by Ruth Hay
I focussed on Jack again.
“I’ll be fine, Jack. You have not even had time to unpack. Go now and take my gratitude with you.”
“Will we meet again, Justine?”
“I sincerely hope so but who knows in this world of ours.”
I walked forward to where he stood, alert and ready to go. I gave him a hug that turned into a series of warm kisses to help him to remember me.
In a few more moments, he was ready with his medical kit and briefcase.
We nodded at each other. We both knew sudden partings were a part of the job.
“Don’t worry, Jack! I will be in touch through Simon when I can.”
“Look after the leg!”
He was gone in his car that had not yet had time to cool down from our holiday excursion and rapid drive back here.
There was no time to grieve for Jack.
I must find Ramses.
Despite my brave words to Jack, I knew my leg was not ready for prime time. My first port of call must be to the Mackenzie house. I needed help.
My hope was that Cedric Mackenzie was still living there with his family. As a military man, he would understand my anxiety and urgency without requiring too much explanation.
I put on my work jacket and filled the pockets with gear.
All I had to go on was ‘tower’.
There were two towers in the village. One was atop the church and the other was high above the mansion. Either would require climbing ability.
I made my way to the Mackenzie house. All was quiet. If Cedric was absent or gone completely, I had no backup person in mind. I felt Ramses’ desperation as the seconds ticked by. Whichever place in which he was now trapped, he had been there for several days.
I was beginning to panic when the door opened and Cedric Mackenzie appeared.
“Hello, Justine! It’s so good to see you. Come inside. Miriam’s out with the little ones. I have the place to myself for once.”
By the time we reached the living room, Cedric had gauged my heightened colour, my tense stance and my urgency.
“All right! I see this is not a social call. What’s up?”
“It’s not about the children, Cedric. I don’t have time to explain in detail but I need your help right away.”
His manner changed and I could see the fighting military expert emerge.
“No need to explain, Justine. I owe you for all you did for us and for me in particular. Tell me what I can do.”
A man of action was exactly what I needed. Cedric was that man.
“I want you to go into the church with me and climb up the bell tower, listening for any signs of a cat in distress.”
“Oh, this is about the Siamese, isn’t it? Noreen told me he’s been gone for days. She is not sleeping at night for worrying about him. I told her he would be at your house. I guess I was wrong about that.
Let’s go!”
Twenty-One
We drove to the church for speed. Cedric had quickly assessed my limited walking ability.
I was grateful, not for the first time, that most churches in Britain do not lock their doors. No one would be inside at this hour of the day. No permission need be requested; so no delay.
Cedric opened the door at the base of the bell tower and I heard the sound of his steps diminish as he ran upward on the circular stone stairs. I stood silently at the base listening intently for any sense or sound of Ramses.
When Cedric returned, only slightly out of breath, I already knew Ramses was not to be found in the church.
That left the mansion house next door as the only other choice. This would not be so simple. Access would need to be obtained and a reasonable excuse given. My mind was whirring with possible acceptable excuses.
I was still vainly searching when Agnes Little opened the heavy front door to us.
“Oh my! Oh my! Ah was jist hopin’ you were the exterminator manny we called. Maggie and me thinks, either we have a ghost here or there’s a bat family livin’ in the roof!
Will you be wantin’ the Laird himself, by any chance?”
“No Agnes! It’s you we want. Will you trust that we are here to help and not disturb the Laird for now? I will sort everything out with him later.”
“No problem there, Justine! The Laird and Lady Evelyn have an old TV of mine and they’re happily watching programs in the Library. What can I do to help?”
“Bless you Agnes Little! You know this house well from your years here. How do we get into the tower?”
I knew she was dying to ask why two of her newer neighbours were asking such an unusual question but she was aware that I had acted on her behalf in the Kelso replacement matter, and she was not about to question me now. The whole village suspected Cedric Mackenzie was a hero of some kind, although they did not know why. Our good reputations were enough for her to trust us now.
I planted an idea in her mind that we were likely to save the elderly owners money by solving the ghost/bat mystery, and she enthusiastically accompanied us up the central staircase and on past the billiards room to the left, to where I had not been on my previous visit.
At the end of that hallway was a wooden door with a padlock on it.
“This is it. To my knowledge, naebody has been up there for decades or more. Ah warn yous, it’ll be full o’ dust and muck and mayhap a deid bird or two!”
Cedric had already tried the padlock.
“Do you know where the key is, Agnes?”
I was itching to get into the tower. The thought of further delay while the house was searched for a missing key was agony to me now.
Agnes pulled aside her housekeeper’s apron, proudly revealing a chatelaine around her waist, full of keys, ancient and modern.
“Lady Evelyn insists I have these. She wants every bit of the mansion cleaned out proper so there’s no sign that Kelso creature was ever here.”
She found the right key, a heavy iron thing that even Cedric struggled to turn in the lock. Agnes stood back in horror when she saw the condition of the steps inside.
“Gracious me! I’ll away to the linen closets to fetch some cloths and a bucket of water. You two go ahead.”
Cedric went first, waving aside the spider webs that shrouded the steps.
As soon as my foot hit the first step, I felt a psychic jolt.
Ramses was here ………… but where exactly?
My ears were tuned to the sound of a cat’s cry but I could hear nothing. The awful thought that we had come too late struck me. I countered with my keenest senses and knew it was not yet too late. The sooner we found Ramses the better.
The tower consisted of a run of steps, then a platform with a closet on the wall and the same again as we climbed further. I opened every closet in turn, the doors were hanging off the hinges, but they were empty and covered in dust and grit.
We were almost at the top level where the steps stopped and a trapdoor led up to daylight, when I noticed the dust on the floor of the last closet had been disturbed.
My heart jumped and I called to Cedric to come back.
“Cat prints! Ramses was here!”
My voice echoed strangely in the confined space as if it were uncounted years since a human voice had sounded inside this tower.
But, there was another voice now; a tiny weak sound of a cat crying out for help. Ramses had recognized my voice.
He was nearby ……………… but where, and how to get to him?
Cedric began to cover every inch of the closet walls with his strong fingers, feeling for an entry point. I brushed aside the dust and debris from years of neglect and listened intently. I heard no more cat sounds until Cedric must have pressed hard on a hidden button that released a panel. When I saw the deep scratches on the other side of this panel, I knew we had found the right place at last.
Cedric began to say something about wondering how the cat had managed to get himself stuck inside this wall with a hidden trigger, but I hardly heard him.
So
mewhere inside my very special cat was dying.
Cedric was too tall and burly for this job. I bent double and scrunched myself into my smallest shape so I could squeeze through the entrance. I vaguely remember a warning cry from Cedric but by then I was already descending a passage within the curving wall of the tower. I had no breath to call for Ramses. The air in here was old and thin. I made my way slowly downward until I came to a flat area. I tripped over a candlestick with the nub of a candle still in it. Head height was reasonable here and as I straightened up, I saw Ramses stretched out, with lungs heaving, on top of an old wooden desk. Why the desk was in this place did not register with me then.
I moved over to Ramses and picked up his limp form, cradling him against my chest as I prepared for the climb back up to where Cedric waited with arms outstretched.
I did not want to relinquish my hold on Ramses but I had to cough some of that awful dead air out of my lungs before I could go on. Ramses’ uncanny blue eyes blinked open as he felt Cedric place him over his shoulder. This was a known smell. He knew he was in safe hands.
Our strange trio made its way slowly downward again through the tower to the hallway.
Agnes was standing there with a bucket of water and a handful of old cleaning cloths. When she saw the filthy state of us she began to dust us off.
“So that cat is the reason you two was risking yer lives up there. He’s been scrabblin’ around the building for days. Maggie said she saw him climbing up the ivy on the outside of the tower. How did the little devil get inside, I asks you?”
Cedric knew I was near the limit of my strength. He passed Ramses over to me and pacified Agnes.
“I’m sure we will figure out all the answers in time, Agnes, but for now I need to get Justine home. We’ll take care of the cat. Please do not go into the tower. It’s not safe. We will talk later about how to explain this to Lord Lennox. Please keep this secret for now.”
My brain was beginning to wake up. I feared there was no way our adventures would remain secret for long.
Agnes would tell Maggie. Maggie would tell Sadie in the shop, and before you could blink, the news would be all around the village and back to the Laird and Lady Evelyn.
Twenty-Two
Cedric drove us home to number 23. I collapsed on the couch with Ramses in my arms.
Cedric went home to get Miriam and she nursed both of us back to health and strength, leaving her husband to cope with family duties for a day or two.
Fortunately, Miriam was not one to ask questions. Living with a man of many secrets, she was used to ‘no-go’ areas of conversation. She plied me with hot soup and brought milk and dishes of cat treats for Ramses.
Of course, he recovered first.
I suspected I had torn some stitches loose on my leg but I had to ignore that until I could make amends to Lord and Lady Lennox.
First, I made some enquiries by phone. I consulted Heritage Scotland about including the Lenzie mansion on their list of Trust buildings. I had had time to think about the hidden room where I found Ramses. It had all the earmarks of a priest hole; a place to hide a priest from groups of Protestant supporters who wanted to root out ‘the papists’.
As I had reached up to lift the cat from his perch on top of the desk, I received a mental glimpse of the desk interior filled with parchment papers covered with ink inscriptions. Surely, there would be information about the original inhabitants of the mansion and, possibly, links to some famous historical figures like Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic Queen of France who was enticed to return to Scotland and fight for the English crown held by Queen Elizabeth the First.
I had a good feeling about this. I dropped hints during my phone call and invited the heritage group to send one of their members from Edinburgh to visit the mansion. There seemed to be quite a lot of interest.
Now I had a bargaining chip to use with the current inhabitants.
Ramses had stayed close to home with me. He ventured into the back garden at regular intervals but as the weather had turned wet and cold, he was glad to return to the fireside and my lap. I did no more mind-melding. We both had mending to do in that sphere.
I could move around comfortably for an hour or two but after that I needed rest again. Miriam returned home to her family and either she or Cedric phoned often to check on my progress. Sadie sent supplies via Kelvin who she told not to disturb me. The packages on the doorstep were welcome.
When I received a call from Lord Lennox, I knew I could delay explanations no longer.
Agnes met me at the door with the exciting news that a ‘history person’ was due to visit the mansion for an inspection of the tower in a day or so.
“Ah did as you advised, Justine. I left the awful place untouched. They’ll be wantin’ to see it just as we found it that day.”
Lord Lennox was waiting for me in the Library with Lady Evelyn by his side. They refused to discuss anything more controversial than the weather, until Agnes returned with a tray of tea things.
“Thank you, Agnes, dear,” said Lady Evelyn. “Please see that we are not disturbed.”
This sounded a trifle formal but the Library fire was lit, the room was cozy and warm and all the surfaces sparkled with elbow grease contributed by the efforts of Maggie and Agnes. There was a feeling of comfort and contentment that had been missing on my last visit.
Before I could begin, Lord Lennox started to speak.
“Justine Jordan, we may be old but we are not in our dotage. My wife and I are quite capable of putting ‘two and two together’, and making four. We know we have you to thank for the sudden departure of a person known to us as Mrs. Kelso. We are not worried at all by what methods were used by you so that this was accomplished. We are just grateful for your intercession on our behalf and for the replacement of Agnes and Maggie who are making our life and home a pleasure again.”
Lady Evelyn smiled in agreement with her husband then added her own perspective.
“You will be pleased to know that we have heard recently from the Constabulary that several of our valuable pieces of furniture will soon be restored to their proper positions in the house.
As to the business of the cat …………… we believe we will never know what the animal was doing in the tower rooms. We do know from Agnes, however, that you and Cedric Mackenzie are responsible for discovering a hidden room in that tower which may be the source of great historical interest and a means of earning money to do further restorations on this noble house for which we are the caretakers.”
Lady Evelyn paused to catch her breath. I had hardly breathed during both speeches. My concerns about difficult explanations fled forever. These two were kind and clever and an important centre of village life long neglected. In their dotage, they were decidedly not!
The remainder of my visit was most pleasant. I noticed that I was not questioned at all about my past. It was all about complimenting my actions in the present period since I had arrived in Lenzie.
Whether or not Cedric had dropped some hints about my need for privacy, I could not tell.
All I knew was that gratitude was heaped upon me in an unusual way in my experience.
I left the mansion feeling happy and content.
It was a bright, sunny, cold day. I had walked to the mansion, and on my way back home again, I was greeted by people I recognized, and others I had not formally met. Everyone smiled kindly at me.
I was no longer the stranger in the village and, sadly, that was a problem.
I knew from previous situations that the passage from outcast stranger to friendly villager inevitably brought curiosity, and enquiries and invitations I had no wish or need to accept.
The Laird and his Lady were content to gloss over the difficult questions about who Justine Jordan is and where she came from, but villagers would not stop until they had unearthed my secrets.
It would soon be too dangerous for me to remain in Lenzie.
Twenty-Three
I returned home t
hat day with difficult decisions to make.
I came to this small Scottish village in order to rest and recover, but from my very first day here, events conspired to draw me into the life of Lenzie’s residents. I could not say I was too surprised about this phenomenon. It had occurred many times before, although not always with such swiftness.
I reviewed my state of mind and health and found it wanting. I cast my mind over the places where I had lived in my life and where I had found a measure of peace and tranquility.
There were a few, of course. Some were very far from me in time and location. I found I had no heart at this moment for a long and involved journey.
Winter was upon us in Scotland. I dreaded the cold and relentless west winds from the Atlantic that brought rain and more rain and made my leg ache.
I needed help with this decision so I employed an old technique that usually worked.
I sat down on the couch with my feet on a padded stool warmed by the fire crackling in the grate. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts drift toward comfort of mind and body, rest and recovery.
I may have drifted off to sleep for a few moments but when I came to myself again, I had the answer.
I would return to my origins in the south of England where the weather was milder and spring came early. One flight or train journey, and I would arrive in Cornwall, a place I knew well. Summer there was invigorating and I could relax and build up my strength.
I felt relief in making this decision at last, but with the relief was the inevitable loss of my friends in Lenzie. Chief among the losses I counted Ramses.
As had often happened, he came through the door flap as if summoned. When he jumped up on to my lap, he hesitated, sensing some change in me. Tears came to my eyes. Ramses was the most exceptional, perceptive, beautiful animal I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. I stroked his winter-thick coat and scratched behind his ears but he would not be distracted.
He gazed at me with his implacable blue eyes, waiting for an explanation.
