.’

  Even if he wouldn’t admit it, I could see a touch of Treasure Fever was sneaking up on him, too!

  I’d really been tinkering with the Brisbane cartoon for the last couple of days, reluctant to let it go until it was perfect.

  When Ivan arrived the following morning, I asked him what he thought. ‘I’m not sure about that bit at the top, where the first bit of white foam is turning into a bird,’ I said. ‘Maybe I should just—’

  ‘No, lass, you leave it alone,’ he interrupted me. ‘It’s finished.’

  I sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right. Come on, let’s take it down. I’ve got a big cardboard cylinder ready to pack it in, with a letter and some notes, though I’ll have to leave that till later, because I’ve got to go back up to the house first.’

  ‘I’ll pack it up for you,’ he offered.

  ‘That would be great, if you don’t mind – and then could you work on another of the roundels till it’s time to leave? I know you’re going home at lunchtime today.’

  ‘That’s right, it’s the Senior Citizens’ trip to Blackpool and I’ll not be back in till Monday, but I’ll have plenty of time to sort the cartoon and start the roundel before I go.’

  ‘I’ll leave you to it, then. And if I’m not back by the time you leave, just lock up when you go, because I’ll be down later and I’ll see to the alarm then. And have a lovely break in Blackpool!’

  ‘I’ll bring you a stick of rock,’ he promised.

  Carey had set off early that morning for an auction on the outskirts of Liverpool, where a couple of nice pieces of Arts and Crafts furniture were coming up, so I’d offered to be there when the workmen came to service and update the lift.

  In fact, the two men from Elevated Ideas arrived at the house just as I did and I took them through to the tower, where the electrician was already at work. He has a key, now he’s practically part of the family.

  I left them at the bottom of the lift shaft, deep in a discussion involving words like ‘motherboard’ and ‘fail-safe’, while I went to the kitchen to make tea. Fang was shut in there, just in case he took a dislike to the new workmen, though he rarely blotted his copybook these days.

  When I’d taken the tray through, I went back and had a cup of coffee, wandering into the studio with it and standing in front of the Lady Anne cartoon.

  Those flat, stylized Tudor roses were, I was sure, much more like those in the bedchamber …

  It was broad daylight and there were several workmen around, so the fear of being shut up in the old wing with Ella seemed suddenly slightly absurd. On impulse, I decided I’d pop through the upper tower and check those bosses out then and there.

  The bright day didn’t appear to have made it as far as the old wing, because even with the blinds up and the curtains drawn back, the haunted bedchamber was still gloomy and, as always, struck chill.

  I realized too late that I should have brought a torch. There was a tiny one on my keychain but the battery was dying, so the bulb had about as much power as an anaemic glow-worm.

  Still, I could see enough to tell that the bosses on the horizontal boards above the linenfold panelling were exactly the same as in the window, so presumably I needed only to find the correct sequence of three linenfold panels and a boss …

  That wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded, but the sequence had to start from some point, so I followed the panelling round the room with my glimmering light and noted that the run was broken by the fireplace, the two doors and the substantial headboard of the bed, which seemed to be fixed to the wall. That narrowed the search down a bit.

  Despite what Carey had said about us searching together, it was too irresistible not to have a little try and I’d just decided to go back to the kitchen for my big torch when the dying flicker of the one I was holding caught the knobbly carving of figures and a tree on the central panel of that huge wooden bedhead.

  Hadn’t Carey told me it looked like a man and a woman in a garden, when he first showed me round the house? How could I have forgotten that? Of course, it must be Adam and Eve! And now I was nearer, I could make out the sneaky serpent, too … and that the female figure – Eve – was holding out an apple to her spouse, which she seemed to have taken out of a very domestic-looking rush basket.

  Apples, basketwork … it was the missing sequence!

  The almost useless torch gave up entirely at this moment, but in rising excitement I kneeled on the bed and, putting my right hand on the apple and my left on the basket, tried twiddling, turning and pressing both until finally, with a creak of long disuse, a panel slid open in front of me and I was facing impenetrable darkness.

  I sensed there was a large cavity there, but in frustration realized I’d have to go back for the big torch before I could see anything.

  I hesitated – the door to the rest of the wing was locked, but even so, I thought I’d better close the panel again before I left the room, in case the workmen delayed my coming back. It was a bit of a struggle, more from disuse than anything, I think, but I managed.

  Back in the turret it was like a different world. I could hear voices and the lift door opening below, so the men w
ere still at it. I hurried along the landing and down the backstairs to the kitchen, where I’d grabbed a torch and was just about to run back, when the phone rang.

  I hesitated, but it was just as well I answered it, because it was Carey and the moment I heard his voice I excitedly poured out what I’d found.

  ‘I only came back for a torch, so I could have a look if there’s anything in there.’

  ‘I should be back in just over an hour, Angel. Couldn’t you wait till then? Or is that too much to hope for?’ he added, sounding amused.

  ‘I can’t wait,’ I confessed, ‘but I’ll only shine the torch in and if there’s anything there I’ll leave it where it is till you get back.’

  He laughed. ‘I doubt there will be anything there at all, so don’t get your hopes up.’

  ‘There might be, because after all, Lady Anne put the clues in the window that led me there.’

  ‘True, but her idea of what was important enough to conceal might not be valuable jewels,’ he suggested. ‘By the way, I’ve bought that bed frame and two of the chairs I wanted and I was only ringing you because there’s a small lot coming up soon that you might be interested in. A couple of broken Victorian leaded light panels with some very pretty moulded opalescent glass flowers in the central section. Would you like it for the pieces if it’s cheap?’

  ‘Yes, please,’ I said, momentarily distracted by a different kind of treasure.

  ‘Right – better go. Back soon.’

  Since it was his house and would be his treasure, should anything be there, I knew in fairness I really ought to wait for Carey before opening the panel again, but I simply couldn’t resist any longer!

  All was quiet in the turret room, though I could hear voices moving away, so the workmen were probably going for a break and we’d just missed each other.

  I noticed Fang was following me only when I opened the door into the haunted room, because he started whining on the other side when I shut it. There was no point in opening it for him, though, because he wouldn’t enter the old wing.

  Perhaps he knew something I didn’t.

  The room was much as I’d left it, with the curtains drawn and the blinds up, though a weak wintry light was now banding the wooden floor.

  I kneeled on the bed and opened the cavity quite easily this time, before shining the powerful torch into it.

  It was larger than I expected, perhaps five feet square, so a man could have crouched there to hide, even if not in any comfort.

  At first glance it seemed disappointingly bare. I directed the bright beam into every corner and finally along a kind of step or shelf just below the opening … and there, at the back, spotted a long, narrow shape – a package of some kind. I reached down and picked it up, finding it disappointingly light. It certainly wasn’t the Jewel! I shoved it down my dungaree bib before leaning in further to see if there was anything else I’d missed, perhaps hidden by the jut of the shelf.

  Behind me, Fang’s whines turned all at once into a volley of sharp barks. Then suddenly my legs were grabbed and I was violently tipped forward into the hole.

  For a brief instant I seemed to fly. Then my head hit the far wall and everything went black.

  I managed to open the panel quite easily this time and shone my light inside, finding it to be quite large. At first it appeared to be entirely empty, until on looking downwards I saw a small packet resting below the opening on a stone shelf.

  I seized it, but it was disappointingly light – certainly not heavy enough to contain the Jewel! In fact, it felt more like a roll of paper sewn into a wrapping of some thick material.

  It was quite dampening: Father might have been quite right about my pregnancy giving me fantastical notions after all, though at least I had found something!

  I cast the lantern about once more, to be certain there was nothing further there, and then closed the opening.

  Until I’d examined my find further, I didn’t want to share my discovery with anyone so, tucking it beneath my shawl, I made my way back to my bedchamber, where I snipped the stitches of the wrapping, revealing, as I expected, a roll of paper. It was long, and covered on both sides with writing in a fine italic hand, though in an archaic form, with many strange spellings, that was at first difficult to decipher. But eventually I made out at the top the words: ‘Being the true confession of Lady Anne Revell, in the year of our Lord, 1655.’

  I could not imagine what Lady Anne might have had to confess, unless they were sins of a religious nature? I determined I would secretly decipher and copy it out in the evenings after I retired to bed, the only time when I was sure of being undisturbed.

  39

  Down and Out

  I don’t know how long I was out for, but I woke in a crumpled heap in utter darkness, dazed, confused and with a grazed forehead.

  After a few minutes I pulled myself together and sat up, my back against one wall, and waited for the dizziness to pass. Then I explored with my fingertips for the torch, but it wasn’t there – whoever shoved me in must have taken it … and suddenly I wondered if they’d taken anything else? But no, the mysterious package, which felt like a roll of paper wrapped in stiff fabric, was still tucked into the bib of my dungarees.

  I didn’t need evidence to feel totally certain that it was Ella who’d tipped me in there. She must have had a key to the room and had crept in while I was leaning right into the hole, searching the further corners. Presumably she’d thought I’d only just that minute found it and must have been disappointed not to find any hidden treasures once I was out for the count, though at least that meant she hadn’t thought to search me.

  She’d managed to shut the panel and then left me there … for ever?

  Suddenly a wave of panic swept over me – the ghastly, buried-alive feeling of nightmares. I felt the heaviness of the walls pressing in and wondered how much air I had left to breathe.

  Then I remembered that Carey was probably already on his way home and if there was no sign of me waiting for him, he’d surely come looking?

  Very, very faint and far off, I heard a sharp yapping. ‘You tell them, Fang,’ I muttered and the panic receded slightly.

  I groped my way dizzily upwards and kneeled on the stone shelf, fingering the very thick wooden back of the headboard. I didn’t rap on it, in case Ella was still in the bedchamber – I mean, how horrible would it be if she rapped back … or something rapped back? But I did explore it with my fingertips, to see if there was a way of opening it from this side, though eventually I gave up this fruitless search and slumped back into the corner.

  That was when my mind really began to play tricks on me. I was sure I could hear stealthy movements in the room beyond the panel and voices muttering … and finally, a faint, dreadful scream that was quickly and horribly cut off.

  I expect I was wide-eyed with terror and pale as a ghost myself when suddenly the panel opened and I found myself looking up into Carey’s beloved and anxious face.

  ‘Shrimp!’ he exclaimed, his expression changing into one of heartfelt relief. I put up my arms and he reached in and hauled me out, holding me close. This was just as well, since my legs seemed to have turned to jelly.

  ‘What did I say about waiting for me?’ he said severely, then turned my face up and kissed me, and there was nothing remotely fraternal about it, or my response.

  ‘You’re filthy, darling, and also, you’re crackling,’ he said, when eventually our lips parted. My knees were now totally jellified on two counts and Fang was whirling round our feet like a small dervish, yapping.

  ‘You say the nicest things,’ I murmured, my arms around his neck.

  ‘I like filthy girls. Not too sure about the crackling, though.’

  ‘It’s a packet I found in the hole. I shoved it down my dungaree top so I could check if there was anything else in there. But while I was leaning right into it, someone grabbed my feet and shoved me in. I banged my head.’

  ‘So I see. There’s a graze on your forehea
d and you might even end up with a black eye. And when I find whoever did this, they’ll be sorry!’ he added grimly.

  ‘But it must have been Ella – who else is loopy enough to do something like that?’

  ‘I suppose so, but if it was, how was she to know anyone would find you in there? It was a sheer fluke that I happened to ring you earlier when you were in the kitchen and you told me what you’d found, and then Fang was trying his best to show me where you were, too. When I opened the door from the tower he shot past me, jumped on the bed and barked his head off.’

  ‘That was very brave of him, because he’s scared of this room.’ I shivered and tightened my grip on Carey. ‘I think I am now, too. And what if Ella’s still lurking about, feeling a bit homicidal?’

  ‘I’d better check the rest of the wing while you stay here with Fang for a minute,’ he suggested.

  ‘No way – we’ll wait for you in the tower,’ I said firmly.

  It seemed wonderfully bright and warm in the tower room and the lift repair men were back on the job – or at least, having a nice chat about football with the electricians downstairs.

  Carey returned quite quickly. ‘I’ve been right through and there’s no sign of her. The front door’s locked, too, so I think she’s long gone.’

  ‘What are we going to do about her?’ I asked. ‘I mean, we can’t just let this go, can we? I don’t think she’s responsible for her actions, and even Clem must agree she needs urgent help now.’

  He took my hand. ‘Come on – you need to get cleaned up and changed, and then we’ll discuss it in the kitchen over a good hot cup of coffee.’

  ‘With all the lights on?’

  ‘It’s the middle of the day, even if it is a bit gloomy now it’s clouded over, so it’d be a waste of electricity.’

  ‘This is no time for economy,’ I said sternly, and gave him the package to take down with him.

  I felt much better once I’d washed off the dust and the blood from my grazed forehead and changed into clean jeans and a warm knitted tunic. Looking in the mirror, I thought Carey might have been right, and I’d have a black eye tomorrow.